Avast Cleanup Premium Reviews

When it comes to computer software, usually the more features it has the better it sells. In turn, Avast is a veteran company and so they know exactly what users are looking for. With these two factors in mind it would be hard to expect anything other than a very complete registry cleaner, and that’s precisely what Cleanup Premium is. The client is divided into four main areas – Maintenance, Speed Up, Free Up Space and Fix Problems – and finishing actions within them will help raise a percentage of how ‘complete’ the computer’s tuning is, with this number displayed on the start page. Obviously, these areas allow different sorts of tweaks, and each of them give total control to users over whether to enact the recommended actions or not.

For instance, any programs that are silently running in the background can be found in the Speed Up screen, where users can see their overall impact on the computer and choose which ones to put to sleep, which will make the computer run faster. In turn, the Free Up Space area is where to find all the junk discovered during scans, including browser data, temporary system files and whatnot. Once again, Avast Cleanup allows users to delete only what they deem fit. It’s great to see so many features included in here, though it is a shame that a scan scheduler was missing from the package.

Often registry cleaners – even those developed by high-tier companies – are quite intensive with their scanning function, sometimes requiring severe CPU usage that makes it completely impossible for users to do anything on the machine but the scanning itself.

Fortunately, Avast Cleanup Premium is the exact opposite of this, since during our tests the process was always light and without a noticeable impact on the computer. Still, on the downside, it’s not possible to specify any scanning patterns to only target a designated section of the device. Avast Cleanup scans every part of the computer each time it is used but, to compensate, this process is unexpectedly quick. As an example, the program took only three minutes to find 1,438 issues worth fixing – a surprising amount at 7.7GB.

This is as far as Avast allows users to go without upgrading, since the free trial doesn’t include any repairs. Unlike scanning, this one allows you to thoroughly choose what to delete, which is useful for holding on to files that might be crucial to the correct functioning of the computer. For instance, a significant portion of our 7.7GB of junk data was occupied by Windows backup files, components of versions prior to Microsoft updates. In this case, since we all know the infamy of such updates, it is advisable that these are retained so that any older configurations can be restored if needed. This same principle applies to some registry entries, as they are vital to keeping a computer working properly.

In this regard, however, Avast Cleanup Premium features one of the most important tools that every computer optimization software should have: an undo section. This is located in the so-called Rescue Center and allows the amending of certain actions made within the program, including backups of broken registry items. Performance-wise the repair time should be on par with those of the scanning, unless of course any patterns are edited out.

The pricing structure for Cleanup Premium is in line with other Avast products, meaning that users can add more licenses or change the billing period in accordance to their needs, allowing for up to ten PCs or a three-year subscription. The default plan for one year and one computer is the most popular among Avast users and costs a total of $49.99, which is the equivalent of paying $4.17 per month. Given the package on offer this is a fair price, but there’s an even better offer for Best Reviews readers that means you can score a special 25% discount thanks to this promotion. This makes the annual and two-year subscriptions cheaper, at $37.49 and $67.49 respectively.

But if there’s another thing worth highlighting here then it is the possibility of purchasing other Avast products alongside Cleanup Premium for bargain prices. Driver Updater and SecureLine VPN cost $19.99 and $39.99, respectively, and though this does mean doubling the final price, it is essentially a saving of $70 compared to buying both separately. Likewise, Cleanup Premium is one of the four programs in the Avast Ultimate, a bundle that also includes the company’s password manager, VPN and antivirus for $119.99.

Before buying any product, though, the best is testing it as deeply as possible, even if Avast Cleanup Premium is admittedly a double-edged sword here. As mentioned earlier, there’s a free month-long trial available for download, which is great by itself. However, it doesn’t allow any more than scanning, and that makes it feel pretty restricted. Having a limited number of repairs or a certain amount of wipeable data, for instance, would be preferable in such a lengthy trial as this. This means that customers must resort to the 30-day money back guarantee to properly test the program to its fullest, with payment methods including credit cards and PayPal.

The customer service provided by Avast is the same for each of its products, which is totally fine since it offers different contact channels. The main one is a ticket submission platform where users can ask for detailed assistance depending on their situation, but if their problem is a bit more basic then a simple visit to the FAQ page should be enough to take care of any subscription troubleshooting or minor technical issues. On top of that there’s also a blog with all sorts of articles related to Avast’s business and range of products, as well as social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.

Avast Cleanup Premium is in line with what we usually feel when testing software created by companies that are known for other products, in this case an antivirus. In that sense Avast Cleanup Premium is surely not the best registry cleaner available, but it’s much closer to the top than the bottom of the table. There’s always space for improvement and this is precisely the case for Cleanup Premium since only paid customers can get a feel of the entire program. Those using the free trial can only scrape the surface, which is unfortunate in a tool like this. More features would be appreciated, too, since there’s no ability to schedule scans or edit its patterns, for instance.

Nonetheless, as a computer optimization tool it has everything users could want, from fast scans and editable repairs to its excellent ability to put background programs to sleep to help make the computer run faster. All of this is built into a client that is easy to use and understand, which contributes to making this a suitable tool for both beginner and advanced users.