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Updated Jun 9, 2026

9 Best Email Clients in 2026

Updated Jun 9, 2026

See how our top 2 picks compare across the 9 email clients we evaluated.

Explore what each does best, where it falls short, and why it earned a spot on our 2026 list.

Alex Bass

Andra Vomir

Best Email Clients at a Glance

9 apps and 2 deals

Superhuman Mail
Best
5
Best overall email client
Best overall email client
Get 30 days free
Missive
Recommended
2
Best for smaller teams looking for a shared inbox
Best for smaller teams looking for a shared inbox
Read review
Notion Mail
2
For individuals deeply integrated in Notion's ecosystem
For individuals deeply integrated in Notion's ecosystem
Read review
Spark
2
Cleaner Gmail/Outlook experience with team collaboration features
Cleaner Gmail/Outlook experience with team collaboration features
Read review
Gmail
1
Best for your email and calendar foundation
Best for your email and calendar foundation
Read review
Tatem
1
Limited online presence, current development status is unclear
Limited online presence, current development status is unclear
Read review
Hey
0
Made for non-technical users who like big buttons
Made for non-technical users who like big buttons
Read review
Outlook
0
For the average everyday person using Microsoft 365
For the average everyday person using Microsoft 365
Read review
Skiff
Privacy-focused email that was acquired by Notion and shut down
Privacy-focused email that was acquired by Notion and shut down
Read review

Watch the Full Breakdown

Best Email Client: Who Wins?

The Winner is...

After testing 10+ email clients over 6 years, Superhuman Mail is the best email client. It's the fastest way to reach inbox zero and the only client that made me actually enjoy opening email. For free alternatives, Spark Mail or Notion Mail are the best options for individuals.

Our team also tested Hey, Skiff, Canary Mail, Mimestream, Proton Mail, Apple Mail, Shortwave, and Thunderbird, but none came close to Superhuman Mail for speed, keyboard-driven workflows, and AI email features. Many didn't even make it on this "best email apps" as they were not something I'd recommend to a friend.

Like many of us, I used Gmail for 10+ years, and was blissfully ignorant to other options. Then I met Alex, my Cofounder and (now) husband. We were under COVID lockdown and constantly working side-by-side, and I noticed that when he triaged his inbox, it looked like he was playing a video game. He was only navigating with keyboard shortcuts, and flying through his emails, snoozing some for later, setting reminders on others.

One day he suggested that I try Superhuman Mail, and I told him, "There is no way I'd pay for email, so you can forget about it!" After more debating and demos, he said "Look, try it for a month, if you hate it, I'll pay for your subscription" (back then there was no free trial, if you wanted to try it, you had to pay upfront).

I reluctantly agreed. But the first week of setting it up, I had a realization "I used to hate opening Gmail and checking emails. Now I don't". I started to stay on top of my emails and got inbox zero more often.

By the end of the month, I subscribed to the annual tier. That was 6 years ago, and here I am today, still paying for, and using Superhuman Mail.

Throughout the years, I was curious if other email apps could compare for a lower price point. I tried Spark Mail and immediately noticed the interface was not as modern and its email triage features aren't as optimized for power users. I wasn't tempted to switch (although I do think Spark is better than Gmail as a free email client).

When Notion Mail came out, I was super curious. The interface was more minimal and it looked modern. But after using it for a day, I kept running into friction. There are a lot of small details that Superhuman Mail thought of, that were just missing in Notion or weren't as smooth. For instance, Superhuman Mail's AI is super powerful, automatically drafts emails for you based on how you talk, and Notion Mail's was barebones (plus you still need to upgrade for the AI features).

With that, I went back to Superhuman Mail, which is why I've ranked it best email app for professionals and founders who want to get in and out of their inbox quickly. If you're unsure, you can now grab a Superhuman trial which will let you use it for free for 1 month.

Best Email Clients Ranked & Reviewed

Watch our full breakdown of the top email clients, how they performed in testing, and what makes each one worth considering

Recorded by our expert reviewers

Alex

and

Andra

Independent, hands-on testing.Learn how we review

How We Evaluate Email Clients

We score each email client across purposeful design, speed & productivity, AI assistance, follow-up, team collaboration, and hands-on expert evaluation

Purposeful Design
How quickly you can triage emails without getting sidetracked or distracted.
Speed & Productivity
Not just fast loading, keyboard shortcuts and quick replies keep you moving.
AI Assistance
Does it write and organize emails the way you would and saving you time?
Follow-Up
No smart follow-ups? You're moving slower and missing opportunities.
Team Collaboration
The best email tools let you comment, assign, and share seamlessly.
Expert Evaluation
Curated by
Alex
and
Andra
, our rankings reflect in-depth testing, industry insights, and hands-on experience.

Superhuman Mail

Best overall email client

Superhuman Mail is the best email client on the market. It's wildly fast, minimal (not bloated with features), and helps individuals and teams triage through emails most efficiently. We've been using it for 6+ years and can't ever imagine going back to regular email.

Claim the Superhuman free trial for 30 days free, which is more than enough time to see if it fits your workflow.

superhuman.com/products/mail

Go to Superhuman Mail site

What is Superhuman Mail?

Superhuman Mail is by far the best email client built for busy professionals who live in their inbox and want a faster, more focused experience. It works as a layer on top of Gmail or Outlook, meaning you keep your existing email provider, but operate entirely inside Superhuman Mail’s web, desktop, or mobile app instead.

Superhuman Mail has a beautiful, minimal design and will help you get through your email faster. You can navigate your inbox almost entirely by keyboard, snooze messages effortlessly, use AI to draft responses in your voice, and create inbox splits to process emails in intentional batches. So, if checking email feels overwhelming, distracting, or just slower than it should be, Superhuman Mail really does fix that.

If you get more than 10 emails a week, we recommend trying Superhuman Mail for at least 30 days. If email slows you down, Superhuman Mail is the fastest fix we've found. The free month trial gives you enough time to see if it's actually worth paying for (heads up, you don't get the free month if you try signing up for Superhuman Mail directly). You can grab the free month via our Superhuman Mail discount link.

We've personally been using Superhuman Mail for over 6 years as our email app and couldn't see life without it.

And trust me, I used to be the person that said "I would never pay for email" but after trying it for the first month... I couldn't imagine going back to Gmail, and here I am now 6+ years later, still a paying customer, and I'm happier for it.

Superhuman Mail is available on MacOS, iOS, Android, and works on Windows via modern browsers.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Fast performance (literally instant compared to Gmail/Outlook)
Minimal, beautifully designed interface with zero clutter
Team email collaboration features helps move emails forward more quickly and seamlessly
Deep-work friendly (no distractions, no unnecessary features)
Mobile app on iOS and Android to help you triage emails on-the-go
Free 30-day trial to test it out

Cons

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Might feel unnecessary if you don't spend much time in email
While you can share emails and drafts with your team, you cannot assign emails and have your team answer on your behalf

Key Features

Minimal Interface

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The first time we opened Superhuman Mail, it genuinely felt like a different category of email tool. The wall of emails we were used to see just wasn't there instead it had been replace with a clean, fast interface that made it feel like this is the only email client actually designed for deep work.

The use of inbox splits makes brings allows for purpose and intention when managing your emails. There’s nothing visually overwhelming or distracting, which, if you spend hours in your inbox like we do, makes a massive difference. It doesn’t feel like you’re “doing email.” It feels like you’re focused.

Pair that with a mobile app that is purposefully designed to allow for triaging emails with speed and clarity and it honestly makes it impossible to go back.

Superhuman Mail AI

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Superhuman Mail actually drafts email responses in your tone. It learns from your previous messages and responds as you would, automatically.

Picture this: you just hired an assistant. As part of her training, she read through thousands of your emails to learn how you talk to customers versus teammates versus vendors. Then she starts drafting replies for you. You get an email, she writes a reply. You send something and never hear back, she writes the follow-up. All you do is check her work before hitting send. That's exactly the experience we've had with Superhuman Mail's AI drafts.

Then there's AI auto-labels, which organize your inbox into splits automatically so similar emails are grouped together when you triage them.

And the AI search is useful in a way most email search isn't. Instead of trying to remember the exact word from a thread six months ago, you just ask a plain language question "Where did things land with XYZ?" or "When did I last talk to this person?" and it gives you a summary. You can also use the AI chat for things like creating a calendar invite without leaving your inbox.

Read Statuses

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Similar to read receipts in text messages, Superhuman Mail shows you exactly who opened your email, how many times they viewed it, and when they opened it. It's super helpful if you're waiting on a reply.

Calendar & Scheduler

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Superhuman Mail is also one of the best calendar apps and best scheduling apps if you live within your email. Why?

Say you get an event email with no calendar invite, just hit [b] and Superhuman Mail will instantly create an event for you (I absolutely love this feature). Or if you're writing to someone, and you say "let's meet next Tuesday" your calendar automatically pops open on the right so you can quickly check your availability.

Want to share your availability quickly? No worries, hit the keyboard shortcut and [CMD] + [SHIFT] + [a] and send over your free time slots in seconds so they can book in.

Keyboard Shortcuts

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Superhuman Mail also allows you to triage through your inbox using only keyboard shortcuts.

I was a skeptic for years, until I finally gave it a shot. Learned some of the simple keyboard shortcuts like [e] for archive and [h] for snooze + some additional fun shortcuts like [#] for delete, and [!] for spam.

Just hit [0] to instantly open your calendar on the right-hand side without leaving your inbox, giving you a full view of your schedule while you continue working through emails.

Don't like memorizing keyboard shortcuts to get through your email more quickly? Great, then just press [CMD] + [k] for the command bar → the Superhuman Mail key, which allows you to do absolutely anything from anywhere just by typing.

MCP

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Superhuman Mail also has an MCP connector for Claude and ChatGPT, allowing you to build workflows around your inbox.

For example, you could ask Claude to find every email that was opened that day but never received a response, then automatically send a follow-up email.

While you can technically use a chatbot to triage your entire inbox, I still prefer having a dedicated interface for my email.

Superhuman Mail For Teams

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You can share email threads with others (whether they are on your team or not) so you can collaborate under email.

This has come super handy for us when we've had sales negotiations (very helpful to @mention each other and check-in if what is proposed makes sense), or to more thoughtfully respond to a customer. Read our entire Superhuman Mail Team Comments review here.

If you share the Superhuman Mail Discount link with your entire team, you will all get a free 30 days to test it out together.

Pricing

Monthly Subscription: $30/mo
Annual Plan: $300/year

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Missive

Best for smaller teams looking for a shared inbox

Missive is a strong choice for teams that need to manage and collaborate on emails and messages from multiple platforms in one place. If you want to delegate your inbox and keep team discussions organized without giving up full access, this will make life a lot easier for your team.

Go to Missive site

What Is Missive?

Missive is a team-focused email and messaging client designed to consolidate communication across platforms like email, WhatsApp, SMS, and social media DMs into one unified inbox. We consider it more of a lightweight help desk, rather than a traditional email client.

It's especially useful for small business owners who want help delegating their inbox but don't want to give full access to their inbox to another team member. If you have a virtual assistant, this lets them manage your inbox without exposing private emails or giving them your password.

If you’re a solopreneur who wants a modern, streamlined email experience, this isn’t for you, but if your business lives in shared inboxes and team messaging, Missive is good fit.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Consolidates email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social messages into one inbox
Excellent team collaboration
Great for business owners delegating inbox access
Unified inbox for multi-channel businesses

Cons

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Slightly cluttered interface
Not the most modern email client, older traditional email interface
Task management inside the app feels unnecessary

Key Features

Multi-Channel Messaging

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Missive consolidates messages from email, SMS, WhatsApp, and social platforms into one inbox. If your customers message you from everywhere, this is incredibly helpful. Instead of bouncing between apps, everything lives in one place so your team can triage through all channels from one interface.

Email Assignment & Delegation

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This is one of Missive’s strongest features.

You can assign specific emails to team members, allowing them to respond on your behalf. This is something that other email clients don't typically don't do.

Missive also allows you to create rules that automatically assign emails based on subject line, sender, or domain. For example, sales emails can go to one teammate, invoices to another. This creates lightweight automation without needing a full help desk setup.

Agentic AI Assitance

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Agentic AI assistant allows you to search across entire email threads, internal team chats, and connected knowledge sources to help your team surface relevant information quickly.

For example, if you're a founder preparing for a company meeting, you could ask the assistant to scan conversations across sales, customer support, and engineering threads and summarize recent wins, issues, and product updates into a few talking points.

Unlike most tools, Missive doesn't bundle its own model, instead, you connect your own provider like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini through an API, which gives you more control over cost and capabilities.

Internal Team Chat & Collaboration

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From within any email thread, you can @mention teammates and collaborate without switching to another tool like Slack. This keeps communication contextual and organized.

For remote teams that are constantly discussing emails elsewhere, this can save a ton of time and help avoid miscommunications.

Pricing

Missive is free for the first 30 days
Starter: $14/mo per user ($18/mo billed monthly, $168/yr billed yearly). Best for teams with simple needs.
Productive: $24/mo per user ($30/mo billed monthly, $288/yr billed yearly). Best for teams with workflow needs.
Business: $36/mo per user ($45/mo billed monthly, $432/yr billed yearly). Best for teams with advanced needs.

Viktor

Featured

AI Coworker for everyone else

Notion Mail

For individuals deeply integrated in Notion's ecosystem

Notion Mail is essentially a Gmail wrapper with a Notion UI/UX interface and a few additional features like custom views, and the ability to reference Notion docs when composing your email.

While it's not game-changing, it is going to offer a better user experience than Gmail (not yet available on Outlook!).

Go to Notion Mail site

What is Notion Mail?

Notion Mail is Notion's latest attempt to expand its product suite by adding email, but it’s not entirely original. You see, Notion acquired Skiff, an email client known for its privacy features. However, after the acquisition, Notion removed Skiff’s end-to-end encryption and integrated Gmail and Google Workspace instead, disappointing privacy-conscious users (yep, 2 million of them!).

Functionally, Notion Mail is essentially a Gmail wrapper with a Notion-inspired interface (although expect to pay for the AI features that you’d otherwise get for free with Gmail).

Notion Mail has a more minimalist interface than Gmail, with added AI features like referencing Notion pages while drafting emails. You can also create customizable inbox views using AI-powered labels, which can help organize your emails. However, it lacks deeper database integrations that many Notion enthusiasts hoped for (the general sentiment from users is that they are quite frustrated that you cannot integrate Notion database items with your inbox).

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Better UI/UX than Gmail
Most actions can be done via keyboard (CMD+K)
Allows for custom views, helping make email triage more streamlined
Can easily reference Notion pages via AI to help draft your emails

Cons

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Some actions require mouse usage, breaking flow
AI doesn’t write in your tone
No Android app
Not available for Outlook users

Key Features

Customizable Inbox Views

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You can declutter your inbox by creating custom views using AI auto-labels or manual rules. Notion’s auto-labels have a great user interface to select the types of emails that "go together" (e.g. emails related to kids, health, etc).

However, in our testing, we found that if you decide to later update one of these customized views, you need to start from scratch as they aren't easily updated.

AI Drafts

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AI drafts tool lets you reference Notion pages or generate replies, but the writing lacks personality and runs out of credits quickly. We didn’t find the AI useful in day-to-day tasks.

Integrations

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If you thought Notion Mail would integrate with Notion pages or your database items, think again. That’s not available (yet anyway), leaving hardcore Notion users quite disappointed.

If you want to reference Notion pages in an email, you can tag the page and let AI generate a summary directly inside your draft.

Pricing

Notion Mail is free to use, but AI features have limited trial usage. Unlimited AI in Mail requires a Notion Business or Enterprise plan.

Spark

Cleaner Gmail/Outlook experience with team collaboration features

Use Spark Mail if you want a free, faster, and more organized email client than Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail, especially as an individual or student looking to improve your inbox with minimal effort.

Skip Spark Mail if you're a busy professional looking to get through your inbox faster and just want the best option out there (it's Superhuman Mail).

Go to Spark site

What is Spark Mail?

Spark Mail is an email client that is designed to help you focus and get through your inbox faster. As an email app, it's miles better than Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail, both on desktop and on your phone, and we can't think of a reason why someone wouldn't use Spark Mail since they have a generous free tier.

It's also built for team collaboration, so if you've been looking for an email client to help you delegate certain emails or just have a way for your team to easily ask you questions on a thread, Spark Mail has done a good job at building those features.

But if you're a busy professional and you're looking to cut back on the time spent trying to get through your inbox, then Spark Mail is not going to the the best option as there are other tools with faster workflows.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Cleaner, modern-feeling interface than Gmail and Outlook
Keyboard shortcuts allow you to triage through your inbox faster
Smart Inbox auto-sorts newsletters and notifications
Templates with placeholders for faster replies
Great team collaboration features

Cons

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Compose screen feels cluttered
Emails stretch too wide across the screen, causing reading fatigue
Smart Inbox categories aren’t customizable
No read receipts or built-in follow-up automation
It's nowhere near as thoughtfully built for triaging your inbox as Superhuman Mail

Key Features

Unified Inbox

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Spark Mail allows you to combine multiple email accounts (work + personal) into one single inbox view. For some people, this feels incredibly convenient, since having everything in one place means no more switching back and forth.

That said, this can become a double-edged sword. Getting an email from your kid’s school while you’re in work mode creates context switching that kills focus. It’s a feature many people want, but not one that improves productivity.

Smart Inbox

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Spark Mail automatically sorts and categorizes your emails into buckets like Personal, Notifications, and Newsletters to make triage easier.

That said, customization is limited, so most of your important emails still end up in one main pile. It simplifies things compared to Gmail, but it doesn’t fully solve the “wall of email” problem.

Team Collaboration

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Spark Mail includes built-in team comments, shared drafts, and email assignments, which are genuinely useful if multiple people touch the same inbox.

For small teams especially, this can reduce back-and-forth in your work chats and make responding more coordinated.

Pricing

Free: Best for individuals & students wanting a better email experience.
Plus: $10/mo per user ($99/yr). Best for professionals who want to unlock the Spark + AI feature.
Pro: $20/mo per user ($199/yr). Best for teams who want to start collaborating on email.
Enterprise: Unlisted. Includes extra security and controls for large teams.

Viktor

Featured

AI Coworker for everyone else

Gmail

Best for your email and calendar foundation

Gmail is a great backbone for your email, but the actual mail client is cluttered, slow, and built for the average user, not someone who lives in their inbox.

Use it as the foundation that comes with your Google Workspace subscription, then layer something like Superhuman Mail on top if you're getting 30+ emails per week.

Go to Gmail site

What is Gmail?

Gmail is one of the most widely used email providers in the world and the default choice for most individuals and businesses. We've used it for over a decade. In fact, we solely recommend teams use Google Workspace as the core foundation for their entire business software stack.

There is a fundamental issue with Gmail though. The actual email client that businesses use is the exact same one that was built for personal accounts (I'm sure you have one). So Gmail optimizes for the average user out of billions, not for focused teams who are running businesses.

So why use Gmail? Because it connects to almost everything (how often do you see "login with Google"?), and has one of the largest ecosystems of third-party tools available. That combination actually makes it the best email and calendar foundation for your business.

And note the word "foundation", because from there you can layer a better email client on top, like Superhuman email. That's what we do, because Gmail alone will never be what someone who gets more than 30 emails per week actually needs.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Incredible email and calendar foundation
Extensive third-party integrations
Reliable and widely supported
Strong mobile app experience

Cons

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Visually cluttered interface (chat, meet, sidebars, colors, pop-ups)
Slower load times compared to modern email clients
Built for the masses, not optimized for deep work
Labels and triage system clutter the sidebar

Key Features

Google Workspace Integration

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Since Gmail is a part of Google, it works seamlessly with their entire ecosystem. You can jump from an email into a Google Doc, attach files from Drive instantly, launch a Meet call, or collaborate in Sheets without leaving the platform.

For teams already using Google Workspace, this integration is extremely powerful.

Gemini AI Responses & Search

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Gmail now has Gemini fully embedded into helping you write emails. You can now use their "Help Me Write" feature, and it will analyze previous emails to draft a reply in your tone.

Gmail also uses Gemini to help you search your inbox. Instead of typing keywords and hoping you remember the exact phrase from an email, you can ask it a normal question like, "When did I last speak to Sarah about the proposal?" or "Did the client ever approve the contract?" It will scan your inbox, give you a direct answer, and show you the emails it pulled that information from. That part is genuinely helpful, especially if you handle a lot of conversations and forget details.

Mobile App

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The Gmail mobile app has a significantly better experience than even the web app in many ways. It's easy to navigate, loads relatively quickly, and is an overall good experience. They let you set swipe actions (Archive/Snooze/Delete) and get quite granular on the notification settings as well.

Although you'll run into some limitations using the Gmail app that will slow down your workflow. For instance, you cannot create hyperlink when composing an email within the app.

Pricing

Google Workspace includes Gmail and the full suite of collaboration tools, and pricing varies by plan and billing cycle. Most business plans start around:

Business Starter: ~$7/user/month
Business Standard: ~$14/user/month
Business Plus: ~$22/user/month

Tatem

Limited online presence, current development status is unclear

Tatem is a super minimal email client, but the team behind it was acquired by Wander.

From what we can tell, the product does not seem to continue to be developed or maintained. It may still work for now, but the future is unclear. We would skip it and go with a more actively supported email client instead.

Go to Tatem site

What is Tatem?

Tatem is a minimalist email client focused on simplicity with a clean, distraction-free interface.

But it's worth mentioning that Tatem has recently been acquired by a company called Wander, and the founder now serves as VP there. Based on what we can tell, this appears to have been an acquihire and it doesn't look like Tatem will continue to be developed or even possibly maintained.

At the time of writing, the app still works. But its long-term future is unclear and may shut down.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Clean, minimal interface
Fast and lightweight

Cons

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Very bare-bones feature set
No clear product roadmap
Uncertain future after acquisition

Key Features

Clean UI

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Tatem does a good job keeping things super simple, and you can see that as soon as you open the app. You're not getting hit with chat widgets, side panels, or visual noise. Instead, you're faced with a clean layout, so their goal of reducing clutter is apparent.

This does mean that you wont be finding any depth or refinement you would generally see from a premium client, but more so a bare bones situation.

Fast Performance

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The app loads quickly and actions like archiving, snoozing, and switching between emails feel pretty responsive.

Speed alone isn’t the full experience, and while interactions are quick, the surrounding feature set is still fairly minimal.

Inbox Splits

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Tatem email client includes inbox segmentation, which allows you to separate different types of emails into distinct views.

Instead of staring at one endless stream of messages, you can organize emails into categories and process them in batches. This makes triage more intentional and helps reduce overwhelm. At the same time, it also makes it more difficult to tailor the tool to your unique needs in the way other alternatives do.

Pricing

Free Forever: $0 per member per month. That said, given the acquisition and lack of a clear roadmap, prepare for the product to be sunset in the near future.
While their website does have a paid tier, the tool is unlikely to continue to be developed.

Viktor

Featured

AI Coworker for everyone else

Hey

Made for non-technical users who like big buttons

If you're looking for an email client for professional usage, we'd absolutely recommend skipping HEY.

While HEY claims to have a solution for work accounts, it uses a less modern SMTP connection for which comes with it many limitations when it comes to business usage, read the FAQs section of the full review to understand this better.

Go to Hey site

What Is Hey?

Hey is a standalone email service built as an alternative to Gmail and Outlook. Instead of connecting to your existing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account, Hey gives you a brand-new @hey.com email address and a completely separate platform with its own opinionated approach to how email should work. That said, you'll have to let all of your family and friends know about your new email address.

It's not so clear who Hey was building for when we first got access.

Was it the software lover? The tech founder? The designer? Nope! But rather my mother, and maybe children? Hey clearly wasn't designed for the keyboard-shortcut-loving, productivity-obsessed founder crowd.

The product uses huge icons, childish text, and bright color gradients everywhere. They even tried renaming the familiar features like Inbox and Snooze to "Imbox" and "Bubbleup." It just doesn't connect with me, as someone who loves minimal, fast, professional interfaces. But, if you've been looking for something lighter and less "corporate", maybe it's something you'd like?

Pros and Cons

Pros

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Built-in email screening
Fresh @hey.com address with little to no spam history
Opinionated, simplified inbox structure
Custom domain support available

Cons

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No integrations or API (no Zapier, CRM, Gmail, Outlook connections)
Full platform lock-in with a @hey.com address
Not well-suited for business users who rely on ecosystem tools
Polarizing UI (large buttons, bright gradients, renamed features)

Key Features

Standalone Email Ecosystem

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Hey is primarily geared toward personal users who are looking to leave Google or Microsoft behind and try an entirely new email client.

However, that does come at a cost... If you're fully moving away from the broader Google or Microsoft ecosystems, this means giving up the integrations, APIs, and flexibility that most businesses rely on.

So, Hey is generally not well-suited for business users who depend on tools like CRMs, automation platforms (e.g., Zapier), or advanced calendar integrations.

Email Screening

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This is Hey's most differentiated feature. They have a built-in gatekeeper situation, so before a new sender can land in your inbox, you must approve them. If you don't approve them, they never get through.

Credit where credit is due, this feature dramatically cuts back on spam and gives you more control over who gets your attention.

Inbox Structure

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Hey doesn’t use a traditional inbox. Instead, it separates emails into different buckets like "Imbox" (for conversations) and "The Feed" (for newsletters).

The intention is to make inbox zero feel achievable and reduce the constant overwhelm of a single endless stream of emails.

It is a very opinionated structure that you don’t customize or control, but instead, adopt. For some people, that simplicity is refreshing. For others, especially power users who are used to labels, filters, and custom workflows, it will feel limiting.

Pricing

Ultra-short 2-character addresses like ab@heydotcom are $999/year, and 3-character addresses like abc@heydotcom are $349/year.
All other @hey.com email addresses, 4-characters or more, are just $99/year.

Outlook

For the average everyday person using Microsoft 365

Outlook is the standard email client inside Microsoft 365, but fast-moving teams are better off choosing Google Workspace instead.

Go to Outlook site

What is Outlook?

If you're a larger enterprise, you're likely using Outlook instead of Gmail (Google Workspace) to manage your email and calendar for work.

That said, most startups and quickly growing companies use Google Workspace, so if you're looking into Gmail vs Outlook, we believe Gmail is the clear winner here. It just has a more user-friendly experience all-around, and has significantly more integrated tools ( most modern tools integrate with Gmail over Outlook).

If you're "stuck" with Outlook and want to make your email experience 10X better, using Outlook in addition to a platform like Superhuman email is the way to go.

Pros and Cons

Pros

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All-in-one email and calendar solution within Microsoft 365
Tight integration with other Microsoft tools
Familiar interface for long-time enterprise users
Standard choice for companies already committed to Microsoft

Cons

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Clunkier user experience compared to modern email clients
Fewer modern integrations compared to Google Workspace
Limited “Sign in with Microsoft” support across newer SaaS tools
Most modern startups and tools prioritize Google compatibility
Rarely a proactive choice for small business owners

Key Features

Email + Calendar in One App

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Outlook combines your inbox and calendar into a single interface. Giving you the ability to respond to your emails, check calendar availability, schedule a meeting, and send out invites, without switching tools.

For companies already using Microsoft 365, you know it works and that it’s functional. You also know it lacks that modern feel that places importance on speed and focus.

Microsoft 365 Integration

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Outlook connects directly with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem (Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive). And that's great if 365 is what you're committed to, but when you're looking to create a tech stack outside of their system, it suddenly becomes a lot less compelling.

Enterprise-Grade Security

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Large enterprises rely on the level of oversight that Microsoft provides. It provides strong security, compliance features, and centralized admin controls, but this is a great example of just because flagship companies are using it doesn't mean it's what's best for you and your team.

If your team is a smaller and fast-moving team, this level of complexity will probably feel like overkill.

Pricing

Outlook itself is included with Microsoft 365, and pricing varies depending on features and region. Most Microsoft 365 plans start around:

Business Basic: ~$6/user/month
Business Standard: ~$12.50/user/month
Business Premium: ~$22/user/month

Viktor

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AI Coworker for everyone else

Skiff

Privacy-focused email that was acquired by Notion and shut down

Skiff was a privacy-focused email client that was acquired by Notion and shut down.

Go to Skiff site

What is Skiff?

Skiff was a popular privacy-focused email client that was acquired by Notion and shut down.

Our Final Verdict

Superhuman Mail

Best overall email client

Best Email Client Winner: Superhuman Mail

The best email client for modern professionals, startups, and small business owners is Superhuman Mail. The other email apps don't come close in terms of thoughtfulness and design. Even with AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT integrating with Gmail, I still find the most effective way to manage my emails is through Superhuman Mail's interface. Their AI features are the best I tried, drafting emails on your behalf without you even needing to do anything (just show up, review, and send). While the AI drafts are not always perfect, I always find them helpful as a starting place.

At this point, the only real question left is: is it worth the price? The honest answer is you have to experience it for yourself. Start with a Superhuman free trial for one month and see how it changes your day-to-day. If it clicks with you, you'll know pretty quickly.

Worth trying

Apps worth trying

A few adjacent picks from the broader email & inbox space that are also worth checking out.

Inbox Zero
AI Email Assistant
Open-source AI assistant for email
Open-source AI assistant for email
Fyxer AI
AI Email Assistant
Best for those who want AI help without switching email clients
Best for those who want AI help without switching email clients

Email Client FAQs

Get quick answers about how we evaluate tools, what moves apps up or down our list, and how to choose the right email client for your business.

Should I just use Gmail with Gemini for my email client?

With Gmail rolling out Gemini and AI-powered writing, it's fair to ask: "Why not just use that instead of paying for an email client?"

Well, Gmail + AI helps you write emails sure, but Superhuman Mail changes how you get through them daily. With Superhuman Mail, you're getting a fully rethought interface and workflows that you will never be able to get with Gmail and Gemini. Inbox splits that keep you focused while triaging through your mail, automatic labeling, auto-archiving, and team collaboration (you can share drafts and leave comments on email threads).

So when you're comparing Superhuman to Gmail, you're really deciding between a cluttered, traditional inbox and a fast, focused, clutter-free one. For us, the difference is night and day and the thought of going back to Gmail, even with Gemini, is not even remotely tempting (you couldn't pay us to go back).