Compare · Clean Email
A Clean Email alternative that understands the message
People look for a Clean Email alternative when the rules stop scaling. A rule per sender works until the senders keep coming, and a rule on subject words catches the wrong mail as often as the right one. QuietMail replaces conditions with sentences: you say what noise is, and an AI model judges each new message against that.
Clean Email is the most complete rules-based cleaner we know of, and for some jobs it is the right tool. This page sets out where the two differ so you can choose, and where Clean Email is stronger, we say so.
Clean Email vs QuietMail at a glance
| Feature | QuietMail | Clean Email |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99/mo for 1 inbox, $7.99/mo for 3, $14.99/mo for up to 20. Annual plans are two months free ($49.90/yr for 1 inbox). | $9.99/mo ($29.99/yr) for 1 account, $19.99/mo ($49.99/yr) for 5, $29.99/mo ($99.99/yr) for 10. |
| Mail providers | Gmail and Google Workspace, Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live, Zoho Mail, and JMAP mail servers. Not Yahoo, AOL, iCloud or Proton. | Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo and any IMAP mailbox. |
| How filtering works | An AI model reads a copy of each new message and answers one yes/no question: is this noise under your rules? Rules are presets, a whitelist, a blacklist and sentences in plain language. | Predefined categories plus rules you build from conditions such as sender and subject. Auto Clean applies them continuously. No rule can be stated as a meaning, only as a condition. |
| What it does to a message | Marks the message as read, or moves it to a Noise folder, spam or trash, whichever you chose. Paid plans also check your Spam folder and bring back mail you want. Everything else stays where it was. | Delete, archive, move, mark read, block a sender, or keep only the newest. Cleans existing mail as well as new mail. |
| Safety model | The AI has no tools and no access to your account. Plain code performs the one action you configured. Tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, every decision is logged with an undo, and the app passed a CASA Tier 2 assessment validated by TAC Security. | Not described in our review. We found no public account of how its automation is isolated from your account. |
| Free tier | One inbox, no card, no end date. Whitelist and blacklist on every message plus 80 AI calls a month. | A limited free tier for a small amount of cleanup. |
Clean Email figures are from the vendor's public pages as reviewed in August 2026 · check the vendor for current pricing · QuietMail figures come from Pricing
What Clean Email does
Clean Email connects to a Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo or IMAP mailbox and groups the mail already there by sender and by predefined category, so you can clean a lot of it in a few clicks. Its Auto Clean feature turns a grouping or a condition on sender or subject into a standing rule with an action: delete, archive, move, mark read, block or keep only the newest. The rules run continuously on new mail.
Where a Clean Email user hits the wall
- Rules match conditions, not meaning. "From this sender" and "subject contains sale" are the vocabulary. "Promotions I did not ask for, but never a receipt" is not something a condition can say. In QuietMail that sentence is the rule.
- Every new sender is a new rule. Noise arrives from addresses you have not seen. A condition-based rule cannot catch a sender it was not told about. A rule stated as a meaning catches the first message from a new sender.
- Categories are the vendor's, not yours. Predefined groups such as social or shopping are useful and blunt. What counts as noise in your inbox is personal.
- The action is the same for everyone in the group. A rule on a group applies one action to it. QuietMail lets you pick mark read, Noise, Spam or Trash per kind of noise, keeps a whitelist that always wins, and logs each decision with an undo.
Where Clean Email is the better pick
- A one-off purge of old mail. Clearing years of accumulated mail by sender or by category is what Clean Email's bulk tools exist for. QuietMail cleans the unread mail from your last 35 days on connect and then works on new mail as it arrives.
- iCloud, Yahoo or any IMAP mailbox. QuietMail connects only through a provider's own sign-in and never asks for a mailbox password, so it supports Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Zoho Mail and JMAP servers, not iCloud, Yahoo or generic IMAP.
- Archive and move as actions. QuietMail's actions are mark read, a Noise folder, Spam and Trash, plus bringing wanted mail back from Spam. If you want noise filed into a folder of your choosing, Clean Email does that.
- Cheapest yearly price for one account. Clean Email's $29.99 a year for one account is below QuietMail's $49.90. QuietMail's free plan is free, though, and for 3 inboxes or more the order flips.
How QuietMail works instead
Connect an inbox by signing in at your provider. Describe the noise: presets, a whitelist, a blacklist and plain-language rules. From then on an AI model reads a copy of each new message and answers one question: is this noise under these rules? If yes, plain code performs the one action you chose, on Gmail the moment the mail arrives and within about five minutes elsewhere. Paid plans also check your Spam folder and bring back mail you would want.
The AI never acts on your mailbox. It has no tools and returns nothing but its judgment. Mailbox tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, every action is logged with an undo, and an independent security lab has assessed the app. The Security page explains exactly what QuietMail can and cannot do to a mailbox.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is QuietMail a Clean Email alternative that works with Gmail?
Yes. QuietMail connects to Gmail and Google Workspace by Google sign-in and reviews each new message the moment it lands. It also works with Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Zoho Mail and JMAP mail servers. It does not support iCloud, Yahoo or generic IMAP, which Clean Email does.
What is the difference between Clean Email rules and QuietMail rules?
A Clean Email rule is a condition: this sender, this word in the subject, older than this. A QuietMail rule is a sentence: "newsletters I never open", "order confirmations, but keep anything about a refund". An AI model reads a copy of each new message and answers one yes/no question: does it match your rules? So a new sender you have never seen is handled by the same rule, without you adding it.
Does QuietMail delete mail?
Only if you ask it to. For each kind of noise you choose one action: mark as read, move to a Noise folder, move to Spam, or move to Trash. Every action is logged with the rule that matched and an Undo that puts the message back.
Can QuietMail clean up the mail already in my inbox?
On connect, QuietMail reviews the unread mail from the last 35 days already in your inbox and applies your rules to it. For a one-off purge of years of old mail by sender, Clean Email's bulk tools are built for exactly that, and you can use both.
Is it safe to give QuietMail access to my inbox?
The AI only reads a copy of each message and returns its judgment. It has no tools and cannot act on your account. Plain code performs the single action you configured, mailbox tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and the app passed a CASA Tier 2 assessment validated by TAC Security in September 2026, the security review Google requires of apps that access Gmail.
What does QuietMail cost compared with Clean Email?
QuietMail's Free plan covers one inbox with no card and no end date, with 80 AI calls a month; whitelist and blacklist run on every message and do not use a call. Paid plans are $4.99 a month for one inbox, $7.99 for 3 and $14.99 for up to 20, with no monthly cap. Annual billing is two months free. Clean Email's annual plans are cheaper per year than its monthly ones by a wider margin, so compare the yearly figures if you pay yearly.
Try it on one inbox, free
Keep reading
- SaneBox alternative · how QuietMail compares
- AI Gmail filter · how QuietMail compares
- Security · what the AI can and cannot do to your mailbox
- Pricing · every plan, and what the free one includes