The best Superhuman alternatives for small teams in 2026

It depends on why you liked Superhuman. If it was speed and keyboard shortcuts on Gmail, Mimestream and Shortwave come closest. If you need IMAP accounts, Spark and Canary Mail. If several people answer the same inbox, Missive or Front. If you mostly wanted AI drafts, an assistant inside your current inbox costs less than a new client.

Superhuman is an email client: it sits on top of a mailbox you already pay for. Today it works with Gmail and Microsoft 365 accounts only, on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and the web. Since 2025 the company behind Grammarly calls itself Superhuman, and Superhuman Mail is one product in a suite with Grammarly, Coda-based docs and the Go assistant.

How we chose

• Accounts it works with: Gmail only, Gmail and Microsoft 365, or any IMAP mailbox.
• Price per user: the public price, with its billing basis and currency, as of the date of this article.
• AI features: what is included in the plan and what is an add-on or metered.
• Team features: shared threads, comments, shared inboxes, assignments.
• Apps: which platforms have a real app.
• Data: where the vendor says mail is processed or stored, when it says so.

We left out Notion Mail: Notion announced in June 2026 that it was shutting it down, and it closed on 22 September 2026.

Superhuman Mail has three plans. Starter is US$25 per member per month and Business is US$33, both billed annually; annual billing saves about 18% on paying monthly. Enterprise is priced on request. Starter already includes AI writing, instant replies, auto-labels, reminders and summaries. Business adds auto-drafts, Ask AI, custom AI labels, an MCP server for Mail and the HubSpot and Salesforce integrations.

Those prices are on top of the mailbox itself. A team on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 pays for both, which is why many people start looking for something cheaper once the whole team, not one person, wants the same client.

Prices are the vendors' public prices on 2026-10-05. Some vendors show EUR or USD depending on where you are; we quote the currency their page showed us.

1. Shortwave

Shortwave is an AI-first email client for Gmail. It only signs in with a Gmail or Google Workspace account: Microsoft 365 and Exchange are not supported, and other providers work only by forwarding into Gmail. Plans are Business at US$30, Premier at US$45 and Max at US$120 per seat per month, with AI included in every plan and higher quotas as you go up. Every plan has thread sharing, comments, assignees and shared labels.

Best for: a Gmail team that wants the most AI in the client itself. Trade-off: no Outlook, and the price is close to Superhuman. Shortwave says its data is stored in Google Cloud and lists OpenAI, Anthropic and Pinecone as sub-processors.

2. Spark Mail

Spark, from Readdle, works with Gmail, Outlook and Exchange, and any IMAP account, on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Apple Watch. There is a free plan. Plus costs €10 per user per month on monthly billing, less on a yearly plan, and adds the writing assistant, summaries, translations and AI meeting notes; Pro is €22 per month with unlimited meeting notes. Shared inboxes and unlimited collaborators are on Enterprise.

Best for: the closest thing to Superhuman for a fraction of the price, on any account. Trade-off: team features on Plus and Pro are limited to two active collaborators, and Spark says its infrastructure is hosted by Google in the US.

3. Mimestream

Mimestream is a native macOS client built on the Gmail API. It costs US$4.99 per month or US$49.99 per year, per seat. It has no AI features listed, no Windows or mobile app, and it works with Gmail and Google Workspace only. In return it is fast and keeps your data and tokens on your Mac, talking to Gmail directly with no sync service in between.

Best for: a Mac user on Gmail who wanted Superhuman for speed, not for AI. Trade-off: Mac only.

4. Canary Mail

Canary Mail is a privacy-focused client for Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, iCloud, Yahoo, Proton and Zoho accounts, on Mac, iOS, Windows and Android. The free plan includes AI prioritisation; Growth is US$3 per month (US$36 per year) and Pro+ US$10 per month (US$100 per year), both with an AI copilot for writing and summaries, and both also sold as lifetime licences. Canary does triage on the device and says your mail is not used to train AI models.

Best for: one person with several accounts who cares about privacy. Trade-off: no real team features.

5. Missive

Missive is a team inbox with chat built in. It connects Gmail, Office 365, Exchange, iCloud and any IMAP account, plus SMS and social channels, on the web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Starter is US$14 per user per month for up to 5 users, Productive US$24 for up to 50 users and Business US$36; annual billing is 20% off. AI is metered: you buy credits or bring your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini key.

Best for: a small team that answers hello@ or sales@ together and discusses mail in comments. Trade-off: AI costs extra and needs some setup.

6. Front

Front is a shared inbox and customer service platform. It syncs both ways with Gmail and Office 365 and takes other providers through forwarding. Starter is US$25 per seat per month for up to 10 seats, Professional US$65 and Enterprise US$105, billed annually. Basic AI writing and summaries are included with limits; Copilot is a US$20 per seat add-on.

Best for: support, success and account teams with SLAs and routing rules. Trade-off: more tool, and more money, than a founder needs for their own inbox.

7. HEY for Domains

HEY, from 37signals, is an email host with its own apps, so it replaces your mailbox rather than sitting on top of it. HEY for Domains costs US$12 per user per month, with the first user at US$10, and includes your custom domain, shared threads, private comments and group addresses. There is no IMAP or POP: you use the HEY apps on web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. HEY lists no built-in AI features and offers a command-line tool so outside agents can work with a mailbox.

Best for: a team that wants a calmer, opinionated inbox and is happy to move hosting. Trade-off: you give up other mail apps.

8. Fyxer AI

Fyxer is an assistant, not a client: it works inside the Gmail or Outlook you already use. It sorts and labels mail, drafts replies in your tone, takes meeting notes and helps with scheduling. Starter is US$30 per user per month, or US$22.50 billed annually, for one inbox; Professional is US$50, or US$37.50 annually, with several inboxes and HubSpot. Fyxer says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 and does not use your data to train outside models.

Best for: someone who liked Superhuman’s AI but not changing apps. Trade-off: you still pay for the mailbox separately. We compare it in detail in Skein vs Fyxer.

9. Skein

Skein is not a Superhuman-style client, so it only belongs on this list if your real problem is threads that go quiet. Business email on your own domain with an agent that follows up on every conversation. Hosted in the EU. The agent notices when a customer, investor or candidate is waiting and drafts the follow-up in your tone. By default nothing is sent without your OK, from the app or, at launch, from Slack or WhatsApp, and every send has a few seconds to undo. For the contacts you choose, you can let it send on its own. Mail and agent run in Frankfurt, and you can keep reading mail in Apple Mail, Outlook or the Gmail app over IMAP.

It is pre-launch: teams reserve a spot by paying their first month, refundable until they start (pricing). The interactive demo shows the app with sample data. Trade-off: it replaces your email host, which is a bigger move than installing a client.

• You live in Gmail on a Mac and want speed: Mimestream. Add Shortwave if you want heavy AI.
• You have Outlook or IMAP accounts: Spark or Canary Mail. Superhuman, Shortwave and Mimestream will not connect them.
• Several people answer the same inbox: Missive for a small team, Front for a support team.
• You want AI drafts and nothing else: an assistant such as Fyxer, or the AI already in your Gmail or Outlook plan.
• You want to stop paying for both a mailbox and a client: HEY for Domains, or Skein if follow-ups are the point.

For the AI side alone, our roundup of the best AI email assistants goes deeper, and Skein vs Superhuman compares the two approaches directly.

Leaving a client is easy because your mail never lived in it: it stays in Gmail or Microsoft 365. What you lose are the things you built inside the client.

1. 1Write down your snippets, split inboxes and reminders before you cancel; most clients cannot import them.
2. 2Install the new client and sign in with the same Google or Microsoft account. Your mail, labels and folders appear as they are.
3. 3Recreate your most used snippets as templates and set up the shortcuts you rely on.
4. 4Run both clients side by side for a week, then cancel Superhuman before the next renewal.

Moving to a new email host such as HEY or an EU provider is a bigger job: you change MX records and import old mail. Our guide to migrating from Google Workspace covers it step by step.