Hedroom compared, honestly

Two comparisons that people ask about. Each one says where Hedroom helps, where it does not, and where the other option is the better choice.

• Hedroom and Activity Monitor

  Activity Monitor is excellent, free and already on your Mac. What Hedroom adds on top of it, and what Activity Monitor does better.

• Hedroom and RAM cleaners

  What "free memory" buttons do, why Hedroom has none, and where our own benchmark stands (results are not published yet).

How we compare

• We describe Apple's tool and the cleaner category, not named competitors, and only things that are true of them.
• Every row of every table can be checked: against the page for the feature, or on your own Mac in Activity Monitor.
• Hedroom has not been released. We compare what it is built to do, and say so where a result has not been measured yet.
• If a row favors the other option, it is in the table.

See also: how Hedroom works, every feature and its limits, the benchmark method, guides.