Questions, answered.

Yes, and it stays free for at least the next year. You sign in once with a free Google or GitHub account, no credit card, no nag screens. A Pro tier will arrive later for power users at a small fraction of what other Mac cleaners charge, and anyone who downloads now keeps the friendliest price.

A free SiftSpace account links this Mac to you for your license, product updates, account recovery, and support. Signing in takes one tap with Google or GitHub, no password, no credit card. It never gives us your files: file names, paths, and cleanup results stay on your Mac.

No. Safety is the whole point. SiftSpace never selects risky items for you, sorts everything into clear risk levels, and moves files to the Trash instead of deleting them. Before anything is removed you confirm in two steps: what and how much, then an acknowledgement that emptying the Trash is permanent.

No. Live application data, including Docker images, virtual-machine disks, databases and AI model files, is recognised and never treated as junk, even in the large-files view, because deleting it would break the app it belongs to. Your secrets (keychains, Mail, Messages, SSH and cloud keys) are walled off from cleanup too.

Yes. A built-in YARA signature scan checks high-risk launch points and your home folder for known macOS malware. It is detection-only: anything found is reported with its exact location, and nothing is ever deleted automatically.

A read-only 0–100 posture audit covering disk encryption (FileVault), the firewall, Gatekeeper, System Integrity Protection, automatic updates, the lock screen, sharing services and risky startup items, each with a one-tap jump to the exact setting. A deeper scan adds pending security updates, unsigned apps, setuid binaries and library-injection persistence.

Yes. The permission audit lists every app holding Camera, Microphone, Screen Recording, Accessibility or Full Disk Access, shows its real icon, and flags unsigned apps, the real spyware signal. It asks for Full Disk Access so it can read macOS's privacy database.

Your files never do. Scanning, cleanup and the security audit run entirely on your device; no file names, paths, or results are ever uploaded. SiftSpace does ask you to sign in once (free, with Google or GitHub) to link your Mac to your account for licensing and support, and it sends content-free product usage stats. Your file data stays on your Mac.

Yes. Everything goes to the Trash, so you can restore it until you empty the bin, and SiftSpace keeps a cleanup history so you can put items back from inside the app. The uninstaller does the same for apps and the files they leave behind.

SiftSpace is a native app for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 12 or newer. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it installs cleanly, and it is fast, light, and built to feel like a natural part of the system.

It cleans and protects in one app; most cleaners do neither well, and a separate security tool costs as much again. No subscription pressure, no cloud, no theatrics, and a fraction of the price. SiftSpace shows you exactly what it found, defaults to the safe choice, and gets out of your way.