Aidenly vs SaneBox: filtering the noise, or remembering what matters
SaneBox sorts your inbox so less reaches you. Aidenly reads what arrives and remembers what it means. Both work alongside your existing email — they solve different halves of the problem.
Aidenly vs SaneBox
The short version: SaneBox decides what reaches your inbox. Aidenly reads what's in it and remembers what it means. Both sit alongside your existing email rather than replacing it — but they solve different halves of the same problem.
We build Aidenly. We've tried to describe SaneBox accurately and say where it's the better choice, because for a lot of people it is.
Both work alongside your email — that's the part they share
This matters, because it's the thing both get right and most competitors don't. Neither product asks you to switch email clients. SaneBox has famously "nothing to download." Aidenly is a separate surface you visit when you want it. You keep reading mail wherever you read it today.
After that, they diverge completely.
Filtering vs. understanding
SaneBox is a sorting system. It learns which senders matter to you and moves the rest out of your inbox into folders — SaneLater, SaneNews, and so on. The promise is less email in front of you. It has been doing this for years, and it is very good at it.
Aidenly is a reading system. It doesn't move your mail anywhere. It reads what arrives, works out what genuinely needs you today, and extracts the facts and commitments buried inside — so that later you can ask "what did the vendor say about the Q3 invoice?" and get an answer with the message it came from.
The distinction in one line: SaneBox reduces what you have to read. Aidenly reduces what you have to remember.
| SaneBox | Aidenly | |
|---|---|---|
| Core job | Filter mail out of your inbox | Read mail and surface what matters |
| Works alongside your client | Yes | Yes |
| Moves/organises your actual mail | Yes — sorts into folders | No — never touches your mailbox |
| Email providers | Gmail, Microsoft 365, iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, IMAP, Exchange | Gmail (more planned) |
| Remembers facts across years | Not a stated feature | Yes |
| Ask questions about your email | Not a stated feature | Yes |
| Follow-up reminders | Yes | Partly (attention surface) |
| Free tier | No (7-day trial) | Yes |
Where SaneBox is genuinely stronger
It works with almost any email account. Gmail, Microsoft 365, iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, and any IMAP or Exchange server. Aidenly currently supports Gmail only. If your mail isn't in Gmail, Aidenly isn't an option today and SaneBox is.
It actually reduces inbox volume. SaneBox moves mail out of the way. That's a concrete, immediate result you feel on day one. Aidenly leaves your inbox exactly as it was — it gives you a different place to look, which is a slower kind of relief.
It's mature and proven. Long-established, with years of refinement on one job. Aidenly is new.
Its filtering improves with correction. Move something and it learns. That feedback loop is well-built.
BlackHole and Snooze are genuinely good. Permanently silencing a sender, or deferring mail to a better time, are simple ideas executed well.
Where Aidenly is different
It remembers, rather than sorts. SaneBox helps you avoid unimportant mail. It does not help you recall what was in the important mail three months later. Aidenly builds a private memory of the facts, decisions, and commitments in your mail, organised by domain — work, finance, family — and you can query it in plain language.
It never touches your mailbox. SaneBox works by moving messages into folders. That's how it delivers value, and it means it needs permission to modify your mail. Aidenly is read-only — it cannot move, delete, or send anything, because those permissions are never requested. Nothing in your inbox changes.
It tells you what needs you today. Rather than only filtering out noise, Aidenly surfaces the specific threads that need a response, with the context to act on them, and a briefing that ties them to your calendar.
There's a free tier that doesn't expire. SaneBox is a paid product with a trial. Aidenly's free tier is permanent.
Which should you pick?
Choose SaneBox if: your mail isn't in Gmail, your main pain is volume — too much arriving — you want fewer messages in your inbox, or you want a mature product with a long track record.
Choose Aidenly if: you're on Gmail, your main pain is losing track rather than volume, you want to ask questions about your own email history, you want a briefing of what needs you (weekly on Free, daily on Pro), or you'd rather nothing modified your mailbox at all.
They genuinely complement each other. SaneBox filters what reaches your inbox; Aidenly reads what's there and remembers it. Because Aidenly is read-only and changes nothing, running both is straightforward — SaneBox thins the stream, Aidenly makes sense of what's left.
On pricing
Both change pricing over time, so we won't quote theirs — it would go stale. See sanebox.com and our pricing.
The structural difference: SaneBox is paid-only with a 7-day trial. Aidenly has a free tier that doesn't expire.
Aidenly is a private AI assistant for Gmail. Read-only, verified by Google's OAuth review and an independent CASA security assessment. See how it works.
Google™ and Gmail™ are trademarks of Google LLC. SaneBox is a trademark of its respective owner. Aidenly is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.