There are a lot of apps that promise to clean your phone and get it to work better than before, but some of them only act as placebos. What’s worse is that some even expose your phone to malware. This is where Avast Cleanup comes in. Avast Cleanup is one of the most trusted phone cleaner apps out there, and it promises to boost your phone’s performance while keeping it safe from malware. It also has a premium version that does more than just cleaning out the junk. But does the app really work, and is it worth it to upgrade to Premium? Find out in this Avast Cleanup review.
In This Article
- What is Avast Cleanup?
- Avast Cleanup: Pricing
- Avast Cleanup: Free Features
- Premium Features
- Is Avast Cleanup Safe to Use?
- Avast Cleanup: Some Nitpicks
- Do You Really Need a Phone Cleaner App?
- Avast Cleanup Alternatives
- Verdict: Should You Go for Avast Cleanup Premium?
What is Avast Cleanup?
Avast Cleanup is one of the most downloaded phone cleaner apps tailored to Android users. It was developed by Czech company Avast Software, which, with more than 435 million monthly users, is one of the leading cybersecurity software companies in the world. The app does everything to optimize your phone’s performance — from getting rid of cache and junk files to optimizing your photos. With the nifty features we’ll be showcasing in this Avast Cleanup review, you can easily free up space on your Android device and extend your phone’s battery life. Ultimately, Avast Cleanup claims to be the answer to a phone running slow.
Avast Cleanup isn’t just available for Android; you can also get it on your Windows and Mac devices.
Get Avast Cleanup on the Google Play Store
Avast Cleanup: Pricing
Avast Cleanup is available for free on the Play Store. But it also has a premium version, as we’ve already mentioned in this Avast Cleanup review. That premium version costs $34.99 for the first year and $69.99 for each succeeding year. While the free version only lets you use Avast Cleanup on one device, you can download Avast Cleanup Premium on up to 10 devices, including Windows and Mac.
If you’re a fan of Avast’s other products, you can also get Avast Cleanup Premium for Android as part of the Avast Ultimate (Multi-Device) bundle. The package costs $59.99 for the first year and $119.99 for each year afterward. Besides Cleanup Premium, it also includes Avast Premium Security, Avast SecureLine VPN, and Avast AntiTrack and can be used on up to ten devices.
We’ll take a look at the features that each pricing tier offers in the next section of this Avast Cleanup review.
Avast Cleanup: Free Features
If you’re only looking for basic phone cleaning features, then Avast Cleanup’s free version will already work great for you. It does have ads, but the app only shows you these occasionally.
Quick Clean
One of Avast Cleanup Free’s features is Quick Clean, which helps to boost your phone’s performance. This feature allows you to weed out data you no longer need, such as temporary files, app cache, and leftover data. It also shows you which apps are hogging your phone’s storage space and identifies and deletes apps you don’t use anymore.
Media Analyzer and Photo Optimizer
Avast Cleanup also helps you clean out your media library to free up space. This feature analyzes your media files so you can delete the ones you no longer need, especially photos that are duplicate, similar, old, or of bad quality. It also lets you identify and keep the best photo out of a group. Plus, it has a Photo Optimizer, which decreases the pixel size of a photo without drastically lowering its quality. This lets you clear up your phone’s storage space while still keeping the photos you need.
RAM Cleaner
The free version also has a RAM Cleaner, which essentially stops resource-hungry apps from using up your phone’s power. With this feature, you can identify and hibernate apps that are draining your phone’s CPU, battery, and memory. By hibernating these apps, Avast Cleanup stops them from silently running in the background when they aren’t in use.
Premium Features
If basic features aren’t enough for you, then consider upgrading to Avast Cleanup Premium. Besides being completely ad-free, it has powerful features that take phone optimization to the next level. Let’s also zero into those functions in this Avast Cleanup review.
Automatic Cleaning
With Automatic Cleaning enabled, you won’t need to open the app to clean out your phone; Avast Cleanup will automatically run cleanings as scheduled. You get to control how often the app runs cleanings and the minimum amount of space you want to be freed.
Deep Clean
Deep Clean safely accesses and deletes hidden cache files, which take up more space and are trickier to delete than visible cache files. You can get the task done without the need for a phone cleaner app, but you’ll have to do it from one app to another. With Avast Cleanup Premium, however, you can delete all unnecessary hidden cache files in one go.
Advanced Photo Optimizer
The Avast Cleanup Premium also gets an Advanced Photo Optimizer. So, how is this different from the free version’s Photo Optimizer? With the free version, you can only optimize your photos at a Moderate level, making them suitable for viewing on larger screens, like laptops and tablets. But with the Advanced Photo Optimizer, you get to choose from three other optimization levels:
- Aggressive: the best option if you want to free up as much space as possible on your phone
- High: creates optimized photos that you can view on smaller screens
- Low: optimizes photos so that they’re still suitable for printing
Battery Saver
Avast Cleanup Premium also has Battery Saver. Essentially, this feature allows you to extend your phone’s battery life without compromising its functionality. With this enabled, you can create battery-saving profiles, which automatically turn off battery-draining features (such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) when you don’t need them. It also automatically adjusts your battery usage depending on your location, or when your phone is running low on battery.
A premium subscription also gives you access to Avast Direct Support so you can easily ask for assistance when you encounter an issue. You can also personalize the app’s theme so it matches your phone’s style.
Is Avast Cleanup Safe to Use?
All the perks of the premium version are nothing if the app compromises your online or device security, right? So, let’s answer in this Avast Cleanup review this question you might have in mind: Is Avast Cleanup completely safe to use? Yes, it is. The company behind it has been in the cybersecurity industry for more than 30 years. Thus, you can rely on its expertise to boost your phone’s performance without exposing your device to viruses and other malware.
Plus, you don’t have to worry about the app accidentally deleting valuable files while cleaning your phone. The app can easily distinguish important and dispensable data during cleanups. For instance, when you do a Quick Clean, the app shows you two categories of files before proceeding with the cleanup: Safe to Clean and For Your Consideration. Files under Safe to Clean are those that are really not needed by your phone, such as residual files and thumbnails. On the other hand, files under For Your Consideration are files that may or may not be important. Avast Cleanup lets you review these files first before you can delete them.
Avast Cleanup: Some Nitpicks
Avast Cleanup can be considered one of the best phone cleaner apps, as shown in this review. But it’s not without its drawbacks. For one, its premium version costs more than other paid cleaner apps with, more or less, the same features. Premium versions of similar apps usually only require one-time fees, or their yearly subscription costs less. AVG Cleaner Pro, for instance, only costs $1.99 a month, or $23.88 per year in total. Avast Cleanup Premium also doesn’t offer a free trial.
Some users have also complained that the app sends them too many notifications, especially when they turn Automatic Cleaning on. However, this can be easily remedied by customizing which notifications you receive. To do so, just go to the menu, select Settings, and tap on Notifications. Then, tap on the slider next to the notification type to toggle it on or off. You’ll still receive alerts from the app when you change this setting, but they’ll be significantly less.
Another minor drawback of using Avast Cleanup is that scanning and cleaning can take several minutes. This is usually the case if your phone is running on an older OS. Take note as well that the time it takes to complete a cleanup depends on how many files you have on your device and how fast your phone’s processor is.
Do You Really Need a Phone Cleaner App?
Whether you need a phone cleaner app or not is totally up to you. Routine cleanups aren’t really necessary, especially if you own an Android device. Most newer Android phones are already equipped with built-in phone cleaners, so installing a third-party app might just be a waste of storage space. Also, most of the things that phone cleaners do like deleting old and hidden cache files and disabling battery-draining features — can also be done manually.
That said, phone cleaner apps aren’t entirely useless. They can be pretty helpful, especially if you do not have the time to peruse what files to delete and what to keep. With a phone cleaner app, you’ll know when your phone is in need of cleaning. Plus, you won’t have to spend time figuring out where the junk files are and risk deleting valuable data. A good cleaner app does a great job of finding and helping you delete unnecessary files. On top of that, it makes boosting your phone’s performance and extending its life so much easier. It does all the work for you — all you need to do is tap a few buttons.
Avast Cleanup Alternatives
Whether you’re already sold on Avast Cleanup or still doubting that it’s the phone cleaner app for you, it’s good to explore your options. In this section of our Avast Cleanup review, we list some of the best phone cleaner apps you can use besides Avast Cleanup.
CCleaner
CCleaner is another phone cleaner app from Avast. It offers pretty much all the features that Avast Cleanup has. It does all the basic stuff like removing junk files, analyzing your media files so you can free up some space, and giving your RAM a quick boost.
Besides cleaning out your phone’s storage and memory, it also has a system monitoring feature. With this tool, you get a full analysis of your CPU usage, your RAM and internal storage, and your phone’s battery and temperature. The app also shows you how each app impacts your phone’s performance.
CCleaner Pro’s premium version costs $24.95 a year, which is much cheaper than Avast Cleanup Premium. With CCleaner Pro, you also get Automatic Cleaning, Deep Clean, an Advanced Photo Optimizer, and a Battery Saver.
Also read: CCleaner Alternatives: The Best Ones to Use for Android
Norton Clean
Norton is another big name in the cybersecurity market, and it has a phone cleaner, too. Norton Clean isn’t as comprehensive as Avast Cleanup, but it effectively cleans your device nonetheless. It does an excellent job of freeing your phone of junk by working through your cache, unnecessary APK files, and other residual files.
Aside from that, Norton Clean also has an all-around app manager. This tool lets you uninstall bloatware apps and other unwanted apps that waste your phone’s storage space. Plus, it lets you easily move apps to your SD card.
AVG Cleaner
Another phone cleaner app you can try is AVG Cleaner. With around 50 million users, AVG Cleaner is definitely one of Avast Cleanup’s toughest competitors. AVG Cleaner has got all the basics down. It removes junk files, cleans your phone’s RAM, and suspends background apps, among others. Plus, it lets you uninstall updates of pre-installed bloatware apps so you can free up some space on your phone.
On top of those essential cleaning tools, AVG Cleaner also gives you a full analysis of your phone’s system, including battery levels, storage space, and memory usage. It also has a photo analyzer that helps you organize your photo library and delete bad-quality and duplicate media files. Just like Avast Cleanup Premium, AVG Cleaner also has a Battery Saver and Optimizer. This feature hibernates apps you don’t need and creates battery-saving profiles that automatically adjust your battery usage.
Verdict: Should You Go for Avast Cleanup Premium?
It’s really all up to you whether you should go for Avast Cleanup Premium or not. If you know how to delete junk files manually, then paying $34.99 a year for a phone cleaner app might be a bit much. However, if you want the convenience of having a dedicated app that does all the junk cleaning, battery optimizing, and overall performance boosting for you, then Avast Cleanup Premium is worth a shot. It’s a trustworthy and effective product from a company that has proven itself in the realm of cybersecurity, so you aren’t risking anything by buying it. That said, consider trying the free version first so you can gauge whether you still need to upgrade to premium.
We hope this Avast Cleanup review helped you decide whether or not going premium is worth it. If you’ve tried Avast Cleanup, free or premium, feel free to share your thoughts on the app in the comments.
