Should I use MacKeeper in 2024?
Three years ago, I bought a MacKeeper license during a special promotion, and it has been performing flawlessly since. However, a few days ago, I wanted to check how MacKeeper compared to other latest solutions and whether it provided a good level of performance against modern malware. I think you will find the results of my research quite interesting.
On the AV-TEST Product Review page, they reported a 100% detection rate, which sounds inspiring but is, in fact, the industry average. Additionally, MacKeeper received a 6.0/6.0 protection score, a 5.5/6.0 performance score, and a 6.0/6.0 usability score.
An interesting fact is that as of March 2024, when MacOS Sonoma was the latest macOS version, AV-TEST reported that all antivirus solutions for Mac performed the same way, except Avira, which tested 5.5/6.0 for protection. According to them, all modern antivirus programs scored 6/6 on average.
I got curious and checked the AV-TEST archives. They show that in June 2017, MacKeeper failed the test, but in December 2020, it returned with an updated MacKeeepr version 5.0 that tested the highest rate (6/6) in all categories. It got me thinking—if Mackeeper was a bit wobbly in its initial development stages, it must have gotten a ton of negative reviews. And it did!
Google is full of relatively negative MacKeeper reviews dated 2015-2017, saying that neither did it help nor affected Mac in any way.
Fast-forward to 2024—I think it is safe to say that the new MacKeeper version they issued in May 2024 (version 6.7) is miles away performance-wise from the MacKeeper in 2015. The updated and most up-to-date reviews show exactly that. I haven’t found any negative reviews in the last five years.
The 2024 reviews gave MacKeeper a relatively positive rating:
- All About Cookies Review—4.8 stars out of 5
Just to compare, they rated Avast 4.2 stars out of 5 and gave Kasperspy 4.0 stars out of 5.)
- Cybernews Review—3.5 stars out of 5
- YouTube Review—get a full expert review
Based on my own experience, I like MacKeeper's interface. My favorite thing about MacKeeper is its built-in VPN and a large number of Mac optimization utilities. As I haven’t tested every antivirus solution out there, I would highly appreciate it if you could share some of your experiences with MacKeeper and other solutions.