Are CCleaner Pro and Avast CleanUp Premium the same product?

[Antonio Sergio]

I bought a CCleaner Pro lycense but before activating it I noticed that the activation code is the same as the Avast Ultimate I already use, which lycense includes  Avast CleanUP Premium. Are those 2 programs clones marketed under diferent names? If that's the case isn't it fair that the CCleaner lycense be cancelled and the payment refunded?

[nukecad]

Are the licence keys/codes identical or just similar?

Where did you buy each of the licences from?
ie. were they bought direct from Avast/Piriform or bought from a 3rd party website?

[Antonio Sergio]

The licence keys/activation codes are absolutely identical.
Each licence was bought from its respective original seller, no 3rd party involved:
-Avast Ultimate was bought directly form Avast for several years and the last one demamded additional help by Avast support because of a change of my e-mail.
-CCleaner Pro's licence was bought/accepted through an up-grading offer from CCleaner's Free version which I've been using for a long time. This buy/acceptance was acknowleged with reference # 372943692 by mail from Cleverbridge / Piriform Software Ltd <noreply@cleverbridge.com> and fully charged Dec, 23rd to my Credit Card account.  

[nukecad]

Interesting.

@MeganCCleaner can you shed any light on this?

[Dave CCleaner]

On 02/03/2023 at 21:14, Antonio Sergio said:

Are those 2 programs clones marketed under diferent names?

These are different products with partially overlapping, but different feature sets (CCleaner has the real-time monitoring and Driver Updater, Avast Cleanup has a more streamlined bloatware remover, etc).

On 04/03/2023 at 03:36, Antonio Sergio said:

The licence keys/activation codes are absolutely identical.

Yes ... and no.  The keys are not individual licenses as they used to be, but rather a "container" for product use entitlements across multiple products and brands.  A key may work across multiple products, but not until you buy them. 

By way of background:

• The old CCleaner licensing system used unique licence keys for each purchase (the 24 character ones that started and ended with "C" for CCleaner Professional for Windows and CCleaner Professional for Mac; and started with "P" and ended with "F" for CCleaner Professional Plus and the CCleaner Premium bundles).  One of the top support contact drivers was customers entering their registration information incorrectly (the keys could contain the letter "I" which was often mistyped as a "1", the customer name had to exactly match and you would be surprised how many times customers would forget what name they originally entered when purchasing, etc).  The other main source of confusion was that customers would collect multiple licence keys over the years, and forget which ones they were using on which machines, or which related to what product.  
   
• A couple of years ago we started to phase out the old system and bring in a new licensing system, where the keys have 20 characters instead of 24 and are easier to enter.  Most notably, these keys are now for an account rather than for an individual product entitlement.  So, when all goes as it should, if you upgrade from CCleaner Professional to CCleaner Professional Plus under the new system, you don't have to mess about entering a new licence key - the existing one contains your upgraded entitlements. Likewise if you were to then add Kamo as a separate stand-alone product, it should also use the same key that you already had, albeit with a different expiry date.
   
• Most people just stay within the CCleaner Professional family - if they just want CCleaner Professional for one device then they buy CCleaner Professional for Windows, Mac or Android.  If they later want CCleaner Professional across multiple devices then they upgrade to CCleaner Professional Plus (3 devices).  And if they want more devices and/or 24x7 live premium technical support and/or the Kamo VPN then they upgrade to CCleaner Professional Premium, rather than buying a collection of individual products,  So this whole "container" concept doesn't really come into play, except to make registration, renewals, and upgrades more convenient.

However, this common licensing system is shared across Avast, AVG, HMA and Piriform/CCleaner.  So if you buy our Kamo VPN and then later buy the AVG Antivirus for PC, you may find them using the same container "key" (albeit with different entitlement expiry dates underneath).  If you then wanted Cleaner Professional for Mac, that container key that you have would not work until you bought it, at which point it would be added.

 

[nukecad]

A common key but with different expiry dates in different products, poducts which are from related but different companies.

I think I need to read Dave's post another 3 or 4 times before I could even begin to try to explain it to anyone.

[hazelnut]

1 hour ago, nukecad said:

A common key but with different expiry dates in different products, poducts which are from related but different companies.

I think I need to read Dave's post another 3 or 4 times before I could even begin to try to explain it to anyone.

nukecad all it basically means is the key will be used across all Piri/Avast products.

(Dave may have used AI to write it for him and it used as many words as it could )

[nukecad]

I do get it,
I just wanted to translate it so that those without degrees in the latest business/marketing-speak and buzzwords can understand it without their minds boiling over.

(Do marketing people get paid by the word these days?)

eg. "a "container" for product use entitlements across multiple products and brands." I'd call that  'an account'.

So I've saved about 300 words and come up with:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A group of related companies, Avast, AVG, HMA and Piriform/CCleaner, now share a common licensing system.

When you purchase a product from one of them you get an account and key that can be used across all products that you may later purchase from companies in the group.
The key is an 'account key' rather than a 'product key'.

Your account has the information of what products you have bought from those companies, and when each product is licenced until.
So if you purchase another product, or upgrade/renew a product, the entitlement to use the new purchase is simply added to your existing account.
That saves having to have different keys for different products.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I believe that it's the email address that you use when purchasing that links you to your 'account'. (I can't see how else it would be done without asking if you already have one).
And of course if they don't recognise that you already have an account then you will be issued another one, with a different, key.

 

[Antonio Sergio]

Thank you nukecad for being candid and straightforward in your answers, aimed at really clarifying the user.

(Quite differently from the dude that says about the licence codes being equal: "yes... and no" just by calling them "a container". Basic math teaches us that 2 entities, numbers ou whatever equal to a 3rd one are equal between themselves, so?). Same ambiguity from the same source regarding whether CCleaner Pro and Avast Cleaner Premium are so different products, beyond and above marketing make-ups, to be offered independently to paying customers.
I would very much appreciate a "nukecad style" straight answer about this last and most important issue, so cryptically addressed up to now..

It' s unfortunate that these two companies that I learned to appreciate as a long time customer now  feel free to change methods and policies at will, regardless of its consumers and without warning. Some consideration would be a far better marketing than just bundling your proccesses.