Clean Email alternatives
Clean Email is a hosted service that connects to your mailbox to clean, group, and unsubscribe, priced by number of accounts. Here are seven alternatives with their real prices, where each one runs, and who it suits. We make Premail, which is listed first and does the same job on your own computer.
Free for personal inboxes. No account required.
Updated
Prices are read from each vendor's own pricing page and linked, so you can check them. SaneBox and Mailstrom are the closest like-for-like cloud services, Unroll.Me and Cleanfox are free unsubscribe tools, and Spark and Shortwave are email clients with their own cleanup features.
| App | Price | Runs on | How it makes money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premail | Free for up to 2 personal inboxes, then $9/mo, $79/yr, or $99 once | Your own computer | Paid licences |
| SaneBox | $9.49/mo, or $5.42/mo billed annually | Cloud | Subscriptions |
| Mailstrom | $9/mo, or $59.95/yr | Cloud | Subscriptions |
| Unroll.Me | Free | Cloud | Free, no paid tier advertised |
| Cleanfox | Free | Cloud | Sells data, by its own description |
| Spark Mail | Free | Cloud client | Free tier, then subscriptions |
| Shortwave | $30 per seat/mo | Cloud client | Subscriptions |
Best for: Filtering mail before you read it, without a service holding your mailbox
Runs as a desktop app alongside the email client you already use, applying rules you write in plain English. Nothing passes through a Premail server, and one price covers every inbox you connect. It only works while your computer is on, so overnight triage on a phone is a genuine reason to pick something else here.
Best for: Triage that keeps running while your computer is off
Every SaneBox tier caps how many email accounts it covers, so a second inbox means a higher tier rather than a second connection.
Best for: Genuinely enormous backlogs, bundled by sender and size
Mailstrom tiers on three axes at once: how many accounts, how large a mailbox it will process, and how many smart filters you get.
Best for: Rolling newsletters into one daily digest
Unroll.Me does not sell a subscription. Its own site offers only a free sign-up, with no paid plan advertised.
Best for: A fast free cleanup, if its funding model suits you
Cleanfox is free and states on its own homepage that it sells data for statistical purposes to stay that way. That is their description of their model, not an accusation.
Best for: A capable client with AI attached, at the lowest price
Spark is a full email client with AI layered on, and it keeps a genuine free tier rather than a trial.
Best for: Searching and reasoning across a large mail history
Shortwave tiers on AI capacity: how much AI usage, how far back AI search reaches, and how many AI-powered filters you get. Figures below are its Business plans.
Why people switch to Premail
Clean Email connects to your mailbox from its infrastructure and stores rules and group data on its side. Premail runs entirely on your computer. With Ollama, no message ever touches a third-party server.
Clean Email is paid from the start, with pricing that scales by mailbox. Premail is free for up to two personal inboxes (gmail.com, icloud.com, outlook.com) with built-in filters, custom rules, and bulk unsubscribe included.
Clean Email's help center says it never reads or analyzes message bodies; it downloads them only to show you a preview and to keep Auto Clean deletions recoverable. Premail has no servers, so it can use the full body as a classification signal. That is how a rule like "AI-generated cold pitch" actually works instead of guessing from sender and subject alone.
Side by side
| Feature | Premail Local desktop app · BYOK AI | Clean Email Cloud service · Web + mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing for personal inboxes | Free | Paid only |
| Email metadata stored on a third-party serverClean Email stores group data and rules in the cloud so they can run on its servers. | ||
| Uses email body content as a classification signalClean Email's help center says it never reads or analyzes message bodies; it downloads them only to show you a preview and to keep Auto Clean deletions recoverable. Premail can, because nothing leaves your machine (or, with BYOK, only goes to the model you chose). | Headers and metadata | |
| AI runs on your computer (optional Ollama) | ||
| Bring-your-own AI key (Anthropic, OpenAI) | ||
| Bulk unsubscribe | ||
| Smart folders / auto-groupsPremail groups subscriptions by sender and offers organizers for Commerce, Shipping, Travel, Security, Finance. | ||
| Auto-clean rules for incoming mail | ||
| Plain-English custom rules | Limited | |
| Drag-and-drop ".eml" rule debuggerPremail Dropzone shows exactly what would happen to any saved email and why. | ||
| Open audit log of every action | Limited | |
| Works across phone and desktop automaticallyClean Email runs in the cloud so changes apply on phone. Premail acts on the inbox, so actions show up on phone too, but require your desktop to be running. | Server-side via your provider | |
| Works with any desktop email client | ||
| No account, no signup required | ||
| One-time Lifetime license available |
Pricing
Clean Email includes every feature at every tier and prices purely on how many mailboxes you connect.
Free tier, then one flat price regardless of how many inboxes you connect
Subscription, tiered by number of email accounts
Clean Email pricing read from their own pricing page and verified . Prices change, so check the source before deciding.
Pick Clean Email if
You need a polished mobile app, want cleaning to happen even while your laptop is off, and you are comfortable with a cloud service holding metadata about your inbox.
Pick Premail if
You want local processing with no cloud middleman, you like the idea of bringing your own AI (or running it offline with Ollama), and you prefer a free tier for personal mail with a flat upgrade price instead of per-inbox billing.
FAQ
How is Premail different from Clean Email?
Clean Email is a cloud service. It connects to your mailbox, processes mail on its servers, and lets you manage everything from the web and mobile apps. Premail is a desktop app that runs on your own computer, uses an AI model you choose, and never stores mailbox data on a third-party server.
Does Premail unsubscribe in bulk like Clean Email?
Yes. The Subscriptions tab scans your inbox, groups messages by sender, and unsubscribes in bulk for you. You can also choose what happens to old messages after unsubscribe (archive, trash, or leave alone).
Can Premail clean my existing inbox backlog?
Yes. The Inbox Cleaner scans existing mail in bulk and applies your rules to whatever is already in your inbox. You can review the run before committing actions, and large runs can be paused and resumed.
What does Clean Email do better than Premail today?
Clean Email has mature mobile apps and runs in the cloud, so its rules execute regardless of whether your computer is on. If you need cleaning to happen 24/7 with no desktop dependency, Clean Email is the more obvious fit.
Is there a Premail mobile app?
Not yet. Premail is a desktop companion for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Because it acts on the inbox itself, the results are visible on whatever phone client you use. You just need your desktop running for filters to fire on new mail in real time.
Does Premail charge per mailbox?
No. The free plan covers up to two personal inboxes. Pro is a flat price (monthly, annual, or one-time Lifetime) that includes professional inboxes, unlimited custom rules, and Reputation Shield.
Why can Premail use email body content when Clean Email cannot?
Architecture. Clean Email runs on its own servers, so reading the body would mean a third party processing your content; it explicitly avoids that. Premail runs on your machine and has no servers, so the body can be used as a classification signal without anyone but you (and, optionally, your own LLM provider) ever seeing it. With Ollama, even that provider is your own computer.
Also considering
Free for personal inboxes. No Premail account, no servers touching your email. Works alongside the email client you already use on Mac, Windows, and Linux.