The end of the year is always a good time to sit back, appreciate the people you’ve spent the year with, and look back at the things that made you proud. This year is no exception. To our delight, MacPaw’s team and business kept growing throughout 2021, so there’s a lot to look back on. We’d like to thank all the wonderful people around us: our colleagues, our customers, partners, and all the other MacPaw supporters out there!

Although the pandemic is still with us, we hope that 2021 has been a huge step forward to a safer and better world. With that in mind, let’s recollect the things from MacPaw’s 2021 that we are proud of.

So, how was MacPaw’s 2021?

Short answer: awesome. We’ve updated our company vision, mission, and values. We continued improving our products and we kept expanding our social focus. Long answer? Well, let’s run through some numbers and take a deeper dive into MacPaw’s projects and teams. Here’s MacPaw’s 2021 packed in…21 facts!

Mature values for a maturing company

    1. Maturing isn’t only about age (although 13 years is a lot!) – it’s also about making sense of yourself and the world around you. This year, MacPaw reimagined its core values along with its mission and vision.

    2. We are here to Make Impact. Create Experience. Stay Human. I hope this new realization will guide our teams, products, and communities for years to come.

      CleanMyMac X earned the love of users, old and new

        3. That’s an impressive amount of junk, but that’s just a fraction of what CleanMyMac Х has achieved this year. We also detected over 61.2 million malware threats, 36.6 million needless apps, and ran a total of 51.2 million Smart Scans, helping our users enjoy the top performance of their Macs.

        This giant amount of cleaning would not have been possible without constantly updating and improving CleanMyMac X. This year, we also:

        4. Kept on improving the speed and comfort of the CleanMyMac X experience. We added native support for Apple Silicon and M1 Macs and updated the app’s design.

        5. Released 17 product updates and 5 beta versions, making sure CleanMyMac X always tries innovative ways to help its users.

          Designed to win hearts (and awards)

            6. This year CleanMyMac X has seen the biggest design update since 2018, and I’m beyond glad to see that our hard work has been recognized with awards and, most importantly, the joy of our customers.

            Setapp thought tasks and completed them

            7. Think Tasks, Not Apps – that’s how Setapp reimagined its brand this year. In a world where there’s an app for anything, why not focus on actual tasks? And that’s exactly what Setapp is here for.

            8. Incoming apps alert! In 2021, we welcomed 35 new fabulous apps on board! You can now access over 230 apps fit for any task.

            9. Introduced Smart Search, allowing Setapp users to find apps based on their function, not just name. I love how this change is consistent with Setapp’s updated branding, helping users focus on specific tasks.

              Unlocked new levels of focus with Setapp Collections

              10. Setapp has introduced Collections, ready-made sets of tools for common tasks and challenges. Today, there are 22 collections available in Setapp.
              Some of the most frequently used Setapp Collections are Get things done, Monterey upgrade toolkit, Write it all out.

              11. To keep users’ data safe, 11 apps have formed a new Security Category in Setapp. This newly formed category is pure gold, including apps like Secrets, Step-Two, ClearVPN, Ohtipi, AdGuard, and more.
              Another honorable mention in Setapp’s year is that we launched Setapp Stories — a business and tech newsletter for busy professionals to help them stay focused and productive. So far, 30 digests are out!

                Setapp conquered lions with a snake

                12. What else to add here? With so much talent spread across our teams, I’m sure this is not our last "lion."

                Surfed safely with ClearVPN

                13. ClearVPN won CyberSecurity Breakthrough Award as the Mobile VPN Solution of the Year.

                14. The app also added 168 new shortcuts to help users browse safely or get access to trending content online.

                  Cybersecurity is becoming not just a priority for governments and tech companies — it’s something that ordinary internet users around the world value in their digital lives. ClearVPN was established in 2020, but it has already shown the unmatched importance of secure internet access.

                  Cleaned an unimaginable amount of duplicates with Gemini

                  15. Gemini 2 reached new heights: 1,046,919 duplicates were deleted by a single user during one session. 

                  16. Gemini Photos helped users clean up over 700 million duplicate and low-quality photos from their smartphones.

                    Another year to get blown away by just how much space duplicate or unnecessary files take up on our devices! Good thing is Gemini Photos and Gemini 2 have been diligently clearing it all up this entire year.

                    Established a space to inspire and share ideas

                    17. We announced plans for the opening of MacPaw Space, a new creative and innovative space in Kyiv with a museum full of vintage Apple goods.



                    We believe that true genius comes out of a community effort, and MacPawSpace is the perfect place for that effort. It’s where ideas are nurtured and shared, a place where the MacPaw way meets the world. Everything here, from minimalistic and inclusive design to cashless payment system to wardrobe numbers made of recycled plastic, embodies MacPaw’s values.

                    18. The official opening is planned for 2022, but 65 events already took place at MacPaw Space this year (with all COVID-19 protection measures on): from TEDxKyiv and Unicef ​to a WWDC-dedicated event.



                    More news from MacPaw Space to come in 2022!

                      I’d like to add here that sharing industry expertise is something we’d like to continue heading into 2022. This year, you could find comments and thoughts from our experts in The Verge, Dice Insights, Lifewire, Forbes, Digital Trends, CyberNews, and other leading media outlets. I’m sure next year you’ll see more MacPawians sharing their expertise across various platforms!

                      Devoted ourselves to things that matter

                      This year, MacPaw delivered a total of 30 social initiatives, ranging from science to healthcare, from green activities to partnering with meaningful media projects.

                      19. Donated and delivered a Wi-Fi Antenna for the Antarctic Vernadsky Research Base, making their internet connection 8 times faster!

                      20. Planted 5115 trees, organized 2 #CleanMyCity in Kyiv, and traveled to the South of Ukraine to clean the shores of the Black Sea with #CleanMySea.

                      21. 23 MacPawians became potential donors of bone marrow and 45 became blood donors.

                        It’s hard to put all good deeds into dry numbers, so I’ll mention a couple more social projects that we’ve delivered this year. This year we bought medical equipment for Kyiv children’s hospital and co-created Social Initiatives projects together with Ukraїner, helping spread the stories of Ukrainian NGOs and businesses that work to make the world a better place.

                        Heading into 2022…

                        To all of our colleagues, customers, partners, and supporters — thank you for being with us this year! It’s been another extraordinary year to stay calm and keep up the hard work. In 2022, let’s be safe, stay together, and focus on things that matter.

                        Have a safe and warm holiday season! See you in 2022!