Kitsmith / Compare / AppCleaner vs Pearcleaner
MacAppCleaner vs Pearcleaner
AppCleaner vs Pearcleaner: verdict, pricing, and specs compared, so you can pick the right one for your Mac.
At a glance
AppCleaner
FreeA free, longstanding drag-and-drop app uninstaller from FreeMacSoft — finds and removes the leftover caches and preference files a Trash drag leaves behind.
Pearcleaner
FreeA free, source-available Mac cleanup suite — app uninstall, orphaned-file search, Homebrew management, and more — from Alin Lupascu, currently on hold since late 2025.
Spec comparison
AppCleaner
- Price
- Free
- Pricing model
- Free
- License
- Proprietary
- Placement
- Screen
- Channels
- Homebrew · Direct
- Category
- Utilities
Pearcleaner
- Price
- Free
- Pricing model
- Free
- License
- Proprietary
- Placement
- Screen
- Channels
- Homebrew · Direct
- Category
- Utilities
The verdict
Pearcleaner does more — full uninstall plus orphaned-file search, a Homebrew manager, PKG and plugin managers, and app “lipo” — and Reddit’s own AppCleaner-vs-Pearcleaner threads generally call its interface and leftover-file detection stronger. But Pearcleaner’s own GitHub states development has been on hold since late 2025 after the developer lost access to a Mac for building releases; the current build still works, but nothing new is coming for now. AppCleaner does one job — drag an app on, remove it and its leftovers — and FreeMacSoft has kept shipping version-matched builds back to macOS 10.6 the whole time. Pick Pearcleaner for more features today; pick AppCleaner if active, ongoing maintenance matters more to you than extra functionality.
Which one should you pick?
Pick AppCleaner if…
- Pick AppCleaner if you want a tool that’s actively maintained right now, not paused
- Pick AppCleaner if you just want drag-and-drop uninstall with leftover-file cleanup, nothing more
- Pick AppCleaner if you want the longer-running, more established name — FreeMacSoft has shipped it for years
- Pick AppCleaner if you’d rather avoid a license with Commons Clause restrictions, however narrow
Pick Pearcleaner if…
- Pick Pearcleaner if you want more than uninstall: orphaned-file search, a Homebrew manager, PKG and plugin managers
- Pick Pearcleaner if Reddit’s own comparisons of the two matter to you — it’s the one most often described as finding more leftover files
- Pick Pearcleaner if you’re fine using a paused-but-working project, with no active development since late 2025
- Pick Pearcleaner if 14.5k GitHub stars and 1.6M+ reported downloads give you confidence in the codebase
AppCleaner vs Pearcleaner — questions people ask
Is Pearcleaner still being updated?
No — the developer’s own GitHub states development has been on hold since late 2025 due to a job change and losing access to a Mac for building releases. The existing build still works.
Which one finds more leftover files?
Multiple Reddit threads comparing the two describe Pearcleaner as finding more leftover files and having a cleaner interface, though both cover the same basic job.
Is either of these on the Mac App Store?
No — both are direct downloads: AppCleaner as a free .zip from FreeMacSoft, Pearcleaner from itsalin.com (its developer explicitly warns that pearcleaner.com is an impersonator site).