Shortwave vs Superhuman

Shortwave is an AI-powered email client built by former Google engineers that layers natural-language automation on top of email. Users can ask it to organize their inbox, draft messages in their own voice, search across past mail, and schedule meetings, all through plain-language prompts rather than manual filters. Beyond individual productivity, Shortwave includes team features such as shared threads, comments and assignments, plus integrations with Slack, Notion, Asana and HubSpot. It is used by teams at companies including Twilio, Spotify and GitHub, and runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android in addition to the web.

Superhuman is a premium email client designed to make inbox management lightning‑fast. It combines aggressive caching, keyboard‑first navigation, and smart features like read receipts and snooze to help professionals handle high volumes of email efficiently. Available on web and mobile, Superhuman syncs with Gmail and Outlook, offering a unified experience across devices while keeping the focus on speed and productivity. Its subscription model includes dedicated support and continuous feature updates.

• Full native apps across Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, not just a browser extension
• Team features like shared threads and assignments make it usable for shared inboxes
• AI search can answer questions across mail history rather than only keyword matching
• Built by an experienced team with backing evident from its enterprise customer list

• Blazing fast email loading and navigation.
• Extensive keyboard shortcut support.
• Read receipt and send‑undo features.
• Snooze and split inbox for better organization.

• No published free tier, only a 14-day trial before paid billing
• Per-seat pricing rises quickly at the Premier and Max tiers for AI-heavy usage
• Migrating a team's whole workflow to a new email client is a bigger switch than adding a plugin

• High monthly subscription cost.
• Limited to Gmail and Outlook accounts.
• No public API or extensibility.