Best Cleanfox Alternative: Clean Email App

Why You Need a Cleanfox Alternative

Author's Note: This review is based on my hands-on experience with both Cleanfox and Clean Email. I’ve tested all features to provide an accurate, up-to-date analysis and screenshots as of November 2024.

Many users are looking for a Cleanfox alternative because of privacy and data concerns. While Cleanfox offers a free service to clean your inbox, it collects and uses anonymized user email data for market research purposes. That can be uncomfortable for those who value their privacy. Plus, Cleanfox doesn’t actually unsubscribe you from unwanted emails; it moves them to the Trash, which can be a temporary fix rather than a permanent solution.

Why Clean Email is Safer and Better

Clean Email is a powerful email management tool that goes beyond just unsubscribing from unwanted emails. Unlike Cleanfox, which only blocks emails temporarily, Clean Email makes sure you’re fully unsubscribed from mailing lists so you won’t receive emails from those senders again.

Here’s why Clean Email is better than Cleanfox:

• Privacy Protection: Clean Email was created for people frustrated with Inbox clutter and concerned about their privacy in the first place. The service is transparent with a simple pricing model. Clean Email is commercial software that doesn’t need to—and indeed doesn’t—collect or sell its customers’ personal (or aggregated, anonymized) data.
• Full Unsubscribe Process: What sets Clean Email apart is its full unsubscription process: the app sends requests, follows unsubscribe links and even automates form completions for unsubscribing. That means you’re really removed from mailing lists, not just hiding emails in your Trash. ➡️ Try it for free

• Automated Sorting: Clean Email automatically sorts your incoming emails into 33 Smart Folders so your inbox remains organized without any manual effort. ➡️ Try it for free

• Intelligent Cleaning Suggestions: Get personalized cleaning suggestions to archive, delete or unsubscribe from unwanted emails and keep your inbox clean and efficient. ➡️ Try it for free

• Comprehensive Email Cleanup Rules: Create Auto Clean rules based on detailed criteria such as sender, message type, age, status, size, keywords and more to manage your emails effortlessly and keep your inbox tidy ➡️ Try it for free

• Anti-Distraction Mode: Use the Screener feature to filter out distracting emails and only let the most important messages reach your primary inbox and boost your productivity. ➡️ Try it for free

Cleanfox vs Clean Email: Feature Comparison

For those who value efficiency in email management and privacy, Clean Email is the best Cleanfox alternative. While Cleanfox shows you how much CO₂ you’ve saved, its core functionality is limited and its privacy practices are questionable.

When you unsubscribe with Cleanfox, future emails will be sent to Trash without actually unsubscribing you. Later you can switch this off by going to the Reverse action tab to bring any subscription back to your inbox.

Clean Email not only unsubscribes you from unwanted emails but also provides a full suite of tools to automate and customize your email management. With a strong focus on user privacy and data security, Clean Email is the choice for professionals who want efficiency and peace of mind.

Is Cleanfox Safe?

Cleanfox, a product of Foxintelligence (acquired by NielsenIQ, a consumer intelligence company that provides insights into buying behavior), offers a free service to simplify email management. But the trade-off is big. According to Cleanfox’s privacy policy, they extract transactional data from user mailboxes to establish statistical studies marketed to various economic operators.

This means while you have a cleaner mailbox, Cleanfox uses your transactional data for economic gain. They claim they don’t use data for advertising targeting, but extracting user data for market research is commodifying user behavior.

❗Moreover, Cleanfox actively scans e-receipts that consumers receive from online purchases to extract data. This was in direct violation of the Gmail API policy implemented on June 26th, 2019. As a result, they can no longer log in to Gmail using regular email credentials but require app-specific passwords.

Is Clean Email Safe?

Yes, Clean Email was designed for those overwhelmed by inbox clutter and focused on protecting their privacy. The service operates transparently with a straightforward pricing model.

This app doesn’t access the full content of emails, it only looks at the envelope and header details of emails which includes subject, sender, recipient details, dates, email size and more. Clean Email ensures data analyzed is removed from its servers after 45 days, balancing convenience with security for users.

How to Delete a Cleanfox Account

To remove your account and all related data from Cleanfox:

1. Log in to your Cleanfox profile.
2. Go to Settings, then select your mailbox connected to Cleanfox.
3. Click Delete my mailbox. By doing so your Cleanfox profile and all associated data will be removed.

Note: In Settings I also found an option to opt out of the NielsenIQ panel. The app claims that disabling this toggle excludes your data from their reports, but this can’t be verified.

Other Cleanfox Alternatives

If you’re looking for other options besides Clean Email and Cleanfox here are some alternatives:

1. Leave Me Alone: An email unsubscriber with a pay-per-unsubscribe model. Leave Me Alone is transparent and secure. Sensitive data is encrypted and no email content is stored on their servers.
2. Mailstrom: An email management service that allows bulk actions on your inbox. Mailstrom’s privacy policy is user-centric, data is used solely to enhance or provide available features in Mailstrom.
3. Unroll.Me: Both Cleanfox and Unroll.Me (owned by NielsenIQ) help users manage email subscriptions by blocking them, not actually unsubscribing. But Unroll.Me has been criticized for selling user data and privacy concerns.
4. Sanebox: An email management tool that prioritizes user privacy by making sure emails don’t leave your server and keeping all credentials safe. But it doesn’t really unsubscribe; SaneBox’s SaneBlackHole feature simply directs future emails from unwanted senders straight to the trash without removing you from the mailing list.