9 Must-Try Gmail/Outlook Inbox Cleaner Apps for 2023

Is your inbox a jumbled mess of unread emails? Do notifications and newsletters keep piling up until you‘re overwhelmed and unable to find important messages? Don‘t worry my friend, you‘re not alone. Staying on top of a crowded inbox is a struggle for everyone these days.

The average office worker receives 121 emails per day, and over 50% report feeling overwhelmed by the volume. My own inbox hovers around 100 emails on an average day between work communications, newsletters, alerts and more.

Let me walk you through 9 powerful inbox cleaner apps I‘ve discovered that have been total game changers for taming my out of control Gmail once and for all.

Why You Need an Inbox Cleaner

Before we dive into the tools, let me share a bit about my personal inbox woes. Like many professionals, my inbox got increasingly cluttered over the years as I subscribed to more services, made more contacts, and changed jobs.

Staying on top of my email became a frustrating game of whack-a-mole. No matter how much I cleaned, new messages kept flooding in.

Here‘s a look at how cluttered inboxes impact productivity:

Overwhelming Volume – Most office workers average over 100 emails daily. This makes it hard to focus on important messages.
Scattered Attention – Constant notifications scattered my attention and harmed deep focus.
Hard to Find Emails – I‘d lose track of key messages buried under piles of alerts and newsletters.
Difficulty Unsubscribing – Opting out of emails one-by-one wasted too much time.
No Separation – Personal and work emails blended together into one big mess.

I knew I needed a better system. Let‘s look at how inbox cleaning tools can help.

Benefits of Inbox Cleaning Apps

The right inbox organizer app can provide immense relief for your crowded inbox. Here are some of the benefits I‘ve personally experienced:

Decluttering – Removes subscriptions, notifications, alerts and other noise.
Automation – Uses AI and filters to sort emails automatically.
Summarization – Compiles favorite newsletters into a daily or weekly digest.
Unsubscribing – Lets you easily unsubscribe from lists in bulk.
Snoozing – Temporarily hides emails until a later reappearance date.
Segmentation – Separates work/personal emails into different categories.
Data Insights – Provides stats on senders, volume, peak times and more.

By leveraging these features, I‘ve been able to clear out over 60% of daily emails that were distracting noise. Let‘s look at some top apps to consider.

9 Inbox Organizer & Cleaner Apps

Based on my research and trials of dozens of tools, here are 9 inbox cleaner apps I recommend checking out:

1. SaneBox

SaneBox is my top choice for intelligently filtering inbox noise. It analyzes each email and decides whether to keep it in your main inbox, divert it to the "SaneLater" folder, or discard it entirely.

You can train SaneBox by always deleting certain senders like daily deals or notifications. It will start automatically filtering similar emails going forward.

I like using SaneBlackhole to completely block obnoxious senders right from my inbox. This saves me from endless unsubscribe loops.

SaneBox works across all platforms like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and more. They claim users save 11+ hours every week on average by leveraging the app.

2. Clean Email

Clean Email is another great automation tool that helps you unsubscribe from newsletters. Its #1 appeal is the ability to roll up all your subscriptions into a daily digest.

This digest keeps you informed from top senders without cluttering the main inbox. You can also fully unsubscribe from any unwanted lists with one click.

I‘m a big fan of the auto-clean functions like archiving emails older than X days and removing senders who haven‘t emailed recently. This ensures my inbox stays clean automatically.

Clean Email supports all major email platforms. It‘s available as a web app, browser extension and mobile app for convenience.

3. Newton

Newton is quickly becoming a leader in AI-powered inbox cleaning. After connecting your email, Newton gets to work categorizing every message into topics like Travel, Purchases, Finance, Relationships, etc.

The key benefit is never losing track of an important email because it‘s automatically filed into the appropriate folder. I love getting bulk categories cleaned up in a single click.

Newton also has handy email digest features. You can get a daily summary email with newsletters and notifications compiled into one easy to read message.

While supporting most major email platforms, Newton excels with deep Gmail integration. I highly recommend giving the free trial a shot.

4. Unroll.me

Unroll.me is great for quickly unsubscribing from email lists. It scans your inbox and shows a list of all active subscriptions. You can then batch unsubscribe from all unwanted senders immediately.

For newsletters you want to keep, Unroll.me compiles them into a single "Rollup" message. This daily digest keeps you informed without flooding your inbox.

I will say the usefulness is pretty limited outside of subscription list management. But as a free tool for list cleaning, Unroll.me works wonders.

5. My Email Tamer

Don‘t let the dated interface fool you – My Email Tamer is a powerful list unsubscriber. It lets you take bulk actions on all your subscriptions at once.

With one click, you can unsubscribe, roll up into a digest, mark as inactive, and take other actions to all selected lists. The support for mass management makes cleaning simple.

My Email Tamer also gives you inbox statistics like biggest senders, busiest times, and trends. I check the inactive lists report monthly and do a big purge.

While built for Gmail, My Email Tamer also works great with Outlook, Yahoo and most other inboxes. It‘s available as a browser extension.

6. Superhuman

Superhuman is in a class of its own – a premium email client rebuilt for power users and professionals. It has the most robust hotkey support I‘ve seen to blaze through inbox tasks.

With easy shortcuts, I can archive, schedule, snooze, mute, mark as done and more to emails in a flash. The efficiency gains are remarkable.

Superhuman also uses AI + relationships to highlight your most important unread emails at the top. This ensures I never miss something urgent from my boss or coworker.

My only gripe is the exclusive support for Gmail accounts. But if you‘re a Gmail diehard like me, Superhuman is a game changer.

7. FollowUpThen

FollowUpThen has a singular purpose – to resurface emails at a later date so you can keep your inbox cleared without losing track of messages.

If I get an email I need to deal with eventually but not now, I simply drag it into my FollowUpThen sidebar to select a future date. This takes 10 seconds but is awesome for staying organized.

Following up is a huge weakness in email. By scheduling messages to reappear when needed, FollowUpThen solves that problem elegantly.

It only works for Gmail, but all you need is a simple browser extension to start managing follow-ups better.

8. Polymail

Polymail is another email client working to declutter inboxes. Its signature feature is the "Important First" view.

Using AI and relationships, Polymail calculates a priority score for each email and surfaces the most important ones at the top. This ensures I never miss something urgent.

I‘m also a big fan of email snoozing and send later options. Polymail makes it simple to temporarily clear my inbox without dropping the ball.

The summaries and activity charts also give me visibility into my communication cadence each week. Polymail works great for both Gmail and Outlook.

9. Mailstrom

Last up is Mailstrom, which focuses on automation to categorize and unsubscribe from emails. The key feature is creating custom categories and training Mailstrom‘s AI to automatically sort and file messages.

I‘ve set up categories for Purchases, Travel, Notifications, and Family. Now about 50% of my emails never hit the inbox and are auto-filed based on my preferences.

Mailstrom works across all email platforms, and also has handy unsubscribe and reporting features similar to other tools above. It‘s a great set-it-and-forget-it solution.

Key Takeaways

Here are my main tips for picking an inbox cleaning tool:

Evaluate your problem – Do you need help unsubscribing, digesting, snoozing, categorizing or following up? Select a tool aligned to your needs.
Try demos – Most inbox apps offer a free trial. Test out a few to compare the interfaces and features.
Create workflows – Set up filing rules, shortcuts and categories tailored to your workflow for the best automation.
Refine over time – Your tool will get smarter the more you use it and refine the configuration.
Combine solutions – Use different apps for subscriptions, AI filing, reminders etc. for maximum impact.

Time to Declutter Your Inbox

No matter how out of hand your inbox has become, the tools above can help rein it back under control. Take some time to sign up for demos and build an organization system that clicks with your personal communication style.

With the right set of solutions, you can eliminate 60%+ of daily emails through automation. This will free up hours wasted on manual inbox management each week.

I hope these recommendations have been helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to chat more about strategies for inbox zen. Now go give your email a much needed spring cleaning.