Compare
How it stacks up, honestly.
There are two other ways to clean an inbox: subscription cleaners that run in the cloud, and a desktop app you install on Windows. Here is where Mail Housekeeper differs, described in general terms so the table stays fair.
WhatMail HousekeeperSubscription cleanersA desktop app
Price model
Free scan. $8 once per mailbox. Keep it clean is optional, $19 a year. Free during the launch trial.
A monthly or yearly subscription, usually per mailbox, that keeps billing after the inbox is clean.
A one-time license for the program, sometimes with a yearly fee for updates.
Deletes or not
Never. Cleared mail waits in Housekeeper hold inside your own mailbox. Emptying it is a button you confirm.
Delete or archive, usually as the default action. Some offer a short grace period.
Deletes, moves or archives as you set it; the default is often delete.
Web or phone
A web app that works on your phone. Nothing to install.
Web and phone apps.
Windows only. You run it on that one computer.
Yahoo and AOL history depth
The whole history. Yahoo and AOL show 10,000 messages at a time, so it works in waves and parks kept mail to reach the oldest layer.
Varies. Most work from what the provider shows at once, which on Yahoo and AOL is the newest 10,000.
Varies. Usually the same provider view, run by hand as many times as you like.
Verified unsubscribes
Only through the mail header, only for companies the checker verifies, never twice. Spam, phishing and silent senders are moved only.
Usually through the header or by following the link in the message, for any sender you pick.
Usually by following the link in the message, or not at all.
Learns from you
Every override teaches the defaults for your mailbox. Anonymous counts per rule improve the defaults for everyone.
Some remember a block list per account.
Rules you write yourself.
Come back a month later
Keep it clean runs nightly: decided senders are handled on their own, new senders wait for you. Or just run it again.
Keeps running while the subscription is paid.
Open the program and run it again by hand.
Want names? The alternatives pages set out sourced facts about Unroll.me, Clean Email and Leave Me Alone, each with links to where they come from.
Based on each product's public pages as of November 2026 and kept general on purpose. If a maker tells us a line is wrong, we fix it. Not in this table: Outlook.com and Microsoft 365, which Mail Housekeeper does not connect to yet.
The honest part
When something else is the better fit
You want mail gone the same second
The housekeeper moves mail to a folder and lets you empty it. If a holding step feels like one step too many, a tool that deletes outright will feel faster.
You live in Outlook
Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 need a Microsoft sign-in flow we have not built yet. Until then, this is not the tool for that mailbox.
You want per-message control
Decisions here are per company on purpose. If you want to hand-pick individual messages, your mail app's search and a free afternoon still win.
You want a full mail client
Mail Housekeeper is not a place to read or write mail. It tidies the one you already have and gets out of the way.
Not sure? The free scan shows what the cleanup would do before anything moves. How it works has the method in depth.
Start with a free scan
Connect a mailbox and see every sender grouped by company. Nothing moves until you say so.