Cross Check Security vs Clean Links
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cross Check Security
Analyze files, URLs, and QR codes for security threats using VirusTotal reports. Modify complex URLs and create custom QR codes. Scan QR codes to preview content before activation.
- File analysis via VirusTotal
- URL reporting and modification
- QR code scanning
- QR code generation
- API key integration
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Use your API key to get File and URL reports from the free online service VirusTotal (https://virustotal.com)! Use our URL Lab to view and modify complex URLs. Our QR Code reader shows you the content of QR codes and lets you decide whether or not to activate the QR code. Our brand new QR Factory lets you create your own arbitrary QR codes.
Clean Links
This utility app removes tracking parameters from URLs, reveals the true destination of QR codes before opening, and allows you to send cleaned links between your devices. It prioritizes user privacy with no accounts, subscriptions, or ads.
- Strips tracking parameters from URLs
- Reveals QR code destinations before opening
- Sends cleaned links between Apple devices
- Unshortens shortened URLs
- Generates QR codes
- Safari extension for one-tap cleaning
- Shortcuts and widget integration
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That link a friend just sent you probably has a dozen tracking parameters glued to the end of it. Clean Links strips them off. It also opens up QR codes so you can read where they actually go before you commit to tapping. The app does a handful of things, and does them without an account, a subscription, or an ad: QR reader that shows you the destination URL first. Quishing scams work because nobody can read a QR code with their eyes, so you scan and hope. This one puts the real address on screen and waits. Link cleaner. Paste anything, get back the same link minus the utm tags, click IDs, and referral junk. Works on links from hundreds of shopping sites, social networks and search engines. Send to Device. Push a cleaned link from your iPhone into your Mac's browser, or over to another iPhone or iPad. If the device is asleep or offline the link waits for it. Unshorten. Feed it a bit.ly or t.co address and it follows the chain to whatever sits at the end. Useful when a shortened link turns up from someone you don't know, which is how most phishing starts. Tracker blocker covering 71+ services, running as a parameter remover across everything you paste. QR generator for making your own codes out of links you trust. Safari extension that cleans every link on a page in one tap. Shortcuts, a Control Center widget, and a share sheet action, if you want the whole thing automated. Nothing leaves your device. There's no analytics SDK in here, no crash reporter phoning home, no account to create. Privacy isn't a feature we bolted on; there was never any data to collect. ■ Send Links Between Your Devices Share a cleaned link from any iPhone, iPad or Mac and it opens where you send it: in your Mac's browser, or from a notification on iPhone and iPad. Links queue up if the device is offline. You can run Shortcuts on your other devices this way too. You'll need Clean Links on each device, iCloud turned on, and the same Apple account. ■ Coming from Hyperduck? Clean Links does the same handoff, adds tracker stripping on the way out, handles more than one Mac, and costs nothing. ■ Link Sharing FAQ ‣ Why not AirDrop? AirDrop needs both devices awake and nearby. This doesn't, and it drops the link straight into a background tab. ‣ Why not iCloud Tabs? Because iCloud Tabs only works in Safari, and the tabs are easy to lose. These open in whatever browser you actually use. ‣ Why not Reading List? Reading List is where links go to be forgotten. Yours open immediately. ‣ Why not Handoff? Handoff wants the devices in the same room. Clean Links supports Handoff anyway, for when they are. ‣ More than one device? Send to several at once. Any iPhone, iPad or Mac signed into the same Apple account with the app installed can receive. ‣ Want to leave a device out? Turn off receiving in that device's settings. ■ Spotted a tracker we don't catch yet? There's a link in Settings to tell us. We'll add them.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Clean Links at Free against Cross Check Security's $0.99. Clean Links also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (88 vs 1). On rating, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Clean Links is free to download; Cross Check Security costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Cross Check Security against 4.9 for Clean Links. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Clean Links has 88 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Cross Check Security's written reviews are positive against 93% of Clean Links's.
Cross Check Security ships an update every 9 months, Clean Links every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cross Check Security | Clean Links |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.9 (88 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 92.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 88 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 90 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Christopher Shearer | Numen Technologies Limited |
Customer experience
Cross Check Security
Clean Links
In-app purchases
Cross Check Security
No in-app purchases
Clean Links
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Cross Check Security free?
Is Clean Links free?
Which has better reviews, Cross Check Security or Clean Links?
Do Cross Check Security or Clean Links have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cross Check Security or Clean Links?
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