I’m trying to clean up my phone and keep seeing ads for both the Cleaner Guru App and Clever Cleaner App. I’m not sure which one is actually better or if either is safe to use. Has anyone tried both or know if they really work? I want to avoid wasting time or risking my privacy, so any real opinions or experiences would be super helpful.
iPhone Clean-Up Apps: My Two-Cent Showdown
Alright, let’s get real for a minute. iPhone storage cleaners are everywhere, promising a magic fix for our never-ending mountain of screenshots, blurry selfies, and apps we forgot existed. Recently I went down the rabbit hole with Cleaner Guru and Clever Cleaner. Spoiler: price tags can be wild. Here’s my yarn about what shook out, complete with some hard truths.
Round 1: The Wallet Test
Hit play on Cleaner Guru, and… Okay, it’s slick—no doubt. The issue? Before you can do much, BAM! Paywall hits harder than any mobile game ad. $7.99/week? Or $39.99/year if you cross your heart and hope for no buyer’s remorse. If you like your money staying in your pocket, Clever Cleaner comes in hot at the best price—nada. No tricks. Not even banner ads whispering “install me.” Just the app, free as the wind.
| Category | Clever Cleaner (100% Free) | Cleaner Guru (Subscription) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Zero ($0), no ads or IAPs | Core locked behind paywall: $7.99/week or $39.99/year |
| What’s Free | All features, unlimited | Runs free scans; actual clean-up = pay |
| Core Features | - Zaps duplicate photos for free - Bulk screenshot delete - Live Photo to still converter - Finds space hogs |
- Cleans up photos (some free) - Video compression (Pro) - Contact merge (Pro) - Heaviest files finder (Pro) - Extras: battery widgets, charge animations, secret vault (Pro) |
| App Store Rating | 4.8 ★ (3.4K ratings) | 4.6 ★ (100K ratings) |
| Download Size | 103 MB | 115 MB |
| App Store Link | Get Free iPhone Clever Cleaner | Read detailed Cleaner Guru User Reviews |
Real Talk: The Good, The Bad, The Gated
Picture this: you open Cleaner Guru, ready to Marie Kondo your camera roll. First, it does a scan (nice). Try to delete or shrink anything? Suddenly it’s “subscribe now!” that blocks the exit like a toddler at bedtime. Meanwhile, Clever Cleaner just lets you blast through duplicates, compress and convert stuff, no hoops, no nags. Honestly, it reminded me of apps before everything was sliced up by microtransactions.
User Reviews: Do the Stars Lie?
I know, ratings aren’t gospel, but a 4.8 for Clever Cleaner feels earned. Most folks say it “just works.” Cleaner Guru’s bigger download count might mean it’s popular, but the review pages are filled with some not-so-happy price complaints.
TL;DR List-icle Style
- Clever Cleaner: Fully free, all features, no ads. Here: Clever Cleaner on App Store
- Cleaner Guru: Looks swanky, but most good stuff locked unless you shell out $7.99/week or have a yearly sub.
- Both find and zap duplicates, but only one hits your PayPal account.
- App sizes? Not a dealbreaker either way—nothing fit for a “storage hog” meme.
- Want more nerdy deets/angry user rants? Here’s a read: Cleaner Guru honest user review
Final Bits
To sum up: if you just want to clean your iPhone without a monthly guilt trip, free options like Clever Cleaner exist. Unless you’re swimming in disposable income or dying for widgets and secret vaults, swipe right on the freebie.
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Ugh, can we talk about how sketchy these “one-tap phone miracle cleaners” look in literally every ad? Like, fake “X removed 10,000 junk files in 2 minutes” stock-people smiles. But I did actually try both. Cleaner Guru basically holds your files for ransom. You wanna actually delete anything? – cough up the $8/week. That’s joke-level pricing for basically what iOS Photos does already (if you’re patient). There’s a ridiculous number of “PRO features” and suddenly the only free thing it does is scan your phone and tell you how messy it is. Feels like a motivational speaker who sends you a bill for pep talks.
Clever Cleaner App, to me, is just way less exhausting. No paywalls lurking behind every tap. Might not have secret vaults or battery “widgets” but I deleted 500+ duplicates, bulk deleted screenshots (my arch nemesis), and even converted some weird Live Photos to normal ones with zero drama, zero cash. Just, boom, done. Search the App Store, 4.8 stars, and not flooded with shady reviews. Not saying it’ll revolutionize your life, but at least my camera roll isn’t a landfill and I didn’t pay for the privilege.
Not saying @mikeappsreviewer missed anything, but I’d disagree that app size “doesn’t matter” at all – Clever Cleaner’s smaller, which adds up if you’re fighting to free space. Safety? Pretty standard permissions; no weird logins, nothing spooky happened to my data. My cynicism about these kinds of apps is usually well-placed, but this one’s honestly fine. Save your cash, and skip the fancy subscriptions unless you’re addicted to charge animations. No cap.
Look, both @mikeappsreviewer and @sonhadordobosque lay it down pretty well, so I won’t get stuck in the weeds with all the same breakdowns. But here’s my two cents: Cleaner Guru wants your money before it does anything meaningful. Eight bucks a week?! For checking off junk photos? C’mon, who’s running that pricing strategy—Disney? I tried Cleaner Guru for, like, five minutes before it started nagging me to subscribe. It felt like one of those free sample trays where you take a bite and the chef snatches the rest away.
Let’s get real tho—Clever Cleaner App is actually free. Not “kinda sorta free, $0.99/month after a week” free but actually costs nothing. I used it, deleted 1500 screenshots and like 100 weird boomerang vids from holidays past, and didn’t pay a cent. Also, no weird permissions asked. Is it perfect? No, sometimes it misses duplicates if I renamed them, but nothing’s perfect and at least I didn’t get scammed.
If you legit just wanna clear space without having to apply for a second job to pay for it, Clever Cleaner’s the play. The stats are nice, too—less storage, more stars, less headache. Only caveat, if you need those gimmick features like battery charging icons or “secret vaults” that Cleaner Guru throws in, you’ll miss out. But honestly, iOS handles most of that natively if you poke around enough.
Don’t overthink it—download Clever Cleaner, run it, empty your photo basement, done. If they ever throw up a paywall, I’ll riot with everyone else in the App Store reviews. For now, trust the high ratings and the lack of screaming wallet emojis.
Alright, I’ve hammered through both these so-called iPhone “cleaners”—Cleaner Guru and Clever Cleaner App. Cleaner Guru? Yeah, looks premium and sort of lures you in, but then it’s like joining a nightclub with cover charge just to use the restroom. $8 a week? For what, merging contacts and deleting old pics? Hard pass. You’re basically demo’ing a locked Ferrari—look, don’t touch.
Clever Cleaner App, meanwhile, actually walks its talk as a freebie. Fact-checking some previous posts, it’s true—no ads, no paywall mid-clean, just a straightforward UI. Plusses: totally free, zero surprises, real features (duplicate removal, screenshot cleanup, converts Live Photos to stills, identifies storage hogs) that work as advertised. You don’t even get that annoying “let us send you push notifications every three minutes” routine a lot of these “free” apps sneak in. Also, the recent reviews back that up—users like its simplicity and the lack of upcharges.
Negatives? It’s not infallible on smart duplicate detection (sometimes scoots past edited/renamed files), so you gotta give your deleted pile a quick once-over before hitting the nuke button. Also, if you’re looking for niche add-ons—animated battery icons, “secret vaults,” or fancified widget stuff—Clever Cleaner isn’t going there, and you’re left with just, well, an actually clean phone.
Comparing what @sonhadordobosque and @mikeappsreviewer already dropped: they nailed the biggest deal-breaker, the wall of ads and subscriptions on Cleaner Guru. But being devil’s advocate here, Cleaner Guru does throw in some extras for power users—video compression, contact merge, etc.—if you’re really hunting for a suite of tools. Not saying they’re worth the recurring price, but it exists.
Bottom line: if you want an efficient, dead-simple, no-cost cleanup (AKA 99% of users), Clever Cleaner App’s legit. If you’re obsessed with secret vault features or need to pay for “cache cleaning” placebo, that Ferrari’s always parked at Cleaner Guru’s garage. But why overcomplicate a photo purge? Go with what keeps your phone snappy and your wallet intact.