When you open Finder on a slow Mac, it’s as if it’s thinking. It takes three seconds for a folder to appear. Safari jerks when you switch tabs, and the fan starts spinning for some reason you can’t see. Most people think the machine is aging and begin to look at newer models.
It’s often just a lot of unnecessary files—some caches accumulated over a few years, remnants from apps you removed back in 2022, a dozen login items that you never actually agreed to, and even a startup disk with 5 GB of free space can slow down any Mac, no matter how recent it is. Although macOS offers several built-in cleanup tools, they are spread throughout System Settings and require manual execution. The following five apps make the task easier. They don’t all perform the same function, which is the whole point.
1. CleanMyMac
If you want a single app to handle most of these tasks, CleanMyMac will scan your Mac for junk files, large caches, and orphaned files, then display a list so you can choose what to delete. The same scan also identifies heavy background processes and login items and lets you disable them without opening System Settings.
The uninstaller stands out here: when you drag an application into the Trash, its preferences, caches, and helper files remain, sometimes taking up several gigabytes. CleanMyMac locates all of these files and deletes them at once. It also includes a menu bar app that monitors memory and storage, helping you spot problems before the beach ball appears.
It’s a subscription; the free version lets you run a scan and see how much space you could regain before you decide.
2. OnyX
OnyX is free and has been available for a long time. Titanium Software produces a different version for each update to macOS, so you should download the one that corresponds to your version. If you select the wrong one, it won’t start.
It provides solutions for the tasks that Apple hides. You can clear both the system and browser caches, rebuild the Spotlight index in cases where search stops locating items that you know are there, reset the Launch Services database when the “Open With” menu contains duplicates, and check the startup disk for errors.
Just a warning: this won’t prevent you from carrying out a silly action. Each checkbox performs the function that it indicates. Please read the information before ticking it.
3. DaisyDisk
A simple test will tell you: go to System Settings > General > Storage; if the bar is nearly full, then that is likely the issue. macOS uses the available free space for swap files and temporary data, and having a full drive causes everything to run more slowly.
DaisyDisk presents your storage in the form of a ring chart with the largest folders occupying the widest sections. When you click on one, you go deeper and deeper until you find the source of the problem, such as a 40 GB screen recording that you had forgotten about or three identical copies of the same iOS backup. You can use Quick Look to preview a file before deleting it, thus eliminating the need to guess.
It doesn’t erase caches or alter the settings; all it does is tell you where your space has gone, and that’s usually all that you need.
4. AppCleaner
AppCleaner is small and free and its sole function is that when you drag an app onto its window, it shows a list of all the files associated with it—such as preferences, caches, and launch agents—and you just need to tick the boxes, click Remove and that’s it.
It is in the case of large software suites that the program makes a profit. Adobe and Microsoft applications distribute files among several Library folders and it is tedious to have to find them manually. AppCleaner takes about ten seconds.
5. Stats
Stats is the only one that doesn’t provide any cleaning function; it remains in your menu bar and displays the CPU load, memory pressure, disk activity, network speed, and temperatures, and it is open source and free.
There’s no point in doing anything about it unless you can see the problem. Whenever memory pressure shows up as red in the afternoon, an application must be leaking memory. If the CPU spikes while you’re making your coffee, then there’s some process running in the background that isn’t supposed to be there. You should locate that process in Activity Monitor, close it, and then use one of the other four apps to deal with the cause.
Which Should You Pick?
Depends on what’s wrong.
Not sure yet? CleanMyMac provides you with the broadest view during a single scan. If your storage is almost full, then use DaisyDisk. Whenever you install and uninstall applications? Use AppCleaner. If you like to make adjustments yourself? Try OnyX. Want to see what’s going on before making any changes? Choose Stats.
You need not carry out all five; choose one or two and carry them out once a month, making sure that between 10 and 15 percent of your drive remains free. A Mac that receives that level of care will remain fast well beyond the point at which most people stop believing in it.
