The best disk space analyzers for Mac, compared honestly

The best disk space analyzer for a Mac depends on what you'll do once you can see where the space went. If you want a free map, GrandPerspective is actively maintained, open source and costs nothing.

If you want the most complete paid tool, DaisyDisk adds a scan as administrator, a view of purgeable space and snapshots, and counting that doesn't double hard links and APFS clones, for $9.99 once.

OmniDiskSweeper is a free, plain list of what's largest, for people who don't want a picture at all. Disk Inventory X is free too, but its last full release is from 2019 and isn't notarized, which makes it hard to recommend on a current Mac.

Before any of them, try what's built in. System Settings › General › Storage and Finder answer the simple cases for free, and they're the right first stop for most people.

One thing to know before you start: these tools show size, not meaning. Deciding what's safe to remove is left to you, as DaisyDisk's own guide says. A folder that's large and unfamiliar is a question, not an answer.

What a disk space analyzer does, and what it doesn't

A disk space analyzer reads the names and sizes of the files on a disk and draws them so the largest stand out. That's the whole job. Everything else, such as accuracy, safety and price, is how well it does it.

What should you look for in one?

Six things separate a good analyzer from a pretty one. The table says why each matters.

What to check	Why it matters
How it shows space	A map shows the shape of the disk at once; a list is quicker to read exactly
Accurate counting	Hard links and APFS clones counted twice make folders look bigger than they are
Folders it can't read	Without Full Disk Access or administrator rights, some space stays unexplained
What deleting does	Moving to the Trash can be undone; deleting permanently can't
Price and license	One-time, free, or a store edition with fewer features
Whether it's maintained	A tool that hasn't been updated in years may not open on a new macOS

Map, sunburst or list: which view reads best?

A treemap draws every file as a rectangle sized by how much space it takes, with files in the same folder side by side. It shows the whole disk at once, and large files jump out. GrandPerspective and Disk Inventory X use one.

A sunburst draws folders as rings around a center, each ring a level deeper. It shows which folder contains which, and you click into a segment to zoom. DaisyDisk uses one. A sorted list, like OmniDiskSweeper's or Finder's, is the least visual and the easiest to read exactly.

None is better for everyone. If you think in folders, a sunburst helps. If you're hunting single huge files, a treemap is faster. If you want numbers, a list wins.

Why do two analyzers show different sizes for the same folder?

Usually for one of four reasons:

• Hard links and APFS clones share the same space on disk. One tool counts them once; another counts each copy.
• Full Disk Access lets a tool read Mail, Messages and other private folders. Without it, those folders look empty or small.
• Compressed files can be counted at their size on disk or at their original size.
• Purgeable space, such as Time Machine's local snapshots, sits outside every folder, so no map can show it as one.

DaisyDisk's guide spells out the first three as the reasons its sizes can differ from Finder's. For why macOS's own tools disagree with each other, see why Finder, Storage settings and Disk Utility show different free space.

The comparison at a glance

Here are the five, with prices and versions as their own sites gave them in October 2026.

Tool	How it shows space	Price	Latest release	Runs on
Storage settings and Finder	Categories, lists, Get Info	Free, built in	Part of macOS	Every Mac
DaisyDisk	Sunburst	$9.99 once, up to 5 Macs	4.34.2, July 2026	macOS 10.13 or later; Apple silicon and Intel
GrandPerspective	Treemap	Free, or $2.99 on the App Store	3.8.1, September 2026	macOS 14 or later; Apple silicon and Intel
OmniDiskSweeper	Sorted list	Free	1.16	Older versions offered for older macOS
Disk Inventory X	Treemap	Free	1.3, December 2019	Lists macOS 10.13 to 10.15

Plenty of other analyzers exist, and new ones keep appearing. This comparison sticks to four long-standing tools and macOS's own; the checks further down work for any of them.

And here is how they compare on what happens after the scan, which is where the risk is.

Tool	Deleting	Folders it can't read	Hard links and clones
Storage settings and Finder	Delete or Move to Trash	System Data isn't broken down	Not stated by Apple
DaisyDisk	Permanent, with 5 seconds to cancel	Scan as administrator; shows hidden space	Counted once; clones on macOS 14 or later
GrandPerspective	Moves to the Trash; off by default	Checks for Full Disk Access	Filter by hard-link status
OmniDiskSweeper	Moves to the Trash	Not stated on its site	Not stated on its site
Disk Inventory X	Moves to the Trash; on network volumes, deletes after a warning	Not stated on its site	Not stated on its site

Storage settings and Finder: start with what's built in

Every Mac already has two storage tools, and for many people they're enough. They cost nothing, need no permission and are always up to date with macOS.

What does Storage settings show?

Choose Apple menu › System Settings, click General, then Storage. A bar shows used and available space by category, and below it a list of categories such as Applications, Documents, iOS Files, Messages and Photos.

Click the information button next to a category to see its items. Select one and click Delete, or click Show in Finder to look at it first.

The Documents category is the most useful for hunting. It has buttons for large files and downloads, sorting by name, kind, last accessed or size, and a File Browser that shows how much space folders in your file system use. In macOS 26 Tahoe it works the same; before macOS Ventura, Storage was under About This Mac.

What does Finder add?

Select any folder and choose File › Get Info to see its size. In list view, click the Size column heading to sort a folder's contents. It's slow for a whole disk, but for a single suspicious folder it's often the quickest check there is. The post on folder sizes in Finder covers Finder's other options.

What about Disk Utility?

Disk Utility works at the level of disks and volumes rather than folders. Select your startup disk's volume to see its capacity and how much is used and free; it's where to look when the numbers elsewhere don't agree. The guide to purgeable space explains the difference between available and truly free.

Where do the built-in tools stop?

System Data is the big gap. Apple describes it as files that don't fit the other categories: caches, logs, virtual memory, app support files and more. Storage settings shows its size and nothing else, and says you can't manage its contents there.

There's also no map. The categories tell you that Documents is large, not which folder in it. That's the point at which an analyzer earns its place. If System Data is your problem, read what System Data on a Mac holds before you install anything.

DaisyDisk

DaisyDisk is a paid analyzer from Software Ambience that shows a disk as an interactive sunburst. Of the five, it has the longest feature list, and it's sold both directly and on the Mac App Store.

What does DaisyDisk do well?

• The sunburst map. Folders are colored rings you click to zoom into, with a sidebar that lists the items.
• Accurate counting. Its guide says it counts hard links once and, on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, full APFS clones once too. It counts files compressed by the file system at their size on disk.
• Hidden space. It shows the space it couldn't attribute to any file, split into purgeable space, other volumes and what's still hidden.
• Scan as administrator. In the stand-alone edition, it can rescan with administrator rights to reveal folders a normal scan can't read.
• Snapshots. It lists Time Machine's local snapshots with estimated sizes, and can delete them in the stand-alone edition.
• Cloud storage. It can scan Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box accounts directly in the cloud. Its guide says scanning iCloud storage that way isn't possible.
• Privacy. Its site says it doesn't collect or transmit anything, and its guide says it reads names and sizes, not contents.

What does deleting do in DaisyDisk?

You drag items to a tray called the Collector, then click Delete. You get 5 seconds to cancel. Its guide says DaisyDisk then removes files and folders permanently, instead of moving them to the Trash, so that the space is recovered at once, and that they can't be undeleted.

That's a deliberate choice, and worth knowing before your first cleanup. The Collector won't accept folders such as /System, /Library or your home folder. Its guide recommends deleting only files you recognize as your own, and using Photos' and Time Machine's own controls for their data.

Stand-alone or Mac App Store edition?

DaisyDisk comes in two editions. Its guide says the Mac App Store's rules on sandboxing and privileges led it to remove a few features from that edition.

Feature	Stand-alone edition	Mac App Store edition
Scan as administrator	Yes	No
Hidden space	Detect and reveal	Detect only
Purgeable space	Detect and purge	Detect only
Delete snapshots	In the app	Through a Terminal script it provides
Free trial	Yes	No
Updates	Built-in updater	Mac App Store

Its guide says Mac App Store customers can get a stand-alone license for free, but not the other way round.

What does DaisyDisk cost?

$9.99, once, for a lifetime license on up to 5 personal Macs, sold through FastSpring with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its site lists macOS 10.13 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel, and version 4.34.2 from July 2026. The stand-alone edition has a free trial, with some features locked until you buy.

Who is DaisyDisk for?

People who want one tool that accounts for every gigabyte, including the space no folder holds, and who don't mind paying once for it. If you prefer deletions you can undo, remember that it deletes permanently, and put nothing in its Collector you haven't checked.

GrandPerspective

GrandPerspective is a free, open-source treemap analyzer, released under the GNU General Public License. It was first released in 2005, is still maintained by its author, and was last updated in September 2026.

What does GrandPerspective do well?

• The treemap. Every file is a rectangle with an area proportional to its size, so the largest stand out at a glance.
• Coloring. You can color files by name, extension, type, folder, top folder, depth, size, or creation, modification or access time.
• Filters. You can build tests on name, path, size, file type, hard-link status and package status, then mask files, hide them or exclude them from a scan.
• Saved scans. Results can be saved and reopened, refreshed after a cleanup, and exported as an image or as text.
• The basics. Quick Look, Reveal in Finder, search by name, and an option to show the whole volume with its free space.
• Full Disk Access. Recent versions check whether it has been granted and ask for it if not.
• Special cases. Its site lists analyzing Time Machine backups, which are full of hard links, and analyzing cloud storage.

How do you read GrandPerspective's map?

Move the pointer over the map and GrandPerspective selects the file under it, outlines the folders it sits in, and shows its name and size below the view. Click to lock the selection, then change the focus to the folder above to see how large that folder is.

To look inside one folder, zoom in with View › Zoom or Command-Plus; each step descends one level towards the selected file. Reveal shows the selected item in Finder, which is the place to check it before you decide anything.

What does deleting do in GrandPerspective?

Its help says Delete moves the selected file or folder to the Trash, and that the command is turned off by default, to reduce the chance of an accidental deletion. You turn it on in the app's preferences.

The help also warns that deleting a folder moves the whole folder to the Trash, including files the view doesn't show because they were filtered out, unreadable or added after the scan. Check a folder in Finder before you delete it from the map.

Where do you get it, and what does it cost?

It's free from SourceForge, or $2.99 from the App Store. Its author says both are the same app; the App Store price covers the developer program and supports development, and App Store updates come a few weeks after SourceForge's.

Version 3.8.1, from September 2026, needs macOS 14 or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel. Its site lists 3.7.2 as the last version for macOS 11, 12 and 13, and older versions for older systems.

Who is GrandPerspective for?

Anyone who wants a free map on a Mac running macOS 14 or later, and anyone who likes to dig. Its filters and color schemes answer questions such as which files over a gigabyte you haven't opened in years.

Its site doesn't describe a breakdown of purgeable space. With the whole volume shown, space it can't attribute to a file appears as miscellaneous used space, so pair it with Storage settings when the numbers don't add up.

OmniDiskSweeper

OmniDiskSweeper is a free utility from The Omni Group, the makers of OmniFocus and OmniGraffle, published under Omni Labs, its page for tools it made for itself and shares. It's the simplest of the five.

What does OmniDiskSweeper do?

Omni's page describes it in one sentence: it shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them. There's no map. You get columns of folders, each sorted by size, and you drill down until you find what's large.

That plainness is the appeal. It's quick to understand, it shows exact sizes, and because it moves files to the Trash, a mistake can be put back until you empty the Trash.

Which version should you use?

The download on Omni's page is the current version, 1.16. The same page offers older versions for older macOS releases, back to Mac OS X 10.4. Omni doesn't describe newer features such as administrator scans or snapshots for it, so treat it as a plain sorted list.

Who is it for?

People who want an exact list rather than a picture, and anyone helping a less technical friend who finds maps confusing. If you want hidden space, purgeable space or snapshots explained, look at one of the others.

Disk Inventory X

Disk Inventory X is a free treemap analyzer by Tjark Derlien, released under the GPL, with a layout based on KDirStat. GrandPerspective's own site names it as its closest competitor on macOS.

What does Disk Inventory X do?

It draws a disk as a treemap, colored by kind of file, with a statistics panel that groups space by kind and a selection list of every file of one kind. Its release notes describe a Finder context-menu plugin and a warning before deleting items on network volumes.

Is Disk Inventory X still a good choice?

On a current Mac, it's hard to recommend. Its site's latest release, 1.3, is from December 2019 and lists macOS 10.13 to 10.15; the site also links to a universal beta. The 1.2 release notes say it was built for Intel only.

Its release notes also say the app isn't signed or notarized by Apple. macOS warns before opening such an app, and Apple's advice is not to override that warning, because doing so is the most common way a Mac gets infected with malware. GrandPerspective gives you a treemap without that trade-off.

Which is the best disk space analyzer for your Mac?

Start from what you need to do, not from the picture you like. Most people find their answer in one row.

If you want	Choose	Why
A quick look, nothing to install	Storage settings and Finder	Free, built in, enough for large files and apps
A free visual map on a current Mac	GrandPerspective	Maintained, open source, Trash-first deleting
The most complete analyzer, and you're happy to pay	DaisyDisk, stand-alone edition	Admin scans, hidden and purgeable space, snapshots, cloud accounts
An exact list, no map	OmniDiskSweeper	Free, simple, Trash-first
A Mac on macOS 13 or earlier	DaisyDisk, or an older GrandPerspective	Both still offer versions for older systems

Can you use more than one?

Yes, and it often helps. Scanning only reads names and sizes, so two analyzers don't get in each other's way. Storage settings for the categories, GrandPerspective for a free map and DaisyDisk's trial for hidden space is a reasonable way to find out which suits you before you pay for anything.

Is a paid analyzer worth it?

If you only need to find a few big files once, no: Storage settings and GrandPerspective cover that. DaisyDisk's price buys the extras: seeing space no folder accounts for, scanning as administrator, managing snapshots and scanning cloud accounts. If those match your problem, it's a single payment of $9.99.

Do you need an analyzer at all?

Not always. If Storage settings shows one large category you understand, such as Photos, Messages or iOS Files, manage it in the app that owns it. An analyzer helps when the space is somewhere Storage settings doesn't explain: a huge Documents category, a large System Data, or a disk that's full of things you don't recognize.

The guide to finding large files on a Mac walks through the built-in route in detail before you reach for any of these.

How to try an analyzer before you trust it

Every analyzer can be wrong in a way that matters: a folder it couldn't read, a clone counted twice, a deletion that can't be undone. Ten minutes of checking on your own Mac tells you more than any review.

Give it the access it needs

macOS keeps some folders private until you allow an app to read them, such as Mail, Messages and Safari's data. Without that access, an analyzer sees those folders as empty or small, and the space turns up as hidden or unexplained.

To allow it, open System Settings, click Privacy & Security, then Full Disk Access, and turn the app on. DaisyDisk's guide recommends this for a complete scan, and GrandPerspective's recent versions check for it and ask. Reading names and sizes is all these tools need it for.

Check one folder against Finder

Scan your home folder first, rather than the whole disk; it's quicker and it's where your own files are. Pick a folder you know, select it in Finder and choose File › Get Info, then compare its size with the analyzer's.

Small differences are normal, for the reasons above. A large one is worth understanding before you act on the map. A folder full of hard links or compressed files can look much larger in Finder than it really is on disk.

Find out what deleting does before you need to

Before your first real cleanup, delete a file you don't need from inside the analyzer and see where it goes. If it lands in the Trash, you can put it back. If it's gone, as DaisyDisk's guide says it will be, you now know to check twice.

Check	How	What it tells you
Access	Turn it on under Full Disk Access, then rescan	Whether private folders are counted
Accuracy	Compare one folder with Finder's Get Info	How it counts links, clones and compression
Deleting	Remove one unneeded file from the app	Whether you can undo a mistake
Unexplained space	Look for hidden, purgeable or "other" items	How much the map can't attribute to a file

A worked example

Say Storage settings shows System Data at 90 GB and you want to know why. Storage settings can't break it down, so you open GrandPerspective and scan the startup disk with the whole volume shown. The map shows large caches and an old virtual machine, but a lot of space belongs to no file.

You then try DaisyDisk's trial, and its hidden space item shows most of that as purgeable, mostly Time Machine's local snapshots. Nothing needs deleting there: macOS removes them as they age or when space is needed. The virtual machine is the one real decision, and it's yours to make in the app that created it.

Using any analyzer safely

An analyzer makes it easy to find a large folder and just as easy to delete the wrong one. The map shows size, not importance, and some of the largest things on a Mac are ones you should never remove by hand.

What's safe to delete from a disk map?

Your own files that you recognize: old videos, disk images, archives and downloads you've finished with. Caches of apps you've removed are usually fine too. DaisyDisk's own guide gives the same rule: delete only what you can recognize as something you created or downloaded.

Everything else deserves a look first. A folder you don't recognize could be an app's only copy of your data, a sync folder or a library that its app manages.

What should you leave alone, however large it looks?

Large item on the map	What it is	What to do instead
Photos Library	A database Photos manages	Optimize Mac Storage, or move the library, in Photos
iCloud Drive or another cloud folder	Synced files; deleting them deletes everywhere	Remove Download, or the app's online-only option
/System and other macOS folders	macOS itself	Nothing: macOS manages them
An iPhone backup	Possibly your only copy of a device	Delete old ones in Storage settings or Finder
Hidden or purgeable space	Mostly Time Machine's local snapshots	Let Time Machine remove them, or use its settings

Does an analyzer make a Mac faster?

No. An analyzer finds what's using space, and removing it frees space; neither makes a Mac run faster. The exception is a disk so full that macOS can't install updates or keep working files, where making room fixes the errors that a full disk causes.

Why doesn't free space grow after you delete?

Two common reasons. Items in the Trash still use space until you empty it, and GrandPerspective and OmniDiskSweeper move items there. And if Time Machine is on, a local snapshot can keep a deleted file's space until the snapshot ages out. The guide to Time Machine local snapshots explains how they behave.

• App caches2–30 GB · Safe
• Xcode DerivedData5–100 GB · Safe
• Downloads and large old files5–100 GB · Review first
• iPhone and iPad backups10–200 GB · Review first
• Photos library10–500 GB · Managed by macOS

Typical ranges on Macs that have these items at all, from the research behind the app's catalog. The level beside each says how safe it is to remove, which no map shows on its own.

How the app does it

Wombit is a native Mac app that maps your disk like the analyzers above, and adds an explanation of each item: what it is, and how safe it is to remove. It needs macOS 26 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel, so on an older Mac one of the tools above is the choice.

The free analyzer scans the whole disk or any folder, about 240,000 items a second on an M4 Pro, reading only names, sizes and dates. It draws a treemap and a sunburst, with a list and search, and counts hard links and APFS clones once. Folders macOS didn't let it read are listed, not skipped.

Every item it recognizes gets an explanation from a catalog written and checked by hand, with sources, and a level: Safe, Usually safe, Review first or Managed by macOS. Items no rule explains get a Best guess, written on your Mac by Apple Intelligence and labelled as a guess. File names and paths never leave your Mac.

• ~/Library/Caches/*

  App caches

  Data that apps and macOS services keep so they can load things faster. Apps create it again when they need it.

  Safe · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/**/*

  Large files not changed in a year

  Files of 500 MB or more in your home folder that haven't changed for a year, such as old videos, disk images and archives.

  Review first · Moves it to the Trash

• ~/**/*.photoslibrary

  Photos library

  A Photos library: your photos and videos, your edits and albums, and the previews Photos makes from them.

  Managed by macOS · Explained only: the app shows you how

It also explains System Data in named buckets, with how much it couldn't explain, and shows an honest space meter in the app and the menu bar. Reveal in Finder, Quick Look, Undo, Put Back, Empty Trash and Cleanup History are free, as is the open command-line tool.

Removing things works differently from DaisyDisk: cleanup moves items to the Trash first, with a review sheet and a log, so you can put them back until you empty it. Tools with their own cleanup command run that command instead.

Cleanup, the Apple Data actions, the uninstaller, Time Machine snapshots and What Changed are PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access, on up to 3 Macs. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.