This is the automation question wearing two app icons. CleanMyPhone scans your library and proposes what to remove. SwipePhotos shows you everything and makes the removing fast.
Both process photos on-device. Both are subscription apps from real companies. The differences that matter are below, checked August 2026.
CleanMyPhone is MacPaw's polished automated cleaner, the renamed successor to Gemini Photos: on-device AI flags duplicates, similar shots, blur, and screenshot junk, and you approve its suggestions in batches, with bonus tools for contacts, email, and video compression. SwipePhotos is review-first: nothing is deleted that you didn't personally swipe, with ML doing the grouping rather than the deciding, plus a native Mac app in the same purchase. If you want speed and trust an algorithm's picks, CleanMyPhone is the slicker robot. If the photos are irreplaceable and the backlog is huge, review-first is the safer instinct, and it's the only one of the two that exists on the Mac.
SwipePhotos is our app, so read this the way you’d read any vendor comparison: we’ve kept every factual claim checkable and noted where CleanMyPhone is the better pick. Facts checked against official sites and App Store listings, August 2026.
| Feature | SwipePhotos | CleanMyPhone |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, and a native Mac app. One purchase covers all three. | iPhone and iPad only (iOS 17+). No Mac app, no Android. |
| Approach | You review every photo; ML stacks the lookalikes so it goes fast. | AI proposes deletions (duplicates, similar, blurred, screenshots); you approve batches. |
| Pricing | Weekly, yearly (€39.99), or lifetime. Final pricing shows in the App Store. | $7.99/month or $36.99/year on the US App Store (Aug 2026); MacPaw's site advertises 'from $3.75/month'. 3-day trial. Reported paywall prices vary by channel. |
| Free tier | None. Paid-only, no ads. | Free download, but reviews describe the unpaid tier as limited to little beyond screenshot deletion and a speed test. |
| Similar photos & bursts | Stacked on-device during review; you pick the keeper. | AI groups similars and suggests the best shot; reviews complain selection state gets lost mid-review. |
| Beyond photos | No. Photos only, on purpose. | Contact merging, email inbox cleanup, video compression, network speed test. |
| Memory features | Rewind stories resurface the photos you kept, generated on-device. | None; it's a cleaner, not a memory app. |
| Delete safety | Apple's confirm dialog, then Recently Deleted (30-day undo). | Same Apple pipeline: removals land in Recently Deleted with the 30-day undo. |
CleanMyPhone facts from its US App Store listing (v2.13.3, June 2026), macpaw.com, and MacPaw's knowledge base, checked August 18, 2026. MacPaw's paywall pricing differs by channel; the price you see in-app is authoritative.
If you're an ex-Gemini Photos user: MacPaw renamed the app in place in March 2024. Same App Store listing, new name, broader toolset. Existing subscribers were migrated automatically and MacPaw says active Gemini-era subscriptions keep their old, cheaper price. Some longtime users grumble in reviews that Gemini's focused flow was easier than the new multi-tool layout, but nobody lost access.
Worth knowing: MacPaw's Mac products are separate purchases. CleanMyPhone has no Mac version; on the desktop MacPaw sells CleanMyMac and the Gemini 2 duplicate finder instead. If a single purchase covering iPhone and Mac matters to you, that combination doesn't offer it, and SwipePhotos does.
CleanMyPhone's pitch is that you shouldn't have to look at 20,000 photos, so its AI looks for you and serves suggestions. That works well for the unambiguous junk: screenshots, blur, obvious duplicates. The tradeoff appears at the margins, where a 'blurry' photo is the only picture of your grandmother laughing. MacPaw knows this, which is why everything is suggestion-plus-approval, but batch approval on hundreds of AI picks quietly becomes trust.
SwipePhotos' pitch is that you should look at every photo, once, fast. ML still does heavy lifting (grouping near-duplicates into stacks, splitting screenshots and duplicates into their own hubs), but the keep-or-delete call is always yours, one swipe at a time. It costs more minutes than batch-approving an AI. In exchange, the finished library contains exactly what you chose, and you saw everything you own along the way, which is where the buried good memories turn up.
CleanMyPhone on the US App Store lists $7.99 a month or $36.99 a year, with a 3-day trial and a near-empty free tier, and MacPaw's web store advertises its own rates. There's no lifetime option listed on the App Store in August 2026. SwipePhotos runs €39.99 a year, so on yearly-versus-yearly the two are within a few euros of each other. The structural differences are the lifetime unlock (SwipePhotos has one, so heavy users can stop paying) and device coverage (the SwipePhotos purchase includes iPad and the native Mac app, where MacPaw would sell you a second product).
SwipePhotos is paywalled in the app, with weekly, yearly, and lifetime options. Final pricing appears in the App Store.
Yes. MacPaw renamed Gemini Photos to CleanMy®Phone in March 2024 on the same App Store listing, and its knowledge base confirms Gemini Photos no longer exists in its original form. Legacy Gemini subscribers kept their old pricing.
No. It covers iPhone and iPad only. MacPaw's desktop cleanup products (CleanMyMac, Gemini 2) are separate purchases. SwipePhotos includes its native Mac app in the same purchase as iPhone and iPad.
Subscription: $7.99/month or $36.99/year on the US App Store as of August 2026, with a 3-day trial. No current lifetime tier is listed there (a legacy $34.99 'Unlimited access' purchase from the Gemini era still appears on the listing, but whether it's purchasable in-app today is unclear). SwipePhotos sells weekly, yearly, and lifetime.
Both route deletions through Apple's Photos system into Recently Deleted with a 30-day undo. The philosophical difference: CleanMyPhone deletes what an AI suggested and you approved, sometimes in large batches; SwipePhotos deletes only what you individually swiped. Review-first means no surprise losses hiding inside an approved batch.
Both state their photo analysis runs on-device. SwipePhotos additionally never has a server-side photo pipeline at all; photos never leave your devices.
CleanMyPhone clears the obvious junk faster because the AI batches it. SwipePhotos finishes the whole job: month-scoped swipe sessions with similar-shot stacks keep the review moving at a few hundred photos per sitting, on the couch or at the Mac, until every photo has been decided.
Weekly, yearly, or lifetime. Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 100% on-device.