Is MacKeeper a legitimate program?

I totally agree with roam, ...

I try to think independently, and was not recommending this product, nor was I condemming it.

Thomas A Reed in response to my attempted objective research, has said that the developers pay for positive reviews of this software. I have no reason to disbelieve him, for he is a reputable fellow, and consequently this information casts a shadow on any positive review of this product thereafter.

I have no ax to grind in any of this but I do have some personal experience.

I have a MacBookPro using OSX 10.6.8. Earlier this year I bought MacKeeper to help me find duplicate files and delete them so I could gain more space on my hard drive. After several weeks of running MacKeeper, my system crashed. When I took it in to my local Mac repair store, the guy there told me he was getting quite a lot of business from people who had downloaded MacKeeper. He also said my disc was corrupted and it would have to be replaced. Luckily it was still under warranty.

I am still looking for a reliable program that will find duplicate files and is SAFE because there seem to be many duplicates on my system and I would love to gain more space but I am very wary of downloading any other such programs because of this experience. And there are hundreds of programs out there just waitng to get inside your Mac.

Again, this is just my experience with MacKeeper and I certainly do not profess to be an expert in this area.

helenfmb wrote:

I would be imterested in knowing exactly who the developers have paid.

Look in the mirror...

No legitimate user on these forums recommend MacKeeper. There are some that argue that it is not malware (including Thomas), but none recommend installing it. They make you pay what you can do for free, to say the least.

I really believe there's an Anti-Mackeeper Cult!!! I stand by everything I've said. It's always been very useful for me and my friends who have it...and there are many. I'm not a technical expert and I find it very user-friendly, and on a total of 3 devices at the moment it has done everything it claims to do.

It's certainly true that sometimes people here do have unreasoning aversions to certain pieces of software that are undeserving of such ire. In the case of MacKeeper, it has a history of causing problems. Zeobit seems to have put a lot of effort into fixing those issues over the years, and so some of the reasons that people originally disliked MacKeeper are no longer valid.

However, there are still some ethical issues with regard to the company's behavior. They have been known, over the years, to give people compensation of all kinds for positive reviews. As one example, not long ago they offered their users free upgrades in exchange to posting comments on sites like MacUpdate and Download.com. (MacKeeper's rating on those sites went from one star to five stars literally overnight.)

They also registered a domain very similar to a product that competed with them in one area (clamxav.org, similar to the legitimate site clamxav.com) and posted a very misleading "review" of ClamXav followed by a big green Download button that went to the MacKeeper site. (That site is still there, though without the redirection to the MacKeeper site now. It's possible the site may have transferred ownership, but the domain is now managed by a service designed to hide the true ownership of the site, so nobody knows for sure.)

Given these problems, as well as the fact that most of the functions that MacKeeper provides are actually unnecessary, there are some very good reasons why MacKeeper is worth avoiding... whether all the folks in the "Anti-MacKeeper Cult" are aware of such things or not.

For what it's worth here are my observations.

roam is quoting a Cult of Mac article, and Cult of Mac is a reseller of MacKeeper.

The only positive postings from a user (helenfmb) have not identified any specific benefits of MacKeeper.

The only postings with substance and content are critical of MacKeeper and the behavior of the company behind it.

I have no axe to grind here, either. I just came looking because I received an email from Cult of Mac offering a deal on MacKeeper. My conclusion is that, at best, it's a solution looking for a problem.

Lukian wrote:

And no, you cannot buy it in the AppStore - go and try to find it. (Not in my country version, anyway)

MacKeeper is marketed in the App Store under the name 911 Bundle. I believe it is available worldwide.

It is made by Zeobit, the same developer, and is essentially a 'MacKeeper Lite' that will provide you with persistent nags to purchase its big brother.

I believe that MacKeeper must have a number of satisfied customers, like helenfmb. I fail to see how it could have survived this long without them.

That doesn't change the fact that it has more dissatisfied customers than any other piece of software I've ever come across (at least in the Mac world), and that a large portion of those dissatisfactions are a result of MacKeeper causing severe operational and performance problems that in some cases have led to irretrievable data loss. So much is documented in the comments on my site (link at the end of this post) that others have mentioned, and indeed elsewhere around the web.

If you want to take the risk, go ahead and take the risk. The questions I would ask myself are:

1. What does this program do that really needs doing?

(The answer to this is 'very little', as every mac expert and Genius Store employee will tell you)

2. Can any of the things it does that I actually need be done by either cheaper or safer software?

(The answer to that is yes; just tell us what it is you think you need and we'll tell you what you should actually do; AFAIK, MacKeeper doesn't do anything that can't be done for free).

When people start believing product developers (with an obvious vested interest) over the community of users (who have no obvious vested interest) on the grounds that there must be a "conspiracy", I'd suggest you take a step back and ask yourself which is really the most plausible explanation.

Uninstall instructions for the infected:

http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper

Leaving aside whether its fake or not, These are the reasons why i think u don't need mackeeper.

1. It's costly and all its functions can be got from free apps and mackeeper is not in mac app store.

2. Mac users generally think that Mac is immune to all kinds of malware and virus, Which this software Mackeeper offers to protect ur mac from. And Yes, Mac is immune to many*.

3. Unnecessary pop up advertising of anything is fake and scam and over-marketing somehting which is of less value.

I bought mackeeper at my early days of using mac. I'm a mackeeper user, A neutral Mac user. I have found no problems with Mackeeper yet. But have to agree, It slow down ur mac when using mackeeper but that is what every app does when scanning/functioning.

That being said, Only function i find useful in mackeeper is fastCleanup. It cleans up all kinds of cache, language cutter ( i don't know what this means) but it cleans up more space all the time and I DONT LOSE any files.

Its generally a liesure software rather than any. Not Needed. It just gives u some comfort level.

It neither did harm or went to a level of protecting my mac from anything.

MacKeeper is legitimite, just unscrupulous. They are a bunch of Eastern Block dudes with unethical marketing practices. Each of the software packaged in MacKeeper can be found in similar software at macupdate.com for free. Also, they sell fear of virusus, that you need to clean, optimize, secure and protect files. What a load of balony. Mac OS X has built in utilities to repair disk & software updates for security, OS X doesn't need optimized. Today's Macs need very little maintenance Those guys at Zeobit must be making a bundle selling a software package that is really not necessary. So that's my issue and I advise my clients that it is a big waste of money.

Several folks mention that MacKeeper as "911" something-or-other is available on the Apple App Store. I'm not finding it under either of those names, nor does Zeobit turn up in search results. The website also has the name "Kromtech" which also isn't in the App Store. I'm supicious of anyone claiming this program is legitimate.

Recently, the MacKeeper website opens automatically when I click links on sites and to sites that are completely unrelated to that program. In other words, they are intervening in some way to force me to visit their website.

As far as I'm concerned, Zeobit, Kromtech, MacKeeper, or whatever they call themselves is malware and should be black listed.

I do not believe that orbor, seventy one or half of the people here know what they are talking about at all. Its fear for fear's sake.

Malware? Ha

Lagitamate? Ha

every program is legitamate. PavTube is legitamate but i bet no one in this thread uses it. I bet most would say that it is not legitamate because they dont use it or do not know how. THATS NOT A REASON TO SAY ITS BAD, which most of the post here sound like. These are clown post BRO.

I have used MacKeeper for 8 years with no problem. I didnt read post to figure out what it was. I used it to figure out what it was.

All of you are using macs and if a program can screw your machine up its mostly because you helped it. Macs are tanks inside and out. From the smallest kernal to the hardware itself.

Can anyone here sight a specific timeline of events that prove MacKeeper screwed you computer up? NO

Other than hardware failure there is no one program that will stop your mac from running. Yall sound like PC people who have always had to deal with problems and breaches. Now you want to ascribe your PC logic to a mac. Thats PC SYNDROME and if you have used a mac less than 5 years you still have it. Get a pill or some counseling.

I dont think that there has been over 30 viruses, trojans or malwares to ever effect the operation of a mac. and none of them stopped the mac from working AT ALL. You can go to terminal and **** up a mac but thats rare also.

I have used mac since OS9. I have used Mackeeper on 12 different macs including imac, G5's, mac pro's, mac minis, and the macbook air. On my current macpro I have a 1tb main drive and 600gigs of software. MacKeeper has been on the tower since 2008 with no problems AT ALL.

These negutive oppinions are illegitamate and unqualified. Use it dont read it. You are allowed to see for yourself. If you do not like it after some experimentation then you can be specific about your complaint other wise all of these oppinions are BULL.

seventy one: I do not click links to MacKeeper. As I said, I click a link on a website that has nothing to do with MacKeeper to open another site that has nothing to do with MacKeeper. A separate window for MacKeeper opens, as well as the site I was going to. This has started happening once or twice a day. They are somehow hijacking that click to open their website. It may be one particular website that I visit regularly, but I'm not sure about that. I don't know if they have infected the websites or on my computer. I'm scrubbing anything about them from my system. I am notifying the sys admins of any sites where this occurs. In any case, that constitutes infringement of my privacy, therefore I stand by "malware."

Preditor: There may have been only 1 but that doesn't mean that bad things can't be done particularly on clicking website links, which are particularly vunerable to hijacking in this way…at least from my experience.

Also note that my first point is that this product is not in the App Store by any of the names mentioned here. This is asserted by some as if verifies their reliability. I see no reason to believe these assertions.

ps seventy one: I also was not aware of their reputation until this morning when I got annoyed enough to search about them.

I run plenty of programs that are not in the app store. Apple wants you to believe that their app store makes things safe for mac. If you believe that then you will buy more from them. aka HIGHER PROFITS not better safety.

Find Smoke, C4D, Mpeg clipstream, Studiometry, Divinci Resolve, or even Adobe Creative Suite in the app store, They are not there. Now find people in the movie or broadcast industry that will say these programs are not legitamate. I am not even sure if diskwarrior is in the app store.

So what i am saying is that being in the app store means nadda / nothing other than this is what apple sells.

BTW. Google and Yahoo is spoffing your browser based on what you search. If you are signed in to google while you surf its even worse. Plus not all links are links. Some of them are ads, again based on your searches. They look like they are links to chocolatecake.com but they are ads for ask.com or netflix.

Its a browser filter or addon in most cases.

orbor wrote:

Several folks mention that MacKeeper as "911" something-or-other is available on the Apple App Store.

It used to be, but for whatever reason either Apple or ZeoBIT elected not to make it available through the AppStore a few months ago.

The website also has the name "Kromtech" which also isn't in the App Store.

Apparently they are under new management, but I don't know any more than what it says on the web site. I see they now have offices in the UK and AUS and nothing about their former Ukrainian connection.

Recently, the MacKeeper website opens automatically when I click links on sites and to sites that are completely unrelated to that program. In other words, they are intervening in some way to force me to visit their web site.

They used to be even worse, but are well known for their aggressive approach to advertising. It's possible they are using something new, so take a look at Thomas' Eliminating browser redirects and advertisements paying particular attention to any new Extensions you find in your browser.