Written by Shahzaib Ali
Superhuman vs Spark Mail
Last year, I spent $360 on an email app.
Not a software suite. Not a project management platform. An email app. And honestly? I didn’t regret it — but I also eventually cancelled it. Let me explain why, because the story is more useful than the headline.
I’d been using Gmail’s default interface for years, like most people, gradually drowning in a swamp of unread newsletters, CC’d threads I didn’t need to be on, and the low-grade anxiety of an inbox that never quite hit zero. A friend who works in venture capital mentioned he’d been using Superhuman and called it “the fastest email experience alive.” That’s a bold claim for something that, fundamentally, just shows you messages from people.
But I was curious enough to join the waitlist (this was back when they still had one), got access, went through their onboarding call, and used it as my primary email client for about five months. Then I switched to Spark Mail for another four months to compare directly.
Here’s what actually happened.
What Superhuman Is Trying to Be
Superhuman isn’t really selling you an email client. It’s selling you a philosophy — that your inbox should be something you move through quickly, decisively, and without friction.
The whole product is built around keyboard shortcuts. Every action has one. Archive, reply, snooze, label, move to next — all without touching the mouse. After about two weeks of muscle memory building, I genuinely started flying through email in a way that felt different from anything I’d used before.
The “Split Inbox” feature was the thing I liked most. You set up sections for things like “important people” versus “everything else,” and your inbox just… stays organized automatically. It sounds small. It’s not small. I stopped accidentally ignoring emails from clients because they were buried under newsletters I’d been meaning to unsubscribe from for three years.
The AI features — and Superhuman has been leaning into these hard — let you draft replies with AI assistance, get summaries of long threads, and even get a daily digest of what you missed. They’ve integrated these pretty naturally, so it doesn’t feel like they stapled a chatbot onto an email app.
And the speed. People always mention speed when they talk about Superhuman, and it’s real. The app feels instant. No lag, no jank, no waiting for threads to load. On a MacBook, it genuinely felt like using something purpose-built rather than a web app in a trench coat.
What Spark Mail Is Trying to Be
Spark has a different personality entirely. Where Superhuman feels like a productivity tool for solo power users, Spark feels like it was designed for people who collaborate — or who just want smart email without the learning curve.
The feature I used most in Spark was the AI email assistant (they call it Spark +AI), which could draft entire emails based on a few bullet points I typed. I’d write “follow up on proposal, ask if they have questions, keep it friendly” and get a pretty solid draft in seconds. Was it perfect every time? No. But it was a useful starting point about 70% of the time, which is better than staring at a blank compose window.
Spark also has genuinely good smart notifications. It learns which senders matter to you and stops buzzing your phone every time a promotional email lands. After about a week of use, my phone stopped vibrating for nonsense. That alone was worth something.
The shared drafts and team inbox features are things Superhuman doesn’t have in the same way. If you work with a team and occasionally need to collaborate on an email before sending it — like a PR response or a client proposal — Spark handles that really naturally.
And Spark is free for individual users. That’s not nothing.
Where Superhuman Actually Beat My Expectations
I went in somewhat skeptical — the price point invites skepticism — but a few things genuinely surprised me.
The onboarding call (yes, a real human calls you when you sign up) was more useful than I expected. It’s not a sales pitch. They walk you through keyboard shortcuts, set up your Split Inbox with you, and make sure you’re actually set up to use the product well. I learned things in 25 minutes that would have taken me hours to discover on my own.
The “Remind Me” feature — which snoozes an email and brings it back at a time you choose — worked better in Superhuman than anywhere else I’d used it. The implementation is frictionless enough that I actually used it, instead of just meaning to.
And the read receipts. Controversial feature, I know. But for sales follow-ups and client emails, knowing that someone opened your email (and when) genuinely changed how I timed my follow-ups. I stopped following up too early and stopped waiting too long. Superhuman shows this quietly without making it feel creepy.
Where Spark Won Me Over
Spark’s biggest win for me was cross-device consistency. I switch between a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPhone constantly, and Spark felt equally good on all three. Superhuman is better on desktop; the mobile experience has improved but still doesn’t feel as polished as the Mac app.
The Smart Inbox in Spark — which automatically sorts your email into Personal, Newsletters, Notifications, and Pins — required zero setup from me. I didn’t have to tell it anything. It just worked, accurately, from day one. That’s legitimately impressive.
I also appreciated that Spark supports multiple email accounts (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo — everything) in a unified inbox, and it handles switching between them gracefully. Superhuman is primarily built for Gmail and Google Workspace, which matters if your work and personal email live in different ecosystems.
The Price Problem (And It Is a Problem)
Superhuman costs $30 a month ($25 if you pay annually). That’s $300 a year for an email client.
I can justify that. I did justify it, for a while. If email is central to how you earn a living — if you’re a founder, a recruiter, a sales professional — that math can work out. But I eventually had a moment where I thought about what else I could spend $300 on and couldn’t fully defend the subscription.
Spark is free for individuals, with a $9.99/month Spark +AI tier that unlocks the AI writing features. Even the paid tier is a third of Superhuman’s price.
If you’re on the fence about the cost, that gap is probably the answer.
A Few Mistakes I Made Along the Way
When I started Superhuman, I tried to learn every keyboard shortcut at once and burned out. The better approach: learn five shortcuts, use them until they’re automatic, then add five more. Trying to remap my entire brain in a week just made me hate the product temporarily.
With Spark, I turned on too many notification categories early on and undid all the smart notification benefits. The defaults are actually well-calibrated — I should have started there.
I also made the mistake of assuming the AI email drafting in both tools would produce send-ready emails. It doesn’t, at least not for anything important. Think of it as a rough draft assistant, not a ghostwriter. Always read the full draft before hitting send.
Who Should Actually Use Each One
Use Superhuman if:
- Email is genuinely central to your work (sales, recruiting, investing, client-heavy roles)
- You live on a Mac or use Google Workspace
- You’re willing to spend a few weeks building new habits
- The $30/month is genuinely offset by time saved or deals closed
Use Spark if:
- You want smart email organization without a steep learning curve
- You work across multiple devices, especially mobile
- You use multiple email providers (Gmail + Outlook, for example)
- You collaborate with a small team on email
- You don’t want to spend $300/year on this category
Honestly? Try Spark first. It’s free. Get comfortable with smart inbox organization and AI drafting at no risk. If you hit a ceiling — if you’re still feeling bogged down in high-volume email after a month — then Superhuman is worth the trial.
One Thing Neither Tool Fixed
I want to be straight with you about something: switching email apps doesn’t fix an email problem that’s really a boundary problem.
I had too much email because I was on too many CC chains, subscribed to too many things, and gave my address out too freely. No app — not Superhuman, not Spark — changes that underlying reality. What they can do is help you process what comes in more efficiently. But if your inbox is chaotic because of habits, an app is a band-aid, not a cure.
Before going all-in on either tool, spend 20 minutes unsubscribing from stuff you don’t read, and ask to be removed from email threads you don’t need to be on. Do that first, then pick a smarter email client. That combination actually works.
I’m currently back on Spark, for the record. The cross-device thing won out for how my day is structured now. But I genuinely don’t regret my Superhuman months — it changed how I think about moving through email efficiently, and that mental model stuck with me even after I switched.
Both are legitimately good tools. The choice just depends on what your email day actually looks like.
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