Both apps clean Mac photo libraries, and that is roughly where the overlap ends. PhotoSweeper compares files to find duplicates and lookalikes, then hands you a merge list. SwipePhotos walks you through the library itself, one photo at a time, until the whole thing is sorted.
Which one you want depends on which mess you have. Below: prices, features, and the cases where PhotoSweeper is plainly the better buy.
PhotoSweeper is the stronger pure duplicate finder: $14.99 once, with adjustable similarity matching across Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic, and Capture One libraries. SwipePhotos is the faster way to shrink a whole library: you swipe or arrow-key through every photo, month by month, on Mac and iPhone, with lookalike shots stacked into a single decision. Buy PhotoSweeper for a dedupe pass. Get SwipePhotos when the real problem is 40,000 photos nobody ever sorted.
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 PhotoSweeper is the better pick. Facts checked against official sites and App Store listings, August 2026.
| Feature | SwipePhotos | PhotoSweeper |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, and Mac. One purchase covers all three. | Mac (macOS 10.15+). A separate iOS companion app, PhotoSweeper Mobile, is sold separately. |
| Pricing model | Weekly, yearly, or lifetime. Final pricing shows in the App Store. | $14.99 one-time on the Mac App Store (August 2026). |
| Core job | Review the entire library: a fast keep-or-delete call on every photo. | Find duplicate and visually similar photos, then merge or delete them. |
| Similar photos & bursts | Grouped on-device during review; you pick the keeper in one tap. | Adjustable similarity threshold with side-by-side compare modes. |
| Works outside Apple Photos | No. Apple Photos library only. | Yes: Lightroom Classic, Capture One, plain folders, external drives. |
| Review workflow | Swipe on iPhone, arrow keys and menu commands on Mac, sessions scoped to a month or album. | List and comparison views built for dedupe passes, plus batch renaming. |
| Safety net | Every delete goes to Recently Deleted with Apple's 30-day undo. | Deletes through each library's own trash. The free trial caps deletion at 10 photos. |
| Where processing happens | On-device. Photos are never uploaded. | Locally on your Mac. |
PhotoSweeper facts checked against overmacs.com and its Mac App Store listing, August 2026 (v5.5.5). Prices change; the store page is authoritative.
A dedupe pass answers one question: which of these files are copies of each other? PhotoSweeper answers it with real depth. It reads Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic, and Capture One libraries plus any folder you point it at, detects burst series and edited variants, and lets you tighten or loosen what counts as 'similar.' Photographers with RAW archives on external drives have used it for years, and the July 2026 update (v5.5.5) shows it is still actively maintained.
Full triage answers a different question: which of these 40,000 photos do I actually want? No merge list fixes that, because most of the junk in a typical camera roll has no duplicate. It's the blurry floor shot, the screenshot of a boarding pass from 2022, the fourteenth photo of a receipt. SwipePhotos exists for that problem. It puts one photo in front of you at a time, scoped to a month or an album so a session has an end, and lookalike shots arrive stacked together so a nine-photo burst takes one decision. On a Mac you can clear a month with arrow keys during a phone call.
That's why the honest answer to 'which is better?' is 'for what?'. If you can describe your problem in the word duplicates, PhotoSweeper does that job with more knobs. If the honest description is 'I can't find anything and my library terrifies me,' a dedupe tool barely dents it.
PhotoSweeper costs $14.99 once on the Mac App Store, and the trial lets you test everything except deleting more than 10 photos. If you also want its iOS companion, PhotoSweeper Mobile is a separate purchase with its own pricing ($14.99 one-time or a subscription). There's no bundle across the two.
SwipePhotos is paywalled with weekly, yearly, and lifetime options, and one purchase covers iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Yearly runs €39.99. For a pure once-a-year dedupe, PhotoSweeper is cheaper and that's the honest math. The SwipePhotos price buys a different thing: the same library-review workflow on every device you own, so the Sunday-morning Mac session and the Tuesday-commute phone session chip away at the same backlog.
MacPaw sells two more Mac options people shortlist alongside PhotoSweeper. Gemini 2 finds duplicate and similar files, including inside the Photos library, for $19.95 a year or a $44.95 lifetime license (one Mac); it still gets point releases but MacPaw's attention has visibly moved to its other products. CleanMyMac, a general Mac cleaner at $39.95 a year, grew a 'My Clutter' module that flags duplicate and similar photos as one feature among many.
Both are dedupe-style tools like PhotoSweeper, so the same split applies: they surface copies, they don't walk you through a library. If you want a one-time purchase for dedupe on a Mac, PhotoSweeper at $14.99 undercuts them both. If you want the full review workflow, that's the job SwipePhotos was built around.
SwipePhotos is paywalled in the app, with weekly, yearly, and lifetime options. Final pricing appears in the App Store.
No. PhotoSweeper for Mac is $14.99 one-time on the Mac App Store (checked August 2026). The separate PhotoSweeper Mobile app for iPhone has its own pricing: $14.99 one-time or a small subscription.
No. SwipePhotos works on the Apple Photos library across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If your duplicates live in Lightroom Classic, Capture One, or plain folders, PhotoSweeper is the right tool.
They cast different nets. PhotoSweeper gives you an adjustable similarity threshold and compare views, which suits forensic dedupe across formats and libraries. SwipePhotos groups visually similar shots on-device and shows them during review, which suits libraries that were never sorted in the first place. For exact-copy hunting across drives, PhotoSweeper wins.
No. PhotoSweeper runs locally on your Mac. SwipePhotos runs its similarity analysis on-device on every platform, and photos never leave your devices.
Yes, and it's a sensible combo: a PhotoSweeper dedupe pass first, then SwipePhotos as the ongoing keep-or-delete habit. Both send deletions from Apple Photos to Recently Deleted, so you keep a 30-day undo either way.
Yes. It's a native Mac app with menu bar commands and keyboard review: arrow keys to keep or delete, delete key, undo with Cmd+Z. The same purchase unlocks iPhone and iPad.
Weekly, yearly, or lifetime. Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 100% on-device.