Superhuman Mail vs Hey

Superhuman Mail is the only app that feels designed for deep work. Its design is incredibly minimal, no clutter, no distractions.

Superhuman Mail's triage system is based on Inbox Splits, aka mini inboxes that are segmented based on rules you set up. You can have an inbox for team emails, notifications, accounting-related emails, customers, etc. That means you're never staring at one overwhelming wall of emails. You always know exactly where you're needed and you can triage each group of emails with full focus and what can wait for later.

It's the ONLY tool that protects your attention and keeps you focused.

Superhuman Mail's mobile app is minimal like on the desktop, and your inbox splits are clearly laid out for you.

So if you're waiting for a train or have a quick 5 minutes to spare, you can use your time wisely by immediately going to where you are needed first to action.

Superhuman Mail is completely keyboard first and the team has put in so much more thought into the experience. You can switch Inbox Splits without thinking and simply hitting tab on your keyboard. You're in a FLOW.

Snoozing and scheduling in Superhuman Mail is extremely fast. You can write in natural language and even remind you or schedule to send in another time zone. This feature is SO HELPFUL and used SO OFTEN because they make it easy.

Superhuman Mail even allows for Smart Send, which sends your email based on when someone is most likely to open it. It takes into account time zones, business hours, and individual habits (like if someone tends check their emails more in the mornings or night).

You can also schedule an email later into the future and set to send "if no reply" or "regardless" saving you from embarrassing mistakes... unlike the other tools which only allow you to send emails regardless so if someone replies, your email is still going out, yikes!

Replying to emails in-line in Superhuman Mail is easy. Simply highlight the text you want to reply to and hit enter... and it's done. We're talking about seconds and it does not break your flow. Superhuman Mail encourages you to quote others and reference other threads which allows you to give more comprehensive and thoughtful replies. When you want reference your thread or another email while replying, you can easily pop out the compose screen with shift + enter, and you'll notice how it actually makes room for the email thread to easily reference.

In terms of Snippets, you hit the semi-colon on your keyboard and they appear. You can save default to, cc, bcc fields. Superhuman Mail goes further and gives you analytics for their snippets — aka seeing the number of times you sent the snippet and the % of opens and replies, which is incredibly helpful if you're using them often for something like sales.

Superhuman Mail's offline mode is awesome. We can't say how many times we've lost internet and not even noticed with Superhuman Mail. It has super fast offline search, and you can compose, snooze, archive, and schedule emails offline.

With Superhuman Mail, you have auto-label functionality and its super simple to set up and refine — just write your prompt and Superhuman will find emails that fit. What we appreciate about it, is that you actively see Superhuman pulling in emails that match your prompt as you write it. And if you want to refine the prompt or change the label name in the future, you can easily do that within the same console making it the most user friendly experience compared to other email clients. Superhuman also takes it one step further to also lets you auto-archive certain labels — aka skip your entire inbox which can be super helpful to clear out unnecessary clutter.

Superhuman Mail's AI Search works like Gemini but it appears right where you expect - the search bar - making you more likely to remember to use it when quickly searching for something. You can ask any question about your inbox in natural language and it will give you a response with the emails it sourced its information from as a reference.

In Superhuman Mail, I was impressed to see just how much better and more personable my email was written by AI. But it makes sense, because Superhuman AI learns your tone from ALL of your other emails, so it has so much more to work with. You don't need to configure it or set it up, it just does its thing... and it's REALLY good. Would I let Gmail, Notion Mail, Spark write my emails? No. All require significant human intervention while Superhuman requires the least amount of human interaction once it writes the initial draft.

Superhuman Mail includes clean, built-in read receipts. You’ll instantly know when your email was opened, and how many times it was opened so you can follow up at the perfect time or relax knowing your recipient is thinking about your email. We lean on this feature heavily, and it provides SUCH helpful context on a daily basis.

Superhuman Mail also helps you follow up with auto-drafts. It automatically uses AI to draft replies IN YOUR TONE to emails that need a follow-up!! All you need to do is quickly review, and hit send. AND they are working on getting it to the point of drafting replies for any email that needs a response, taking into account your previous emails, website, wiki or any other set of documents you connect.

Superhuman Mail allows for team comments and shared drafts as well (although you can't yet collaborate on editing in real-time yet). You can @mention team members AND even non-team members to have them participate in the comments without even being a Superhuman Mail user, making it a more integrated experience than any other email client. We find this especially helpful when working with contractors, which we do a lot and can't imagine not having this feature.

In addition to having Team Snippets, Superhuman Mail also has two features that we can't live without. The first is Team Read Receipts. This means if Alex on my team sends an email, I don't need to ask him if the recipient opened it, I CAN SEE IT for myself which is incredibly helpful especially if we're waiting for a reply.

The second is Team Reply Indicators, aka I can see if Alex is replying to an email which saves me from doubling up... the amount of times I've gone to reply to an email, to see he's already writing a reply and backed out has saved me a ton of time.

If you have a team that uses email a lot, you are losing so much productivity by not having these features. Oh and as a bonus if you're team is using a CRM like HubSpot or Pipedrive or Salesforce, Superhuman Mail also has a native integration.

The oversized icons, bright gradients, and playful text make it hard to focus when you're trying to triage your inbox. The renamed features like "Imbox" and "Bubbleup" just add confusion, especially if you're used to more professional, minimal interfaces. You can't customize the structure or workflows, so you're stuck with their opinionated layout whether it helps you move faster or not.

If you rely on speed, keyboard shortcuts, or efficient navigation, you'll hit a wall fast. The interface feels more like it's built for casual personal users than anyone who needs to process email quickly and stay on task. You still have to fight the UI to get through your emails without distraction.

Hey's design choices slow you down if you care about speed or productivity. The oversized icons, childish text, and renamed features make the interface feel clunky instead of streamlined, especially compared to email tools built for keyboard-shortcut lovers or those who want to move fast. You don't get the minimal, fast, professional-grade experience that helps you fly through your inbox.

There's no mention of keyboard shortcuts, quick replies, or any features that actually speed up triage or processing. If you're used to custom workflows, labels, or integrations that let you automate or move faster, you're out of luck. You still have to do everything manually, and the opinionated inbox structure forces you to adapt to their way of working instead of letting you optimize for speed.

This setup might feel simpler if you want a basic, distraction-free email experience, but if you're productivity-focused, you'll hit friction everywhere and never get into a true flow.

Hey does not support AI assistance for writing or organizing your emails. You still have to handle all email composition and sorting manually, with no time-saving automation or smart suggestions.

You get a rigid inbox structure and some manual screening tools, but nothing that adapts to your habits or helps you write like you would. If you want your email to organize itself or draft messages for you, this leaves you doing all the work.

Hey does not support any kind of smart follow-up features. There are no integrations, no API, and no connections to CRM or automation tools, so you cannot automate reminders, track replies, or manage follow-ups efficiently. You still have to remember and handle every follow-up manually, which means you move slower and miss opportunities.

Hey does not support commenting, assigning, or sharing emails with your team. You still have to handle all collaboration outside the app, which means constant context-switching and manual workarounds. This makes it a non-starter for anyone who relies on email for team workflows.