Cleanfox vs. Clean Email Comparison
Even though the global annual spam rate is decreasing at a steady rate, most people still receive a lot more unwanted messages than they can manage manually. To help you avoid having a messy inbox, we’ve decided to compare Cleanfox, an email unsubscriber on a mission to save the planet, with a popular Cleanfox alternative called Clean Email.
While both apps might appear alike at first glance, their differences are significant. To make an informed decision, it's crucial to understand these distinctions. Take a look at the Clean Email and Cleanfox review table below for an initial overview of the two apps, and continue reading for more insights.
 Clean Email |  Cleanfox | |
|---|---|---|
| Unsubscribe Feature | Unsubscribes from emails | Doesn’t technically unsubscribe, but blocks the sender and transfers emails to Trash |
| Bulk Unsubscribe Option | Yes | Yes |
| Auto Clean Rules | Yes | No |
| Cleaning Suggestions | Yes | No |
| Pre-defined Filters | Yes (33 Smart Folders, and more) | No |
| Settings to apply to Senders | Block, Mute, Unsubscribe if mailing list; Deliver to, Star, and more | Unsubscribe (automatically sends new emails to Trash), Delete and keep (removes existing emails and retains new incoming emails) |
| Digest | Read Later | No |
| Privacy | We only access the envelope and header information associated with your emails. https://clean.email/privacy | We will extract transactional data from user mailboxes that allows us to establish statistical studies marketed with various economic operators (companies, associations, schools, and universities) to improve their products and services to refine their knowledge of the markets. https://cleanfox.io/en-GB/fox/privacy/ |
| Email providers supported | Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, AOL, and any IMAP email service (log into Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook directly with your email credentials) | Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo, AOL, iCloud (you’ll need to create app-specific passwords) |
| Platforms | Web, macOS, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Multiple accounts support | Yes | Yes |
| Available in the EU & EEA | Yes | Yes |
| Sharing data with third parties | No | Yes |
What is Cleanfox?
Cleanfox is an easy-to-use email unsubscriber developed by Foxintelligence, which is now a part of NielsenIQ, a global measurement and data analytics company. The app targets the environmental harm caused by spam emails. According to Cleanfox, one email generates 10 grams of CO₂ per year, which is truly alarming considering that 80% of emails are never opened.
Cleanfox displays all your email subscriptions in one place, allowing users to eliminate unwanted newsletters cluttering their inboxes with just a few clicks.
Currently, Cleanfox is compatible with Gmail, Outlook.com (which encompasses Hotmail, MSN, & Windows Live), Yahoo! Mail, AOL, iCloud email services, among others.
Price: Free
“Free email apps offered by Edison, Cleanfox and Slice make money by scraping personal information out of emails, according to a JP Morgan document obtained and reported on by Motherboard,” Jonathan Chadwick writes for Daily Mail.
How to unsubscribe from emails with Cleanfox
- Launch Cleanfox and allow it to scan your mailbox.
- Review the detected newsletters and select those you no longer need.
- Click the red Trash can icon to remove old emails and ensure future ones from the same sender go to Trash.
💡 Note: This email management service doesn't actually unsubscribe you from email subscriptions. What it does is block the sender and reroute their emails to your Trash folder for a temporary period. You can click the Reverse action option anytime you decide to re-engage with those emails.
What is Clean Email?
It wouldn’t be fair to describe Clean Email as an email unsubscribe app only because there’s so much more this inbox cleaner can do besides unsubscribing you from unwanted emails. The app sorts your messages into manageable bundles using algorithms that analyze headers and other metadata for quick review and action.
Like Cleanfox, the app offers an Unsubscriber tool, giving you an overview of all your active email subscriptions. With just a few clicks, you can easily opt out of undesired subscriptions. What differentiates this email cleaner is its robust unsubscription approach: the app sends requests, follows unsubscribe links, and even automates form completions for unsubscribing. If a sender bypasses these efforts, Clean Email blocks the sender and ensures such emails are directed straight to Trash.
Additionally, you can temporarily pause newsletters, retain only the latest message from particular senders using the Keep Newest feature, and even move emails to specialized folders (e.g. Read Later folder). This is especially handy for newsletters you may wish to read periodically, ensuring your primary inbox remains organized.
Price: Subscription
Clean Email uses a freemium model. The free version lets you manage 1,000 emails and provides 14 days of access to premium features like the Screener, Sender Settings, and Auto Clean, including 25 free unsubscribe actions. While not completely free, its premium subscription offers comprehensive features without relying on ads or selling user data, emphasizing privacy.
“If you use a bulk unsubscribe email service, make sure you are using a safe service. Some free services could collect and sell your data. If you are willing to pay for such a service, as an example, Clean Email is safe and does not sell their user’s data,” Dr. Tim Sandle for Digital Journal.
How to unsubscribe from newsletters with Clean Email
With the Unsubscriber feature, an excellent alternative to Cleanfox, you can opt out of any undesired emails, encompassing newsletters and marketer messages—even when there's no direct unsubscribe link provided.
To use the Unsubscriber tool:
- Visit: https://app.clean.email/
- Sign up using your email credentials.
- Tap on Unsubscriber in the left-hand menu.
- Decide on the subscriptions you'd like to eliminate, hold, set aside for later reading, and so on.
- Select your desired action on the blue action bar at the bottom and relish an organized inbox!
Comparison of the Apps’ Features Beyond Unsubscribing
Cleanfox primarily focuses on managing your email clutter. It lets users delete old emails while still maintaining their newsletter subscriptions. Beyond that, its unique angle is translating mailbox cleaning into environmental impact metrics. For instance, it calculates the CO₂ saved with each deleted email, equating it to 10 grams annually.
Moreover, for users who shop online, it checks their carbon footprint to encourage smarter buying choices. However, its features mostly revolve around decluttering and environmental metrics, offering limited versatility in email management.
By gamifying email management this way, Cleanfox gives its users another reason to use it and instantly rewards them for their effort to keep their inboxes clean.
Clean Email doesn’t gamify inbox management in any way, and that’s because it doesn’t need to. All it takes is a couple of clicks to clean up unwanted emails in bulk using the app.
First, the app will segment your mailbox using predefined filters, known as Smart Folders. These are neat groups of relevant emails that include messages from top senders, productivity tools, seasonal sales, social notifications, online shopping emails, and others.
You can easily delete, move, add labels, or perform other actions on entire groups of emails, instead of managing them individually. Additionally, you can instruct the app to apply the same actions to these emails automatically in the future.
The Auto Clean feature enables you to set rules that automatically apply specific actions to incoming emails. For instance, you can set it to mark promotional emails as read or move certain emails to the Read Later folder, and much more.
The Screener feature acts as an added shield against junk mail. When enabled, it quarantines emails from unfamiliar senders, allowing you to review them before they enter your main inbox, helping to minimize unsolicited messages.
Given the rising concerns about email security and privacy, Clean Email has introduced the Privacy Monitor feature. This tool periodically scans your email against recognized data leaks and security incidents. Should your email account appear compromised, it's recommended to implement measures like multi-factor authentication and create a new strong password.
As you can see, Clean Email is a far more feature-packed email management solution, which is exactly what makes it the best Cleanfox alternative out there. Just like Cleanfox, Clean Email has apps for Android and iOS, but you can also use it on the web without installing any app.
Privacy Policy and Pricing
Almost all free email apps generate revenue by selling user data or using it for targeted advertising. By offering services at no direct cost to the user, these platforms often monetize through data-driven methods. It's crucial to read privacy policies and terms of service to grasp how your data might be used or shared.
Cleanfox, a product of Foxintelligence, offers a free service that aims to simplify email management, primarily by cleaning up unwanted newsletters. However, the trade-off for this free service is quite significant. According to Cleanfox’s statement in their privacy policy, "In return for this free service, the transactional data extracted from the user mailboxes allow us to establish statistical studies marketed with various economic operators (companies, associations, schools, and universities)..."
This is a clear indication that while users enjoy a cleaner mailbox, Cleanfox leverages their transactional data for economic gain. They claim they "do not communicate any data for advertising targeting purposes, profiling or reidentification," but the very act of extracting user data for market research studies is commodifying user behavior.
What is even more concerning, Cleanfox actively scans e-receipts that consumers receive from online purchases to extract data. This practice 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 are relegated to using app-specific passwords.
Unlike Cleanfox, Clean Email was created for people frustrated with Inbox clutter and concerned about their privacy in the first place. The service operates transparently with a straightforward pricing model. This commercial software doesn't need to, and indeed doesn't, collect or sell its customers' personal data. Instead, it offers premium packages that come with comprehensive features and unlimited customer support. Their pricing ensures the service remains affordable and competitive, emphasizing its capability and value for users.
“They don’t have to sell your personal email data because they charge an honest price for their service,” says John Gruber about the Clean Email service.
This application strictly avoids accessing the full content of emails, positioning it as the best Cleanfox alternative. Its algorithms assess only the envelope and header details of emails, which include the subject, sender, recipient details, dates, email size, and other related metadata. Clean Email ensures data analyzed is removed from its servers after a 45-day period, balancing convenience with security for users.
“Here at Clean Email, we are committed to your security and privacy. We don't keep, sell, or analyze your data for purposes beyond our public features,” state app’s developers. “Instead of relying on data from emails to sustain our business we’ve chosen to charge a reasonable fee in exchange for our services.”
How to delete Cleanfox account
To remove your account and all related information, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Cleanfox profile.
- Navigate to "Settings", then click on your email address at the top to access mailbox settings
- Choose "Delete my mailbox". By doing so, your Cleanfox profile and all associated data will be removed.
💡 Note: If you've just completed a cleanup and it hasn't yet taken effect in your mailbox, removing your account will cancel this cleanup.
Conclusion
For those who value efficiency in email management, Clean Email emerges as the best Cleanfox alternative. While Cleanfox brings a playful element by showing how much CO₂ you've saved, its core functionality is limited to managing newsletters. Clean Email, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive suite of tools that go beyond just unsubscribing, helping you genuinely clean and organize your inbox.
A significant concern with Cleanfox is its privacy policy, which might not sit well with many. If the idea of software analyzing your purchases and potentially selling that data is concerning, then Clean Email is the Cleanfox alternative you should consider. Beyond just privacy, this email cleaner also outperforms Cleanfox with its robust feature set, including automation capabilities. In summary, for professionals who value both efficiency and privacy, Clean Email is the clear choice.
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Safe Cleanfox Alternatives - FAQs
Does Cleanfox unsubscribe from emails?
Cleanfox technically does not unsubscribe you from emails; instead, it blocks them and sends them to the trash. If you're looking for an actual unsubscription tool, Clean Email is a recommended Cleanfox alternative that truly unsubscribes you from unwanted emails.
Is Cleanfox safe?
Cleanfox extracts transactional data from user mailboxes in exchange for its services. While they claim not to use this data for advertising purposes, users should be aware of the trade-offs when granting access to their emails. If data privacy is a priority, exploring a Cleanfox alternative is advisable.
How does Cleanfox work?
Cleanfox scans your email account to detect newsletters. Once identified, users can choose to keep, delete old newsletters and keep the new ones, or delete old and block these newsletters from appearing in the future by sending them automatically to the Trash. It uses gamification elements to encourage users to reduce their email carbon footprint by showing CO2 savings.
How do I get rid of Cleanfox?
To get rid of Cleanfox, sign in to your Cleanfox profile, navigate to "Settings", and click on your email address. Then, select "Delete my mailbox" to erase your profile and all related data.
What is the alternative to Cleanfox?
A popular Cleanfox alternative is Clean Email. It offers comprehensive inbox cleaning tools and goes beyond just unsubscribing from unwanted subscriptions. Additionally, Clean Email places a strong emphasis on user privacy, ensuring that personal data remains protected.
What's the difference between Cleanfox vs Unroll.Me?
Both Cleanfox and Unroll.Me, owned by NielsenIQ, primarily assist users in managing email subscriptions by blocking them, rather than actually unsubscribing. Unroll.Me targets the US market and offers an additional feature, the Daily Rollup, which consolidates subscriptions into one email. In contrast, Cleanfox operates primarily within the EU. However, as free services, they monetize by accessing user data to some extent. If privacy is a concern, it's advisable to explore other Cleanfox alternatives that don't monetize user data.
