Email remains a cornerstone of communication, yet the way we interact with it is changing. Email clients are no longer just tools for sending and receiving messages - they've evolved into sophisticated platforms designed to optimize workflows and minimize the stress of an overflowing inbox. Leading this evolution are innovative clients like Spark and Superhuman, which leverage cutting-edge technology and user-centric design to redefine the email experience.
We’ll explore how Spark and Superhuman compare, helping you decide which is the better choice for your needs.
This article is accurate as of the date of publication. Please refer to Superhuman’s website for the most up-to-date information on their features.
What is Spark? What is Superhuman?
Spark is an email client that helps users take control of their inbox and focus on what's important. It acts as a hub for your various email accounts, intelligently prioritizes emails, and offers personalized layouts and powerful integrations to fit users' workflow. Spark implements AI tools to write better emails and improve email management, with team tools that allow users to collaborate effectively. With options for a free plan and premium tier, Spark’s mission is to help users overcome information overload and dive into deep work.
Superhuman is a premium AI-powered email client targeting busy professionals who prioritize speed and don't mind paying extra for a minimalistic design, and tailored onboarding experience. It offers powerful tools like AI-powered search with a focus on a minimalistic design and rapid email processing through shortcuts and Superhuman Command. It has limited email provider support and lacks a free plan, which may restrict its usability for those who rely on email providers other than Gmail and Outlook.
Spark vs Superhuman Comparison
A Unified Inbox - A hub for your productivity
Spark is a home for all your email accounts and supports a wide range of providers, including Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo, Exchange, and any IMAP account - allowing users the freedom to connect with virtually any email provider. Spark also ensures seamless cross-device functionality and is available on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Apple Watch.
Spark also connects your email, calendar, and meeting notes in one place, allowing you to operate from a singular hub. Spark's Calendar helps you manage your events within the email app, and works with iCloud, Gmail, and Exchange (Outlook coming soon). Spark’s Calendar is linked to Meeting Notes, a versatile AI-powered tool for transcribing and summarizing meetings. It works with any meeting tool (Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, etc.), takes notes of conversations, and allows you to focus fully during every discussion.
Spark also includes Integrations, which connect your favorite apps and allow you to export emails and attachments. You can integrate with popular task management, note-taking, and cloud storage services, allowing you to centralize key actions within your email client.
Superhuman’s email compatibility is limited to Gmail and Outlook accounts, which may restrict its appeal for users relying on other email providers. However, it does work cross-platform on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and via web browsers, offering similar flexibility. Superhuman integrates a basic calendar into the app but lacks additional meeting notes functionality. It focuses on core email functionality and offers several integrations for sales and enterprises.
Intentional Design - Achieving inbox zero
Both Spark and Superhuman prioritize clean, user-friendly interfaces, but their approaches differ significantly.
Spark champions intentional productivity, offering a modern design that promotes focused work while adapting to user needs. Managing multiple email accounts is seamless, and you can fine-tune the interface to match your workflow and preferences. Whether you like the classic layout for a more traditional email experience - or a modern, streamlined view to keep things distraction-free - Spark has you covered. Even notifications can be customized to ensure only high-priority messages demand your attention, helping you stay focused on what really matters.
Whether you are a multitasker or a focused worker, Spark helps expedite your email processing and ensures you stay at inbox zero. Spark encourages healthy email habits with the Home Screen and Mark as Done. The Home Screen is the premium feature that gently suggests you work with your emails only a few times. It helps users create an email routine and shows summaries on new important emails to give you the headspace to focus on important tasks outside of email.
Superhuman, on the other hand, takes a minimalist approach with a fixed interface. While the simplicity works well for users who prioritize speed and efficiency, the lack of flexibility might leave others feeling boxed in. If you’re the kind of person who likes your tools to adapt to your needs rather than the other way around, Spark is the clear choice.
Personalization - Your inbox, your way
There’s a lot you can tweak with Spark. You can switch between layouts depending on your needs - Split View is helpful for multitasking and allows you to have your inbox and opened email side by side. While with Full-Screen you can get a focused email processing and reading experience. Within the sidebar, you can add your favored folders and reorder them for faster navigation. With Spark customizations are seemingly endless, allowing you to personalize your layout, controls and shortcuts.
Spark’s composer offers a range of advanced options, allowing users to customize their emails to suit any purpose. You can choose from a variety of fonts to tailor the tone of your message, whether it’s formal or more casual. It supports embedding media, such as videos or GIFs, for creating dynamic and engaging content directly within the email. For users needing structured layouts, the ability to add and edit tables provides a simple way to include organized data or comparisons. The composer also includes inline image resizing, ensuring visuals can be adjusted for clarity and impact without the need for additional tools.
Superhuman has fewer editing and formatting options, opting for a stripped-down, text-heavy interface. It prioritizes speed and efficiency, with a minimalist design that reduces distractions. Superhuman allows for extensive keyboard shortcut customization and a tailored command interface, enabling users to optimize their email processing speed.
Organization - Mastering your inbox
Spark’s Smart Inbox takes organization a step further. It prioritizes emails from real people, categorizing less important messages - like newsletters and notifications - into separate sections. This dynamic prioritization ensures you focus on meaningful conversations without unnecessary distractions.
Want to keep emails from your manager atop of your inbox? No problem, in addition to the automatic sorting personal emails, you can manually mark important contacts as Priority and see their emails atop of your inbox and highlighted for better visibility. Spark’s broader organizational features make it a better option for managing multiple threads efficiently.
Spark excels in providing tools that enhance organization and streamline workflows.
- Your Spark Account allows as many email accounts as needed syncing seamlessly across multiple devices, with intelligent inbox organization.
- Smart Inbox and Home Screen work together to highlight important emails and summarize updates, keeping users on track with minimal effort.
- Gatekeeper combats inbox clutter, allowing users to pre-approve senders and block unwanted emails before they even reach the inbox.
- Group by Sender makes it easy to manage ongoing conversations or track emails from specific contacts.
With Superhuman you can't work with multiple email accounts in a unified inbox so would need to switch between accounts to process emails. Superhuman is known for its speed-focused interface and powerful search capabilities, allowing users to rapidly triage and manage their inbox through keyboard shortcuts and efficient workflows. Superhuman empowers users to quickly process and act on emails, whereas Spark focuses on proactive, automated organization to streamline the inbox experience.
Spark +AI - Supercharged with AI
Spark +AI is designed to simplify email management and help users stay focused on what matters most. With Spark, these tools are all designed with privacy in mind, ensuring users maintain full control over their data.
- +AI Writing Assistant: Helps you quickly compose professional and polished emails by suggesting improvements to grammar, tone, and clarity.
- +AI Summary: Condenses lengthy email threads and documents into concise summaries, saving you time and making it easier to grasp key information.
- +AI Templates: Provides a selection of customizable templates for common email scenarios, such as follow-ups, requests, and introductions, making it faster to craft effective messages.
- +AI Meeting Notes: Automatically summarizes key discussion points and action items from meeting notes, ensuring you capture important information and can easily share it with attendees.
Superhuman's AI is integrated into the core email workflow, focusing on speed and efficiency. Superhuman uses AI to provide answers with its Ask AI and surface relevant information, prioritize emails with auto-labels, and auto-archive clutter. Similarly to Spark, it offers AI for crafting email drafts. While both platforms leverage AI to improve email management, there is a significant difference. Spark’s +AI set of tools is optional and can be activated in the Premium plan, whereas in Superhuman AI is integrated into its key features.
Team Collaboration
When it comes to team collaboration, Spark for Teams and Superhuman both provide Shared Threads and Comments but offer distinct approaches. While Superhuman provides basic shared drafts and shared emails with comments, Spark for Teams excels with must-have collaborative features designed to improve daily teamwork and collaboration.
Spark for Teams truly shines with its real-time collaboration capabilities. Teams can collaborate and write shared drafts together in real-time with the extensive email content: adding tables, images, advanced formatting. The comments are also available to keep the conversation going and other team members can send the shared draft from your account - super helpful for delegating tasks to your colleagues or assistant.
Shared Inboxes are a game-changer for support, sales, and other teams that manage shared email addresses. It allows teams to collectively monitor and respond to incoming emails, ensuring no query goes unanswered and providing a unified customer experience. Furthermore, task management is simplified with Delegations. Team leaders can easily assign emails to specific members, ensuring accountability and efficient workflow.
Superhuman's collaborative features are more limited. For example, the Shared Drafts functionality lacks real-time collaboration. Colleagues can share an email thread with a draft and discuss it in comments but can’t edit a draft together which can hinder efficiency and slow down the collaborative process.
Pricing
Let’s address the elephant in the room: Superhuman’s cost is high. At $30 per month per user ($360 per year) for a Starter Plan, it’s the most expensive premium email client on the market. For context, Spark offers a free plan with essential tools and a premium plan starting at $59.99 per year. Spark’s affordable pricing makes it accessible to individuals and teams, allowing users to experience advanced tools like AI meeting notes and collaboration features without breaking the bank.
Superhuman’s high price is driven by AI costs for its key features, but AI Search and AI Assistant capabilities are not exclusive only to Superhuman. There are cheaper decent email alternatives. It raises the question if paying at least $30 monthly for functionality is fair, and who Superhuman is really for.
Which is better: Spark vs Superhuman?
While Superhuman markets itself as the pinnacle of speed, its steep price tag and limited email providers make it a tough sell for most users. It’s fast, yes, but speed alone isn’t enough to justify its cost - especially when Spark offers similar (and often superior) functionality for a fraction of the price.
Superhuman seems more focused on selling an exclusive experience than just an email app. Its onboarding process, with one-on-one training calls, feels designed to emphasize its premium image. While keyboard shortcuts are great for power users, the whole experience might feel like forcing users to change existing habits and might not work for those who want a more intuitive email solution.
Spark is an email pioneer, continuously developing cutting-edge tools. It offers a personalized experience at affordable pricing. Whether you’re an individual looking for powerful AI tools or a team needing robust collaboration tools, Spark delivers everything you need to manage email efficiently while giving you great features at a price that makes sense. Spark is a standout choice for both individuals and teams.
Choose Spark if you need:
- An email client that smoothly works with multiple email accounts.
- Advanced tools like Smart Inbox, Gatekeeper, and AI Meeting Notes.
- Affordable pricing that works for individuals and teams.
- Extensive customization options and cross-platform compatibility.
Choose Superhuman if you:
- Spend hours in your inbox daily and prioritize speed and minimalism.
- Don’t mind paying a premium for a sleek, exclusive experience.
- Willing to learn keyboard shortcuts to process your inbox faster.
Ready to transform your inbox? Download Spark today and access a 7-day free premium trialto experience email management the way it should be.
If you have feedback or notice inconsistencies in this comparison, please contact us at support@sparkmailapp.com. We’d love to hear from you!
FAQ: Spark vs Superhuman
1. Can I try Spark for free?
Yes, Spark has a free plan with essential tools and also offers a free trial for additional email capabilities. Spark’s Premium tools come with a monthly subscription (monthly and yearly billing options are available).
2. Can I try Superhuman for free?
Superhuman does not have a standard free plan or trial. However, they offer a 1-month for free if you sign up through a referral.
3. Which email providers are supported in Spark?
Spark supports Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, iCloud, Yahoo and custom IMAP and EWS email providers. Moreover, Smart Inbox in Spark combines emails from added email accounts into Unified Inbox and organizes them by categories to show what’s important and help process emails faster.
4. Which email providers are supported in Superhuman?
Superhuman supports only Gmail and Outlook email providers. Superhuman doesn’t support a Unified Inbox which requires working on emails from one email account at a time.
5. Can I turn off AI features?
Yes, with Spark, you absolutely can turn off AI features.
Spark offers its AI tools as part of its Premium plan, which means they're entirely optional. You have the control to use them when you need them or ignore them completely if you prefer.
Superhuman integrates AI into its core functionality, so you don't have the option to disable it.
6. Does Spark offer a team plan?
Yes. Spark offers dedicated Spark for Teams features such as Shared Inboxes, Shared Drafts, Shared Threads, Assignments, Read Statuses, and more collaborative features. You can create a team in Spark for free and start exploring Spark for Teams. To upgrade your team to a more advanced collaborative experience, you will need to upgrade to Team Premium. Team Premium starts at $6.99 per user per month when billed annually.
7. Does Superhuman offer a team plan?
Yes. Superhuman’s plans start at $25 per user per month when billed annually. There is no free option to explore the features.
The Readdle Team 
