MacKeeper Antivirus Review 2024

This post looks at MacKeeper’s latest antivirus offering for macOS. It includes an antivirus with real-time protection, an adware cleaner, and plenty more, like:

• A junk file cleaner, a duplicates finder
• An app uninstaller
• A memory cleaner
• An app update tracker
• A login items manager
• Email identity protection
• A VPN
• An ad blocker

That’s quite a long list, and in this MacKeeper review, we’ll look at each item.

If you have the time, I recommend reading the review end to end if you want all the details. If not, you’ll find a summary of my thoughts below.

MacKeeper review summary

MacKeeper antivirus provides a basic antivirus engine bundled with a lot of fluff. While the antivirus performed reasonably well in our tests, it’s somewhat inconsistent, detecting malicious items in different scan modes. It hasn’t been recently rated on AVTests or AVComparatives.

The extra features you get beyond the antivirus aren’t necessarily bad or useless (though we could use either label to describe its bundled VPN). Still, you can download excellent free alternatives that work just as well or better. Making the case that you should part with your cash to get that functionality is hard.

MacKeeper collects a lot of user data, so privacy isn’t a priority despite its higher price than most competitors. The bottom line is that if you want to pay for a premium Mac antivirus, you can do better than MacKeeper.

MacKeeper pros and cons

What are MacKeeper’s system requirements?

The image below, taken from MacKeeper’s official website, shows the hardware you’ll need to run the antivirus on your Mac.

We’re running MacKeeper 6, and my testing was done using macOS Sonoma.

How to sign up for MacKeeper

To use MacKeeper, you first need to purchase a subscription. Signing up for MacKeeper is straightforward. But bear in mind that auto-renewal is enabled by default on your subscription. You can turn this off by logging into your account. You get a 14-day money-back guarantee. It would have been nice if this was your standard 30 days. Still, 14 days should be enough time to decide if MacKeeper is for you.

Installation process

The installation process is pretty much what you’re used to. It’s your standard click-through installation.

1. Purchase a MacKeeper subscription.
2. Check your inbox for your confirmation email containing your download link and activation code.
3. Download the MacKeeper installer for Mac using the link in the email.
4. Locate the downloaded .dmg file in your Downloads folder and double-click it.
5. In the window that opens, double-click the MacKeeper Installer to begin the installation.
6. If prompted with a security warning, click “Allow” to allow the installation.
7. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.
8. When prompted, enter your Mac’s administrator password to allow MacKeeper to install its components.
9. Once installation is complete, MacKeeper will launch automatically with basic antivirus protection enabled.

After installation, the antivirus’ real-time protection is not enabled by default. You need to click START FULL SCAN from the app’s main page (Find & Fix), and the app will prompt you to enable its various features.

You’ll be prompted to enable real-time antivirus protection from the Antivirus menu. Real-time protection can take a few minutes to enable. Just be patient.

Now, let’s look at the app’s functionality.

The MacKeeper app

Of course, the app’s main feature will be the antivirus, though that may not be immediately obvious with so many extra features.

Find & Fix

The app’s default menu is called Find & Fix. From this page, you can conduct what MacKeeper calls a Full Scan. It’s not just an antivirus scan (though it is that, too). It’s a multi-process scan that uses the other built-in tools to supplement the antivirus scan with junk file cleaning and memory cleaning, and it checks which security features are enabled within the app.

Running the full scan looks like this.

Once the scan has finished, the results are displayed.

Clicking Review & Fix below a category will take you to the appropriate app menu, where you can choose which action to take (if any). For this review, I enabled everything – hence all the green.

Premium Services

This is simply a menu that provides access to its premium support chat, which is available in-app—more on that in the Support section.

Antivirus

There is only one kind of virus scan in MacKeeper, simply called Scans. These are what you would typically call Full scans. There are no Quick scans. However, as mentioned above, from the Find & Fix menu, you can run the virus scan with other features, like junk file cleaning and memory cleaning. MacKeeper refers to these scans as Full scans. Confused? So am I. But that’s how things work here.

There are no additional antivirus options or settings in this menu.

Adware Cleaner

The Adware Cleaner will scan your Mac for adware, just as the antivirus will scan your Mac for viruses and malware.

Clicking START SCAN launches the adware scan

When the scan is finished, the results are displayed.

Safe Cleanup

Safe Cleanup is MacKeeper’s junk file cleaner (logs, caches, temp files, etc.).

Clicking START SCAN initiates the scan.

Again, the results are displayed once the scan is finished.

You can find free tools online that do this.

Duplicates Finder

As its name states, MacKeeper’s Duplicates Finder will scan your Mac for any duplicate files taking up space.

To start the duplicates scan, click START SCAN. After the scan, it displays the results.

In my case, while files are listed in the results, it only found one actual duplicate file. The other categories in the results (Similar Photos and Screenshots) don’t list duplicate files but similar files (based on file name, file size, or content—for images).

Again, you can find free tools to accomplish this; paying for them is unnecessary.

Smart Uninstaller

The Smart Uninstaller scans your system for installed apps, widgets, preference panes, plugins, browser extensions, and residual files left over after uninstallation. It then allows you to safely and completely uninstall them.

After running the scan, it displays the results.

In my case, I had some residual files left over from previous uninstalls.

I selected all of them and removed them by clicking REMOVE SELECTED at the bottom.

While this feature can be helpful, you can easily download some good free alternatives. So even though it works pretty well (as we just saw), I’m not sure I can recommend paying for this.

Memory Cleaner

When you’re done using an app and close it, the memory it uses can remain active in the system for a while. MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner will check your system for active memory that can be purged to provide your Mac with more free memory.

Click OPEN to begin the check.

It lists the current amount of available memory. Clicking CLEAN MEMORY frees up active but available memory.

It then lists the current amount of free memory after cleaning.

As mentioned above, while the feature works well, given the many free alternatives available to speed up your system, I wouldn’t pay for it.

Update Tracker

The Update Tracker scans your installed apps to inform you of any available updates. Of course, your Mac already does this through the Mac AppStore (installed apps), so paying for it is not recommended.

Clicking SCAN FOR UPDATES initiates the process.

In my case, all of my apps are up-to-date.

Login Items

The Login Items feature scans your Mac for items set to automatically run when you log into your Mac so you can review them and remove those you don’t want running at login.

In my case, it found a few items. I want to run these apps automatically when logged in, so I made no changes. But you could select the items you want to remove and click REMOVE SELECTED ITEMS.

I should mention that this is something you can check yourself through macOS.

1. Launch the System Settings app.
2. Select General > Login Items
3. The list of login items is displayed, and you can add or remove items by clicking on the + or – icons at the bottom of the list.

ID Theft Guard

The ID Theft Guard feature scans known databases to see if your email address has been linked to known identity theft breaches.

Start by clicking OPEN. You’re prompted for your email address.

Once entered, click START SCAN.

After the scan is finished, the results are displayed. Click CONTINUE. You’re prompted to enable ID Theft Guard for real-time monitoring. You can choose to enable real-time protection or not.

Again, you can easily replicate this feature using a free service like HaveIBeenPwned.com.

Private Connect

Private Connect is MacKeeper’s VPN.

There’s very little information on its VPN beyond the security marketing on MacKeeper’s website. The only tidbit of information I could find mentioned AES256 encryption, which most likely means the VPN uses the IPSec or OpenVPN protocol.

You can select your server from the VPN server location dropdown menu; there are several to choose from.

The VPN appears to work correctly. However, aside from server selection, there are no settings related to the VPN. That means no kill switch, no protocol selection (we don’t even know what protocol the app uses, to begin with), no split tunneling – nothing.

Given the lack of information and MacKeeper’s privacy policy (more on that later), I wouldn’t recommend using it. If you’re going to pay for a VPN (and you definitely should pay for one instead of using a free VPN), you should purchase a subscription from a reputable VPN provider (not an antivirus vendor).

StopAd

StopAd is MacKeeper’s Safari ad blocker. It is installed automatically when you install MacKeeper. There is no additional download here.

Clicking OPEN opens Safari’s Extensions settings, where you can enable StopAd. In my experience, it worked very well, and I could browse the web ad-free.

But as with most of Mackeeper’s extra features, there’s no shortage of high-quality, free alternatives online. Paying for this is not necessary.

Mackeeper settings

You cannot access MacKeeper’s settings within the app’s UI. You need to go to MacKeeper’s menu bar and select Settings from the dropdown menu.

This opens an overlay window on top of the app. It’s a minor gripe, but it’s a bit unintuitive.

Let’s look at the different settings menus we get.

Update Tracker

From here, you can list the apps you don’t want to include in MacKeeper’s Update Tracker feature.

Antivirus

From the Antivirus settings menu, you can determine the app’s behavior when it detects a malicious item (quarantine or notify). You can also list items you want MacKeeper to ignore.

Adware Cleaner

From here, you can enable real-time adware monitoring and list apps you don’t want to be scanned as potential adware.

Duplicates Finder

Here, you can set the match level for similar photos and decide whether or not to scan for screenshots.

Privacy & Legal

The Privacy & Legal settings menu lets you turn off some of the app’s integrated analytics. I recommend you deactivate all of them (they’re enabled by default).

Account

The Account settings menu displays the email address used to sign-up and allows you to sign out of the app.

Scan Options

You can set the interval of full scan reminders and daily scan parameters from the Scan Options menu. Remember: What MacKeeper calls full scans are default antivirus scans that run with the junk file cleaner (Safe Cleanup). Daily scans are “full scans” without the junk file cleaner. There are no quick scans.

Now, let’s move on to the antivirus tests.

MacKeeper antivirus test results

MacKeeper isn’t rated on either AVTests or AVComparatives, so there is no data to pull from there. Hence, we only have our in-house testing to go with it.

My first tests were run using malware samples from the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR). And as for its performance in our in-house tests, it wasn’t what I’d call optimal. MacKeeper’s real-time engine detected the first two EICAR samples but didn’t detect the two zipped EICAR samples until I manually unzipped them. Once unzipped, however, both files were detected and quarantined immediately.

Running a manual scan, MacKeeper detected and quarantined all four EICAR samples, including the zipped ones.

I then moved on to the malware samples, and it again failed to detect them when zipped. Again, once unzipped, they were all immediately detected and quarantined.

When running a manual scan, MacKeeper failed to detect all three live samples when zipped. Once unzipped, as above, it detected and quarantined all of them. It seems odd that, in a manual scan, the zipped EICAR samples would be detected but not the zipped live samples.

Impact on system resources

Here’s MacKeeper’s impact on system resources when running scans (MacKeeper only runs full scans):

MacKeeper scans

Despite running a virus scan, I could use my computer without lag or freeze-ups. That is the case with most modern antivirus apps.

How much does Mackeeper cost?

MacKeeper offers two subscription terms:

• One month
• One year

The one-year term can be purchased for either one or three devices, and the one-month subscription can be purchased for one device.

While these prices aren’t unreasonable, they’re higher than most competitors. And considering the amount of fluff you’re paying for, I think the pricing could be better.

McKeeper support

MacKeeper’s support comes with a nice little twist: it’s available in-app.

You can click Ask an Expert at the top right of the app to access Mackeeper’s support chat, the only support option beyond its online knowledge base.

I was chatting with MacKeeper support within seconds. I asked the rep what kind of user data MacKeeper collects. I got a straightforward answer quickly. It pointed me to MacKeeper’s privacy policy, where I could view the massive list of user data collected by MacKeeper.

This is an antivirus product, so data must be collected to provide real-time antivirus protection. We get that. However, the sheer amount of data MacKeeper collects goes beyond the rendered services.

You can find the list in its privacy policy.

Click the downward arrow next to What kind of data do we process? Be prepared to scroll quite a bit – it’s a long list.

Many, if not most, antivirus vendors don’t collect as much data, but they can still provide their services. Hopefully, MacKeeper will tone down its collection practices moving forward.

Do I recommend MacKeeper antivirus?

No, I don’t – and for a few reasons.

First, though this isn’t a massive deal, MacKeeper is somewhat inconsistent in detecting zipped or compressed files. It doesn’t appear to detect any with its real-time engine but detects some (not all) when running manual scans.

Most of what you’re paying for beyond the antivirus is fluff. The extra tools do what they’re meant to do, but you can get some free alternatives off the web that work just as well. So why would you pay for them?

And its VPN – which could be useful – has no settings to configure and is devoid of even basic features, such as a kill switch. If you pay for a VPN, purchase a subscription from a reputable VPN provider, not an antivirus vendor.

Then we have the company’s data collection practices, which are hard to swallow – MacKeeper collects a massive amount of user data. So, if you value your digital privacy, this could be a non-starter.

When you add that its prices are more expensive than those of its competitors, it’s hard to recommend MacKeeper in good faith.

Antivirus testing methodology

We’ve structured our antivirus testing methodology to provide reliable data on the software’s effectiveness at malware protection and performance.

Our testing process includes:

• Using malware test samples from EICAR
• Testing live malware samples, including Adware and Trojans
• Comparing our own tests with independent antivirus lab test results
• Measuring the impact on PC performance

In addition, we analyze pricing, ease of use, compatibility, and additional features.

If you want to know more about how we analyze antivirus software, we have a dedicated post on our antivirus research and testing methodology.