Shortwave alternatives for iCloud, Outlook and less AI

The best Shortwave alternative is Alrighty if you have iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts and want them in one inbox, with search that finds what you mean and the AI you already use working in your mail. Superhuman is the closest match if you need Microsoft 365 as well as Gmail. Spark is free, takes every common account, and starts with its AI off. Canary is the cheapest, and its free plan has no AI. Mimestream is a native Mac app for Gmail with almost no AI. And Gmail itself is free.

Shortwave is a strong app for one kind of person: all their mail is Gmail, and they want AI on every message. People look for a Shortwave alternative when one of those isn't true. This page sorts the alternatives by the three reasons people leave, and says for each one which accounts it takes directly, not by forwarding, and whether its AI starts on its own. Most Shortwave alternatives lists skip both.

How we checked

We read each vendor's own pricing, help and privacy pages on November 3, 2026, and every fact about another product links to its source. For each app we noted the price, which accounts it adds directly, whether its AI is on by default, and what replaces Shortwave's AI search, summaries and filters. Where a vendor's page doesn't say, we write "not stated." We did not test the apps. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.

Why people leave Shortwave

It's Gmail only. Shortwave works on top of a Gmail account. Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail and Zoho come in by forwarding their mail into Gmail. Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live are "forwarding only, cannot send from address," and Microsoft 365 and Exchange are "not supported at this time" (Shortwave). Even with several Gmail accounts, "there is no default option to view a unified inbox in Shortwave" (Shortwave).

It costs $30 a seat a month or more. The pricing page lists Business at $30 per seat per month, Premier at $45 and Max at $120, with a 14-day free trial (pricing). A help page says a Free plan exists, but the pricing page's Individual tab and its "Can I use Shortwave for free?" answer were empty when we read them. We can't say what the Free plan includes.

The AI is on everything. Shortwave puts "a smart tl;dr right at the top of every email," writes replies in the voice it learns "from the emails you send," and runs AI filters (Shortwave). Its plans name their models: Claude Sonnet 4.6 on Business and Premier, Claude Opus 4.6 on Max. Its security page says "All Shortwave data is stored in Google Cloud's highly secure & compliant data centers," and besides Google Cloud it uses "OpenAI, Anthropic, and Pinecone." The pages we read don't say how to turn the AI off. Our best AI email summarizers list shows which tools summarize only when you ask.

Shortwave alternatives at a glance

App	Price	Adds directly	AI on by default	Where your mail is kept
Alrighty	14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365	Your own AI: off. Reply drafts and Clean up: on when signed in	Your computer
Superhuman	$25 or $33/member/mo, billed yearly	Gmail, Microsoft 365	Not stated	Its pages disagree
Spark	Free; Plus $10/mo or $99/yr	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo, IMAP	No, "turned off" by default	Spark's servers for some features
Canary	Free; Growth $36/yr	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, IMAP	Free plan lists no AI	Your device, except push on phones
Mimestream	$4.99/mo or $49.99/yr	Gmail	Only Apple's Writing Tools	Your Mac
Gmail	Free	Gmail	Not stated	Google
Shortwave	$30 to $120/seat/mo	Gmail; others by forwarding	Not stated; summaries "at the top of every email"	Shortwave's Google Cloud

Alrighty: best Shortwave alternative for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook

Alrighty is a mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that adds iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts directly and shows them in one inbox. Gmail connects with Sign in with Google, Outlook and Microsoft 365 with Sign in with Microsoft, and iCloud with an app-specific password. No forwarding, and you send from each address as itself.

What replaces Shortwave's AI.

• Search. It runs on your computer and matches what you mean as well as the words: "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation. One search covers every account. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.
• Replies in your voice. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a suggested draft, written from what you sent that person before. It's always a draft. You send it.
• The AI you already use. A local MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model read and search your mail. That AI can work in a window of its own while you watch, and nothing sends until you click Send. This link is off until you turn it on with Connect AI. The setup guide has the steps.
• Junk. Stop mail ends a sender's mail in one click: it unsubscribes every way the message offers, archives their mail, and moves their new mail out. Clean up lists the senders you probably don't want so you can stop them all at once.

How much AI, and where it goes. There's no single AI switch, and Alrighty doesn't put a summary on every email. Your own AI stays off until you connect it. When you're signed in, reply drafts start by themselves and Clean up sorts senders on the server in the background. Search and phishing checks run on your computer with no server call. The built-in AI features send only the emails they need to Alrighty's server, which passes them to OpenAI for answers and replies, to Together AI for chat titles, and to TypeSafe AI for Clean up and sorting. If you don't sign in, nothing goes to Alrighty's server. Your mail stays with Apple, Google and Microsoft, and your passwords and tokens stay on your computer.

Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. Free has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups.

What it can't do. Shortwave runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Alrighty has no iPhone, Android or web app, and no calendar. It takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, so Yahoo, Fastmail and Zoho, which Shortwave takes by forwarding, can't be added. It's a new app with no long track record yet.

Pick it if you have an iCloud or Outlook account next to Gmail, and you want AI when you ask for it rather than on every message.

Superhuman: best Shortwave alternative for Gmail and Microsoft 365

Superhuman is the closest app to Shortwave in spirit: fast, keyboard-driven and AI-first. Unlike Shortwave, it's "Built for teams that use Gmail or Outlook" (Superhuman), so a Microsoft 365 work account can go in. It runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and in Chrome (Superhuman).

What replaces Shortwave's AI. Starter includes Write with AI, Instant Reply, Auto Summarize, Autocorrect and Autocomplete. Business adds Auto Drafts, Ask AI, Custom Auto Labels and the Superhuman Mail MCP (plans). Its assistant "can draft and, if you choose, send emails." Auto Labels sort marketing, cold pitches and social updates into Other on every plan (Superhuman).

Price. Starter is $25 per member per month and Business is $33, both billed yearly. The plans page shows no free plan.

What it can't do. No iCloud, Yahoo or other IMAP. Its pages don't agree on where your mail is stored: a blog post says your inbox "is never stored on our servers," and the privacy policy says it receives "emails and drafts." Whether its AI is on by default isn't stated. More in our Superhuman alternatives.

Pick it if you left Shortwave because of a Microsoft 365 account, and you still want AI on everything.

Spark: best free Shortwave alternative, with AI off until you want it

Spark, from Readdle, runs on Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android, and takes iCloud, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, Google and IMAP accounts (Spark). The free plan has unlimited accounts and a Smart Inbox that sorts unread mail into People, Notifications and Newsletters (pricing).

How much AI. "By default, Spark +AI is turned off." You turn it on in Spark's Settings, under Spark +AI, and "You can disable it in your Settings anytime" (Spark). AI is "available as a part of the Spark paid plans," with a limited preview on Free. Plus is $10 a month or $99 a year, and Pro is $20 or $199. Spark +AI runs on Microsoft's Azure OpenAI (Spark).

What to know. Some features "require our server-side email processing to work," and for AOL, Exchange and custom IMAP accounts Spark stores your login, encrypted, in its database (privacy). Our Spark alternatives page covers this.

Pick it if you want every account, every device and no bill, and you'd rather switch AI on yourself.

Canary Mail: cheapest Shortwave alternative, with a free plan that has no AI

Canary runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows and Android. Its free plan lists "Unlimited Mail Accounts" and a unified inbox (pricing), and it works with "Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange, and IMAP accounts" (Canary).

How much AI. The free plan lists no AI. AI Copilot, for writing, replies and summaries, starts on Growth at $36 a year. Pro+ is $100 a year. There are "no monthly subscriptions": "Any monthly price shown on the pricing page is a monthly equivalent of the yearly plan." Copilot uses "top-tier providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google and others" (privacy).

Where your mail goes. The privacy policy says your data is "stored on your device and is never transferred to our servers." For push on phones, "Canary will temporarily store your email address, credentials, sender, subject line."

Pick it if price is why you're leaving and $36 a year for AI beats $30 a month, or you want no AI at all on the free plan.

Mimestream: best Shortwave alternative for Gmail with almost no AI

Mimestream is a native Mac app for Gmail. It makes "direct connections to the Gmail API" and "only stores your data and tokens on your device" (Mimestream). It takes several Gmail accounts and can show them "together, as one unified inbox," which Shortwave doesn't do by default.

How much AI. Its AI is Apple Intelligence Writing Tools, added in version 1.5.0 (releases). There are no summaries or AI filters of its own. Search is "Gmail-backed."

Price. $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, after "a fully functional 14-day free trial that doesn't require a credit card" (pricing).

What it can't do. Gmail only, so it doesn't fix the iCloud or Outlook problem. Mac only, macOS 12 or newer, with an iPhone and iPad version in beta. If you need more than Gmail, see our Mimestream alternatives.

Pick it if all your mail is Gmail, and what you wanted from Shortwave was a fast Mac app, not the AI.

Gmail: the free Shortwave alternative you already have

Shortwave works on a Gmail account, so your mail is already in Gmail. You can go back to Gmail on the web for free and lose nothing but Shortwave's own features. Gmail's tabs sort mail into Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums (Google).

How much AI. Gemini in Gmail offers Help me write, suggested replies and conversation summaries. For personal Gmail accounts without a paid plan, Google says "availability is currently limited to the US," and conversation summaries are global (Google). More AI comes with Google's paid AI plans and Workspace. Whether it's on by default isn't stated on the pages we read. Our Gemini in Gmail alternatives show how to turn it off.

What it can't do. No iCloud or Outlook account in the same inbox without forwarding, the same problem as Shortwave. Google makes no Gmail app for Mac. Our guide to the Gmail app for Mac compares the ways to run it.

Pick it if your mail is all Gmail and you want to stop paying.

Before you switch, undo the forwarding

If you set up Shortwave by forwarding an iCloud, Yahoo or Outlook.com account into Gmail, that forwarding keeps running after you leave. Shortwave's setup asks for "auto-forwarding from your non-Gmail account to your Gmail address," set in that provider's settings (Shortwave). Once your new app adds those accounts directly, turn the forwarding off in the same place. Otherwise each message arrives twice: once in the account itself and once in Gmail.

How to choose

• iCloud or Outlook next to Gmail, in one inbox, and AI when you ask for it: Alrighty.
• Gmail plus Microsoft 365, AI-first, on every device: Superhuman.
• Free, every account and device, AI off until you turn it on: Spark.
• The lowest price, or a free plan with no AI: Canary.
• All Gmail, a fast native Mac app, almost no AI: Mimestream.
• All Gmail, free: Gmail itself.
• All Gmail, and you want the strongest AI search and named models: stay with Shortwave.

To compare more apps by which AI company reads your mail, see our best AI email client list. To compare by how to turn AI off, see email apps without AI. If you came from Notion Mail, see our Notion Mail alternatives. If you want an AI that files and replies for you, see the best AI email agents.

For a side-by-side of the two apps, see Alrighty vs Shortwave.

Questions

Does Shortwave work with Outlook or iCloud?

Only partly. iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail and Zoho work by forwarding into Gmail. Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live are "forwarding only, cannot send from address," and Microsoft 365 and Exchange are "not supported at this time." Alrighty, Spark and Canary add iCloud and Outlook directly.

Is there a free alternative to Shortwave?

Gmail itself is free, and Shortwave's mail is already in it. Spark and Canary have free plans with unlimited accounts. Alrighty has a Free plan after its 14-day trial, with a small monthly AI allowance.

Which Shortwave alternative has the least AI?

Canary's free plan lists no AI, and Mimestream has only Apple's Writing Tools. Spark's AI is off until you turn it on. In Alrighty, the link to your own AI is off until you connect it, but reply drafts and Clean up run when you're signed in. Our page on email apps without AI lists each app's switch.

How much does Shortwave cost?

Business is $30 per seat per month, Premier $45 and Max $120, with a 14-day free trial. The pricing page lists no yearly prices. A help page mentions a Free plan, but the pricing page doesn't describe it.

Does leaving Shortwave delete my email?

No. Shortwave works on your Gmail account, so your mail stays in Gmail. Shortwave also stores data in Google Cloud, and the pages we read don't say how long it keeps that data after you leave.