Software Alternatives & Startups
Register | Login

AppCleaner VS Bosun.dev

Compare AppCleaner VS Bosun.dev and see what are their differences

AppCleaner

AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps. Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily.

Rating
5.0 · 1 review
Alternatives Is it good?
Bosun.dev

See what's exposed. The macOS menu bar app that shows every open port, tunnel, VPN, and container — before it's a problem.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Paid Free trial $12.99 / One-off (Solo, 1 computer)
Alternatives Is it good?
Taverlo
Check your business domain’s public DMARC and SPF records free. Ongoing monitoring is free for one domain; $29/month covers up to five. sponsored

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, AppCleaner seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 309 times since March 2021.

social mentions
309 vs 0
Mac popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 3

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

AppCleaner
Bosun.dev
Website freemacsoft.net bosun.dev
Pricing —
Paid Free trial $12.99 / One-off (Solo, 1 computer) Official pricing
Listed in
Mac Utilities Monitoring Tools Mac Tools +1
Developer Tools Mac Tools Web Development Tools Productivity Mac Monitoring Tools +3

About AppCleaner and Bosun.dev

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

AppCleaner
Bosun.dev

No description of AppCleaner yet.

Bosun is a native macOS menu bar app that shows you everything your Mac has open to the network, right when you need it, with no Terminal digging required. It runs lsof in the background to list every listening port, then goes further than a simple port scanner: it maps each port to the process...

Read more about Bosun.dev

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

AppCleaner 6 features
Bosun.dev 14 features
  • User-Friendly Interface
    AppCleaner features a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and operate, even for those who aren't tech-savvy.
  • Effective Uninstallation
    It effectively removes applications and all associated files, ensuring that there are no leftover files taking up space on your hard drive.
  • Free to Use
    AppCleaner is completely free, with no hidden costs or subscription fees, making it accessible to everyone.
  • Lightweight
    The application is lightweight and doesn’t consume much system resources, ensuring it doesn't slow down your Mac.
  • Drag and Drop Functionality
    Users can simply drag and drop applications into AppCleaner to uninstall them, which streamlines the uninstallation process.
  • SmartDelete
    The SmartDelete feature monitors the trash bin and offers to clean up residual files when applications are moved there, adding an extra layer of convenience.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Platform Support
    AppCleaner is only available for macOS and does not support other operating systems such as Windows or Linux.
  • Occasional Misses
    While generally effective, AppCleaner sometimes misses certain hidden or system-level files associated with an uninstalled application.
  • No Advanced Features
    It lacks advanced features such as real-time monitoring, automatic updates, or detailed system analysis which some paid alternatives might offer.
  • Support and Documentation
    Being a free application, the support and documentation available are somewhat limited compared to commercial products.
  • Potential Stability Issues
    There have been occasional reports of stability issues or crashes, although these are not overly common.
  • Port Scanning
    Detects all listening TCP/UDP ports in real time via lsof, no manual terminal digging.
  • One Click Kill
    Terminate any process by port with SIGTERM→SIGKILL fallback; Kill All with confirmation.
  • Menubar Native App
    Lives in the macOS menu bar, zero dock clutter, instant popover access.
  • Port Range Filtering
    Monitor custom ranges (e.g. 3000-9999) and exclude noisy system ports.
  • Tunnel Detection
    Auto-detects ngrok and Cloudflare tunnels (named + quick), shows public URL inline.
  • Docker Awareness
    Maps docker-proxy PIDs to container name + image instead of generic process names.
  • VPN Status Indicator
    Shows active native macOS VPN connections (IKEv2/L2TP/IPSec) at a glance.
  • SSH Tunnel Detection
    Identifies -L port-forwarding rules and displays the remote target.
  • Port History
    Logs first-seen/last-seen per port with configurable retention.
  • Process Info Panel
    CPU, memory, uptime, full command args per process on expand.
  • Global hotkey
    Configurable shortcut to toggle the popover from anywhere.
  • New Port Notifications
    System alert when a new port opens (skips the first scan).
  • Copy and Open
    One click to copy localhost:PORT or open it in the browser.
  • Auto updates
    Sparkle-based updates, EdDSA-signed, no manual reinstalls.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

AppCleaner
Bosun.dev

Overall verdict

  • AppCleaner is generally well-regarded because of its effectiveness, simplicity, and lightweight design. It is easy to use, requiring only a drag-and-drop action into the AppCleaner window, and it helps keep your system free from unnecessary residual files, aiding in optimizing system performance.

Why this product is good

  • AppCleaner is considered a good tool for macOS users because it allows for thorough uninstallation of applications. It not only removes the main application files but also cleans up related files such as preferences, caches, and other associated data, which would otherwise be left behind if the application is simply dragged to the trash.

Recommended for

  • Users who frequently install and uninstall applications on their Mac
  • Anyone looking to free up space by removing leftover files
  • Users who are keen on keeping their system tidy and organized
  • Those who want a simple yet efficient tool without a steep learning curve

Overall verdict

  • Bosun is a solid, mature open-source monitoring and alerting system built by Stack Exchange, offering powerful and flexible alert definitions, but it has a steep learning curve and has seen slower development activity in recent years compared to newer observability tools.

Why this product is good

  • Highly expressive alert scripting language allowing complex, conditional alerting logic beyond simple threshold checks
  • Built-in support for reducing alert fatigue through smart notification handling, silencing, and templating of alert messages
  • Native integrations with Graphite, OpenTSDB, Elasticsearch, and other time-series backends
  • Includes a built-in expression testing and graphing UI to validate alert rules before deploying them
  • Proven at scale, having been developed and battle-tested internally at Stack Exchange/Stack Overflow
  • Open source and self-hostable, giving full control over data and infrastructure

Recommended for

  • Organizations already using OpenTSDB or Graphite as their metrics backend
  • Teams that need highly customized, condition-based alerting rules rather than simple threshold alerts
  • Engineers comfortable writing and maintaining alert logic in a domain-specific expression language
  • Companies wanting a self-hosted, open-source alternative to commercial alerting platforms
  • Ops teams who value alert deduplication and templating to reduce noise and false positives

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

AppCleaner 2 videos + Add
Bosun.dev 0 videos + Add

AppCleaner (Uninstall Mac apps completely)

More videos

  • - AppCleaner Review

No Bosun.dev videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
AppCleaner
Bosun.dev
100% 100%
Mac
0% 0%
0% 0%
Developer Tools
100% 100%
97% 97%
Monitoring Tools
3% 3%
0% 0%
Productivity
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing AppCleaner and Bosun.dev.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Bosun.dev's answer:

Swift 5.9+, SwiftUI + AppKit (NSStatusItem), lsof for port scanning, Sparkle for auto-updates, Polar for licensing/payments. No Electron, no third-party dependencies beyond Sparkle.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Bosun.dev's answer:

Developers who run local dev servers, Docker containers, and tunnels (ngrok/Cloudflare) daily and need instant visibility into what's bound to which port, without opening Terminal or Activity Monitor.

What makes your product unique?

Bosun.dev's answer:

Bosun is the only menu bar tool that unifies port scanning with network context: it maps ngrok/Cloudflare tunnels, native VPN status, Docker containers, and SSH -L forwards to the process actually holding each port, then lets you kill it in one click. Most alternatives only do one of those things.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Bosun.dev's answer:

iStat Menus monitors the system but not tunnels or containers. Little Snitch blocks connections but doesn't show you what's already running. Seeports comes closest (port scanning for Docker/K8s/dev servers) but lacks tunnel and VPN detection. Bosun covers all of it natively, with zero third-party dependencies, no Electron overhead, and a one-time price instead of a subscription.

What's the story behind your product?

Bosun.dev's answer:

Built out of a personal need: constantly losing track of which local dev server, Docker container, or forgotten tunnel was holding a port, and resorting to lsof in Terminal every time. Bosun turns that into a native, always-visible menu bar view.

User comments

Share your experience with using AppCleaner and Bosun.dev. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Log in or Post with

Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

AppCleaner 5.0 · 1 review
Bosun.dev no reviews yet

View more

We have no reviews of Bosun.dev yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

AppCleaner 309 mentions
Bosun.dev 0 mentions
  • As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
    Been using the great and free AppCleaner[1] since I have memory. It's so good I just forget it's there. It autodetects when you delete an app from the Applications folder runs a quick scan and suggests which other files you might want to... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Samsung Magician disk utility takes 18 steps and two reboots to uninstall
    Me, too. There is Mac Cleaner https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/ which does a good job of removing preferences as well as the application. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Unofficial Microsoft Teams Client for Linux
    Use this app to uninstall it https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/ it should remove all traces of the app from computer. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago

View more

Tracking Bosun.dev since Jul 2026.

Alternatives to AppCleaner and Bosun.dev

When comparing AppCleaner and Bosun.dev, you can also consider the following products.

Loading...