By: Tamara | Last updated February 18, 2020 
The performance of your Mac depends on several factors. Most of the time, people tend to only look at the configuration of a system when looking to buy a computer. While the processor, memory and so on are indeed important, it is also crucial to maintain your Mac clutter-free, for a better performance.
Just like with any other product you buy, maintenance is very important if you want to ensure your Mac is running smoothly. Over time, your system can become sluggish due to factors such as: constantly installing and uninstalling apps, moving files and folders around, downloading content, browsing the internet and others. All these actions will affect the overall performance of your Mac and you will notice that in how slow and buggy your system becomes.
Utility apps are the best solution to optimize, fix and boost your Mac’s performance.
Utility software are specialized apps that help your computer work better. There are various types of utility software: certain apps focus on the operating system, others on the hardware, storage and so on. Here are some of the benefits of utility software:
- They clean up junk files in your Mac
- They free up space on your drive
- They detect and remove threats such as malware, viruses, bloatware and so on
- They detect apps that run in the background and slow down your device and they close them if they are unnecessary
While all Macs have their own built-in utility apps (such as Activity Monitor, Disk Utility, etc), there are a lot of third-apps that are more efficient and complex.
One of them is CleanMyMac 3.
Is CleanMyMac 3 a good product?
CleanMyMac 3 was developed by MacPaw and launched in 2009. The software is multilingual, it is available in English, Spanish, Deutsch, French, Italian and others.
CleanMyMac 3 has the following system requirements: OS X 10.9 + (62 MB space).
This software offers a free and a paid version. The free demo version is limited and you can only clean up to 500 MB. Its latest version (3.10.0) was launched in 24 September 2018
One of CleanMyMac’s strongest selling points are its user-friendliness and its effectiveness. You can notice immediate results after using the app.
How much does CleanMyMac 3 cost?
CleanMyMac 3 starts at approximately $45. However, if you want a license for 2 Macs, you have to pay $68. For a license for 5 Macs you have to pay $102.
Regardless of your option, MacPaw offers a 30-day money back guarantee.
What are the features included with CleanMyMac 3?
One of the reasons why CleanMyMac 3 is so popular is its straightforward interface. It is well organized, has good graphics and everything is very easy to figure out and you also get plenty of documentation, should you need it.
Here are some of the tools included with CleanMyMac 3:
- System junk
- iTunes junk
- Trash bins
- Smart cleanup
- iPhoto Junk
- Mail attachments
- Uninstallker
- Maintenance
- Privacy
- Extensions
- Shredder
The way that CleanMyMac 3 works is by first scanning your system, which takes a couple of minutes for a full scan of your drive. Once the scan process is completed, you get a list with all the issues found by CleanMyMac 3. The program lets you choose whether you want them fixed or not. You get to decide if you remove the junk files or not. If you choose to delete them, it is something that gets done with a simple mouse click.
In addition to finding junk files, CleanMyMac 3 also verifies the startup disk and sets up disk repair permissions.
You will also receive regular alerts on potential issues, both hardware and software related, although these notifications can get a bit intrusive and annoying after a while.
Overall though, CleanMyMac 3 is a useful utility app and while it doesn’t bring anything special to the table, it is easy to use, reliable and effective.
What else can you do to boost your Mac’s performance?
- Make it a habit to close all the apps you are not using, especially those that automatically run at startup, because they keep running in the background and slowing down your Mac’s performance
- Empty the caches regularly
- Keep your operating system updated
- Get rid of all the useless files and and apps on your drive
