AppCleaner vs Pearcleaner: free Mac uninstallers compared

Checked 20 October 2026 against FreeMacSoft's website, Pearcleaner's GitHub page and Homebrew. Versions and support change; see the sources at the end.

The short answer

Neither is required. Dragging an app to the Trash and checking your Library by hand gets the same result for most apps; how to uninstall apps on a Mac completely shows how.

AppCleaner

AppCleaner is from FreeMacSoft. Its site describes it as a small app that lets you thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps: you drop an app onto its window, it finds the related files, and you remove them with one click. It can also show a list of your installed apps to pick from. Apple's own apps are protected and can't be removed, though since version 3.6.8 you can look up their related files.

• Versions: 3.7, released 22 September 2026, is for macOS 15 and later and added support for macOS 27. Version 3.6.8 covers macOS 10.14 to 15.6, and older versions remain for older systems.
• Price: the site lists no price and has a Donate link. It doesn't offer the source code.
• Permissions: version 3.7 asks for Full Disk Access, and FreeMacSoft notes that without it some files may fail to be removed.
• Removing: the site doesn't say whether removed files go to the Trash. Its release notes do mention undoing the last removal.
• Install: download it from freemacsoft.net, or with Homebrew: brew install --cask appcleaner.

Pearcleaner

Pearcleaner is a one-developer project by alienator88, described as a free, source-available Mac app cleaner inspired by AppCleaner. It does the same drag-and-drop uninstall, and then a lot more. Its README lists an orphaned file search for leftovers of apps that are already gone, a file search, a Homebrew manager, a PKG manager, a plugin and services manager, an apps updater, a Finder extension for right-click uninstalls, and tools that strip unused languages and unneeded processor architectures from apps. A Sentinel Monitor can clean up automatically when an app lands in the Trash.

• Status: the README says the project is on hold and that development has basically stopped since the end of 2025, because the developer no longer has a Mac for personal work. The latest release is 5.4.3, from 26 November 2025. The developer says it isn't abandoned and they'd like to return to it.
• macOS: supported on macOS 13 Ventura to macOS 26 Tahoe. macOS 27 isn't listed.
• License: Apache 2.0 with the Commons Clause, which means you can read the code, but the license prohibits any form of monetization of Pearcleaner or modified versions of it. That's why it's called source-available rather than open source.
• Permissions: it needs Full Disk Access to search for files, and installs a privileged helper to act on system folders.
• Removing: since version 5.4.0, removed items go to the Trash, and you can undo up to 10 removals while they're still there. A setting added in 4.5.3 lets you delete permanently instead.
• Install: from its GitHub releases, or brew install --cask pearcleaner. The developer says their only official website is itsalin.com, and that other sites offering Pearcleaner downloads aren't affiliated with them.

Side by side

Using either one safely

• Read the list before you confirm. Both match files by the app's name and identifier, and a similarly named app or a shared folder can turn up. Untick anything that doesn't clearly belong to the app you're removing.
• Look inside Application Support and container folders. Some apps keep your projects, libraries or databases there rather than in Documents.
• Leave group containers alone while you still use another app from the same developer; they're shared.
• Think about Full Disk Access. It lets an app read almost everything on your Mac, which is what an uninstaller needs to find files but also a reason to install it only from the developer's own site or Homebrew.
• Use the vendor's uninstaller when there is one. Security tools, VPNs, drivers and apps that installed system extensions often put parts outside your Library, and their own uninstaller knows where.
• Wait before emptying the Trash. If something breaks, Put Back is the easy fix.

Where Tend fits

Tend has an Uninstaller too, as part of Tend Pro rather than free. It lists the apps in your Applications folders with their size and when you last used them, won't remove an app that's running, and moves the app to the Trash first, taking the support files you selected only if that worked. It looks only inside your own Library, for files named after the app's identifier or exact name, and leaves containers and Application Support unselected because they can hold your documents. Since version 1.3, files that another installed app with a similar name may use are listed but not selected. Everything goes to the Trash. If you only uninstall now and then, AppCleaner does the job for free. How the Uninstaller works.

Questions

Related guides

Sources

• FreeMacSoft, AppCleaner (versions, requirements, description) and release notes, checked 20 October 2026
• alienator88, Pearcleaner README (status, supported macOS, license, requirements, features) and releases, including 5.4.0 and 4.5.3, checked 20 October 2026
• Homebrew, appcleaner and pearcleaner casks, checked 20 October 2026

AppCleaner is a product of FreeMacSoft and Pearcleaner of its developer, alienator88. Tend isn't affiliated with either. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.