Introduction

For years now, my go-to for uninstalling apps on macOS has been TrashMe 3. You see, the tricky thing with macOS is that simply dragging an app to the Trash, the classic way, doesn’t actually get rid of all its associated files. You can easily spot these lingering bits and bobs with tools like EasyFind, Find Any File, HoudahSpot, or ProFind after you’ve ‘uninstalled’ something. That’s precisely why there are so many Mac apps out there designed to tackle this problem, offering a much cleaner uninstall experience by sniffing out and deleting those pesky leftover files.

TrashMe 3 has always been a solid performer for me, doing exactly what it’s supposed to. In my experience, it consistently feels like it catches most of those leftover files during the uninstall process. I’ve dabbled with alternatives from time to time, but I always find myself coming back to TrashMe 3. I’ve even recommended it countless times in this sub when folks ask for the best option. But, let’s be real, that was always more of a gut feeling than hard facts.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with virtual machines, which sparked an idea: to create a consistent environment for testing applications. So, that’s when I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and find the actual best uninstaller tool out there. It won’t be perfect, but at least it will be better than what we currently have (to my knowledge).

Method

To make sure this test is fair, I needed all the apps to be tested on the exact same disk image with the same applications installed. So, I whipped up a virtual disk image using the free and open-source tool virtualOS VM, loaded it up with macOS 26.1, and then installed ten popular, randomly chosen apps (more on those below) that would later be uninstalled and checked for leftovers. I also threw in three more tools for the test itself: Tiny Shield to block any unwanted internet connections from the apps being tested or uninstalled, Shottr for taking screenshots, and finally, Find Any File to hunt down any remaining files. The disk image was then cloned for each uninstaller tool I wanted to test. Each uninstaller app was installed on its dedicated disk image and given all the necessary permissions within macOS system settings.

Once everything was set up, I ran the uninstaller apps and used them to remove the predefined list of applications, which you’ll find below.

Selection of Uninstaller Apps

Now, I’m not claiming to have covered every single option out there,I’m sure there are dozens of apps that can do this. But I did try to include the most popular ones that came to mind. I used all the options below in their premium mode, if applicable, just to make sure that any feature limitations of a free version wouldn’t mess with the test results. It’s also worth noting that uninstalling apps and removing leftovers isn’t the main gig for all these tools; for some, it’s just one feature among many. Tools like CleanMyMac or Sensei are packed with various features, while others like AppCleaner or Remove-It focus solely on this specific task. This can be seen as one explanation for the wide range of prices for these tools. Here’s the list of the uninstaller apps I tested, sorted alphabetically:

App	App Cleaner & Uninstaller	AppCleaner	AppZapper	BuhoCleaner	CCleaner	CleanMyMac	Hazel	MacKeeper	OnyX	Pearcleaner	Remove-It	Sensei	System Toolkit Pro	TrashMe
Regular Price	$34.95	Free	$19.95	$39.99	Freemium	$119.95	$42.00	$95.40 / year	Free	Free	€7.99	$59.00	$4.99	$14.99
Open Source	-	✓	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	✓	-	-	-	-
Developer	Nektony LLC	FreeMacSoft	Austin Sarner & Brian Ball	Dr.Buho Inc	Gen Digital Inc	MacPaw Way Ltd.	Noodlesoft, LLC	Clario Tech DMCC	Titanium Software	Alin Lupascu	OSXBytes	Cindori AB	Sascha Simon	Jibapps
Version	9.0.2	3.6.8	2.0.3	1.15.1	2.9.187	5.2.10	6.1.1	7.3	4.9.2	5.4.3	2.0.0	2.0	2.2.0	3.7.1
Framework	SwiftUI	AppKit	AppKit	AppKit	AppKit	SwiftUI	AppKit	AppKit	AppKit	SwiftUI	AppKit	SwiftUI	SwiftUI	AppKit

Selection of apps to be removed

The apps I chose to uninstall were picked to represent a broad spectrum of popular Mac apps across different categories and using various tech stacks. I used AppDetective to figure out the framework each application used and Apparency to see if an app was sandboxed. Specifically, I picked and installed the following apps directly from their websites:

App	Acorn	Bitwarden	BusyCal	Google Chrome	IINA	Microsoft Teams	Notion	PDF Expert	Raycast	Rectangle Pro
Developer	Flying Meat Inc.	Bitwarden Inc.	Beehive Innovations	Google LLC	Collider LI	Microsoft Corporation	Notion Labs, Inc.	Readlle Technologies Ltd.	Raycast Technologies Inc.	Ryan Hanson
Version	8.3.2	2025.11.2	2025.4.2	142.0.744.176	1.4.1	25306.805.4102.7211	4.24.0	3.10.23	1.103.10	3.64
Framework	AppKit	Electron	SwiftUI	AppKit	SwiftUI	SwiftUI	Electron	SwiftUI	SwiftUI	AppKit
App Sandbox	-	-	✓	-	-	✓	-	-	-	-

Data Collection

After uninstalling all the chosen apps using each respective uninstaller application, I ran a leftover file search with Find Any File. To keep things fair and comparable, I used the exact same search parameters across all apps: the precise application name as listed in the first column of the table below. For comparison, I also conducted a file search before any uninstallation by the tested tools (first column) and another search after uninstalling apps the classic Apple way – by dragging them from the Applications folder to the Trash (and then emptying it). The numbers in the cells tell you how many leftover files for a specific app were found after the uninstallation process.

App	Files Detected Before Removal	Uninstall via Finder	App Cleaner & Uninstaller	AppCleaner	AppZapper	BuhoCleaner	CCleaner	CleanMyMac	Hazel	MacKeeper	OnyX	Pearcleaner	Remove-It	Sensei	System Toolkit Pro	TrashMe
Acorn	46	21	4	4	17	13	5	9	8	10	4	3	3	6	12	4
Bitwarden	21	10	2	2	6	3	1	4	1	4	1	0	0	3	7	2
BusyCal	53	38	4	16	38	25	9	12	12	21	11	5	2	6	16	6
Google Chrome	24	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	3	3	3
IINA	26	14	1	1	12	5	3	4	3	2	1	0	0	4	6	1
Microsoft Teams	57	33	9	13	32	14	11	16	12	5	6	2	3	12	18	18
Notion	19	9	2	2	3	5	1	1	3	16	1	0	1	4	8	2
PDF Expert	45	43	4	8	40	13	34	12	34	12	7	9	6	35	39	31
Raycast	45	28	4	9	24	13	10	11	11	11	3	3	3	7	15	4
Rectangle Pro	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Total	341	201	33	58	175	93	75	70	85	83	35	23	19	80	125	71

Result

So, what did we find? Remove-It really shined, proving to be the most efficient uninstaller tool in this test, clearing out about 94.4% of all the files Find Any File could locate. Pearcleaner wasn’t far behind, hitting 93.3%. On the flip side, the least effective method was the classic Apple way of uninstalling, just dragging apps to the Trash. Among the third-party tools, AppZapper (48.7%) and System Toolkit Pro (63.3%) were the least efficient.

Remove-It (94.4%) 1.

Pearcleaner (93.3%) 1.

App Cleaner & Uninstaller (90.3%) 1.

OnyX (89.7%) 1.

AppCleaner (83.0%) 1.

CleanMyMac (79.5%) 1.

TrashMe (79.2%) 1.

CCleaner (78.0%) 1.

Sensei (76.5%) 1.

MacKeeper (75.7%) 1.

Hazel (75.1%) 1.

BuhoCleaner (72.7%) 1.

System Toolkit Pro (63.3%) 1.

AppZapper (48.7%) 1.

Uninstall via Finder (41.1%)

Discussion

Now, I have to be clear: this test isn’t meant to be the be-all and end-all. It’s just a small snapshot, a single test in a very specific environment. This isn’t some academic paper, and I’m certainly not claiming it is. The results could look totally different with other apps installed, on different macOS versions, or even with newer versions of the apps themselves. How much and what features of specific apps were used could also play a role. But despite all that, this testing method gave us a pretty good idea of how the most popular uninstaller apps for macOS stack up against each other in a controlled environment. And it definitely showed that there are some remarkable differences in how well they clean up leftover files.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it’s pretty clear that the quality of these apps doesn’t necessarily depend on their price tag. Among the top five uninstaller tools I tested, three are completely free. And the overall winner, Remove-It, is available for a comparable low €7.99 (about $9.30). Honestly, that was a bit of a surprise to me, but it just goes to show once again that free software can be just as good, if not better, than paid tools. Of course, many of the paid tools do offer a wider range of features than their free counterparts, which probably explains the price differences. In the end, everyone should really try out these tools in their own setup and decide what works best for them.

Disclaimer: I am neither the developer nor affiliated with any of the apps mentioned.