One downfall of a smart device is limited storage space. No matter how much storage your iPhone boasts, it’s still capped at a certain amount. Before you reach that limit and run out of room for new photos and videos, consider an iPhone storage cleaner to declutter your device.
From similar photos to outdated videos to copies of contacts, storage can fill up fast. By taking some time to clean up unnecessary items, you can save a lot of aggravation later. Go beyond the limits of your iPhone’s cleanup capabilities with an app that can tidy up your storage efficiently.
Criteria for Selecting an iPhone Storage Cleaner
If you’re wondering how we arrive at the list of apps you see here, below is the criteria we use to review, rate, and finally, recommend the storage cleaning apps. Plus, we get hands-on with each app to find those things you don’t see in the App Store descriptions.
🦾 Features: One of the most essential criteria for an iPhone storage cleaner is the feature set. Some apps only offer a cleanup of photos, others may concentrate on contacts, and still others have both of these features and more.
The key to the apps on our list is those that offer features beyond what iOS can handle. For instance, you can use the Duplicates feature in the Photos app to remove duplicate pictures; however, you can’t use it to delete similar photos.
This makes the feature set essential for the apps on our list.
💸 Price: Price is also a consideration for an app. After all, we all want good value for our money. Each of the apps listed here is available for free, but most have limited features until you pay for a subscription.
Obviously, a free app to clean up iPhone storage would be ideal. Unfortunately, the reality is that you may have to pay to get all of the features you need. This is why an app that at least starts off free is crucial so that you can see if it’s worth paying for.
🤗 Ease-of-Use: Another important criterion for an app is how easy it is to use. Cleaning up your iPhone storage isn’t exactly a fun task. So, an app that helps you do this quickly and easily is important. The last thing you want is one that makes the process lengthier or more complicated.
The apps on our list offer easy-to-use and intuitive interfaces to get the job done.
🏆 App Store Ratings and Reviews: Seeing the number of users who rate the app along with that star rating (5-star scale) is one more criterion we use. These two things not only show the popularity of the app, but how all of those users rank it.
Keep in mind that we are (and you should be as well) cautious about the written reviews. Many times, users write reviews only when there is a problem. Plus, the date of the review is important. If it was written three years ago, for example, issues may have been fixed and enhancements may have been implemented since the review date.
8 Best Cleaning Apps for iPhone
Apps for cleaning your iPhone storage are plentiful on the App Store, so it’s hard to know where to begin. By combining the above criteria with time spent using each app, we bring you a list of the eight best storage cleaning apps for your device.
1. Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner
Clean up your contacts, photos, videos, and Gmail with Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner. You can remove similar and duplicate photos, delete screenshots, and compress large videos to free up space. You can also use the Secret Library section to store photos and videos you want to keep private.
✨ Features:
- See which similar photos are the best to keep and remove unwanted photos with a swipe
- Perform a final review to avoid accidental deletion of videos and photos
- Add private files to the Secret Library
- Clean emails in Gmail by category
- Check out animations for device charging
- Add Home screen widgets for battery and storage
👤 User Experience: Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner currently has 203,100 ratings and 4.7 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: Once you get past the numerous ads in the free version, the cleanup processes are quick and easy. Plus, it’s the only app on our list that can help you clean up your Gmail account.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone with in-app subscriptions starting at $3.49 that include a free three-day trial.
2. Cleaner Kit – Clean Up Storage (formerly Smart Cleaner)
Along with getting rid of duplicates and similar pictures, you can remove photos that are blurred or contain text with Cleaner Kit – Clean Up Storage. As well as decluttering your iPhone, you can perform a speed test, use widgets, reduce video sizes, and hide private files, all with one app.
✨ Features:
- Delete similar photos and videos, Live Photos, bursts, and screenshots
- Merge and remove duplicate contacts
- Get rid of old calendar events
- Compress large videos
- Hide files in the Secret Space
- Add widgets to your Home screen
👤 User Experience: Cleaner Kit – Clean Up Storage currently has 186,800 ratings and 4.4 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: Along with the efficient cleaning options, the app goes the extra mile with tips for clearing your cache, offloading unused apps, optimizing media, and more.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone with in-app subscriptions starting at $4.99 that include a free three-day trial.
3. Phone Cleaner: Clean Storage+
With Phone Cleaner: Clean Storage+, you can do a fast and simple cleanup in just minutes. For photos, videos, and contacts, eliminate duplicates and similar items to regain space. You can also use the quick Clean feature to tidy up your iPhone in a single tap.
✨ Features:
- Remove duplicate and similar photos
- Delete unwanted videos
- Merge duplicate contacts and erase contacts with missing details
- Back up your contacts
- Clear app and Safari cache
- Use animations for device charging
👤 User Experience: Phone Cleaner: Clean Storage+ currently has 89,400 ratings and 4.6 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: The intuitive interface steals the show for this app. You have a nice and neat list of cleanup options. Tap and clean, it’s that easy.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $3.99 that include a free three-day trial.
4. Boost Cleaner
Clean your photos, videos, contacts, and calendar and then move onto compressing media, performing a speed test, and securing photos, contacts, and browsing. You can easily and effortlessly do it all with Boost Cleaner.
✨ Features:
- Delete duplicate and similar photos
- Merge and delete duplicate contacts
- Clean up contacts with missing details
- Remove or compress large files
- Erase old calendar events
- Secure private photos, contacts, and web browsing to the Vault
👤 User Experience: Boost Cleaner currently has 60,800 ratings and 4.5 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: While some of the app’s features require a subscription, you can obtain access by watching a short video ad. This is a great way to check out the premium features before you subscribe.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $4.99 that include a free three-day trial.
5. Easy Cleaner
If you need to concentrate on cleaning your contacts, Easy Cleaner is the app for you. For free, you can remove duplicates or those with missing information and use filters to find contacts by birthday, company, or job title. Managing your address book to free up space has never been easier.
✨ Features:
- Use filters to find contacts
- Merge and delete duplicate contacts
- Add missing contact details
- Create an address book restore point
- Receive reminders for merging and backing up contacts
- Available in 15 languages
👤 User Experience: Easy Cleaner currently has 25,200 ratings and 4.8 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: For focusing specifically on contacts, you can’t go wrong with the free Easy Cleaner app. It also provides an Enrichment feature you can check out for adding business details without extra manual work.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with no in-app purchases.
6. Cleaner – Clean Duplicate Item
Doing more than the name implies, you can of course clean up duplicate items, but also create backups, manage media, and delete files with Cleaner – Clean Duplicate Item. Clean, manage, and regain space with this easy-to-use iPhone cleaner.
✨ Features:
- Remove duplicate photos with a click
- Compress large photos and videos
- Clean up contacts with missing details
- Delete unwanted files
- Back up your contacts
- Check your device battery status
👤 User Experience: Cleaner – Clean Duplicate Item currently has 23,800 ratings and 4.4 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: It’s a pleasant surprise that the app does more than clean up duplicate items as the name suggests. You can create light or full contact backups, compress large photos and videos, and manage your contacts with ease.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $3.99 that include a free three-day trial.
7. Phone Cleaner – Phone Clean
If basic is best, Phone Cleaner – Phone Clean is the tool you want. Clean photos, videos, or contacts separately where you can do a proper review. Or take advantage of the Super Cleaning feature for decluttering with a tap.
✨ Features:
- Find and delete similar photos, Live Photos, and bursts
- Remove large video files
- Compress large photos and videos
- Merge and delete duplicate contacts
- Backup or transfer files to another iPhone or iPad
- Perform a one-tap Super Cleaning for similar photos, Live Photos, and videos along with screenshots
👤 User Experience: Phone Cleaner – Phone Clean currently has 11,900 ratings and 4.1 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: This is the iPhone storage cleaning app with the tidiest interface of all. Select an item to clean, review, and remove everything with a tap.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $4.99 that include a free three-day trial.
8. Cleaner – Smart Cleanup
See exactly how much storage space you’ll regain and then clean in one step using Cleaner – Smart Cleanup for iPhone. Take care of photos, videos, and contacts, perform a speed test, and check out Home screen widgets to keep up with your device details.
✨ Features:
- Delete duplicate or similar photos, screenshots, selfies, blurred photos, and bursts
- Remove large video files
- Merge and remove duplicate contacts
- See details about your device
- Perform a network speed test
- Add widgets to your Home screen
👤 User Experience: Cleaner – Smart Cleanup currently has 8,200 ratings and 4.4 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: The app’s navigation is just as clean as the job it does, making it super easy to get started. The Smart Cleaning feature is terrific because it takes care of photos, videos, and contacts in one fell swoop and the bonus network speed feature is a nice-to-have.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $4.99 that include a free three-day trial.
Conclusion
If you’re ready to clean up your iPhone and regain some storage space, each of the apps on this list gets it done and done right. Peruse the list of features they offer, check out the subscription prices, and see how other users rate the app. Then, hunker down for a few minutes and do some spring cleaning. You’ll be glad you did.
FAQ
We all know that apps, software, and programs we install from third parties can contain malware or viruses. While the majority may be safe, there is always the minority that is out to cause harm. Do your due diligence by researching the app and developer, looking for reviews that mention malware, and leaning toward apps with many users.
Storage cleaning apps can save you time from removing items manually and thus speed up the process of decluttering your device.
Many iPhone cleaning apps that focus on one thing, like just removing duplicate contacts, are available for free. However, apps that help with multiple items like contacts, photos, videos, files, and more, usually come with a price tag. Check the apps you’re considering for free trials so you can try before you buy.