Clever Cleaner vs Cleaner Guru: what 1,893 reviews say

Clever Cleaner vs Cleaner Guru: the numbers side by side

Where do Clever Cleaner and Cleaner Guru differ most?

• Billing, trials and cancelling is a bigger issue for Cleaner Guru (58.9% of low ratings) than for Clever Cleaner (23.7%).
• Cleaner Guru's unhappy reviewers mention calling the app a scam or rip-off more often as Clever Cleaner's: 16.1% against 0% of 1–2★ reviews.
• Clever Cleaner's unhappy reviewers mention an ad or listing that promised something else more often as Cleaner Guru's: 13.2% against 7.3% of 1–2★ reviews.
• Deleting photos or files the user wanted is a bigger issue for Cleaner Guru (1.8% of low ratings) than for Clever Cleaner (0%).
• Clever Cleaner's unhappy reviewers mention space that never came back roughly twice as often as Cleaner Guru's: 2.6% against 0.9% of 1–2★ reviews.

Both are compared on iPhone. Clever Cleaner finds similar photos, duplicates, screenshots, Live Photos and large videos, with daily free limits and no ads; Cleaner Guru deletes duplicate photos, compresses videos, bulk-deletes spam email and merges duplicate contacts.

Are Clever Cleaner and Cleaner Guru improving?

Clever Cleaner went from 4.9 stars in 2026-Q2 to 4.65 in 2026-Q4, with billing at 38.1% of its latest 1–2★ reviews. Cleaner Guru went from 2.52 stars in 2025-Q3 to 2.53 in 2026-Q3, with billing at 73.7% of its latest 1–2★ reviews.

Where are Clever Cleaner and Cleaner Guru alike?

Their reviewers agree on a paywall before the app does anything useful, ads, pop-ups and pushy screens and scan results or alerts that look exaggerated: on each, the two apps are within two points of each other (15.8% vs 17.2%; 2.6% vs 3.5%; 2.6% vs 1.5%). 3.2% of Clever Cleaner's reviews are 1★ and 84.7% are 5★; for Cleaner Guru the split is 56.9% and 32.3%, so Cleaner Guru has noticeably more very angry reviewers.

What do happy users praise in each?

16.6% of Cleaner Guru's 4–5★ reviews say it is fast, compared with 10.9% for Clever Cleaner. 38.4% of Clever Cleaner's 4–5★ reviews say it works, compared with 33.5% for Cleaner Guru. 4% of Clever Cleaner's 4–5★ reviews say a fair price or free use, compared with 0.6% for Cleaner Guru.

Which is cheaper, Clever Cleaner or Cleaner Guru?

Clever Cleaner: App Store (US) in-app purchases from $6.99 to $39.99. Cleaner Guru: App Store (US) in-app purchases from $4.99 to $39.99; Google Play (US) $6.99 to $39.99 per item. Cleaner Guru starts lower, at $4.99 against $6.99. Billing makes up 23.7% of Clever Cleaner's 1–2★ reviews and 58.9% of Cleaner Guru's.

What reviewers say about Clever Cleaner and Cleaner Guru

• Clever Cleaner: "Very pleased with this app. Hope it doesn’t suddenly want to charge me" (5★, App Store, UK, Oct 2026)
• Clever Cleaner: "Awesome and actually free not a scam 3 days free thing" (5★, App Store, UK, Aug 2026)
• Cleaner Guru: "This app is terrible you literally have to buy free trial just to delete stuff you can’t do nothing on there for free" (1★, App Store, US, May 2026)
• Cleaner Guru: "I am one deleted it not automatically it makes me paid" (1★, App Store, US, May 2026)

Picked from the billing, trials and cancelling and calling the app a scam or rip-off themes, where the two differ most.

Should you choose Clever Cleaner or Cleaner Guru?

On ratings alone, Clever Cleaner is the safer bet on the evidence here, with 57.2% fewer 1–2★ reviews. If billing, trials and cancelling is what worries you most, Clever Cleaner has the better record on it.