Part of: Do Mac cleaners work? An honest answer from people who build one (Choosing a tool)
We cannot give MacKeeper a safe or unsafe label, and you should be careful of any article that does so with no evidence. What we can do is tell you what its own site says, and give you a checklist you can apply to MacKeeper or any other utility.
DiskJoy is our product, and it competes loosely in the Mac utility space. We have kept this to facts from MacKeeper’s own pages, read on 2026-10-05, and made no claims about its past.
What MacKeeper says it is
Its homepage describes an all-in-one Mac maintenance app that combines cleaning, security, optimization and privacy features. The features it lists include malware and adware removal, disk cleaning of duplicates and junk files, ad blocking, ID theft and breach monitoring, performance optimization, a VPN and chat support. It names the company as Clario Tech FZCO and discusses Apple notarization, noting that notarization “is not an app review”. It also says it is AV-TEST certified with a 99.7% virus detection rate. We have not checked that claim with AV-TEST, so treat it as MacKeeper’s statement. The page lists version 7.8 (September 2026) and macOS 10.15 or later, and mentions a free version with limited features.
How it charges
MacKeeper is a subscription. On 2026-10-05 its homepage said “Starting at $10.95/month”, while its pricing page listed a 12-month plan for 1 Mac at $5.95 a month, a 12-month plan for 3 Macs at $7.45 a month and a 1-month plan at $14.95. The two pages did not match, and the pricing page shows reduced prices, so check the price at checkout. Its refund terms say 30 days for yearly plans and 14 days for monthly ones, and that a license used for more than six months becomes non-refundable. Read those terms before you pay.
Why “is it safe” has no single answer
Safe can mean four different things:
- Does the app contain malware? Notarization by Apple is one signal, and it is not a review of whether you will like what the app does.
- Does it remove things you wanted? That depends on what you let it remove.
- Is the billing clear? Subscriptions renew. Check how to cancel.
- Do the claims match what the app does? Read them with care.
A checklist for any utility
- Find who makes it and where they are based.
- Read independent reviews, from more than one source.
- Check what permissions it asks for, such as Full Disk Access, and why.
- See whether you can review each item before removal.
- Look for scary pop-ups. A tool that frightens you into buying deserves a second look.
- Learn how to cancel before you subscribe.
- Know how to remove the app later. Apple says deleting an app does not cancel any subscription you bought with it.
Do you need an all-in-one app?
macOS has its own security features and a Storage view. If all you want is to see where space went, a disk analyzer covers it. See our comparison of disk space analyzers. For the wider question of whether cleaner apps deliver what they promise, read do Mac cleaners work, and for a checklist you can apply to any of them see how to judge a Mac cleaner app.
What notarization does and does not tell you
MacKeeper’s page itself says notarization is not an app review. Notarization is Apple’s automated check that software does not contain known malicious components and is signed by a developer. It is a useful signal. It is not a statement that you will like what the app does, or that its claims are right. The same is true of any notarized app, including ours once it ships.
Questions to ask about the claims
Pages for all-in-one apps often quote detection rates, review scores and user numbers. For any such number, ask:
- Who measured it, and when?
- Is there a link to the original report?
- Does it describe the product you will install, or an earlier version?
If you cannot answer, treat the number as marketing. This applies to MacKeeper’s claims, to those of other vendors, and to ours.
What to do if you already installed it
If you decide it is not for you, remove it the careful way. Quit it, check the vendor’s own instructions, move it to the Trash, and cancel the subscription where you bought it, because deleting an app does not cancel billing. Then look for leftovers by hand. Our guide to uninstalling apps completely shows read-only commands for that.
Safe, Risky, Never
| Level | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Safe | Reading a vendor’s pages, reviews and refund terms before you install |
| Risky | Giving any app Full Disk Access without knowing what it does with it, or letting a tool remove items without review |
| Never | Paying under pressure from a warning pop-up, or running a tool that will not show what it plans to remove |
Try a scan
If you only want to see where your space went, DiskJoy’s scan reads your disk and lists categories. It changes nothing, and cleanup is not built yet.
Sources and disclosure
DiskJoy is our product. Accessed 2026-10-05: https://mackeeper.com/ ; https://mackeeper.com/pricing ; Apple on uninstalling apps https://support.apple.com/en-us/102610. We make no claims about MacKeeper beyond what those pages state.
Frequently asked questions
Is MacKeeper legit?
We cannot rule on that. What we can do is show what its site says about the company, features and pricing, and give you questions to check yourself.
Do I need MacKeeper for my Mac?
macOS has built-in security and storage tools. Whether you want an extra all-in-one app depends on the features you value and what you are willing to pay. Compare it with what macOS already gives you.