Alrighty vs SaneBox

Pick SaneBox if you want to keep your current mail app, on every device, and have low-priority mail moved out of your Inbox for you. Pick Alrighty if you read mail on a computer, your accounts are iCloud, Gmail or Outlook, and you'd rather stop unwanted senders than file their mail in another folder, with your mail logins kept on your computer.

These aren't the same kind of product. SaneBox is a service: it connects to your mailbox from its servers and moves messages between folders, and you keep reading in Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook or anything else. Alrighty is a mail app you switch to. So the real question is how each one handles mail you don't want, and what each needs from you to do it. Facts below come from each vendor's own pages, as of November 2026. Alrighty is our app.

How do Alrighty and SaneBox compare?

	Alrighty	SaneBox
What it is	A desktop mail app	A service that sorts your mailbox; works with any mail app
Runs on	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	Any device, through the app you already use
Accounts	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook.com, Microsoft 365	Gmail, Microsoft 365, iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, any IMAP, Exchange
Price	14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro	Paid only, "start at just $7 per month"; 7-day trial, no card
Who holds your mail login	The app on your computer	SaneBox's servers
Low-priority mail	Groups you describe (Pro); Filters	@SaneLater and other Sane folders, trained by dragging
A sender you never want	Stop mail: unsubscribes, archives, keeps new mail out	SaneBlackHole: future mail goes there, then Trash after 7 days
Overview of what you skipped	Clean up, a list in the app	The Daily Digest, an email
AI	Reply drafts, answers, your own AI over MCP	Optional: reply drafts, folder summaries, more

Does SaneBox work with Apple Mail, iCloud and Outlook?

Yes, all of them. SaneBox "works with every major email service such as Gmail, Microsoft 365, Apple iCloud, Yahoo! Mail and Fastmail," plus any IMAP, Exchange or ActiveSync server, and with apps such as Outlook and Apple Mail (SaneBox). It does this by working on the server. "SaneBox doesn't send or receive emails; your server handles that," and its folders "function like your Inbox, Drafts, or Sent folders," so they show up in any app on any device (SaneBox).

That is SaneBox's biggest advantage over Alrighty. Alrighty runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, but has no iPhone, Android or web app. It adds iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, so Yahoo, Fastmail and other IMAP accounts that SaneBox handles can't come along. If you read mail on your phone as much as on your computer, SaneBox's sorting follows you and Alrighty's doesn't.

Does SaneBox stop unwanted emails or just hide them?

Mostly it moves them, with an unsubscribe option on top. You drag a message to SaneBlackHole, which "teaches SaneBox to always send future emails from that sender straight to SaneBlackHole." After 7 days, SaneBox moves them to your Trash (SaneBox). A setting can "automatically unsubscribe from mailing lists by training them to SaneBlackHole," and the home page says it "Unsubscribes you from unwanted senders in one click." The help page doesn't explain how that unsubscribe works.

Alrighty's Stop mail does the stopping first. One click unsubscribes you every way the message offers (one-click, an email to the list, or the list's web page), archives the mail you already have from that sender, and moves their new mail out as it arrives. When the only way out is the list's web page, Alrighty finishes it in a browser on its server, so the sender sees neither your computer nor its address. It only unsubscribes from senders whose mail passed DMARC and wasn't marked spam, so a scammer never learns your address is live.

Two differences matter day to day. SaneBlackHole sends a sender's mail to Trash a week later; Stop mail sends it to Archive, where search still finds it. And some unwanted mail comes from a new sender each time, like cold sales, so blocking one sender at a time never ends it. Alrighty's Filters move that kind of mail to Archive from a description in your words or from rules, and never touch mail from people you've written to. Alrighty doesn't screen first-time senders: a new sender's mail lands in the Inbox until you stop it.

What replaces SaneLater and the Digest in Alrighty?

SaneBox moves mail it judges unimportant to @SaneLater, "based on headers (sender, subject, etc.)," and you train it by dragging messages between folders (SaneBox). "The Daily Digest is a daily summary of unimportant emails that haven't been opened yet" (SaneBox).

Alrighty has no single @SaneLater. Its closest tool is groups: you name a group and write a sentence about what belongs in it, and new Inbox mail that fits files under it. Groups are part of Pro and the trial, not the Free plan. Instead of a daily email, Clean up is a list you open in the app. It shows the senders you probably don't want, such as scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open, so you can stop them all at once.

If what you like about SaneBox is that it learns from where you drag things, that's a real difference. Alrighty's groups sort from what you write, not from your drags.

Is SaneBox safe? Who can read your email?

SaneBox reads less than many services by default. Its privacy policy says "We only access the envelope and header data associated with your emails," and "All email resides on the customer's email server and is never held on SaneBox servers." It says "we do not sell your personal data in any manner" and "We never share your data with third-party AI providers or advertisers." When you cancel, it deletes your data and removes the labels or flags it created.

What it does need is standing access. To work from its servers as your mail arrives, it "may have to store authorization credentials and related data," and its optional AI features "may now process the body content of your emails to provide summaries, generate responses."

Alrighty keeps your passwords and tokens on your computer, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. No Alrighty server holds them. Its search and phishing checks run on your computer with no server call. Its AI features are a different story: Clean up sends each sender's address and up to 3 of their newest emails to Alrighty's server, groups send each email's sender, subject and the start of its body, and replies and answers send the emails they read on to OpenAI. When you're signed in, Clean up sorts senders in the background. Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server.

So SaneBox reads only headers unless you turn on its AI, but holds your login. Alrighty never holds your login, but its AI features read more of the mail they sort.

Does SaneBox have AI like Alrighty?

Yes, as an option. SaneBox lists "Four AI features that draft replies in your voice, summarize any folder," including surfacing emails that wait for a reply and condensing your Digest (SaneBox). Its SaneDrafts feature "automatically creates reply drafts for your emails" in your Drafts folder, and "Drafts are never sent automatically." You turn it on in the SaneBox Dashboard, and it's "available on plans that include AI features" (SaneBox). SaneBox doesn't name the AI model it uses.

Alrighty's suggested replies are close to SaneDrafts in spirit: a draft in your voice, written from up to 12 of your sent emails and up to 12 messages of the conversation, which you send yourself. The difference is that Alrighty starts one when you open a reply, while you're signed in, rather than filling your Drafts folder. You can ask for a change in your own words, or click Shorten, Warmer or Formalize.

Alrighty also lets the AI you already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app or a local model, read and search your mail. That's off until you turn it on with Connect AI. SaneBox has nothing like it.

Is SaneBox worth the price?

That depends on how many devices you read mail on. SaneBox has no free plan. A help page says "Our plans start at just $7 per month, with significant savings for annual subscriptions." Snack covers one account, Lunch two, and Dinner four "and access to all SaneBox features" (plans). Its pricing page showed no amounts in the text we could read, so we don't list each plan's price. The home page offers "a 7-day free trial for each plan" with "No credit card required," though the help page above says "two weeks."

Alrighty has a 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. The Free plan has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups.

If you read mail on a phone as well as a computer, SaneBox is the only one of the two that sorts in both places. If you read on a computer, Alrighty covers the same ground inside the app.

Can you use SaneBox and Alrighty together?

Yes, on an iCloud, Gmail or Outlook account. SaneBox works on the server, so any app sees its result: mail it moves to @SaneLater leaves the Inbox before Alrighty shows it. But both would be sorting the same Inbox, so it makes sense to pick one job for each, or pick one product.

Which should you pick?

• You want unwanted senders stopped, not filed: Alrighty.
• You don't want any service holding your mail login: Alrighty.
• Claude or ChatGPT working in your mail: Alrighty.
• You read mail on your phone as much as on your computer: SaneBox.
• You want to keep Apple Mail, Outlook or Gmail as your app: SaneBox.
• Yahoo, Fastmail or another IMAP account: SaneBox.
• Sorting that learns from where you drag mail: SaneBox.

For more tools, see our SaneBox alternatives, which says what replaces each Sane folder. The best email unsubscribe app list compares tools that end the mail at the sender, and there are more comparisons.

Questions

Does SaneBox delete my emails?

Only from SaneBlackHole. Mail there moves to your Trash after 7 days, and SaneBox may clear it sooner if the folder passes 250 emails or all Sane folders pass 5,000. Mail in @SaneLater and the other folders stays until you move it.

What happens to my mail if SaneBox goes down?

SaneBox says new mail still reaches your Inbox, unsorted, until the service returns. Because it doesn't send or receive mail, your account keeps working.

What happens to my SaneBox folders if I switch?

SaneBox's folders are ordinary folders in your mailbox, so they stay in your iCloud, Gmail or Outlook account. If you cancel SaneBox, move what you want from them back to your Inbox first. Stop mail in Alrighty then handles the senders you used SaneBlackHole for.

Does Alrighty have a free plan?

Yes. After a 14-day trial with no card, Alrighty has a Free plan and Pro. SaneBox has no free plan, only a trial.