Superhuman vs HEY: which email client is right for you?

Last updated October 2026

Superhuman and HEY both reject the idea that email has to feel like a chore, but they take opposite paths to get there. Superhuman is a speed-focused layer that sits on top of your existing Gmail or Outlook account, built for people who send and receive a high volume of email and want to move through it faster. HEY, built by 37signals (the team behind Basecamp), is a standalone email service that throws out conventional inbox design entirely and replaces it with opinionated workflows meant to put you back in control of who can reach you and when.

Choosing between them is less about comparing feature lists and more about deciding what kind of email experience you actually want. This page breaks down pricing, features, and key differences so you can make that call with confidence.

How Superhuman works

Superhuman is an email client, not a full email service. You connect your existing Gmail or Google Workspace account (or Outlook) and use Superhuman as your interface. Everything stays stored with your provider. The appeal is raw speed and AI-powered productivity layered on top of an account you already have.

The entire experience is built around keyboard shortcuts. Superhuman offers over 100 of them, letting power users fly through triage, replies, and scheduling without touching the mouse. Split Inbox sorts incoming mail into customizable tabs for team messages, VIPs, notifications, and other categories so you can work through each stream separately.

AI features are central to the product. Auto Summarize adds a one-line summary above each conversation that updates as new messages arrive. Ask AI lets you query your inbox and calendar in natural language, pulling information across multiple threads without needing exact keywords. AI drafting writes and edits replies in your voice, learning your tone over time.

Superhuman also includes a built-in calendar with scheduling features like Share Availability, video conferencing integrations, and team collaboration tools like inline comments and shared live views of email threads. Snippets let you save and reuse full email templates, including attachments. The Recent Opens feed shows when recipients open your messages so you can time follow-ups.

On the enterprise side, Superhuman supports SSO through SAML and SCIM, offers BYOK encryption, and is SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliant. Team administrators get centralized billing, usage analytics, and organization-wide feature controls.

How HEY works

HEY is a full email service. You get an @hey.com address (or bring your own domain on the business plans), and your email lives on HEY's servers. The philosophy is that email went wrong somewhere along the way and needs to be fundamentally rethought, not just made faster.

The most distinctive feature is the Screener. The first time someone new emails you, HEY intercepts the message and asks whether you want to hear from that sender. If you say no, they never reach your inbox. If you say yes, their messages go to the Imbox (HEY's name for the main inbox, meant to hold only important mail).

Beyond the Imbox, HEY sorts email into dedicated spaces automatically. The Feed is where newsletters live, displayed in an open, scrollable format like an RSS reader. Paper Trail catches receipts, confirmations, and transactional messages, keeping them accessible but out of the way. This structure means your Imbox only contains messages that actually need your attention.

HEY includes tools for managing when you deal with email. Reply Later queues messages you need to respond to but not right now. Set Aside holds reference emails within easy reach. Bubble Up resurfaces a message at a time you choose. Focus and Reply mode lets you work through your Reply Later pile one message at a time without distraction.

Privacy is a stated priority. HEY blocks spy pixels by default and tells you which senders tried to track you. Notifications are off by default, which is an unusual choice, and you can selectively enable them for specific contacts or threads.

HEY Calendar is included as a separate product with its own design approach, alongside HEY Journal for private notes and daily reflections. Team features on the business plans include shared threads, group email addresses, and collections for organizing work across a team.

Pricing comparison

Superhuman also offers an Enterprise tier with custom pricing that adds SAML SSO, BYOK encryption, advanced analytics, and dedicated support. HEY for Families is available at $179/yr for up to five people total.

One cost that is easy to overlook with Superhuman: you still need to pay for your underlying email service. If you are on Google Workspace ($7/user/mo and up), the real cost of Superhuman Starter is closer to $32 to $37 per month.

HEY's pricing is simpler but locked to annual billing on the personal plan. There is no monthly option for HEY for You. Premium short @hey.com addresses carry a significant surcharge ($349/yr for three characters, $999/yr for two).

Feature comparison

Who Superhuman is best for

Superhuman makes the most sense for professionals who live in their inbox and want to move through high volumes of email as fast as possible. If you already use Gmail or Outlook and your bottleneck is speed rather than inbox philosophy, Superhuman's keyboard-driven workflow and AI features can genuinely save hours per week.

Sales teams and account managers get particular value from the Business plan's CRM integrations, Recent Opens feed, and Auto Drafts. Being able to see when a prospect opened your email and have a follow-up draft ready to go is a meaningful workflow advantage in revenue-facing roles.

The tradeoff is cost. At $25 to $40 per month on top of your existing email provider, Superhuman is one of the most expensive email tools available. It also does nothing to change the fundamental dynamics of your inbox. You will get through email faster, but you will not get less of it.

Who HEY is best for

HEY appeals to people who feel overwhelmed by email and want structural changes to how it works, not just a faster way to process the same mess. The Screener alone is a meaningful shift: instead of unsubscribing from unwanted email after it arrives, you prevent it from ever reaching you in the first place.

Independent professionals, founders, and creative workers who want to separate newsletters from real correspondence will appreciate the Feed and Paper Trail. The opinionated design means less configuration and fewer decisions about how to organize things, because HEY has already made those choices for you.

The privacy focus also matters for people who are uncomfortable with the tracking that is standard in modern email. Blocking spy pixels by default and turning off notifications by default are both deliberate philosophical choices that align with a slower, more intentional approach to communication.

The downsides are real, though. HEY does not integrate with your existing Gmail or Outlook account. Switching means either migrating entirely or maintaining two email addresses. There are no AI features, which is an increasingly notable gap. And the opinionated design that some people love will frustrate others who want more control over their workflow.

Where Fabric fits

Both Superhuman and HEY solve the problem of email in their own way, but neither addresses the broader challenge of keeping all your digital information connected and findable. That is where Fabric comes in.

Fabric is a personal cloud and context layer that connects more than 30 apps, including Gmail, and brings everything into one searchable space. Rather than replacing your email client, Fabric sits alongside it and makes the information scattered across your tools accessible through AI search and an AI assistant that understands context across your entire digital life.

If you use Superhuman to power through your inbox but then struggle to find that one attachment from three weeks ago, or if you use HEY to keep email calm but still lose track of notes and documents across other tools, Fabric fills that gap. You can take notes and docs in Fabric, publish and share them, and keep everything connected to the emails, files, and bookmarks that relate to them.

Fabric offers a free tier, with paid plans at $8/mo billed annually or $10/mo billed monthly. Every paid account also contributes to tree planting.

Frequently asked questions

Is Superhuman worth the price?

That depends on how much email you handle and what your time is worth. If you send and receive dozens of emails a day in a professional context, the speed gains from keyboard shortcuts and AI features can translate to meaningful time savings. Superhuman claims users save four or more hours per week, though your mileage will vary. For someone who gets a handful of personal emails a day, the cost is hard to justify.

Can I use HEY with my existing Gmail address?

No. HEY is a standalone email service, not a client for other providers. You either use an @hey.com address or, on the business plans, connect your own domain. You cannot use HEY as an interface for an existing Gmail or Outlook account the way you can with Superhuman.

Does HEY have AI features?

HEY does not currently offer AI-powered features like drafting, summarization, or natural language inbox search. The product's philosophy emphasizes giving you control through structural design choices (the Screener, Feed, and Paper Trail) rather than through AI automation. Whether this is a benefit or a limitation depends on how you feel about AI in your inbox.

Does Superhuman work with Outlook?

Yes. Superhuman supports both Gmail (including Google Workspace) and Outlook (including Microsoft 365) accounts. You connect your existing account, and Superhuman acts as a faster interface while your email stays stored with your provider.

Is there a free trial for either product?

HEY offers a 30-day free trial for the personal plan (HEY for You). Superhuman does not currently offer a free tier or trial for its standalone Mail product, though the Superhuman Suite (which bundles Grammarly, Coda, and other tools) has a free tier that does not include Mail access.

Can I use Superhuman on Linux?

Superhuman does not have a native Linux app. It offers desktop apps for Mac and Windows, plus mobile apps for iOS and Android. You may be able to use the web version, but Linux is not an officially supported platform. HEY supports Linux through its web app and has historically been more accessible across platforms.

Does HEY block email tracking?

Yes. HEY blocks spy pixels (invisible tracking images embedded in emails) by default and shows you which senders attempted to track whether you opened their message. This is one of HEY's signature privacy features. It is worth noting that this is the opposite approach from Superhuman, which offers a Recent Opens feed that relies on exactly this kind of tracking to tell you when recipients open your emails.

Which one is better for teams?

Superhuman has stronger team collaboration features, including inline comments on emails, shared live views, and CRM integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce on the Business plan. HEY for Domains offers shared threads, group email addresses, and collections, but its team features are less extensive. For sales teams specifically, Superhuman is the clearer choice.

Can I switch from HEY back to Gmail?

HEY allows you to export your data, but switching back means changing your email address if you were using @hey.com. If you used HEY for Domains with your own domain, you can point your domain's email records to a different provider. Keep in mind that any email organization (your Imbox, Feed, and Paper Trail sorting) will not transfer to another service.

Is Fabric free?

Yes. Fabric has a free tier that gives you access to the core features, including connecting your apps and using AI search. Paid plans start at $8/mo when billed annually or $10/mo when billed monthly, and they unlock additional capacity and features like the full AI assistant and expanded notes and docs.

What is the Screener in HEY?

The Screener is HEY's gatekeeper feature. When someone emails you for the first time, HEY holds their message in the Screener and asks whether you want to let that sender through to your Imbox. If you say yes, all future messages from them arrive normally. If you say no, their messages are silently rejected. This means your Imbox only contains mail from senders you have explicitly approved, which is a fundamentally different approach from traditional spam filters.

Does Superhuman have a calendar?

Yes. Superhuman includes a built-in calendar that integrates with your Google or Outlook calendar. It supports features like Share Availability (letting recipients pick a time from your open slots), video conferencing integrations, and event management alongside your email. HEY also includes HEY Calendar as a separate product with its own design philosophy.

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