Superhuman is the email client that makes Gmail feel like it's from 2005. Honestly, using it for the first time is kind of mind-blowing. Everything loads instantly, keyboard shortcuts are everywhere, and the whole experience feels ridiculously polished.
But here's the thing: it costs $30 per month. Per person. For email.
That's $360 annually just to read and send messages faster. If you're a solo founder or your company has 20 people, that's $7,200 a year on email clients. At some point you have to ask if speed and polish justify that much money.
The truth is Superhuman set a new bar for what email could be, and now other apps are catching up. Some match Superhuman's speed for half the price. Others focus on team collaboration that Superhuman barely touches. A few are completely free and still faster than Gmail's web interface.
We tested about a dozen email clients over the past 6 months to find legit Superhuman alternatives. Looking for these specific things:
Speed that actually matters. Not just "faster than Gmail" but genuinely snappy interfaces where actions happen instantly. Superhuman's speed is its killer feature, so alternatives need to at least get close.
Keyboard shortcuts that work. Superhuman built its entire UX around never touching your mouse. Good alternatives need extensive keyboard navigation that feels natural, not tacked on.
Reasonable pricing. This one's obvious. $30/month sets a high bar. We prioritized tools that cost less while delivering most of the experience. Because paying for premium email makes sense, paying luxury car prices doesn't.
Team features for collaboration. Superhuman is really built for individuals. If your team needs shared inboxes or internal conversations about emails, check out shared inbox tools instead.
Why Look Beyond Superhuman?
Superhuman is genuinely impressive, but it has real limitations beyond just the price tag.
The cost is the obvious one. $30/month for email feels steep when you realize Microsoft 365 gives you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook for $6/month. Even as someone who appreciates premium tools, that pricing gap is hard to ignore. I've been paying for Superhuman since late 2023 and every month I think about canceling.
It's also Gmail and Outlook only. If you use a different email provider, you're out of luck. No IMAP support, no custom domains beyond what Google and Microsoft offer. This locks you into those ecosystems pretty hard.
Team collaboration barely exists. Superhuman is designed for individuals managing their own inbox. You can't share inboxes with teammates, assign emails to others, or have internal conversations about messages. For solo work, fine. For teams, it's a non-starter.
The feature set is intentionally limited. Superhuman focuses on speed and keyboard shortcuts, which means they skip a lot of power features other clients offer. No email templates, no mail merge, no advanced filtering beyond basic labels. They argue this simplicity is the point, but it means you might need other tools for common workflows.
Mobile apps exist but they're not as transformative as desktop. The iPhone app is nice, sure, but it's not $30/month nice. You're paying premium prices for an experience that really shines on desktop. If you do most of your email on mobile, the value proposition weakens considerably.
The onboarding is also weirdly exclusionary. They still do the whole "schedule a tutorial call with our team" thing before you can use it. This made sense when they were building hype in 2019. In 2026, it just creates friction. Some people don't want to schedule a call just to try an email client.
Customization is limited compared to traditional email clients. You get Superhuman's way of doing things, take it or leave it. Can't change the interface layout, can't adjust how splits work, can't customize most keyboard shortcuts beyond what they allow. For people who like tweaking their tools, this feels restrictive.
What Makes a Good Superhuman Alternative?
When we evaluated email clients to potentially replace Superhuman, a few things mattered more than others.
Speed is non-negotiable. Superhuman's whole thing is being fast. An alternative that's slow disqualifies itself immediately. We're talking about the time between clicking an email and seeing it, between hitting send and the message going out, between searching and seeing results. Milliseconds matter when you process hundreds of emails daily.
Keyboard-first design separates good clients from great ones. Can you navigate your entire inbox, read messages, reply, archive, and search without ever touching your mouse? Superhuman makes this effortless. Alternatives need equally thoughtful keyboard shortcuts or they feel like a downgrade.
Pricing obviously matters for alternatives. If something costs $25/month, that's not really an alternative to Superhuman's $30. We focused on tools that either cost significantly less or offer way more features to justify similar pricing. The value equation needs to make sense.
Team features become critical if you're not working solo. Shared inboxes, assignments, internal comments - these matter for customer support teams or sales teams managing shared email addresses. Superhuman doesn't do this at all, so good alternatives might specifically target team use cases.
Email provider support determines if you can even use an alternative. Gmail and Outlook cover most people, but some teams use custom IMAP servers, Yahoo Mail, ProtonMail, or other providers. Flexibility here matters.
The learning curve shouldn't be steep. Superhuman requires that onboarding call partially because there's a lot to learn. Better alternatives either feel intuitive immediately or have excellent documentation and tutorials you can follow at your own pace.
Mobile experience counts more than you'd think. A lot of people read email on phones first, desktop second. If the mobile app is an afterthought, that limits the alternative's usefulness. Superhuman's mobile app is decent but not amazing, so alternatives have room to compete here.
Front is what happens when you build email for teams instead of individuals. If Superhuman feels too focused on solo inbox management, Front is the opposite extreme in the best way.
This is a shared inbox tool first, personal email client second. Your team's support@, sales@, or hello@ email addresses live in Front. Everyone can see incoming messages, assign them to teammates, have internal conversations about how to respond, and track what's been handled. Think Superhuman's speed and polish applied to team email workflows.
For customer-facing teams, this is honestly game-changing. I watched a support team switch from forwarding emails and cc'ing each other (nightmare) to Front, and their response time dropped by like 40% in the first month. The shared inbox meant no duplicate responses, no missed messages, and everyone could see what was happening.
The interface is clean and fast. Not quite Superhuman-level instant, but way faster than Gmail. Keyboard shortcuts are extensive, you can navigate most actions without a mouse. The sidebar shows conversation history, related messages, and team comments all in one place.
Rules and automations let you route incoming emails automatically. Messages from VIP customers go to your account manager. Support requests get tagged and assigned to whoever's on duty. Billing questions route to finance. This stuff that would require manual sorting in Superhuman happens automatically.
Analytics are built in too. See team response times, individual performance, busiest hours, and message volumes. Great for managers who need visibility into how email is being handled. Superhuman has basically zero analytics.
Integrations with tools like Salesforce, Asana, and Slack mean you can connect email to your broader workflows. When a sales email comes in, Front can automatically create or update a Salesforce record. That's not something Superhuman even attempts.
The downside is pricing. Front starts at $19/user/month, but you'll likely need the $49 or $99 tier for the features that actually replace Superhuman plus add team functionality. For a 10-person team, that's $490-990 monthly. But if you're comparing to Superhuman at $300/month for those same 10 people, Front at $190-490 more might justify itself through team efficiency gains.
Another thing: Front is definitely overkill if you just need personal email management. It shines for teams. Solo users should probably look at other alternatives on this list. See our Front vs Superhuman comparison.
Best for: Customer support teams, sales teams, or any group managing shared email addresses. If you tried Superhuman and thought "this is great but I need to collaborate with my team on emails," Front is specifically built for that. The pricing is high, but so is the value for the right use case.
Missive sits between Superhuman and Front. It's faster than Front, more collaborative than Superhuman, and cheaper than both. Honestly, it's kind of the sweet spot for a lot of teams.
Like Front, Missive does shared inboxes. Your team can work together on emails, assign messages, add internal comments, and see what everyone's working on. But unlike Front, Missive also works great as a personal email client. You can use it solo without feeling like you're driving a bus to pick up groceries.
The interface is stupidly fast. Actions happen instantly, search is quick, and there's no lag when switching between conversations. Not quite Superhuman's level (that app is freakishly optimized), but close enough that you won't feel like you downgraded.
Keyboard shortcuts are comprehensive. Missive clearly studied Superhuman because the shortcut philosophy is similar: you should rarely need your mouse. Navigation, actions, search - all accessible via keyboard. They even have a command palette (Cmd+K) that lets you jump to any feature or conversation.
What sets Missive apart is the built-in chat and video calls. You can have internal team chats alongside your email conversations. So instead of emailing about an email (yeah, that's a thing teams do), you just chat in Missive. The video call feature means you can hop on a quick call without opening Zoom. Honestly super convenient.
The rules and automation are solid too. Auto-assign messages, auto-tag based on sender or content, auto-archive newsletters. You can build pretty sophisticated workflows that save hours of manual email sorting.
They also support way more email providers than Superhuman. Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, Exchange - basically if you have an email address, Missive can probably connect to it. This flexibility matters if you're not locked into Google or Microsoft ecosystems.
Pricing is $14/user/month (annual billing) or $18/month billed monthly. That's literally half of Superhuman. For teams, this adds up fast. A 5-person team pays $70-90/month instead of $150 for Superhuman (which wouldn't even give them shared inbox features).
The free tier is surprisingly usable too. You get 2 email accounts and basic features. Enough to try it properly before committing.
Limitations? The mobile app exists but isn't amazing. It works, but it's not the most polished mobile email experience. Also, Missive doesn't have Superhuman's AI features like auto-generated replies. You're managing email manually, which is fine but worth noting.
Best for: Small to medium teams that want Superhuman-style speed plus collaboration features, all at half the price. Solo users who might grow into a team. Anyone who needs to support email providers beyond Gmail and Outlook. If you thought Superhuman was great but too expensive and too individual-focused, Missive probably fits.
Spark Mail is the free alternative that's actually good. Yeah, there's a premium tier, but the free version is legitimately useful. If you're leaving Superhuman primarily because of the cost, start here.
Spark focuses on smart inbox management. It automatically sorts your email into Personal, Notifications, and Newsletters. This sounds basic, but it's shockingly effective. Your actual important emails (from humans) show up in Personal. Automated notifications from apps go in Notifications. Marketing emails go in Newsletters. You can finally see what matters without scrolling through 50 automated messages.
The interface is clean and modern. Not quite as minimal as Superhuman, but way better than Gmail's cluttered web interface. Everything feels polished and thoughtful. Load times are fast on both desktop and mobile.
Mobile apps are where Spark really shines. The iPhone and Android apps are some of the best email experiences on mobile. Gestures work intuitively, widgets are useful, and the overall experience is fast. This is actually better than Superhuman's mobile apps, which are just okay.
Team features exist in the premium tier. Shared drafts, private comments, and discuss threads let your team collaborate on emails. Not as full-featured as Front or Missive, but solid for small teams that don't need enterprise-level shared inboxes.
Keyboard shortcuts are decent but not as extensive as Superhuman. You can navigate and perform common actions with keys, but power users might find it limiting. Still miles better than Gmail.
The calendar integration is actually nice. See your schedule alongside your inbox, join video meetings with one click, and manage events without switching apps. Superhuman doesn't have calendar integration at all.
Spark also has email scheduling, send later, and reminders built in. These are features you'd need to pay for or use extensions for in Gmail. Here they just work.
The catch with Spark is the business model shifted. It used to be completely free. Now there's a premium tier at $5-8/month that unlocks features like unlimited email accounts, advanced search, and priority support. The free tier still works, but it's limited to 2 email accounts and has some feature restrictions.
Honestly though? Even the paid tier at $8/month is like 73% cheaper than Superhuman. You're getting a solid email client with mobile apps that might actually be better than Superhuman's, all for way less money.
Data privacy is worth mentioning. Spark is made by Readdle, a Ukrainian company. They're clear about not selling your data, but the app does process your email on their servers for features like smart inbox. Some people prefer fully local clients. It's a trade-off.
Best for: Anyone who wants a modern, fast email client without spending $30/month. People who primarily use email on mobile. Small teams that need basic collaboration. If you're leaving Superhuman purely for cost reasons and don't need bleeding-edge speed, Spark probably covers 80% of what you liked about Superhuman at a fraction of the price.
Mailbird is the Windows alternative to Superhuman. Yeah, it works on Mac now too, but it really built its reputation among Windows users tired of Outlook.
The unified inbox is the big feature. Connect all your email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, IMAP, whatever) and see everything in one place. Superhuman only does Gmail and Outlook, and even then you need separate accounts. Mailbird just combines everything, which is stupidly convenient if you juggle multiple addresses.
Customization is way beyond what Superhuman offers. Change color themes, adjust layout, customize keyboard shortcuts, and tweak how emails display. If you like your tools to work exactly how you want, Mailbird gives you that flexibility. Superhuman is basically "our way or the highway."
The speed snooze feature is clever. Snooze emails to reappear later, which helps with inbox zero. You can also schedule emails to send later, set reminders to follow up if you don't get a reply, and use quick replies for common responses. These workflow features add up.
Integrations with other apps are extensive. Connect Mailbird to Slack, WhatsApp, Asana, Todoist, Google Calendar, and dozens of other tools. Access them all from the sidebar without switching windows. This is kind of like having a productivity hub where email is the center but not the only thing.
Keyboard shortcuts exist but they're not as central to the experience as Superhuman. You can definitely use Mailbird keyboard-first if you learn the shortcuts, but the app is designed to work well with mouse navigation too. Different philosophy, not necessarily worse.
The interface is clean but not as minimal as Superhuman. There's more UI chrome, more visible options. Some people find this helpful because features are discoverable. Others find it busier. Personal preference really.
Pricing is $2.49/month billed annually ($29.88/year) or $6.93/month billed monthly. That's literally one-tenth the cost of Superhuman annually. For that price you get email from multiple providers, customization, integrations, and a solid Windows app.
There's a lifetime license option too if you hate subscriptions. Pay once, use forever. $39.99 for personal license, $79.98 for business. Considering Superhuman costs $360/year, Mailbird's lifetime license pays for itself in like 6 weeks of Superhuman subscription.
The catch is Mailbird doesn't feel as premium as Superhuman. It's fast and functional, but there's no magic moment where you think "whoa, this reimagined email." It's more like "this is a really good, affordable email client." Which is fine! Just different.
Mobile app is basic. Like, it exists and works, but it's not competing with Spark or even Gmail's mobile app. If you do a lot of email on your phone, this is a weakness.
Best for: Windows users who want unified inbox across multiple email providers. People who value customization over minimalism. Anyone looking for an affordable, functional alternative that does everything Superhuman does (minus the speed obsession) for 90% less money. If you're leaving Superhuman because of cost and you're on Windows, Mailbird makes a ton of sense.
Switching Away From Superhuman
Moving from Superhuman to another email client is easier than you'd think, but there are a few things to know.
Your emails aren't going anywhere. Superhuman is just a client for Gmail or Outlook. Your actual emails live on Google or Microsoft servers. When you switch clients, you're just changing how you access those same emails. Nothing gets deleted or lost.
Keyboard shortcuts will feel different. This is probably the biggest adjustment. You've built muscle memory for Superhuman's shortcuts, and new apps use different keys. Most alternatives let you customize shortcuts, but there's still a relearning period. Give yourself a week before judging if the new shortcuts work for you.
Your workflow might need adjusting. Superhuman has specific ways of doing things - splits, snoozing, labels, search. Other clients handle these features differently. Sometimes better, sometimes just different. Be patient with yourself as you rebuild habits.
Test alternatives with your actual email. The free tiers and trials exist for a reason. Don't just read about features, actually use the tools with your real inbox for at least 3-5 days. Some clients look great on paper but feel wrong in practice. Others surprise you.
Consider what you actually used Superhuman for. If you mostly used it for speed and keyboard shortcuts, you might be fine with a simpler alternative. If you relied on specific features, make sure your new client handles them. People often discover they were paying for features they never used.
Don't switch during a busy period. Trying a new email client the week of a major deadline is asking for stress. Do it during a relatively calm period when you can afford to be less efficient while you learn.
The "right" alternative depends on your situation. Solo users have different needs than teams. Windows users might prefer different apps than Mac users. Someone processing 300 emails daily needs different features than someone processing 30. There's no one-size-fits-all replacement.
Which Superhuman Alternative Should You Choose?
The right Superhuman alternative depends on why you're looking to switch.
If you need team collaboration on email, Front is purpose-built for shared inboxes and team workflows. It's more expensive than Superhuman for small teams, but the team features justify it. Customer support and sales teams should start here.
For teams wanting Superhuman speed plus collaboration at lower cost, Missive is the sweet spot. It's half the price of Superhuman, supports more email providers, and includes team features that Superhuman doesn't have. Works great for solo users too.
If cost is your main reason for leaving, Spark Mail gives you a modern, fast email client for free (or $8/month for premium). The mobile apps are actually better than Superhuman's. You lose some speed and keyboard shortcut sophistication, but you keep 80% of what makes Superhuman nice.
Windows users should seriously consider Mailbird. It costs $2.49/month or $40 lifetime, supports every email provider, and lets you customize everything. Not as polished as Superhuman but literally 90% cheaper.
Honestly, try 2-3 of these before deciding. They all offer free trials or free tiers. What works for someone else might not work for you. The best email client is the one that fits your actual workflow and budget.
One last thing - Superhuman isn't going anywhere. If you try alternatives and decide the speed and polish are worth $30/month to you, that's fine. But now you know what else is out there and what trade-offs you're making. Informed choices beat default choices.