Most people compare Spark to Superhuman and want to hear that Spark is better because there is a free tier... but we're here to say that Superhuman is far superior and worth the investment (we've been paying customers for 6+ years!)
We do think that Spark is better than Gmail/Outlook and is a good option if you're an individual on a budget, but if a professional and you're looking for "the best" email experience, Superhuman takes the cake.
We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
When comparing Spark vs Superhuman, most folks fixate on the price difference. Spark has a free version (or is $60 per year on the paid tier), while Superhuman comes in at $30 per month, so you may be wondering, is Superhuman really worth the extra cost?
Well, after using and being paying customers of Superhuman for 5+ years, we're here to tell you that yes, it is 😄
The truth of the matter is that while Spark and Superhuman seem to have similar features on the surface, Superhuman goes the extra mile and puts extra TLC into each feature. Plus Superhuman is built more for professional use, while Spark is something that just any who wants a better email experience than Gmail or Outlook could use.
Here are some examples of how Spark and Superhuman differ ⤵️
While Spark's interface is miles better than Gmail or Outlook, it still feels—well—like email. Superhuman on the other hand gives your entire email app a facelift with its beautiful minimal design, consistent colors, fonts, and automatic resizing of emails to make them readable no matter your screen size. While Spark tries to do a bit of this, it's clear that less TLC went into the interface. For instance, in Spark, emails stretch with your screen, making them more difficult to read.
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With Spark, you can snooze emails, but the ability to write in natural language is nowhere near Superhuman's. For instance, in Superhuman, you can snooze until "Next Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Australia". Superhuman automatically does the time conversion for you and allows you to fully write in natural language, while with Spark, you really can only choose from the predetermined options like tomorrow, or a specific date.
We use natural language multiple times a day when snoozing our emails in Superhuman and can't imagine having guardrails with limited options.
Spark + AI and Superhuman AI helps you summarize and respond to email messages faster.
With Superhuman, we see it going just one level deeper, training the AI to "write in your tone" based on your previous emails. While we don't use AI a ton for writing emails, the "write in my tone" feature in Superhuman is the one we tend to lean on the most.
It also seems that Superhuman takes in far more context from the entire conversation than Spark does, but that also makes sense because there is a cost associated with this, and since Superhuman is a premium product, they can spend more on AI tokens (giving the prompt more context).
Simply write a prompt and allow Spark + AI to generate a response. You can ask it to change the tone of your email, or shorten/expand it.
With Superhuman, write down your thoughts and ask it to "rewrite in your voice" which is learns from previous emails 🤯. I think it's important to still sound "like you" in emails, and I found that Superhuman even pulls out emoji's that I typically use when using this feature!
While Spark Mail categorizes your emails based on people, newsletters, and notifications, Superhuman allows you to go deeper and categorize emails based on your own preferences into Split Inbox (e.g. emails with a similar subject type, or senders from a specific domain). We use the Split Inbox feature in Superhuman to help us triage similar emails together, reducing the need to context switch.
Spark has a unified inbox, meaning that all of your emails can technically come into one inbox and some people tend to *love* this. It can be helpful if you have multiple work emails for example, and you want them all to come into one inbox, but you still want to maintain the separate emails.
With Superhuman, while you don't have a unified inbox, you can simply jump to another inbox using the keyboard shortcut CTRL 1, 2, 3, etc. On the Superhuman mobile app, swiping through accounts is as easy as clicking your profile icon.
We actually prefer having the inboxes separated as mentally, checking work emails vs personal emails require different mental effort, so even if Superhuman offered this feature, we'd have to think twice before turning it on 🤔.
Overall, if you're a professional who wants the best email client, doing a 30-day free trial of Superhuman is probably worth it alongside Spark, to really compare the two tools and see which one you get the most out of.
For us, when it comes to emails for work and improving efficiency, there is a clear winner of the two, with Superhuman taking the cake.
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Get through your inbox 2x as fast (for teams of all sizes).
Superhuman is the best email client made for busy professionals who want to enhance their email experience. If checking your emails is often an overwhelming, dreadful feat and wish there was a way you could spend less time on email, then Superhuman will almost certainly make your day better.
We've been using Superhuman for over 5 years as our email app and couldn't see life without it! And trust me, I used to bet the person that said "would never pay for email" but after trying it for the first month...I couldn't imagine going back, and here I am now 5+ years later, still a paying customer and am happier for it, it's that good.
Superhuman has a beautiful, minimal design and will help you get through your email faster. If you get more than 10 emails a week, we recommend trying Superhuman for at least 30 days (it's free) before committing to another solution.
Sign up here for a free month of Superhuman.
Superhuman is a layer atop of Gmail or Outlook. You no longer have to even log into Outlook or Gmail as when using Superhuman, you navigate your emails straight from the Superhuman web app, desktop app, or mobile app.
On the computer, you can use Superhuman without even touching your mouse, navigating email super fast through keyboard shortcuts alone (you can still use your mouse if you wish though!). If this sounds intimidating, don't let it! When you sign up for Superhuman, a specialist will take you through a 30-minute onboarding call, teaching you in the in's and out's of the tool.
With Superhuman you get through your emails super fast. Easily snooze emails for later, answer quickly using Superhuman's AI feature, and create Inbox Splits to help triage through specific types of emails in chunks. After using Superhuman for 2 weeks, our bet is you won't want to go back to life without it, it's a killer productivity app.
Get a free month of Superhuman.
Superhuman actually drafts email responses in your tone. YES, in your voice. It learns from your previous messages and responds as you would.
Secondly, Superhuman figures out if an email you sent needs a follow-up/nudge, and it automatically drafts a follow-up in your voice and leaves it in your inbox for you to hit send (yes, just like an executive assistant would).
Third, Superhuman uses AI to search your inbox. Forget trying to find the perfect search term to surface an email. With Superhuman, you can ask any question in plain language, and it will give you an AI summary response (e.g., "Where was the conversation left off with XYZ? When is the last time I spoke to XYZ?").
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 Team Comments review here.
If you share this link with your entire team, you will all get a free 30 days to test it out together.
And if you sign up using this link you will get your first-month free.
Smart. Focused. Email. Fast, cross-platform email designed to filter out the noise - so you can focus on what's important.
Spark is an email client that is designed to help you get through your inbox faster. Spark has a mixture of both Superhuman and Hey features, with a tiny bit of Missive for team collaboration.
Spark as an email app is 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 since they have a generous free tier.
While we can't say Spark wins the category for the best email app (our top pick is Superhuman as they put more TLC into their features and design), Spark is certainly the best email app that offers a free version.
Spark is usually the tool that people consider when they aren't looking to spend money on email. That said, there are some things to consider.
While Spark's interface is miles better than Gmail or Outlook, it still feels—well—like email. Superhuman gives your entire email app a facelift with its beautiful minimal design, consistent colors, fonts, and automatic resizing of emails to make them readable no matter your screen size.
Overall, if you're a professional who wants the best email client, doing a 30-day free trial of Superhuman is probably worth it alongside Spark, to really compare the two tools and see which one you get the most out of.
Spark took one of Hey's most popular features, "The Screener," and made their own version of it called "The Gatekeeper." It's the same idea, giving users the ability to thumbs up or thumbs down a sender, indicating if you want to allow emails from this sender in your inbox or not.
If email delegation or team collaboration is the main reason you're looking for an email client, we'd say Missive might be the best to check out. The reason? Missive allows you to have a central inbox for any business-related messages (beyond email) — from social media apps, to SMS, to WhatsApp. Missive's collaborative features are also more established than Spark's, so you'll get a more reliable experience.
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