Home / Alternatives

Shortwave alternatives for Gmail

Updated October 15, 2026. Competitor prices read from the vendors' own pages on October 15, 2026.

Shortwave lists Business at $30 per seat per month, Premier at $45 and Max at $120, each with a 14-day trial and no free plan on its pricing page. The tiers differ mainly in AI usage and AI search limits. For Gmail users, the alternatives are Donezo Inbox (a free client with Pro at $29 a year), Superhuman Mail from $25 a month billed annually, and Inbox Zero from $18 a month billed annually.

How do Shortwave's plans differ?

Shortwave plans as listed on its pricing page
Plan	Price per seat per month	AI usage	AI search	AI filters
Business	$30	Standard intelligence, more usage	5 years of AI search history, up to 50 threads per search	3
Premier	$45	Advanced intelligence, 2x usage	Unlimited history, up to 100 threads per search, 2x context	10
Max	$120	Expert intelligence, 6x usage	Up to 150 threads per search, 3x context	50

Shortwave's plan table also lists splits, bundles, delivery schedules, block and unsubscribe, auto-apply labels, predictive AI autocomplete, instant AI summaries, AI-powered snooze, a calendar integration, todos, read statuses, recent opens, link tracking, snippets, automatic follow-up reminders, a command palette, thread sharing, team comments, assignees, shared labels and channels, and a CASA Tier 2 compliance line. Which plan includes which of those is shown by tick marks on its page, so check it before you decide.

Shortwave's pricing page shows monthly prices; its annual price is not shown, so the monthly figure is the one compared here. It also points to a sister product, Tasklet, for 24/7 workflow automation.

Prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page on October 15, 2026. Vendors change them, so check the linked page before you buy.

How do Shortwave alternatives compare on price?

Shortwave and Gmail-friendly alternatives, starting prices
Product	Starting price	Worth knowing
Shortwave	$30 per seat per month, billed monthly (annual price not shown on the page). Premier $45. Max $120.	14-day trial. No free plan listed.
Donezo Inbox	Free for one inbox. Pro $29/year.	Gmail and Google Workspace only. No shared inbox or meeting notes.
Superhuman Mail	Starter $25 per member per month billed annually.	Starter is capped at 25 seats.
Inbox Zero	Starter $18 per month billed annually.	Gmail and Outlook. 7-day trial.
Missive	Starter $14 per user per month billed yearly.	Shared inbox included. Up to 5 users.

Yearly cost by number of seats
Plan	1 seat per year	5 seats per year	10 seats per year	Basis
Shortwave Business	$360	$1,800	$3,600	$30 billed monthly
Shortwave Premier	$540	$2,700	$5,400	$45 billed monthly
Superhuman Mail Starter	$300	$1,500	$3,000	$25 billed annually
Inbox Zero Starter	$216	$1,080	$2,160	$18 billed annually
Donezo Inbox Pro	$29	$145 if each person buys their own	$290 if each person buys their own	$29/year, per person

Where does Donezo Inbox fit against Shortwave?

Both are built for Gmail. Donezo's pitch is price and choice of AI: the client is free for one inbox, AI is free with your own key, a local model or Chrome's built-in model, and Pro is $29/year. Donezo works with Gmail and Google Workspace only. It has no Outlook or IMAP support, no shared inbox or assignment, no meeting notes and no scheduling links.

Donezo Inbox's AI settings with three choices, Cloud (part of Pro), My own endpoint (free) and Chrome built-in (free), and a note on where your text goes — AI settings: hosted Cloud AI is part of Pro, or point the same features at your own endpoint (OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Ollama, LM Studio) or Chrome's built-in model for free.

Both have splits, snooze, a command palette, snippets, read statuses and follow-up reminders. Where they differ is the price and metering of AI: Shortwave's tiers scale AI usage and AI search, while Donezo lets you choose the provider and does not charge for AI you supply yourself.

Recent Opens in Donezo Inbox, listing sent messages that were opened, with labels such as Likely a real open and Probably automatic, and a Follow up button — Recent Opens (Pro) labels each open as a likely real open, a possible one or probably automatic, because Apple Mail and security scanners preload images.

Donezo also lets Claude or Codex work across your inboxes through a private link. See the connector page.

Which one should you pick?

Choose Shortwave if you want its AI search and AI filters at scale and are happy to pay per seat for them, or if your team will use its sharing, comments and assignees. Choose Donezo Inbox if you are an individual on Gmail who wants the keyboard-first client for $29 a year or nothing, with AI you control.

Which Shortwave tier would you need?

Shortwave's tiers scale AI, not the basic client, so the question is how much AI you will use. Business gives standard intelligence with 5 years of AI search history, up to 50 threads per AI search and 3 AI filters. Premier doubles the usage, gives unlimited history, 100 threads per search and 10 filters. Max is 6 times the usage with 150 threads per search and 50 filters.

Time a client must save to pay for itself
Plan	Per year	Hours a year to break even at $25 an hour	at $50 an hour	at $100 an hour	Minutes a working day at $50 an hour
Shortwave Business (billed monthly)	$360	14	7.2	3.6	1.7
Shortwave Premier (billed monthly)	$540	22	11	5.4	2.6
Shortwave Max (billed monthly)	$1,440	58	29	14	6.9
Donezo Inbox Pro	$29	1.2	0.6	0.3	0.1

If you search and summarise a lot of mail with AI, the higher tiers are what you are paying for. If you mostly want the keyboard-first client, splits, snooze and snippets, those are available at a far lower price elsewhere on this page.

How was this page made?

Every competitor price and plan detail on this page was read from the vendor's own page on October 15, 2026, and links to that page sit beside the figure. Where a page did not show a number, the page says so rather than guessing. Screenshots are of Donezo Inbox's own demo mailbox, which uses sample data. Donezo Inbox publishes this page and competes with the products on it, so read it with that in mind. It has not benchmarked speed or AI accuracy on other products and makes no such claims about them.

Questions

Is there a free Shortwave alternative?

Donezo Inbox's email client is free for one inbox. Its AI is free if you bring your own key, a local model or Chrome's built-in model.

Does Donezo work with Outlook like some other options?

No. Donezo works with Gmail and Google Workspace only.

Does Donezo have a team plan?

Not one that is on sale. Pro is sold per person. A shared inbox is not available.

How much is Shortwave?

Business $30, Premier $45 and Max $120 per seat per month, per its pricing page, with a 14-day trial and no free plan listed.

What is the difference between Shortwave's plans?

Mostly AI usage and AI search: usage of 1x, 2x and 6x, up to 50, 100 or 150 threads per AI search, and 3, 10 or 50 AI filters.

Is Shortwave free?

Its pricing page lists three paid plans with a 14-day free trial and no free plan.

What does Shortwave Premier add over Business?

Advanced intelligence, twice the AI usage, unlimited AI search history, up to 100 threads per AI search, 10 AI filters and twice the context tokens.

How much is Shortwave per year?

Business $30 per seat per month is $360 a year at the monthly price shown; Premier is $540 and Max is $1,440. Its pricing page does not show an annual price.

See it for yourself

The live demo runs with sample mail, no sign-in.

Try the live demo Continue with Google