CCleaner & PC Cleaner Version Comparison. There are three versions of CCleaner: the free version, which has limited functionality, the Professional package, which has more features than the free version but does not offer elements like disk defragmentation or file recovery, and ‘Professional Plus,’ which includes several options and functions not included in the Professional version, like. Part 1: CleanMyMac VS. CCleaner: Comparison of Their Optimization Features. CCleaner’s unfettered compatibility with major platforms such as Windows, Android, and Mac dwarfs its macOS-only counterpart with a mammoth fan base. CCleaner has an intuitive interface to scan and spruce up your Mac for more straightforward operations. Mar 27, 2020 CCleaner does, for me, have the edge in terms of the number of options and customizability available, but it’s undeniable that CleanMyPC is more user-friendly and probably a better option for less advanced users. CCleaner vs CleanMyMac Comparison There is plenty of Mac optimization software out there, but when it comes to picking the appropriate one, users immediately have two solutions in mind: CCleaner, whose registry cleaner equivalent on PC is one of the most popular available; or CleanMyMac, a true powerhouse loved by many. May 26, 2020 And, for many years, CCleaner from Piriform has been the standard name for cleaning your PC. Obviously, it was probably the only effective option too. Now, however, things have changed — as we have a bunch of superb options like Advanced SystemCare. As you can guess, currently, we have a discussion on the topic, Advanced SystemCare Vs CCleaner.

1. Ccleaner Vs Disk Cleanup
2. Clean My Pc Vs Ccleaner
3. Clean My Pc For Free
4. Kcleaner Vs Ccleaner
5. Clean My Pc Vs Ccleaner
6. Clean My Pc Reviews
7. Ccleaner Vs Total Pc Cleaner

Published June 12, 2019

Table of Contents

• 2. CCleaner Free vs Pro

Piriform's CCleaner has been around for over 15 years now (released September, 2003). It’s a popular PC cleaning tool which has a ton of free features. Additionally, it has a paid version called CCleaner Professional which adds even more functionality.

So what exactly does CCleaner Professional do compared to the free version? Is CCleaner Pro worth $25/year?

Keep reading to find out what a long-term user of CCleaner thinks.

CCleaner Professional Review

Is CCleaner Pro Worth it?

I’ll just get right into it and say that I think CCleaner Pro is worth the money. Even though the free version has a ton of features, the pro version has really useful additions such as scheduled cleanings, smart cleaning, cleaning across multiple users on your computer, and more.

However, like most PC cleaners, it most likely won't actually speed up your computer. In fact, the only PC cleaner that noticeably sped up my computer was Iolo System Mechanic. It's a little more expensive than CCleaner Pro but will give you results.

With that being said, let's jump into the facts and features of CCleaner.

CCleaner Free vs Pro

Although the free version of CCleaner has a ton of features, there are some that you only get in CCleaner Pro. They are:

• Cleaning across multiple users on your computer
• Smart cleaning to monitor your system and automatically clean it
• Scheduled cleanings
• CCleaner auto-updates
• Priority e-mail support
• First notification of updates, beta programs, and special offers

Let’s go into more details on what features the free and pro versions of CCleaner have.

Pro Features

Smart Cleaning

CCleaner Professional’s Smart Cleaning lets you control automatic browser data cleaning, and automatic junk file cleaning. Based on your own preferences, you can decide when and what to clean up.

I really like this because it makes sure my PC never fills up with junk files, and it gets rid of my browsing data automatically for privacy.

Scheduling

With Smart Cleaning and Scheduling, CCleaner Professional pretty much takes care of your computer for you in the background. If you schedule a monthly scan, auto-clean junk files when they get more than 1 GB, and run the Disk Analyzer once in awhile, you’ll notice you almost have too much free space.

Clean Across Multiple Users

If you use a shared computer with say, your family, this is really useful to either clean the computer for everyone, or only certain users. CCleaner's free version only runs for the current user, so if you wanted to clean the whole computer you would have to log in for each user to run CCleaner.

First Priority for Support and Offers

If you’re not the best at diagnosing and fixing computer problems yourself, good software support is important. According to user reviews, customer support for CCleaner is pretty good already. If you have CCleaner Professional you can jump to the front of the line for getting help, and for any updates and offers CCleaner releases.

I personally don’t find this useful since I usually don’t need software support, but it may be useful to you.

For reference, here’s the Trustpilot for CCleaner:

Automatic Updates

Honestly, this is a feature that should be free since it’s not really that important. This all comes down to whether or not you’ll have to click a few extra buttons to update CCleaner.

Free Features

Disk Analyzer

This is probably my favorite feature. There’s only so much space you can free up by doing an automatic clean because those mostly target junk files, temp files, and log files.

So why not take things into your own hands? The Disk Analyzer tells you which types of files are taking up the most space so you can remove them yourself. I found out I had a bunch of old movies and shows I didn’t even know about taking up 20 GB!

Duplicate Finder

Like the Disk Analyzer, the Duplicate Finder allows you to take cleaning matters into your own hands to get rid of use duplicate files. Once again, I was able to free up a ton of space because of this.

Easy Clean

This is the bread and butter of CCleaner where you can remove browsing data to protect your privacy, and get rid of old files taking up space. This is convenient if you want to free up some space in two clicks.

Custom Clean

Since I like to have more control over what gets cleaned up, I mostly use CCleaner’s Custom Clean. As you can see below, this gives you more control, and a more detailed analysis of exactly what you’re deleting.

I particularly like how you can remove junk or temp files from applications other than your internet browsers.

Registry Cleaner

I’m not going to lie to you and say that cleaning out your registry will speed up your PC, because it won't. However, I still think it’s a good idea to do since broken registry items could cause issues with your computer.

Uninstaller

CCleaner’s Uninstaller allows you to see which programs are taking up the most space, and uninstall them. This is useful purely for its convenience, since you can do this yourself in the Control Panel.

Software Updater

This feature allows you to see which programs on your computer need to be updated, and to update them all at once. See here for why you should keep your software updated. Like the Uninstaller, this is a convenience feature since most programs will tell you they need to be updated when you open them anyway.

Manage Startup Programs

Another feature of CCleaner is the ability to enable or disable startup programs. Although you can control startup programs yourself in Windows, CCleaner supercharges this. You’re able to change:

• Scheduled tasks running on your computer
• Startup processes that run
• Programs that modify what options you get when you right-click (i.e. context menu)

I like this since I’m a nerd and love customizing these kind of things.

Manage Browser Plugins

Instead of having to go into the settings of each individual browser, CCleaner gives you the ability to manage all your plugins, add-ons, and extensions for browsers.

Ccleaner Vs Disk Cleanup

Again, something you can do yourself but it’s pretty convenient.

Manage System Restore Points

Although you can manage your system restore points yourself, CCleaner makes it easy for you by including this as one of its features.

Honestly? This seems pretty pointless to me since all you can do is view and remove your restore points here anyway.

Drive Wiper

Did you know that when you delete a file, it’s not actually deleted? The underlying data is still on your hard drive, but it’s marked as free space that can be overwritten. Unless the deleted data is overwritten, it can still be recovered.

The Drive Wiper makes sure your files are gone forever by overwriting any free space on your computer. I like this to get rid of files I really don’t want anyone else to see. Ever.

Is CCleaner Safe?

In short, yes. The only unsafe thing about CCleaner is potentially deleting files you didn’t mean to delete, or disabling programs you didn’t mean to disable. As long as you double check everything you should have no problems.

Full disclosure: in September 2017, illegal code made it into Version 5.33.6162 for 32-bit Windows. This code collected information about users’ computers such as the name of the computers, list of installed software, and list of running processes (read more here).

Although no actual harm was done to any computers, this information could have been used to target computers in the future. This is still a careless oversight by Piriform. To their credit, this is the only incident like this, and CCleaner has been completely safe ever since.

Alternatives

There are several PC cleaners out there today, like:

If you're looking for an alternative that's also free like CCleaner, check out Glary Utilities. It has some features CCleaner doesn't like file encryption and restoring deleted files.

However, if you want to actually speed up your computer and don't mind paying a little, check out Iolo System Mechanic. The main thing that makes it stand out is its 'LiveBoost' feature that dynamically re-allocates system resources to programs that are actually being used.

Conclusion

Overall, I think CCleaner Professional is a great PC cleaning tool, and worth the money. Even the free version is better than other cleanup tools like Avast Cleanup.

Despite the initial learning curve to use CCleaner to its fullest potential, and the security incident that happened a few years ago, CCleaner still remains a top tool for me.

However, like most PC cleaners, it won't actually speed up your computer. The only software that gave me noticeable results was Iolo System Mechanic.

Anyway, go check out CCleaner yourself, and let me know what you think. The pro version offers a 14-day trial so you can decide for yourself.

Utilities • Updated on Sept. 4, 2020

Just like any other modern machine, Windows computers have the small (Or huge – depending on the user and his programs) issue of residual files, malware, and all of that bad stuff. One way that you can deal with that kind of stuff is by using PC cleaners.

Even the most basic PC cleaners can look for junk files in your registry, system, and, of course, in your files as well. This can potentially clean up gigabytes of storage or, in some cases, even make your PC faster (Generally if you’re infected with malware or out of storage).

That is why we decided to include some of the best PC cleaners that we know of as of 2020. So, without any further ado, let us get right into it!

Does Windows 10 Have a Built-In Cleaner?

Yes. Windows 10 comes with a tool that’s called, “Storage sense“. You should find it pre-installed on your Windows desktop or laptop and it can be used to clean up junk data or useless files.

It points you towards large files, documents, apps, temporary (junk) files, the recycle bin, and a few more options while also showcasing how much room the system occupies. You can’t delete anything from the system since that’s mandatory for your computer to work. But everything else can be a valid option for deletion. All you have to do is pay attention not to delete something important.

The exact amount of storage that you’ll be able to free up can greatly differ depending on how tidy you are as a user on a day to day basis and also what kind of software you’re using. Also on what you’re willing to delete.

Other than that, there’s also Fresh Start – which is basically nothing more than a factory reset that doesn’t delete your personal files (Though, we’d still recommend backing everything up just in case).

So, if Windows comes with its own tools, why should we even care about 3rd party PC cleaners?

Why You Need a 3rd Party PC Cleaner

3rd party cleaners come with plenty of advantages over Windows’ built-in tools. First things first, they tend to be more effective. Even for the basic junk file scan, which is one of the main functions of Windows’ Storage Sense, our 3rd party cleaner detected and cleaned 3.8 gigabytes of useless data.

This is 5-6 times more than what Windows managed to find on its own. One of the main reasons this happens is due to the fact that 3rd party cleaners give you the option of being more “aggressive”.

Cleaners allow you to be picky on what can be considered junk or not. So, if you can tell what’s useless, this is going to free up much more space than you’d be able to free up on your own with Windows.

But that’s not all there is to it. PC Cleaners also generally come with more features and options other than just cleaning junk files. And that’s especially true for the premium variants.

Advanced SystemCare 13, for example, can also act as a RAM cleaner, an anti-malware, an anti-spyware, an automatic driver updater, a defragmentation tool for both the registry and your HDD drives, a software updater, a game booster, and more!

Many of these tools can be stand-alone programs. So, to have everything in one package can be extremely useful. More on that later.

At the end of the day, what matters is that if you want to get your PC at the best possible form, a 3rd party PC cleaner can help quite a lot.

Are PC Cleaners Safe? Is CCleaner Safe Again?

PC cleaners have a lot of control over our computers. It only makes sense for people to worry about them. However, the truth is that most PC cleaners are as safe as you allow them to be.

If you’re not careful with what you choose, there is always a chance that you’ll end up deleting something important. But, obviously, that mostly has to do with the user and not the PC cleaner itself. So, if you’re not sure about something, better stick with the default settings.

Other than that, there are also certain PC cleaners that come with pre-installed adware or, in some cases, other kinds of malware as well. But that’s only for the shady variants. Stick with the popular picks and you shouldn’t have any such issues.

The only exception thus far has been CCleaner. In case you don’t know about it, there have been times when it acted suspiciously in the past. It did things like updating automatically when users selected for it to not do it and then we had a similar story with anonymous data collection.

It was also hacked a couple of times by cyber criminals who integrated malware with it. This could have turned out real ugly but Avast, the company that now owns it, managed to pull it down in time before any significant damage occurred.

So, at the end of the day, CCleaner may be safe for now. But whether you’ll choose to trust it or not for future use is completely up to you.

To summarize, legitimate PC cleaners are very safe if you don’t mess around with options you don’t understand. CCleaner is safe too, but it does have a shady history behind it.

How Can I Choose the Best PC Cleaner?

All of our top software picks have been carefully chosen through years of experience and hours of research. We took the time to find the best PC cleaners for you – but that doesn’t mean you can’t do your own research as well. All you need is some basic knowledge.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind if you want to find the best PC cleaner software:

• Legitimacy: Always go after well-known names. Shady cleaners can end up deleting files that you need, or, even worse, infect you with malware.
• Effectiveness: Just because a cleaner can scan for junk files doesn’t mean that it can also detect and delete them effectively. The only way to find out if a cleaner is effective or not is by either trying it out yourself, reading reviews about it, or both.
• Features: Modern cleaners are no longer just cleaners. They can do lots of other things. For example, some of them can act like security programs, ad blockers, and more.
• Pricing: Not all cleaners are free. In fact, some of the best ask for either a subscription or a one-time payment while offering a free version with less features or a trial.
• Versions: Some of the best PC cleaners allow you to choose from multiple versions of the same program that may offer a different set of features. Some may be more focused on security while others are more about performance.

And that’s more or less everything you need to know in a nutshell. With that criteria in mind, you should be able to separate the good cleaners from the bad relatively easily.

What’s the Best PC Cleaner Software?

Now that you know what to look out for, you can start checking out PC cleaners. There are plenty of tools to find online. But we personally love those 3!

• Most Powerful:Advanced SystemCare Pro
• Great Value:CCleaner Professional
• Game Powered:Razer Cortex

Most Powerful: Advanced SystemCare Pro

Advanced System Care Pro is one of the best PC Cleaner programs out there – and for a good reason. Multiple good reasons, actually.

For what it offers, it’s relatively:

• Cheap
• Offers a lot of features
• And it’s reliable

You’ll probably notice that it exaggerates a few things on its website (Such as the fact that it can boost internet browsing speeds by 300%). But, that’s what most companies do with advertising anyway.

So, let us take a deeper look at it.

Easy to Use

As we’re soon going to find out, upon opening Advanced SystemCare Pro, you’ll find tons and tons of options waiting for you. But don’t let that overwhelm you. A basic clean-up takes just a few seconds—or minutes—depending on how powerful your PC is.

All you have to do is follow 3 steps:

Clean My Pc Vs Ccleaner

1. Open Advanced SystemCare Pro
2. Select, “Junk File Clean”
3. Click on, “Scan”

Then wait while the software does its thing.

And that’s as simple as it gets. If you want to scan for more things, such as spyware, simple tick the appropriate boxes, tap on, “Scan” and you should be good to go.

Plenty of Features to Choose From

Upon opening Advanced SystemCare Pro, you’ll find:

• 12 basic tools
• 4 speed-up optimization tools
• 6 protection-related features
• More than 25 additional options
• A software updater
• Nine 3rd party programs that are optional

And if that’s too much for you, that’s okay. As we mentioned above, you don’t really have to bother with any of that. All you have to do is select whatever you want through the “Care” home-screen and the software will do the rest for you. Anything else can be set aside for when you feel more comfortable with it.

There is both a free version that offers the basic features and a premium one that activates all of the other ones. If you are interested, you can get it for about $20 a year (Pricing may differ from region to region).

Pros:

• Probably the most features we’ve ever seen on a stand-alone cleaner
• Pretty easy to use
• Cheap

Cons:

• All the features can make it feel a bit overwhelming at times
• Certain pop-ups can become annoying

Great Value: CCleaner Professional

CCleaner had some bad moments in its past history. With a couple of shady practices and the two times that it got hacked, it’s no wonder that some people are jumpy about it. But if you’re willing to push that aside and let it rest in the past, we’d say that CCleaner Professional is worthy of another try. After all, don’t forget that it’s owned by Avast.

One Click is All you Need

If you thought that other PC cleaners as software were easy to use, just wait until you try out CCleaner. All you need is literally one click for it to automatically fix everything.

After that, you can either proceed with CCleaner’s recommendations or check out what you want to fix yourself as far as privacy, space, speed, and security are concerned.

And just like with AdvancedSystemCare, you can also choose from a number of other tools/features such as a registry cleaner, 10 tools, and a few other, security tools.

We also feel like the UI of this software is the easiest to navigate through compared to other PC cleaners. And that’s one of the main reason why this is one of the best PC cleaners for Windows in 2020!

You can choose from both a free version and the premium one. The free version gives you access to the basic tools and a two-week trial of the premium ones.

As far as pricing is concerned, the stand-alone version comes in at about $22 while the Plus variant comes in at $35 or so. As per usual, pricing can greatly vary from region to region.

The thing is that the Plus version doesn’t just give you CCleaner – but also 3 additional programs. These are Defraggler Professional, Recuva Professional, and Speccy Professional as well. Recuva on its own can be a lifesaver. So, that’s one of the main reasons why CCleaner Professional offers the best value on this list.

Pros:

• Very good-looking UI
• Extremely easy to use
• The bundle that it offers is an extremely good value

Cons:

• Bad reputation for things that happened in the past

Clean My Pc For Free

Game Powered: Razer Cortex

If you are a gamer, you should definitely check out Razer Cortex. And that’s especially true for those of us who have a budget setup.

It’s completely free to use and offers all of the basic clean-up features that you can find in other PC cleaners.

The little twist here is that Razer Cortex is specifically designed for gamers. This means that you can use it not just for cleaning up leftover files from Windows and other programs – but also from games.

Furthermore, when you launch a game from Razer Cortex, it automatically frees up RAM and closes unnecessary programs on the background for you. This is great for low-end computers since they need every bit of computing power that they can get.

You can also use it to monitor gaming performance. If you see a lot of FPS drops, maybe it’s time to either optimize your system better or upgrade hardware. Sometimes both.

Last, but not least, Razer Cortex can also optimize a small number of games. All you have to do is select the balance between quality and performance, Razer Cortex will give you the number of FPS that you’ll get from these settings, and if you agree to it then it’ll automatically adjust its settings to match that framerate.

You can also find game deals through the ‘deals’ tab, if you are on the lookout for new titles.

Pros:

• By far the easiest to use
• Optimized specifically for games and gamers
• Makes it easy to find game deals online

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer a lot of extra features
• Does not support a lot of games (Though, your mileage may vary depending on your game library)

The Rest of the Pack

These were our top 3 picks. But that doesn’t mean that other cleaners are not worth considering.

Kcleaner Vs Ccleaner

In fact, here are some other PC cleaners that are also pretty great but just didn’t happen to make it to the top.

AVG TuneUp

AVG‘s offering is just as bit as good as most of our top recommendations. You can use it to remove junk files, uninstall unnecessary software, update your programs automatically, take care of your registry, close unnecessary background apps, and more.

The only problem is that it also asks for near $50 – which is more than twice what our top recommendations ask for. And that’s one of the main reasons that it didn’t make it to the top 3.

Other than that, it’s no doubt one of the best PC cleaners that you can get in 2020!

Glary Utilities

If you are looking for a similarly-priced alternative to our top options that’s just as feature-rich, Glary Utilities 5 is probably the place to be.

It includes more than 20 tools to choose from, many of them free, a 1-click clean-up button, along with both a free and pro version. As per usual, you can get the free variant for the basic tools while the pro one for about $20 offers more advanced features.

The UI is arguably a little bit weird and, at times, overwhelming. But that’s about it as far as downsides are concerned.

Total PC Cleaner

Clean My Pc Vs Ccleaner

This is quite possibly the most straightforward app that you can grab from this list. All you have to do is install it, press a button, and let it do its thing. It’s also the only one that you have to get from the MS Store.

The only downside is that even the Pro version, which costs nearly $20, is quite lacklustre in terms of features when compared to our top picks.

Clean My Pc Reviews

Still, if you only need a small, lightweight PC cleaner that just cleans junk files, Total PC Cleaner is definitely worth considering.

Conclusion

These are our best PC cleaners for now. Each one for its own reasons. To be more specific:

Ccleaner Vs Total Pc Cleaner

• AdvancedSystemCare Pro offers tons of features while also being very effective with cleaning up.
• CCleaner is the same story but with a more visually appealing UI and a better bundle deal.
• And Razer Cortex offers optimization not just for the system, in general, but for gaming as well.

Feel free to pick whatever fits you best. Only we wouldn’t recommend installing two or more at once as that can end up slowing down your system instead of making it faster.