Which fits your needs?
DeepClean: Mac users who want explained cleanup categories and developer-cache coverage.
GrandPerspective: People who want a free, inspectable treemap and reusable scan records.
Features, pricing, and workflow
Scroll across to compare
| Feature | DeepClean | GrandPerspective |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Mac users who want explained cleanup categories and developer-cache coverage. | People who want a free, inspectable treemap and reusable scan records. |
| Visualization | Category and large-file lists with safety ratings | Treemap with configurable colors and filters |
| Platforms and requirements | macOS 13+ | macOS 14+ (current release) |
| Pricing and editions | Free scan and first gigabyte of cleanup; unlimited cleanup listed at $39 once per Mac. | Free from SourceForge; the same app is $2.99 in the US App Store. |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Native macOS UI | Yes | Yes |
| Cleanup workflow | Select items for Trash; caution items require deliberate selection and acknowledgement. | Delete files or folders from the view; review selection and deletion preferences. |
| Reports and portability | Retain deletion history and important decisions separately. The product overview does not document importing its records into another analyzer. | Save the scan for reopening in GrandPerspective, or export text and images. NullDisk does not import GrandPerspective scan files; retain exports and rescan the same location. |
DeepClean: what stands out
A good fit for Mac users who want explained cleanup categories and developer-cache coverage.
DeepClean: strengths
- Safe/Review/Caution categories and item explanations
- Developer toolchain cleanup and content-matched duplicates
- Trash-first cleanup with deletion history
Considerations
- Unlimited cleanup requires a paid per-Mac license
- Category judgments still depend on your workflow
- Primarily category-based cleanup rather than a disk map
GrandPerspective: what stands out
A good fit for people who want a free, inspectable treemap and reusable scan records.
GrandPerspective: strengths
- Configurable colors, masks, searches, and scan exclusions
- Quick Look, Finder integration, and file/folder deletion
- Save/reload scans and export text or images
Considerations
- Treemap rather than radial navigation
- Older macOS versions require an older release
- App Store updates can follow SourceForge releases later
For a useful comparison on your own drive, match the scan root, access permissions, and size mode. Chart style changes how you explore the results; it does not by itself establish measurement accuracy.
Common questions
When should I choose DeepClean?
A good fit for Mac users who want explained cleanup categories and developer-cache coverage. Free scan and first gigabyte of cleanup; unlimited cleanup listed at $39 once per Mac.
When should I choose GrandPerspective?
A good fit for people who want a free, inspectable treemap and reusable scan records. Free from SourceForge; the same app is $2.99 in the US App Store.
Will both apps show the same size?
Not necessarily. Match the scan root, permissions, exclusions, and logical/allocated-size mode. Hard links, APFS clones, snapshots, sparse files, and cloud placeholders can change totals. A reported size is not a guaranteed amount recovered after deletion.