InboxSweeper vs Unroll.Me

InboxSweeper is a free, open-source tool for clearing old promotional mail and newsletters and unsubscribing from mailing lists. It supports Gmail fully; Yahoo and other IMAP inboxes are experimental. Choose among three sweep modes: Sloth targets mail older than two years, Normal mail older than one year, and MadMax includes recent promotional mail. Their respective run caps are 25, 50, and 100 senders. Before moving messages, sweeps show counts; financial, security, payment, receipt, and government mail is protected. You can unsubscribe, move selected messages to Trash, or report senders as spam. Trash messages are described as recoverable for about 30 days. One-click and mailto unsubscribe options are supported; web-link-only options are flagged for manual handling. The tool runs on your computer and says it does not upload mail, credentials, or tokens. It offers a local browser interface, Windows executable, terminal CLI, and AI-agent instructions. It uses a scoped app password rather than Google OAuth, with credentials stored in macOS Keychain or a locked file.

Unroll.Me manages subscription email by scanning messages and letting users block, roll up, or keep them. Selected messages move to an Unroll.Me folder and are gathered into a daily digest delivered at a time the user chooses. Blocked senders’ messages go to an Unroll.Me/Unsubscribed folder instead of appearing in the main inbox. The mobile apps provide a subscription list, bulk actions, subscription editing, and rich-text previews with a built-in browser. Supported providers include Gmail and Google Apps, iCloud, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, and Outlook.com addresses, including Hotmail, MSN, and Live Mail; Outlook 365 is not supported. It is free, but its stated model involves collecting commercial email information for measurement products and other uses. Mobile browsers lack some functions, including login and subscription editing. The service is unavailable to customers in the European Union and European Economic Area.