The anatomy of a review: How Nektony truly tests Mac apps

Every month, hundreds of thousands of users search for the “best app cleaner” or “best duplicate finder.” Most find lists of apps with star ratings and screenshots, but almost no one explains how they actually tested the software.

At Nektony, we’ve been building Mac utilities for over 15 years. We know that choosing a system-level tool isn’t just about a pretty interface - it’s about the safety of your data.

While we have always relied on our internal methodology for our own reviews, today we’re making it public. We are opening up the full framework we have always used to evaluate every Mac system utility, including our own: the criteria, the testing procedures, the scoring weights, and more.

The problem with “Best App” lists

When someone searches for the best Mac app, they usually want to know one thing: which program should I actually install on my computer?

That’s a reasonable question. But it’s also a high-stakes one. Mac utility apps - duplicate finders, disk analyzers, uninstallers - operate at a system level. They request Full Disk Access. They touch your application data, caches, and logs. A poorly built cleaner can remove files on which your apps depend on. A careless duplicate finder can delete the original instead of the copy.

The problem with most “best app” lists is that they don’t account for any of this. A tool might get five stars because it has a clean interface and fast scan times - while quietly sending telemetry data to third-party servers or flagging legitimate system files as junk.

Speed and design are easy to see. Accuracy, safety, and privacy require actual testing.

What we built

Over the past 15 years of building Mac software, we’ve learned what separates a reliable utility from a risky one. We’ve watched apps break after macOS updates, seen cleaners delete files they shouldn’t have touched, and read privacy policies that didn’t match what the app was actually doing on the network.

That experience is the foundation of our evaluation methodology. It’s a framework that covers every dimension that matters when choosing a Mac utility - not just the visible ones.

Here’s what we evaluate:

The tools we use - now available to everyone

Our evaluation doesn’t stop at observation. To support our testing, we’ve developed a suite of specialized tools, and we’re making them available for free.

On the Resource Hub, you can now access:

• Product-specific methodologies: Detailed evaluation frameworks tailored to each category, from App Cleaners to Duplicate Finders.
• Efficiency calculators: Interactive tools for every product category.
• Standardized test datasets: We provide the same datasets we use in our lab - specific sets of duplicate files, similar files, large files, applications, and more, so you can replicate our tests on your own machine.

We have always held our reviews to these high standards, but now we are making the process fully transparent. We aren’t claiming our system is perfect, but it is documented, consistent, and open.

If you’re choosing a Mac utility today, use these criteria as your checklist. You deserve more than just a star rating - you deserve the facts.

Have suggestions on how we can improve our methodology? We’d love to hear from you - please reach out to our support team.