Best Cleanup App for iPhone: 6 Photo Cleaners Compared
Six iPhone photo cleanup apps compared on review method, price, ads and privacy labels from their App Store listings, plus the free tools Apple builds in.
Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner is an iPhone storage cleaner that groups duplicate and similar photos, compresses videos, merges contacts and clears email. It is free to download. Full access is sold as a subscription after a 7-day free trial.
Several App Store apps carry the word Cleanup in their names. This one is sold by DEEP FLOW SOFTWARE SERVICES and carries a Codeway copyright line. Its prices, rating and labels were read on the US and UK App Store listings on 23 October 2026. Apple's support pages supply the rest.
The Cleanup app scans the photo library and sorts what it finds into groups to review. Its App Store description lists these tools:
A final review screen follows each cleaning session, and the description says nothing is removed without your approval. It also says the app needs no internet connection and that no files leave your phone.
Contacts, email, widgets and charging animations free no photo storage. The listing makes no claim about speed or battery life. The space Cleanup frees comes from deleting or compressing files you select, one of several ways to free up space on iPhone.
Part of that work is already in the Photos app at no cost. Apple's guide to deleting photos describes a Duplicates album that merges copies on iOS 16 or later. Deleted photos wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days before they are removed for good.
| Task | Cleanup (App Store description) | Photos app (Apple's guide) |
|---|---|---|
| Exact duplicate photos | Grouped for removal | Duplicates album, Merge keeps one copy with the highest image quality |
| Similar shots | Grouped, with a best shot marked | Not covered in the guide |
| Large videos | Compression | Not covered in the guide |
| Where deleted photos go | Not stated in the description | Recently Deleted, 30 days |
| Cost | Subscription after a 7-day trial | Part of the Photos app |
Finding duplicate photos on iPhone in Photos costs nothing. Because Cleanup's description does not say where its deletions go, check Recently Deleted on iPhone after a session. What the subscription adds is similar-shot grouping, compression, and the contact and email tools.
Is the Cleanup app free?
The Cleanup app is free to download, but full access needs a Cleanup Pro subscription. Its description offers a 7-day free trial with unlimited access to all features. The subscription then renews automatically unless you cancel it.
The US listing shows two plans. Cleanup Pro 1 Week appears at nine prices, from $5.95 to $11.99, and Cleanup Pro 1 Year costs $29.99. The UK listing names the weekly plan and the free trial but showed no prices when read.
| Plan on the US listing | Price shown | Cost over 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Cleanup Pro 1 Week, lowest price | $5.95 | $309.40 |
| Cleanup Pro 1 Week, a middle price | $7.99 | $415.48 |
| Cleanup Pro 1 Week, highest price | $11.99 | $623.48 |
| Cleanup Pro 1 Year | $29.99 | $29.99 |
The listing does not say which weekly price a given account is offered. At every weekly price it lists, a year of weekly billing costs more than ten times the yearly plan.
The plan names do not line up. The description offers a Weekly and a Lifetime subscription, then describes renewal under an "annual subscription plan". The in-app purchase list shows a weekly and a yearly plan, and no lifetime price.
Is the Cleanup app safe?
The Cleanup app is safe for your photos on the terms its description sets. No files leave the phone, and nothing is removed without your approval. The privacy label is the part to read, because it declares data used to track you.
Cleanup is a real and widely used app. The US listing shows 4.7 out of 5 from about 744,000 ratings, as of 23 October 2026. The app is rated 4+ and needs iOS 15.0 or later.
Each privacy label is self-reported by the developer, according to Apple's page on App Store privacy information. Apple defines tracking as linking an app's data with data from other companies' apps, websites or offline properties. The linked data is then used for ads or shared with a data broker.
| Label heading | What Cleanup declares |
|---|---|
| Data Used to Track You | Purchases, identifiers, usage data |
| Data Linked to You | Email address and user ID, used for the developer's advertising or marketing and app functionality; advertising data, used for analytics |
| Data Not Linked to You | Purchase history, device ID, product interaction, crash and performance data |
The label lists no photos or videos category. What it does declare is tracking through purchases, identifiers and usage data. The same check applies to any iPhone cleaner app before it gets access to your library.
How do you cancel the Cleanup app subscription?
The Cleanup app subscription is cancelled in the iPhone's Settings, where the description itself points. Apple's steps for cancelling a subscription are:
On a trial, Apple says to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends to avoid renewal. If there is no Cancel button, or an expiry message shows in red, the subscription is already cancelled. A family member's subscription can only be cancelled by that person.
Cancelling has no effect on photos the app already deleted. Any that reached Recently Deleted stay there for up to 30 days, unless you empty Recently Deleted once nothing there is needed.
Cleanup fits someone who wants one app to group duplicates, compress videos, and tidy contacts and email. It suits that person if they will pay for the plan or cancel the trial in time. Someone who only needs exact copies removed can use the Duplicates album in Photos instead.
Grouping by similarity still leaves a decision on each group. Some cleaners show the library one photo at a time instead. Swipe-based apps such as Swipe Quick, made by the team behind swipequick.app, work that way. You swipe left to delete and right to keep, and nothing is deleted until you confirm.
It runs on the device with no account, and its free tier shows ads. Pro costs $2.99 a week or $29.99 a year on the App Store, as of 13 October 2026. Six cleaners, Cleanup included, are set side by side in the best cleanup app for iPhone comparison.
No. Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner is a real App Store app sold by DEEP FLOW SOFTWARE SERVICES, with about 744,000 US ratings. The cost to watch is the subscription after the 7-day trial, which renews unless you cancel it.
The Cleanup app is described on its listing as a library scanner, and it holds a 4.7 rating from about 744,000 US ratings. It groups duplicate and similar photos for you to approve and compresses videos. It frees storage only by removing or shrinking files you choose.
Open Photos, tap Collections and find Recently Deleted under Utilities. Apple keeps deleted photos there for 30 days. Deleting them from that album removes them for good.
Six iPhone photo cleanup apps compared on review method, price, ads and privacy labels from their App Store listings, plus the free tools Apple builds in.
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