Archyv vs PhotoSweeper

What PhotoSweeper is

PhotoSweeper, by the Overmacs Team, is a duplicate and similar-photo cleaner for the Mac, and it has been one for a long time — its release notes reach back to macOS Sierra. Its reach is the first thing to know about it: it works with folders and external drives, and it also opens Apple Photos, Lightroom Classic and Capture One libraries directly, showing their albums and collections in a media browser. Lightroom CC, the cloud version, is not supported, and the manual asks you to close those apps before a scan so the library stays in sync.

It has three search modes. Duplicate Files finds byte-identical files. Similar Photos finds photos that look alike, with a matching level you can adjust in the results as you go and a choice of how to compare — including a Subjects option that ignores everything but the subject. Series of Shots groups by time gap, for thinning a burst. Results are reviewed One by One, Face-to-Face with metadata for both, or All in One as a grid, and Auto Mark applies your rules — dimensions, rating, file size, and since version 5.4 an AI Quality Score — to mark every photo in a group but the one to keep. Locked photos take part in comparison but cannot be marked.

Removal never bypasses a safety net: folder files go to the system Trash, Photos items to a “Trash (PhotoSweeper)” album you empty yourself, Lightroom photos are marked Rejected and collected, Capture One photos go to that app’s trash. It reads RAW, HEIC, DNG, WebP and PDF, and video containers macOS does not open natively, such as AVI, MKV and WMV; the manual notes that for video it finds identical files only.

As Overmacs and the App Store state it on the date above: version 5.5.5, $14.99 on the Mac App Store, macOS 10.15 or later, built for Apple silicon, and a trial limited to removing ten photos.

What Archyv is

Archyv is a batch photo and media manager for the Mac: one change run across a whole folder of photos and video, with a preview before and a change history after. Duplicate Detection is one of its twelve processes, alongside renaming from metadata, format conversion, metadata and copyright editing, folder generation and templated transfer. It works on folders on disk, not inside the Photos library. It costs $99 one-time per seat, runs on macOS 14 or later, and has a 14-day trial that needs no account.

Where PhotoSweeper wins

Libraries. If your photos live in Photos, Lightroom Classic or Capture One, PhotoSweeper goes in and cleans them in place, with removal routed to each app’s own recovery mechanism. Archyv cannot see inside any of them.

Control over similarity. A threshold you can slide while looking at the results, a Subjects mode, and Series of Shots by time gap give more ways to define “the same photo” than Archyv’s three fixed accuracy levels.

Marking at scale. Auto Mark with ordered rules, a quality score, locking, and marking with a single key are built for libraries of hundreds of thousands. Archyv’s review is one pair at a time, one mark per pair.

Price and reach. $14.99 one-time against Archyv’s $99, and it runs on Macs four macOS versions older.

If duplicates are the only job, PhotoSweeper is the better buy, and the site-wide comparison page already says so.

Where Archyv wins

Two-stage matching by default. Archyv groups exact duplicates first — size, date, dimensions — then compares the pictures by perceptual hashing, so a TIFF, its JPEG export and a 1200-pixel web copy are matched in one pass without choosing a mode. PhotoSweeper’s Duplicate Files mode is identical files only; near-duplicates are a separate Similar Photos search.

RAW and JPEG by content, not filename. A RAW file and the JPEG, HEIC, TIFF or PNG made from it are labelled Related Files, never offered as a duplicate pair, and the names need not match; marking one asks for a separate confirmation. PhotoSweeper’s sidecar option pairs RAW + .jpg by matching base name, and is off by default.

Video by content. Archyv compares videos by sampled frames — three, five or seven by accuracy level — so a re-encoded clip can match its original. PhotoSweeper’s manual says it finds “absolutely identical video files only, regardless of comparison settings”.

One path to the Trash, with undo. Every removal goes to the macOS Trash, and Archyv’s undo brings a photo and its Lightroom or Photos edit files back together. PhotoSweeper is equally careful, but the recovery route depends on where the photo came from, and the Photos album must be emptied by hand.

The other eleven jobs. After the copies are gone, the same app renames from capture date, converts formats, writes copyright and files into folders, with the same preview and undo. PhotoSweeper can batch-rename while copying or moving; the rest it does not attempt.

Side by side

Which one to choose

Choose PhotoSweeper if:

• your photos are in Photos, Lightroom Classic or Capture One and you want them cleaned there;
• you thin bursts and near-duplicates often and want a threshold you can tune while looking;
• you have a very large library and want rules to do the marking;
• duplicate removal is the only job, and $14.99 is the right price for it.

Choose Archyv if:

• your archive is folders on a drive, and the copies are exports, resizes and re-encodes of the same picture or clip;
• you shoot RAW and keep processed versions, with names that do not always match;
• you want both files’ metadata in front of you before each decision, and one Trash-plus-undo path afterwards;
• you will rename, convert, credit or file the same library next.

Using both

They pair well. PhotoSweeper for the Photos, Lightroom or Capture One library, Archyv for the folder-based archive and the passes that follow. Neither develops RAW or catalogues; that remains Lightroom’s, Capture One’s or Photos’ job.

Next: the site-wide comparison covers the other tools Archyv is measured against, and finding and removing duplicates walks through Archyv’s scan, accuracy levels and review in full.

Facts about PhotoSweeper were checked on its own site on 17 September 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us and it will be corrected. Official site: PhotoSweeper.