Best Superhuman Alternatives in 2025

Superhuman is a powerful email client with the ability to connect Gmail & Outlook. However, there are alternatives that might be worth considering...

Whilst Superhuman is well-polished as an email client, and oozes good-quality design, there are many reasons people don't get on with it.

Why people don't get on with Superhuman?

Some of the reasons why people typically don't commit to, or stay with Superhuman:

• Too Expensive - It starts at $25 per month and for many that's expensive as an email client that connects with Gmail & Outlook.

• New Ownership - Grammarly now own Superhuman. Maybe the fear of a larger company shutting it down or merging it has drawn you here.

• Too Design Focused - It's a work of art, but maybe you're not looking for design as a feature, but maybe features or extended AI abilities.

This is totally understandable. You might want something less expensive with similar in features to consider.

1. Spark Mail

Best for All Round

Spark Mail is developed and built by Readdle, a well-known productivity suite of apps.

Compared to Superhuman, Spark is less expensive, comes with some solid features on a wide range of devices including Mac and does come with some AI features too for sending & handling email replies. It won't be as attractive, but it is well-built and comes as a robust and reliable alternative. You won't get the silky smooth speeds of Superhuman, neither the well-crafted features like AI auto-reply, but you will get an app that works well offline, handles emails & is supported by a big company that has been developing it for years (if that's your worry).

Best features

• Handle emails from IMAP to Exchange (including Gmail & Outlook)

• Comes on a wide range of devices.

• Helps organize your inbox (premium) by sorting and prioritizing the inbox.

• Used by 17.5M people worldwide.

What is it better or worse for?

• Comes with free plan.

• Better with optional email accounts (eg. Exchange/IMAP etc)

• Similar or less AI features

• Less attractive design

• Less expensive ($4.99 per month)

How does it compare on price?

• Spark Mail comes in at a reasonable $59.99 per year, per user.

• Compared to Superhuman's $300 per year.

2. Shortwave

Best for AI-Powered Email

Shortwave is an AI-focused email app growing in popularity.

Lots of people look at Shortwave when AI is important for their email inbox. Compared to Superhuman it has similar abilities like the ability to re-organize your inbox, use AI to write emails, search across your inbox, and for teams some collaborative abilities which allows them to share emails & collaborate. People won't like Shortwave if they like a good quality desktop (Windows/mac) app as Shortwave offer their desktop app as a Chrome browser app, which ports the web experience unlike Superhuman's native tool.

If you've come from Superhuman, it does feel less connected in terms of features, but does the closest like-for-like job. They describe themselves as AI agentic email, so their future if firmly planted with AI.

Best features

• Handles emails from your Gmail & beyond.

• Uses AI to organize your inbox and write your emails (in voice).

• Helps you save and create calendar events using chat AI feature (sidebar).

What is it better or worse for?

• Less expensive.

• Better calendar creation & management (opinion).

• Lacks in search abilities compared to Superhuman.

How does it compare on price?

• They have a free plan.

• $7 per month for individuals for .gmail and .edu accounts only.

• Starts from $14 per month for businesses, and expands to $24 per month.

• $7 per month (Shortwave) versus $25 per month (Superhuman).

3. Missive

Best for Sharing Email

Missive is a shared inbox software that is used by small and large sized teams to manage emails.

It helps to assign emails and co-ordinate replies. It is one of the best of shared inbox tools on the market as it works well for leaving comments and managing a support inbox, or an inbox that requires multiple people. Superhuman offered abilities for sharing your inbox for teams and allows you to collaborate on replies, but if this is how you were using Superhuman, we'd recommend taking a look at Missive, as it's one of the best in-class tools for managing emails together.

Missive is very customizable too and has lots of integration abilities.

Best features

• Share and collaborate on emails.

• Assign emails to your team members.

• Good for VAs and large teams handling help desks.

• Lots of integrations for connecting Zapier, AI and other APIs.

What is it better or worse for?

• Better for teams that want to collaborate on emails.

• Less expensive than Superhuman per team member.

• Not as good with pre-built AI features as Superhuman.

How does it compare on price?

• Missive charges from $14 per month, per user.

• Much cheaper for handling emails together than Superhuman.

4. Canary Mail

Best for AI Email Assistant

Canary Mail wants to be the best email AI assistant on the market.

It helps you connect up Gmail, Outlook and others in one app with a dose of AI other the top. Compared to Superhuman, it offers a better price and a good focus on AI calendar and email that might make it a compelling alternative. The first thing that it does well is has a free plan that allows unified inboxes, then the next tier up isn't going to break the bank at $3 per month for individual users. Canary Mail, much like Superhuman and Missive, allow you to collaborate on your inbox in real-time with your team too.

This app is used by 1M people and has some nice upgrades for those who want a more secure Superhuman alternative or even Proton Mail alternative.

Best features

• Focused on AI management of emails.

• Security-focus with PGE security (premium)

• It comes on a range of devices & email accounts

• AI chatbot assistant for sending emails & more

• Unified inbox and traditional feature

What is it better or worse for?

• Comes with a good free plan to get started.

• Good for upgrading for teams if you need to.

• Comes with a wide range of email providers for connecting.

• Good AI features, but not as optional as Superhuman.

How does it compare on price?

• They have a free plan.

• Starts from $3 per month for individuals with an upgrade to $10 per month

• There is optionality for teams and support teams.

5. Spike

Best for Chat Like Email

Spike is a team focused email app designed around AI and collaboration.

Think of Spike as a tool that combines Slack's chat and email apps like Superhuman. The app is well-known for being a replacement for Slack and email in one. If you compare it to Superhuman, it is much more focused for teams who want to share emails, chat in real-time and share tasks/documents and more together. Spike doesn't have as attractive design in comparison, but can replace something like Slack Connect for you to help bring your email (from existing tools) into a client that serves you and your team's needs.

Best features

• Comes with real-time chat and channels for conversations.

• Good for external emails and sharing them together.

• Comes with a domain to host your emails through.

• Does handle comments, tasks & documents too for sharing & collaborating on.

What is it better or worse for?

• More cost-effective than Slack and email client (in one).

• Handles documents (Superhuman cannot).

• Good for real time team chatter.

How does it compare on price?

• Free for up to 3 members.

• Starts from $4 per month, per user.

6. HEY Email

Best for Productivity

Hey Email is another interesting option that offers users a free domain when getting started, specifically a hey.com email address.

It lets you forward any Gmail items for future reference and has a robust calendar application. The entire concept of Hey Email is to go against the grain of traditional email practices, aiming to help you be more productive in handling your emails.

While Superhuman provides decent functionality for quickly and productively managing your inbox, Hey Email challenges conventional email systems and helps reteach how to handle your inbox effectively. Created by the developers of Basecamp, it is well-developed in the background.

Others to Consider

To be honest, there are so many options, so we considered some notable mentions. From YC backed start-ups to established players: