Paid macOS disk space analyzer famous for its animated sunburst map: scans local, network, and cloud disks (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box) in seconds, exposes macOS 'hidden space' (APFS snapshots, purgeable space, other volumes) for deletion, and removes files only by explicit user choice behind 'safety stoppers' - no automated cleaning. Built by Software Ambience in Kyiv; first copy sold March 13, 2009 and continuously developed since (current 4.34.2, July 2026); App Store Editors' Choice and self-reported three-time 'Best of the Year' winner.
Two-person founding team at Software Ambience Corp. (Kyiv): Taras Brizitsky (original idea & design) is marked '[retired]' on the about page; Oleg Krupnov leads development & design. Self-described small independent team.
License
Proprietary
Commercial proprietary; EULA at daisydiskapp.com/eula
Price
One-time purchase
$9.99 one-time lifetime license (up to 5 personal Macs, minor updates included) via FastSpring or the Mac App Store; free trial; launched at $19.95 shareware in 2009
Launched
first_release_at
First release
Domain registered
(daisydiskapp.com)
Last seen alive
Checks
Mechanical checks derived from the fields above. Each row is one fact; "not yet checked" means exactly that, not a failure. There is no composite score; read them together.
Track record
about 17 years
Source published
No
Release signing
Notarized
Security contact
None found
Reproducible builds
Not yet checked
Telemetry
None
Runs elevated
Only when needed
Auto-update channel
Signed
Recent activity
Last seen 3 days ago
Apple notarization added in v4.8 (Sep 2019, release log); Mac App Store builds are signed and sandboxed through the store
Standalone edition updates via Sparkle - already served over HTTPS when the 2016 Sparkle MITM flaw was disclosed, then updated anyway (v4.0.3 release note); App Store edition updates through Apple
Privacy policy: scans file metadata only (name and size), collects and transmits nothing, no analytics; network use is limited to update/license checks and user-initiated cloud scans
'Scan as Administrator' is a user-invoked per-scan option; the App Store build runs sandboxed and grants access per disk via 'Unlock'
Some outside scrutiny: Google Drive API 'Verified' status requires annual source-code security review by a Google-partnered firm - DaisyDisk regained it Oct 2024 per company blog
No dedicated security contact published; general support form and support@daisydiskapp.com only
Software Ambience's third app announced in the 2012 year-in-review post ('@LilyViewapp is nearing open beta').
Research notes
Origin per Taras Brizitsky's 2010 post: started late December 2008 as 'a relatively basic project in order to raise some money for something more serious' - a designer pitching his coder on a polished 'Mac version of Scanner'. First copy sold March 13, 2009 (the company's own official birthday).
Continuously developed ever since: $19.95 1.x shareware (2009) through 4.34.2 (Jul 10, 2026), picking up APFS-clone-aware accounting, snapshot and purgeable-space deletion, and cloud-disk scanning. Current builds run macOS 10.13 through 'Golden Gate' (27); legacy builds reach back to PowerPC / Mac OS X 10.5.
Positions itself against the cleaner-app category on its own homepage: 'macOS can clean itself very well, and Apple actually discourages the use of cleaner apps' - it sells manual deletion of real space wasters behind safety stoppers, not a magic button.
Apple-endorsed incumbent: Mac App Store Editors' Choice, self-reported three 'Best of the Year' awards, and the site copy claims 'over 26,200 Apple and Pixar employees use DaisyDisk'; ~3,800 App Store ratings at 4.7 shown on-site.
The named target of the 2026 wave: Radix launched as a 'Free DaisyDisk Alternative' ($9.99 called out in the post), ClearDisk's readme positions against 'DaisyDisk ($10)', and Mole's repo topics list daisydisk in the commercial cohort it targets.
Kyiv, Ukraine based: v4.22 (Apr 2022) added the Ukrainian localization under '#StandWithUkraine'. Stablemates LilyView and Unclutter (the latter spun off to its own company in 2013).
Author's own origin story on the company blog. The actual launch (first copy sold March 13, 2009) predates it: the site ran two earlier versions and the blog itself only appeared March 6, 2010.
The idea was simple: we create a disk visualization tool that can help one find out where the hell all the disk space has gone. By that time the only available applications of that kind for Mac users were GrandPerspective, Disk Inventory X and the like. — Problem statement
Treemaps suck. They're hard to read, they tend to shuffle all data on smallest changes, they're messy and hard to navigate. — Problem statement