If your Mac computer is becoming sluggish over time, chances are your hard drive is loaded with temporary or junk files that are likely bogging down the system performance. A great way to remedy this situation and to continue to maintain a high performance is to provide your Mac with routine use of a maintenance tool to free disk space, solve disk permission issues and run a memory cleaner.
In the following review, we are going to take a look at MacBooster which is developed by IOBit. Our evaluation is based on our own hands-on use of the MacBooster software on our own machines. This review is not sponsored by IOBit and we are not being paid to give a positive review so rest assured, all thoughts expressed within this article are genuine.
Is MacBooster safe and legit?
Yes. MacBooster is a legit Mac optimization application and safe to use because it doesn't contain malicious or tracking components which may expose your computer to privacy risks and online scams. Rest assured that IObit products are developed by reputable vendors in the industry who employ a legitimate development team that develop products for consumer benefit, not harm. MacBooster 8 has been notarized by Apple themselves to ensure that the software is free from any virus, malware, or malicious intent.
While this is the case, it is important you aren't downloading MacBooster from any other sources than their official site which is the only trusted resource that you can download this Mac cleaner from. Unfortunately, there are likely cases where someone might spoof the MacBooster software as a free download on their own website, but instead upload a malicious application so we recommend sticking to IOBit's website should you wish to install this software.
How much does MacBooster cost?
MacBooster 8 is free to download for a trial version which lets you scan your machine for things like system junk and perform a malware scan, but you'll need to purchase a license in order to actually utilize the features to the fullest.
At the time that this MacBooster review was written, pricing was as follows:
- MacBooster Standard license (1 Mac) – $39.95/ year
- MacBooster Premium license (3 Macs plus priority support) – $59.95/year
- MacBooster Lite license (3 Macs without 24/7 or priority support) – $89.95 one time fee
The main difference between the pricing tiers is how many Mac computers are able to access usage of MacBooster 8 separately and whether or not you have access to 24/7 or priority customer support should you run into issues using the software.
The MacBooster Lite product is a lifetime license which means that you'll have access to the MacBooster 8 product forever for one low rate, but it lacks more extensive support options and also won't offer access to a new version like MacBooster 9 should it ever be released. This was the same situation with those who purchased the MacBooster 7 lifetime deal.
IObit does offer a 60-day money back guarantee which they say is put in place to ensure that all of their customers have enough time to evaluate their software to ensure that it meets their needs. This is great as it does give you some peace of mind that you can get a refund should you not enjoy or find benefit from the software.
User Interface & Optimization Features
From a user interface standpoint, I'd say MacBooster 8 has a good feel to it. However, we are tremendously spoiled with the stellar UI of MacPaw's CleanMyMac X which just blows every other Mac application out of the water. IOBit did a decent job keeping the color scheme to have a Mac feel and offering a “dark mode” experience from default.
In terms of organization, MacBooster 8's user interface is well thought out and mimics that of CleanMyMac X. The menu on the left side of the screen offers access to individual tabs that harness more specialized tools within them. Here's a rundown of each tab found in MacBooster and the features and system utilities that are offered within:
System Status
Allows for a single click scan of your Mac computer which will locate any identifying system junk, perform a virus scan and find ways that MacBooster can improve performance on your machine via their Turbo Boost functionality.
System Junk
MacBooster will scan your machine's hard drive and locate anything that it deems to be considered system junk. These junk files could include software installers, language files, system caches, system log files, leftover app data, and iTunes backups.
Virus & Malware Scan
A virus scanner that looks out for potential virus and malware threats and can remove these offending files without any manual intervention. This section includes privacy tracking cookies so it can be quick to over-exaggerate the number of real malware and virus threats or security risks.
Turbo Boost
The turbo boost tab refers to hard disk optimization and disk permissions as well as storage optimization. This is mainly for dealing with caches and other temporary data. Incorrect disk permission can bog down your machine so clearing up any permission issues along with hard disk optimization will allow you to see notable performance improvements.
Memory Clean
A built-in utility for cleaning up your virtual memory aka your RAM. Apple does have ways to accomplish this without the use of such a tool, but being able to flush it on demand without any use of the terminal or added complexity is great.
Privacy Protection
A scanner of your machine for usage logging for privacy concerns. This includes things like browser history, cookies, recently opened applications, recently opened files, and app traces.
Uninstaller
Your standard uninstaller for removing applications from your machine without leaving a bunch of extra data behind.
Startup Optimization
Manage the applications and items that are loading every time you boot Mac OS X to improve the speed and efficiency of your operating system boot timing.
Large & Old Files
A quick scanner of your hard disk for files that it deems potentially good for removal based on the overall size as well as the age of the files or folders.
Duplicate Finder
Unlike CleanMyMac X which requires the use of Gemini 2 in addition to the base cleaning software, MacBooster 8 includes one right off the bat. Duplicates are one of the easiest ways to get rid of unnecessary files as you already have a copy of these on your machine so there isn't usually a risk in deleting them.
Photo Sweeper
The photo sweeper in MacBooster 8 compares the images on your Mac to determine if there are identical or similar copies of images based on their attributes. A quick and easy tool for locating similar or duplicated photos in your library thus allowing you to regain critical hard drive space as media files tend to be the heaviest in size.
Lightning Booster
One of the most unique optimization tools found in MacBooster 8, the lightning booster features create a virtual RamDisk drive on your desktop which takes a portion of your system memory as a disk drive to store data more rapidly. This tends to work better on desktop computers like the iMac which harnesses more RAM, but it can still help improve weaker systems.
Cleaning Performance: My Hands-On Experience Using MacBooster 8
We can talk about the technical features of the MacBooster 8 application all day, but in the end, the actual cleaning performance is the most important aspect to consider.
System Junk – 10.8GB
The System Junk scan came up with 10.8GB worth of unnecessary files to remove. Looking at the breakdown of the flagged files, the majority came from the ‘Mac Software Installer' category with nearly 6.9GB of these alone which deleting would make for some quick storage gains. The next two were Application Junk Files coming in at 3.4GB and Language files which dropped down to just 340 MB of space to be regained.
Privacy Protection – 3,935 Items
Running the privacy protection scan, it came up with 3,935 privacy concerns. Chrome is responsible for 3,130 of them and they are all merely cookies which I'm not too concerned about personally. The runner-up offender was App Traces which comes in at 784 items. Out of all of those, 775 of them were from Spotify which is simply the history of the songs that I listened to and something I don't mind being tracked.
Startup Optimization – 15 Items
Scanning my machine found 15 potential startup optimizations that could be made although most of the recommendations were for me to keep them enabled and booting with my Mac. The reason for this is likely due to the fact that they are mostly all related to launchers for apps like Setapp, Google Drive, Stream Deck, etc. which I need to boot with my machine.
Large & Old Files – 108.9GB
Under the large and old files section of MacBooster 8, the software found a whopping 108.9GB worth of flagged content. Keep in mind, these types of scans are always going to be highly exaggerated as to what I would actually delete as these are not so much deemed as unnecessary or cache files.
These are just files on your computer that are typically going to be personal data that you'll want to keep. However, it's a good way to find some bulky data that you may no longer need and can purge to regain valuable disk space.
Duplicate Finder – 4.3GB
The duplicate finder found 4.3GB of duplicates on my 16″ MacBook Pro. most of the duplicate files are .DMG install files, random RAR archives, or media files.
Photo Sweeper – 153 Items
In my case, this found 153 instances of duplicate or near-duplicate images. This leaves some room to accidentally delete important images, but it also gives you a solid way to free up space if you have the time to analyze the findings and need to squeeze out every data savings that you can.
Comparison: MacBooster 8 vs CleanMyMac X
As you can see, MacPaw's CleanMyMac X is the clear winner when it comes to potential cleaning performance when coupled with their Gemini 2 duplicate finder (both available in their affordable Setapp subscription with no long term commitment).
MacBooster does best of the two applications when it comes to ‘large and old files' scanning. However, this is probably the most misleading as I don't think there is ever going to be a case where you'll want to remove the entirety of this scan given it is going to be flagging personal files versus unnecessary ones.
That is unless you are planning to wipe the computer anyways which if that is the case then you should just be doing a factory reset of MacOS instead of messing around with a Mac optimization software, to begin with.
How do I get rid of MacBooster?
If you want to uninstall MacBooster 8, IObit makes it super easy and it can be done right through the app's menu bar. In order to completely remove the application, just open MacBooster 8, click on the ‘Help' tab at the top menu bar and then click on the ‘Uninstall MacBooster 8' option. From there a dialog box will open for confirmation and you simply press the ‘Yes' button to go through with the removal process.
MacBooster Review Verdict
In the end, I found MacBooster 8 to be a decent cleaning software for Mac users and it could be money well spent. While it reigns near the top of the list in terms of pricing, UI and performance, I still think you are better off going with a software like MacPaw's CleanMyMac X over MacBooster.
CleanMyMac X offers a better overall user experience, interface and cleaning experience at a price-point that is comparable with MacBooster 8 and MacPaw has a better reputation as a developer of primarily Mac products with frequent updates. Ultimately, you likely can't go wrong with either one, but we prefer MacPaw's offering better for the reasons mentioned above.
