Superhuman vs Shortwave
Which tool to choose in 2026?
Productivite📊 Comparison radar
Superhuman
Shortwave
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📋 General information
Superhuman
Rating
★★★☆☆ 3.3/5
Pricing
Paid
Price detail
Starter: $25/mo (annual) · Business: $33/mo · Enterprise: custom
Company
Superhuman (Grammarly Inc.)
Launched
2017
Platforms
web, mac, windows, ios, android
Shortwave
Rating
★★★☆☆ 3.3/5
Pricing
Freemium
Price detail
Personal: free · Business: $24/mo/user · Max: $100/mo (Claude Opus 4.5)
Company
Shortwave Labs Inc.
Launched
2021
Platforms
web, ios, android
✨ Features
| Feature | Superhuman | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| AI Write & Autocomplete (GPT-4) | ✅ | — |
| AI Instant Reply | ✅ | — |
| Split Inbox | ✅ | — |
| Snooze & Remind | ✅ | — |
| Built-in CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) | ✅ | — |
| Complete keyboard shortcuts | ✅ | — |
| Read Status | ✅ | — |
| Snippets & Templates | ✅ | — |
| Multi-model AI Assistant (GPT-4o, Claude) | — | ✅ |
| Thread summaries | — | ✅ |
| Smart Inbox with bundles | — | ✅ |
| AI Compose | — | ✅ |
| Intelligent email search | — | ✅ |
| MCP Protocol support | — | ✅ |
| Auto bundles (grouping) | — | ✅ |
⚖️ Pros & Cons
⚡ Superhuman
- Security-certified and GDPR compliant with enterprise-grade protection
- Zero-day AI retention — no email data stored by the language model, exemplary privacy practice
- Mac, Windows, iOS and Android — complete multi-platform coverage with native apps
- Native CRM integration with Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive — built for sales workflows
- Speed and UX unanimously praised by professionals — the fastest email experience available
- No free plan with a minimum of ~$25/month per user — the most expensive email client on the market
- Gmail and Outlook only — no IMAP or other provider support, excluding many users
- No public API for developer integration — impossible to automate or extend with custom workflows
📧 Shortwave
- Multi-model AI with your choice of frontier and open-source models — pick the best for each task
- Intelligent email search — find any message by its content, not just keywords
- Founded by ex-Google Inbox engineers — proven email product expertise
- MCP Protocol support enables advanced AI agent integration — future-proof architecture
- Functional free personal plan to try the core experience
- Gmail only — no Outlook or IMAP support, which excludes a huge portion of email users
- Very small company (~17 employees, ~20K users) — long-term viability is uncertain
- Max plan at ~$100/mo is very expensive and security certification only available on Enterprise
🏆 Verdict
⚡ Choose Superhuman
The Porsche of email clients, now under Grammarly. SOC 2 + GDPR and zero-day AI retention are exemplary, but the high price with no free plan and lack of API limit the audience.
📧 Choose Shortwave
The most technically advanced AI email client (intelligent search, multi-model, MCP), but the small scale and Gmail-only support limit adoption.
Superhuman
Shortwave