MacKeeper Antivirus Review Is It Good Enough for Your Mac 2022?

MacKeeper offers security, privacy, tune-up, and other features to protect your Macs. In fact, it was able, during my tests to detect 99%, to match some of the best macOS anti-viruses like McAfee or Intego.

MacKeeper also offers:

• Adware protection.
• ID Protection (email monitoring).
• VPN with unlimited bandwidth.
• Tracker and Ad blocking.
• Tools for cleaning up
• Performance optimization.

MacKeeper can be a useful antivirus program, with lots of useful features. But it is missing some essential features. It does not offer any anti-phishing protection. Also, it doesn’t have parental controls or a firewall, which are features offered by Intego.

MacKeeper isn’t the most expensive product on market. But it’s an excellent choice if the only thing you want to do for your Mac has an effective and simple antivirus program that works well with your Mac. MacKeeper gives you a 14-day risk-free trial so you don’t have to buy a paid subscription.

MacKeeper Antivirus Full Review

MacKeeper, a Mac-only Security Suite, is the best available in 2022.

It is a powerful, real-time antivirus and malware protection tool that also includes a wide range of other security and optimization features such as ID theft protection, adware monitoring and helpful cleanup tools.

MacKeeper can be more expensive that most of its rivals, but it offers a range flexible pricing plans. Every plan comes with a fourteen-day money-back warranty.

MacKeeper Antivirus Security Features

Antivirus Scanner

You don’t have a quick scan option. However, you can use a customized scan to scan specific files. After I downloaded the software, I ran a full scan. It took only 50 minutes. It was faster than other antivirus scanners like Airo AV or Intego for Mac and found no threats. The scan didn’t display how many files were being scanned, so I’m not sure if my entire system was actually scanned.

As part of my tests I also downloaded a folder containing Mac malware samples. This included viruses, spyware, ransomware and other malicious software. MacKeeper’s antivirus scanner detected over 99% of malware samples I had downloaded.

It prompt me to either delete or quarantine the files. This useful feature gives you a list of potentially harmful files that have been detected and allows you to choose whether to mark them safe or delete them.

After running several scans, it became apparent that the scan times weren’t getting any faster. This means that MacKeeper doesn’t use file cache to skip over files that were already scanned and reduce subsequent scan speeds. MacKeeper scans are faster than other antivirus software. They also didn’t slow down the device.

You will be asked to enable real time protection the first time you run the anti-virus scanner. While I am not entirely sure why it isn’t automatically enabled, this is an important feature. But real-time protection can be activated quickly and is almost impossible to miss. It stays on until you remove it manually.

MacKeeper’s real-time antivirus scanner runs continuously in the background, scanning every file for malware whenever you try to download it. After being alerted, I was prompted to move the files into quarantine so that I could delete them.

I was impressed by MacKeeper’s anti-virus scanner. It would be nice to know how many files were scanned each time. I also find it disappointing that the scanner does not use file caching such as Intego to speed up future scans. MacKeeper’s malware detection score is excellent, which is my primary priority.

Adware Cleaner

Adware Cleaner detects and eliminates adware on your Mac and provides real-time monitoring to protect against new adware. It’s rare that this would be a separate scanner. While most antivirus products contain adware cleaners, they are usually integrated into the main antimalware engine. This is the case for top competitors, TotalAV and Avira. They have some of best anti-malware tools in the industry. MacKeeper, which focuses so heavily on this feature, is not the only internet security software that can detect adware.

It took less that 5 minutes for the Adware Cleaner to scan my Mac. Many of these adware infections had been present for years. The original owner was an avid gamer so several pieces of malware were tied to gaming sites. After the scan was complete, it was easy to remove the adware file from my computer.

The real-time adware surveillance function wasn’t enabled by default, so I had to activate it every time I ran Adware Cleaner. While it might make sense for real-time to be enabled by default it’s easy to set up. This link opens a pop up that will allow you to activate instant protection with one click.

Overall, Adware cleaner is very impressive. It’s simple and quick to use. I can rest assured that no malicious adware or PUAs (potentially unwanted applications) are spamming my computer with useless ads.

ID Theft Guard

ID Theft Guardian is a great tool to protect yourself against identity theft.

This feature is what makes MacKeeper stand out. The dark web monitoring that Norton uses to track personally identifiable information, using human agents, is not as thorough. Intego is the best-selling antivirus software for Macs. Bitdefender, TotalAV and TotalAV don’t offer dark-web monitoring. MacKeeper’s ID Theft Guard offers more than most other products.

The ID Theft Guard will automatically identify all email addresses associated with your device when you first use it. First, you can review the email addresses and then choose which ones to be checked for breaches. You can also manually add other email addresses to be checked.

ID Theft Guard identified 8 email addresses with my Mac. Although many were out-of-date and not in use, it was useful to see if they’d been compromised at any moment. Oddly, ID Theft Guard first reported that no breaches had been detected, but then a pop up alerted to me to 5 data breaches involving one of my email addresses 5 minutes later!

Despite the 5-minute delay, I was impressed by this feature.

ID Theft Guard requested that I verify who I am using a security number sent to my email address.

I was then shown the exact details of each breach. It included details such as the name and company of the breached companies, and details of the breach. I also had the option to see the password that I used.

MacKeeper has a link that will take you directly to the website where you can change your password. Or, you can manually do it. Once you have solved the problem, you can click Resolution to make sure it does not show up in your dashboard as a security concern.

In my case, the “Sensitive”, breached company was listed. MacKeeper states that this is due legal reasons. Disclosing the source would compromise an ongoing probe into breaches. The password can still be viewed, so if it is familiar, you may be able to change it manually.

Overall I think ID Theft Guard has a great feature. Though it may not offer as much as Norton’s dark Web monitoring, it’s still a better option than some other antivirus products. It’s simple to use and manage. Finally, I felt a lot more at ease knowing that MacKeeper had protected a lot of my personal information.

VPN Private Connect

Private Connect, MacKeeper’s integrated VPN service, is a nice addition to MacKeeper. Most antivirus products don’t come with a VPN. And those that do have limitations are often not very useful.

Privacy Connect is like all VPNs. It conceals your IP address, encrypts sensitive information and protects you from hackers.

Although many VPNs come packaged with antivirus products don’t work well, MacKeeper VPN is quite impressive. It has the following features:

• Unlimited Data.
• Military-grade AES encryption of 256 bits.
• DNS leak prevention and webRTC.
• Large server networks: 300+ locations spread across 50+ nations.
• P2PTorrenting on some servers.

TotalAV is my only antivirus-bundled VPN. It allows torrenting, unlimited data and it works as promised. Bitdefender’s VPN is excellent. To get unlimited data, however, you must upgrade. McAfee and Norton’s VPNs come with unlimited data but they don’t permit torrenting and can only be used for basic browsing.

In my tests, I was impressed with MacKeeper VPN’s speed. The “Best Available” server had a download speed of around 20%. This is comparable for standalone brands like ExpressVPN or ProtonVPN.

While upload speeds dropped a bit when I was connected via a USA server (I live in Spain), they were still very fast.

Connection speeds to servers in Australia were much slower than my location. But web pages loaded within seconds or so, and I was able even to stream a movie online without buffering. However, the quality of the video wasn’t as great as I would have liked.

MacKeeper’s VPN is consistently able access popular streaming websites. This is something that other VPNs aren’t able do. Avira VPN doesn’t work well with Netflix. Other standalone VPNs, such as Mullvad VPN, don’t make good choices for streaming.

My only concern with MacKeeper VPN’s security is that I wasn’t able to find out how the company manages user data. This in itself is concerning.

It also turned out that the VPN is third-party, making it less secure. ExpressVPN, which is a standalone VPN product, is better if you are looking for the strongest VPN. For basic internet activities like browsing and streaming, MacKeeper’s Private Connect is an excellent choice.

The VPN is just like all other MacKeeper features, it’s very simple to use. You can either manually turn it on and off, or choose the option to connect automatically every time your Mac starts.

Although there isn’t much transparency around the no logs policy, I was very impressed with MacKeeper’s VPN. It’s reliable, fast and provides unlimited data. This VPN is also compatible with streaming sites, and it provides buffer-free streaming. This VPN add-on is an excellent choice for anyone looking to protect their computer.

StopAd

StopAd stops ads, as the name suggests. It stops trackers and advertisements from following your online activity.

Again, MacKeeper has this nice extra feature. Norton doesn’t have an ad-blocker for its mobile apps. McAfee (Intego) and Bitdefender don’t.

MacKeeper’s ad-blocker is a browser extension. It needs to be activated for Safari and Google Chrome. You can simply click Enable. MacKeeper will instantly open the page where you’ll be able to install the browser extensions in just one click.

The browser extension can be enabled once you have opened a new web page. This feature will run in the background automatically when the browser extension becomes active. Click the icon in your menu to view details of StopAD’s blocking.

This feature was tested on YouTube. It blocked 3 ads, 4 trackers, and one video, while I was surfing the internet. It really surprised me how many websites wanted to track every move. It was also possible to see which websites blocked me from showing ads and tracking me, which was quite interesting.

Overall, I love the StopAd extension. It is simple and easy to use with a clean design.

Safe Cleanup

Safe Cleanup checks your entire Mac for any “junk” files that may be taking up valuable storage space. This includes logs as well as caches, junk files, items in the trash, unutilized language files, and attachments to emails.

Most antivirus products come with tools that can safely delete junk files. MacKeeper is the only one that includes attachments in its cleaner tool.

MacKeeper’s Junk File Cleaner is fast and simple to use. Safe Cleanup discovered a staggering 7.67 GB worth of junk files on Macs in under a minute. Clearing my Mac’s hard drives is something that I don’t do as often.

I find it difficult to use this feature because there is no way to prompt you to look at these files before clicking Clean. To see all the files, click on the respective category. You can then select which ones you don’t want and click Clean Junk Files.

“Trash” is only category that will issue a warning before deletion. The files found in all the other categories can be deleted once you hit Clean.

Apple Mail is the app I use to manage all my email, personal and business. I could have hit that button and lost every mail attachment in all my folders had I not done so. These would still be accessible through my mail provider’s email app, but for me that’s completely inconvenient. I think it’s important to clearly explain what each category contains and the consequences for hitting delete.

Safe Cleanup is a fantastic tool to remove unnecessary files from your hard drive and other attachments.

Duplicates Finder

Duplicates Locator scans your computer to locate duplicate files, photos and screenshots that are taking up too much space.

It took only two minutes to scan the files and revealed 504 files that took up 445 MB space. Duplicates Finder is different from Safe Cleanup. It prompts you for a review of all files before deleting them. Only duplicate files are marked for deletion by default. Clicking on each category will allow you to drill down into the details of the files and view their names and locations.

Duplicates Finder does require manual effort. There are times when you may want to keep multiple copies of the same file. To do this, you’ll need to look at all the files and then hit Remove Selected. The Similar Pictures and Screenshots categories don’t have any default selections so they all need manual inspection. MacKeeper does suggest the “best photo” among all similar photos.

Overall, this feature is great. It’s very well laid out, with clear instructions and usability.

Smart Uninstaller

Smart Uninstaller scans the Mac for any unneeded applications, widgets or plugins.

Sometimes it can be complicated to uninstall apps from macOS devices. Simply moving them into your trash doesn’t necessarily remove them all. Instead, it will just remove certain components. Smart Uninstaller addresses this issue by completely uninstalling program components and files.

This feature isn’t usually included in performance optimizers packaged with antivirus products. MacKeeper makes this a welcome addition. TotalAV does not include an application uninstaller. McAfee, Intego, and McAfee have it.

The initial scan was quick and took less than two minutes. I discovered that there were 24 GB of unopened apps, plugins, browser extension, and other leftovers. Click on each category to view details and then choose what to delete. Only the leftovers can go to deletion.

Apps are automatically sorted based on their level of use. This makes deleting apps easy. All other apps will be sorted by size.

This feature is very useful, but the How to Use Smart Uninstaller guide by MacKeeper explicitly states that it is not recommended to remove macOS default apps like Quick Look and Spotlight. Why isn’t it clearly stated in the app You could think this is an alert if you want to delete them. But I didn’t want it to be tested. I would like MacKeeper not to show this warning, so you can click Remove Selected confident that you won’t accidentally oder unintentionally delete any important information.

Smart Uninstaller overall is a great feature. It makes it simple to find and uninstall unwanted applications, plugins, or extensions. But, I would like to see more information within the app about what is safe to uninstall or recommend to be deleted.

Memory Cleaner

Memory Clearer allows you see how RAM (random Access Memory on your Mac) is being used. You can then free up RAM to improve overall performance.

It took up to 7.9GB of my 8GB RAM and only 22.7MB of available memory when I tested it. This number fluctuates rapidly, however, and can change by as much as 100MB in as little as a few seconds.

The Memory Usage section will show you the details of how memory is being used. Hit Cleaning Memory to clear it. The process cleared about 3GB of memory. But within minutes the memory available had returned to its original levels. This was not a good idea.

You can view a complete list of applications using the most RAM in the Apps & Processes screen. MacKeeper locks any apps that aren’t safe for deletion so you can’t accidentally close one that is very important to your computer.

I was confused by the fact that there are several greyed-out apps and processes that could be very important, but can still remain open. This is especially true given MacKeeper’s own warning about closing certain processes. It is clear on their How To Use Memory Cleanerblog but not within the app. Again, I’d love to see more explanations within the app interface of what users should watch out for.

MacKeeper was the app that used the most RAM. This irony is what I didn’t expect from a program promising to speed up the performance of my macOS device. Airo AV, a lightweight program that doesn’t require as much memory, is a good choice for people who have less RAM. However, if you have a lot of memory available, this shouldn’t be an issue.

Memory Cleaner doesn’t appeal to me. I didn’t notice any changes in my Mac’s performance due to clearing out memory. I also didn’t want the majority processes to be closed in the event it could damage my Mac. However, my available memory was back at what it was before cleaning it. I don’t think this feature offers a stable and long-term solution to optimize your RAM usage.

Additional Features

MacKeeper also includes Update Tracker as well as Login Items and Find & Fix.

• Update Tracker

The Update Tracker scans all applications on your device and determines if they need to be updated. This is a useful feature that prevents hackers using system vulnerabilities to gain your data.

Update Tracker identified 5 programs on the device that needed updating. After I checked the App store, I discovered that MacKeeper did not detect that my Spotify app was outdated. Security updates were also required for macOS. MacKeeper could identify all of the updates required by my macOS software.

• Login Items

Login Items can help speed up your Mac’s startup times by reviewing the applications you have loaded when it started up. Intego doesn’t provide a manager for start-ups, so MacKeeper was a welcome addition.

The Login Items scan detected 18 items that launch whenever I start my device. Seven of those were from MacKeeper! Ironically, the fastest app on my Mac is the one that was designed to improve its speed.

I chose to remove three of the suggested login information (some are mandatory and can’t being removed). This didn’t make my Mac faster to start up, but I was not able to see any improvement in its startup time. Login Items will come in handy if you are having trouble starting up.

• Find & Fix

MacKeeper has a Find &Fix feature that allows for a quick scan and analysis of all MacKeeper features.

The Find & Fix scan shows each of the main MacKeeper category names and highlights any threats.

• Security.
• Cleaning.
• Privacy.
• Performance.

This Find & Fix scan can be performed in a matter of minutes. It allows you quickly and easily to see all of the security and performance problems that could be affecting Macs, so you can identify the most critical areas.

On the main screen displaying Find & Fix scan results, you have two choices: click View to view each section in detail and then edit them as you wish. Or you can click Fix Items Safely so that MacKeeper can automatically “fix” any items it finds.

I love the Find & Fix feature. It’s an excellent tool for quickly assessing your device’s security and optimization status. The quick “Fix Items Safely!” button doesn’t appeal to me. It’s designed so that you click it and it instantly applies all changes, without you having a chance to see what they are doing.

I wish MacKeeper had more useful features. Intego has anti-phishing protection, parental controls and firewall. I find these features more valuable than MacKeeper. These are features that are already standard for TotalAV, McAfee or Norton.

MacKeeper’s other features are great. To be honest, I expected a little more of the Login Items, Update Tracker, and Find & Fix features. However, they were certainly not detrimental to my Mac’s security and performance.

MacKeeper Plans & Pricing

MacKeeper offers three pricing plans. There are 1-month and 12-month plans available for 1 device. For 3 devices, there is a 12-month plan. After you sign up for a standard service plan, you can upgrade to the Premium Services Support Plan.

The features that are included in the standard plans remain the same – there are no missing features when you compare the 12-month plan to the 1-month. All features, including all clean-up and stop-ad tools, the unlimited data VPN, StopAd, ID Theft Guard and StopAd are included in all plans. Not only that, but also because they are available at an extra cost or as a part of a higher rate plan.

MacKeeper does come at a high price, however. The MacKeeper has many features and most of them work well. However, you can find similar products at a lower cost that work just the same or better.

MacKeeper offers a 14 Day Full Money-Back Guarantee for all standard plans. This is lower than the industry-standard thirty days offered by McAfee, TotalAV and Intego. MacKeeper does provide a free version (which Intego does) but the features are limited and you will constantly be asked to subscribe to address the issues.

MacKeeper offers premium tech support services as an addition to its standard plan. You will have access to a team if tech experts 24/7 who will help you with all tech issues. Prices can only be obtained upon request and may vary depending on your negotiation abilities. But the initial price that I was given was $500 per annum, which gave me all the information I needed (i.e. The vast majority of people would not find it to be a value for their money.

MacKeeper offers an acceptable value for its price. Intego however, which is Mac-dedicated, comes at a comparable price and has important security features MacKeeper doesn’t have such as a firewall or anti-phishing. Avira and Norton, industry leaders, have excellent macOS products that are significantly cheaper than MacKeeper. Also, they offer more features. MacKeeper can still be a great option if you value simplicity and functionality.

MacKeeper Ease of Use and Setup

MacKeeper can be set up quickly and easily. It took less that 2 minutes to download and install MacKeeper software.

You will be asked to sign up from the app if the software is downloaded before you subscribe. However, if you like me (and I assume most other people) and subscribe via the website, you will first need to download the program, then enter an activation key that will have been sent to you.

All features are immediately available to use once they have been activated. Some features like real-time surveillance and protection need to be turned on. However, you will be prompt to do this on the relevant screens. It is only a matter of a few clicks.

MacKeeper has an extremely intuitive interface. It is easy to use and fills the entire screen. The integrated chat feature is located to the right of your screen and can be minimized when it’s not in use.

Each feature is extremely simple to use.

My only critique of the interface is its lack of explanations on certain features. In the case of potentially harmful or irreversible actions, a few question mark symbols linking to additional information about these functions and actions would make a lot of sense. Intego offers description overlays on each of its apps, which detail each function. It is great for novice users.

Overall MacKeeper has done a wonderful job of designing an intuitive and user friendly package. It makes managing your Mac’s security, optimization, and performance easy.

MacKeeper Mobile App

MacKeeper only works with macOS. Norton, Bitdefender, and TotalAV are all good options if you need an antivirus program that can support all of your devices.

MacKeeper Customer Support

MacKeeper offers many customer support options.

• Live chat available 24 hours a day
• Email support.
• FAQs.
• Blog.

MacKeeper was once able to provide phone support. An agent on the livechat told me that their incoming phones were closed due to the effects of the pandemic. However they assured me that their online customer service is unaffected.

Chat Live

The live chat can be found on the right-hand sidebar of the app interface. You can also find the live chat integrated into the dashboard. It is located on the right hand side of the app interface.

I tried the live chat twice, from both the app or the website. The responses were prompt and friendly, and they were able answer most of what I asked. Although they could not answer my questions in the exact detail that I required, they directed me to send an email instead and gave me the appropriate email addresses.

On a few occasions, pre-written messages were placed in my chat conversations. These messages were intended to persuade my upgrade to the premium service or to extend me my subscription while I was trying cancel. They didn’t pushy me, but they always responded to my refusals.

MacKeeper provides its software in nearly 20 languages. Unfortunately, they only offer chat support in English. I was informed via chat that email support will be provided in other languages. Although I didn’t try this, I’m not sure how fast they respond.