Cleaner Neat vs Smart Cleaner: what 942 reviews say

Cleaner Neat vs Smart Cleaner: the numbers side by side

Where do Cleaner Neat and Smart Cleaner differ most?

• Smart Cleaner's unhappy reviewers mention billing, trials and cancelling more often as Cleaner Neat's: 56.7% against 45.3% of 1–2★ reviews.
• A paywall before the app does anything useful is a bigger issue for Cleaner Neat (18.5% of low ratings) than for Smart Cleaner (8%).
• On the app not working or doing little, Cleaner Neat draws 22.6% of its 1–2★ reviews, while Smart Cleaner draws 12.3%.
• Cleaner Neat's unhappy reviewers mention slowness, crashes and bugs about 6 times as often as Smart Cleaner's: 10.3% against 1.6% of 1–2★ reviews.
• Cleaner Neat's unhappy reviewers mention calling the app a scam or rip-off roughly twice as often as Smart Cleaner's: 13.2% against 6.4% of 1–2★ reviews.

Both are compared on iPhone. Cleaner Neat cleans up photos, videos and contacts and removes unwanted emails; Smart Cleaner clears duplicates and unneeded files and sorts and compresses media.

Are Cleaner Neat and Smart Cleaner improving?

Cleaner Neat has too few recent reviews per quarter to show a trend. Smart Cleaner went from 2.38 stars in 2025-Q3 to 2.33 in 2026-Q1, with billing at 58.3% of its latest 1–2★ reviews.

Where are Cleaner Neat and Smart Cleaner alike?

Their reviewers agree on an ad or listing that promised something else: on each, the two apps are within two points of each other (2.3% vs 2.7%). 61.8% of Cleaner Neat's reviews are 1★ and 23.7% are 5★; for Smart Cleaner the split is 52.8% and 31.4%, so Cleaner Neat has noticeably more very angry reviewers.

What do happy users praise in each?

26.8% of Cleaner Neat's 4–5★ reviews say it works, compared with 15% for Smart Cleaner. 8.9% of Cleaner Neat's 4–5★ reviews say it finds duplicates and similar shots, compared with 0.9% for Smart Cleaner. 4.2% of Cleaner Neat's 4–5★ reviews say it freed real space, compared with 0.9% for Smart Cleaner.

Which is cheaper, Cleaner Neat or Smart Cleaner?

Cleaner Neat: App Store (US) in-app purchases from $1.99 to $59.99. Smart Cleaner: App Store (US) in-app purchases from $5.99 to $39.99. Cleaner Neat starts lower, at $1.99 against $5.99. Billing makes up 45.3% of Cleaner Neat's 1–2★ reviews and 56.7% of Smart Cleaner's.

What reviewers say about Cleaner Neat and Smart Cleaner

• Cleaner Neat: "Rip people off nearly ten bucks a week it’s a scam" (1★, App Store, US, Aug 2025)
• Cleaner Neat: "The ads say it’s free. It costs £10 per week!" (1★, App Store, UK, Feb 2026)
• Smart Cleaner: "Don’t install or review but, try’s to charge me weekly. It’s not worth it." (1★, App Store, US, Aug 2026)
• Smart Cleaner: "Not impressed. Everytime it does a cleanup it still says I have only feed up 1%. I want my money back!!" (2★, App Store, US, Oct 2025)

Picked from the billing, trials and cancelling and a paywall before the app does anything useful themes, where the two differ most.

Should you choose Cleaner Neat or Smart Cleaner?

On ratings alone, the two are close on ratings, so choose on price and on which features you need. If billing, trials and cancelling is what worries you most, Cleaner Neat has the better record on it.