Free for 3 days — disk map, categories, large files, paths, Reclaim and the uninstaller, all unlocked. Keep it with a one-time licence. No account. No card to download.
Free to analyze · Reclaim unlocks with a one-time licence · See 84.8 GB found on a real Mac
No admin password · no privileged helper · no bundled software · uninstall by dragging to the Trash
Free for 3 days to scan, map and reclaim. One-time licence to keep it.
Every feature is unlocked during the trial, so you see your own numbers before you decide. After 3 days a single payment keeps it — there is no subscription and no auto-renewal.
Every feature unlocked, so you can judge it on your own Mac.
Actionable tools for deep cleaning and control.
System Data on a Mac is the storage category macOS uses for everything it cannot file under Apps, Photos, Documents or Mail. Most of it is working material left behind by software: caches nothing ever clears, diagnostic logs, iOS backups, disk images still sitting in Downloads, and support folders for apps you removed long ago.
The figure only ever climbs, because no part of macOS is tasked with trimming it. Storage settings report the size and stop there — no list of what is inside, no way to remove one piece of it. That gap is why Mac cleaners exist.
On the Mac measured for this page, System Data held 84.8 GB of removable files — roughly 8.5% of a 994 GB disk.
Full guide: what is System Data on a Mac → · How to delete System Data safely →
These numbers come from one real Mac, not a mock-up. Broomkit pre-selects only what is safe to remove; anything it is less sure about stays unticked until you look at it.
| Category | Found | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Dependency folders | 27.7 GB | Reusable code that programming projects re-download by themselves when needed |
| App caches | 22.5 GB | Scratch files Chrome, Slack and the rest keep for speed — logins and history untouched |
| Package caches | 18.7 GB | Old copies of downloads that install tools hold on to |
| Everything else | 15.6 GB | System caches, simulators, duplicates, old installers, Docker, logs and privacy traces |
Dragging an app to the Trash removes the application bundle but leaves its support files behind. macOS has no built-in uninstaller, so preferences, caches, saved state, containers and logs stay in your Library folder indefinitely — including for apps you removed years ago.
To uninstall an app on a Mac completely you must delete the bundle from Applications
and then remove leftovers across roughly eight Library directories
(Application Support, Caches, Containers,
Group Containers, Preferences,
Saved Application State, Logs, HTTPStorages).
Those folders are usually named after the app’s bundle identifier
(com.vendor.app), not the visible name, which is why manual cleanup
misses most of them.
On the Mac measured for this page, one code editor left behind 1.86 GB — nearly twice the size of the app itself. Matching on the exact bundle ID finds that residue without deleting a sibling vendor folder by accident.
A Mac app cleaner (or uninstaller) should inventory every removable app with its real on-disk size, locate leftovers by exact bundle identifier — never a partial name match — and show every path before anything moves. Loose matches are dangerous: deleting a folder named “Google” to remove Chrome can wipe Google Drive data that shares the same vendor tree. Prefer tools that move files to the Trash so a wrong tick is recoverable.
Full guide: how to uninstall apps on a Mac →
There is also a Reset action that removes an app's settings and data but leaves the app installed — the repair move when an app has got itself into a bad state and you want it to behave like a fresh install.
You clear cache on a Mac by emptying the contents of
~/Library/Caches — and it is safe, because every file in it is
designed to be regenerated. Quit apps first, delete what is inside each
cache folder (not the folder itself), then empty the Trash. Apps rebuild caches on
the next launch; the only cost is a slightly slower first launch.
Two directories are genuinely unsafe and Broomkit never touches them:
/System/Library/Caches, which holds kernel caches that can prevent your
Mac booting, and ~/Library/Containers as a whole, which holds live user
data such as your Notes database — not junk. On the reference Mac, application
caches alone held 28.5 GB, with Chrome’s cache at
13.5 GB.
Broomkit also never deletes swap files, sleep images or app language packs. Those are the three things careless cleaners remove to inflate their totals, and they cost you slow wake-from-sleep or crashing apps for a couple of gigabytes.
Full guide: how to clear cache on a Mac → · Can you trust a Mac cache cleaner? →
Some package managers store real content in hidden folders such as
node_modules/.pnpm. A scanner that skips dotfiles measures a multi-GB
folder as zero bytes and silently drops it. Broomkit counts hidden directories and
shows their paths in the Disk Map, so developer machines stop “losing” space that
Finder never surfaces in Storage settings.
Scanning a fixed list of folders finds only what the author remembered to include. Broomkit walks your whole home folder and stops descending at each match, so nested copies are never counted twice and leftovers outside the usual Library shortcuts still appear.
Overlapping categories inflate headline numbers — the same cache counted under “System Data” and “App junk.” Every path in Broomkit is claimed exactly once, so the total you see is the space you actually get back after emptying Trash.
Full CleanMyMac alternatives comparison → · Best free Mac cleaners →
The risk with any Mac cleaner is not that it deletes too little — it is that it deletes something you needed and cannot get back. Broomkit is built on the assumption that its own judgement is sometimes wrong.
Everything goes to the Trash rather than being unlinked, so a mistake is recoverable until you empty it. Anything inferred rather than known — old installers, app leftovers, large files — starts unchecked. Categories where deleting files does not even work, such as Docker’s disk image, cannot be selected at all; Broomkit shows the command that genuinely reclaims the space instead. It asks for no administrator password and installs no privileged helper; tasks that need root print the exact command for you to run yourself.
On a safer cleaner you should also see every full path before reclaim, and never see “one-click” deletion of kernel caches, Containers, swap files or sleep images. Those are the shortcuts that inflate headline GB at the cost of boot or wake problems.
CleanMyMac is a legitimate, notarised product from an established company — the safety question people ask about it is largely answered. The real differences are scope and billing. CleanMyMac covers more ground, including malware scanning that Broomkit deliberately does not attempt: a scanner without a maintained threat feed reports “no threats found” on an infected Mac, which is worse than having no scanner at all.
Broomkit is built for transparent disk reclaim: 3 days free with no account, show
every path before anything moves, start inferred categories unchecked, and use
Trash-first deletes. Licences are one-time payments (from $34.95), not a subscription.
It often finds more on developer
Macs — package caches, simulators, nested node_modules — because it
walks the home folder instead of a fixed list.
For a feature and pricing matrix, read the
CleanMyMac alternatives comparison.
Drag Broomkit from Applications to the Trash. That is the whole removal. There is no uninstaller to run, no account to close, and nothing that reinstalls itself.
A cleaner that lectures other apps about the mess they leave behind should say exactly what its own is. Broomkit writes three things, and here they are in full:
| What | Where | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| Activity log | ~/Library/Application Support/Broomkit/ |
The record of every scan and every file moved, so you can audit what happened. Never leaves your Mac. |
| Settings | ~/Library/Preferences/sh.broomkit.Broomkit.plist |
Window position, which categories you ticked, anything you told it to ignore. |
| Licence key | Keychain — service sh.broomkit.license |
Only if you bought one. Deactivate it first to move the licence to another Mac. |
Delete those three and no trace of Broomkit remains. Leave them and the only cost is a few hundred kilobytes — reinstalling later picks up your settings where you left them.
Nothing that outlives the app. It installs no login item and no launch agent, so it never starts on its own and never runs in the background after you quit it. It installs no privileged helper and asks for no administrator password — tasks that genuinely need root print the command for you to run yourself. It makes no changes to your browser, your search engine, your homepage or any system setting. It bundles no other software.
What it does need is permission to read the folders it scans, which macOS asks you for directly, and which you can revoke at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. Files it removes go to the Trash, so they are recoverable until you empty it. What leaves your Mac — and what does not — is set out in the privacy policy.
Download is free. A licence unlocks Reclaim and the uninstaller. Every plan is a single payment that never auto-renews — there is no subscription. Choose a 1-year licence or a lifetime one.
Shorter, dated articles alongside the guides. All posts →
No. Cache files exist to be rebuilt. The only effect is that the first launch after a clear takes slightly longer while the app regenerates what it needs.
Because nothing in macOS shrinks it. Apps write caches and logs continuously, iOS backups accumulate, and uninstalled apps leave support folders behind forever. Apple's Storage settings show the size but give you no way to look inside.
Yes. macOS blocks apps from reading other apps' cache and support folders without it. Without Full Disk Access, Broomkit can only see a fraction of what is on your disk.
Yes. Everything is moved to the Trash, never unlinked directly. Until you empty the Trash, any removal can be undone by dragging the files back.
No, and deliberately so. A malware scanner without a maintained threat feed reports "no threats found" on an infected Mac — false confidence is worse than no feature. macOS includes XProtect for this.
Broomkit is a one-time licence from $34.95, with a version that never expires — nothing auto-renews. CleanMyMac is usually sold yearly. DaisyDisk and AppCleaner are also one-time or free, but cover narrower jobs: DaisyDisk visualises disk usage, AppCleaner uninstalls one app at a time. See the full comparison.
Dragging the .app to the Trash removes the bundle and leaves preferences, caches, saved state and support folders behind across eight Library locations. To remove everything, match leftovers on the bundle identifier rather than the app's name, check each path, and move them to the Trash so it stays reversible. The complete method.
There is no System Data folder to delete — it is a label macOS puts on everything it cannot file elsewhere. Reduce it by clearing regenerable caches, removing old iOS backups and installers, and uninstalling leftovers from apps you removed. Never delete /System or Containers wholesale. Step by step.
Yes. Every feature is free for 3 days — full scan, Disk Map, large files, path browsing, Reclaim and the uninstaller — with no account and no card. After 3 days a one-time licence keeps the app unlocked. There is no reduced free tier after the trial.