Best RAM cleaners for Mac

Is there anything worse than the spinning cursor of doom?

A few weeks ago, I noticed that switching between tabs on my Mac took a little too long. I was mid-flow, and then the apps I had opened started to freeze. In my frustration, I got a little too click-happy with the mouse pad, which only made things 100% worse.

It got me thinking: what's the culprit behind the slowdown? 

The answer is that it almost always has to do with how much RAM (Random Access Memory) you're using. But speeding it up again is usually as easy as cleaning up the RAM on your machine.

In this article, I'll walk you through how you can speed up your laptop using the best memory cleaner for Mac, plus how you can diagnose any speed issues with your machine. Let's get into it!

Why your Mac needs a memory cleaner

If you’re like me, you probably open up tabs, apps, and new windows all the time. In fact, I've got 18 tabs open as we speak! The way your Mac handles this is by relying on its memory. The more apps you have running, the more memory your Mac needs to keep things moving smoothly.

If you’re on your laptop, juggling your work and a game or two, plus editing a doc, booking flights, and checking out your next purchase online, it’s easy to see how the tabs start to mount up.

But all of this chews through the RAM of your laptop, resulting in a clogged machine that runs a lot slower than you're used to. If you're struggling with frequent crashed applications, freezing screens, machine slowdowns, and the dreaded spinning wheel cursor, the chances are that you're really looking at RAM that needs a good clean. 

CleanMyMac: The best Mac memory cleaner for Mac

So, where do you even start when it comes to finding a Mac memory cleaner? After trying out a couple over the years, I landed on CleanMyMac — a comprehensive Mac maintenance app.

Not only is CleanMyMac great at clearing memory on a Mac in a few clicks, but it’s also great for managing the overall performance of my laptop, helping me make the most of my investment. Plus, it has a malware removal feature that really gave me peace of mind when I was worried the slowdown was a result of a virus I picked up. Honestly, it’s been a lifesaver.

How to use CleanMyMac for memory cleaning

Here’s how I got my Mac’s memory back on track using CleanMyMac:

1. Install and open CleanMyMac.
2. Then, go to the Cleanup tab.
3. Click Scan. It’ll instantly run through your files and identify any junk that can be deleted.

Once you’ve got the results, CleanMyMac will give you an in-depth report, called Cleanup Manager, on what junk it’s identified and why it’s junk. Select what you’d like to be removed, or return to the cleanup screen and click Clean.

Within minutes, my Mac was back to running like new.

Alternative Mac memory cleaners

Now, CleanMyMac is definitely my go-to, but I did check out a couple of other options while I was searching for a solution.

Here are my runners-up in the race to be the best Mac memory cleaner.

Memory Clean 3

This is a great option if you’re just looking for a quick, no-frills RAM cleaner. Memory Clean 3 is an easy, straightforward app that frees up your Mac’s memory by clearing inactive RAM. I liked its easy-to-use menu bar, and of course, it helped that it was low-cost — perfect for restoring your Mac’s speed on a budget.

But it did lack a few additional features that I’d come to rely on with CleanMyMac, like the system optimization feature and the real-time monitoring of my memory.

Ultimately, my verdict is that this is the best Mac memory cleaner for those looking for a simple, straightforward tool that gets the job done, but if you’re looking for a more advanced tool, this isn’t it.

Memory Magic

Another tool I came across is Memory Magic. This was actually recommended to me by a friend, who liked that he could use this app to see an overview of how he’s working to free his memory in real-time.

And it is cool. Memory Magic has a memory cleaner that shows real stats about your Mac’s memory, on an easy to use dashboard. It’s affordable and gives another level of insight into the storage on your machine than just a basic Mac RAM cleaner. 

The verdict is in, and this is a great app for those looking for a lightweight app to clean up RAM on Mac and monitor memory usage. But it doesn’t compare to the more advanced features that the more comprehensive Mac cleaners can offer.

CCleaner for Mac

CCleaner is probably the most popular Mac memory cleaner app I tried. It’s the go-to for many because of its multi-functional cleaning capabilities — it cleans memory and identifies system junk in no time, meaning your Mac is restored back to its original speed in no time.

However, given its popularity, I was surprised by its outdated interface. It felt a little clunky compared to the other sleek apps I tried, and I found the memory management to be a little basic. 

Well, again, it doesn’t offer the level of insight that the more advanced apps do, but it does do the job and can clean up your memory and junk files if you can get past the interface!

Dr. Cleaner

And last but not least, Dr. Cleaner was the final Mac RAM cleaner tool I tested. I liked how it offered memory cleaning with disk optimization options. This means it’s an app which improves your Mac’s performance by reorganizing your data on the hard disk drive. 

It’s free to use, too, and offers basic memory management features as well. Sounds great! The downside is that I’ve noticed development on this app has really slowed down, and the tool isn’t amazing when stacked up against the best Mac memory cleaner apps in this list. 

The bottom line is that this is a good tool if you’re looking for a basic memory and disk cleaning tool that’s free. If you’re serious about the performance of your machine over the long term, however, you might want to look elsewhere.

Optimizing your Mac memory

So, is that it, then? Is one of the above apps all you need to do to clean up your Mac and troubleshoot speed options?

Well, yes and no. If you’re a tech geek like me, you’ll know that sometimes there’s a bit more to speed up your machine than simply freeing up a bit of memory. So, after clearing my RAM, I wanted to dive a little deeper to see if there were any other performance issues lurking beneath the surface.

With two additional tools, NovaBench and iStat Menus, I gained a much clearer understanding of what was happening under the hood of my Mac.

NovaBench is a benchmarking tool that runs a bunch of tests on your hardware — CPU, GPU, RAM, all the important stuff — and then spits out this super detailed report. That breakdown of performance, laid out in black and white, made it clear where the bottlenecks were, and it helped me figure out what action I should take next to get back to normal.

Then there's iStat Menus, which I now rely on for real-time monitoring. If you like knowing what’s going on behind the scenes of your devices, this is your app. It gives you a full view of memory usage, CPU load, and even points out which apps are hogging resources. 

For me, iStat Menus has been a lifesaver when my Mac starts feeling sluggish. One quick glance, and I can close an app or make a small tweak, and instantly feel the difference. Before you know it, I’m back to running my 18 tabs without a hitch!

Mac RAM cleaner: Restoring your need for speed

Now I know that I don’t have to put up with lags on my Mac; I run CleanMyMac all the time. Nothing beats the crisp speed of a Mac, and it’s great to have my faithful friend (I mean, my laptop) running like new again. To deep dive into the BTS of my Mac and take the next step in optimizing its performance, I then used iStat Menus for a snapshot report and NovaBench for detailed tests. 

The best thing was that I was able to run all these apps using a free 7-day trial of my Setapp subscription. The platform has a huge range of more than 250 of some of the best iOS and macOS apps to help you improve the performance of your devices. They’re all in one place and have just one subscription, meaning you have access to the whole library without multiple accounts.

In the meantime, if your Mac starts to slow down and that dreaded spinning wheel appears once more, don’t panic! The chances are that it’s an easy fix with Setapp.

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