Superhuman alternatives for iCloud and Mac

The best Superhuman alternative for a Mac is Alrighty if you have iCloud, Gmail or Outlook accounts and want the AI you already use working in your mail, with nothing sent until you click Send, plus one-click ways to stop unwanted mail. Shortwave is the closest match for Gmail users who want AI search. Spark and Canary cost less, take iCloud, and run on iPhone and Android. Mimestream is a native Mac app for Gmail only. Apple Mail and Mailspring are free.

People look for a Superhuman alternative for two reasons most lists skip. First, Superhuman "is only able to support Google or Microsoft 365-hosted accounts as of now" (Superhuman), so an iCloud address or a personal IMAP account can't go in. Second, the lowest plan is $25 per member per month, billed yearly (plans). That's $300 a year.

How we checked

We read each app's own pricing, help and privacy pages on November 3, 2026, and every fact links to its source. For each app we noted the price, the accounts it takes and the ones it can't, where it keeps your mail, and what its AI does. We did not test the apps. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.

What Superhuman offers, and what it leaves out

Superhuman is a fast, keyboard-driven mail app "Built for teams that use Gmail or Outlook" (Superhuman). It has native apps for Mac and Windows, apps for iPhone and Android, and a Chrome extension for the web (Superhuman).

• Price. Starter is $25 per member per month and Business is $33, both billed yearly. Enterprise is priced on request (plans). The plans page shows no free plan and no trial.
• AI. Starter includes Superhuman AI. Business adds Auto Drafts, Ask AI, custom AI labels and the Superhuman Mail MCP, which "connects your inbox and calendar to Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI assistants" (Superhuman). Its mail page says the assistant can draft and, "if you want," send "fully written emails on your behalf."
• Accounts. Gmail and Microsoft 365 only. No iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP.
• Where your mail goes. Superhuman's pages don't agree. A blog post says "your inbox is never stored on our servers," while the privacy policy says "We receive the content you upload or enable our products to access, such as emails and drafts."

If your mail is Gmail or Microsoft 365 and your team likes Superhuman's speed, it's a strong app. The alternatives below are for everyone else. If speed is what you're after, see the best email apps for productivity and the best inbox zero apps.

The alternatives at a glance

App	Price	Accounts	Can't add	Where your mail is kept	Platforms
Alrighty	14-day trial, then Free or Pro	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook	Yahoo, Fastmail, other IMAP	Your Mac	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux
Shortwave	$30 to $120 per seat per month	Gmail; others by forwarding	Microsoft 365, Exchange	Shortwave's Google Cloud	Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android
Spark	Free; Plus $99/yr, Pro $199/yr	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, IMAP	Not stated	Spark's servers for some features	Mac, iPhone, Windows, Android
Canary Mail	Free; $36/yr or $100/yr	iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, IMAP	Not stated	Your device, except push on phones	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Android
Mimestream	$4.99/mo or $49.99/yr	Gmail	Everything but Gmail	Your Mac	Mac; iPhone and iPad in beta
Apple Mail	Comes with macOS	iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, other	Not stated	Your Mac	Mac
Mailspring	Free; Pro $8/mo or $85/yr	iCloud, Gmail, Microsoft 365, Yahoo, IMAP	POP3, Exchange EWS and ActiveSync	Your Mac, except Pro metadata	Mac, Windows, Linux
Superhuman	$25 or $33/member/mo, billed yearly	Gmail, Microsoft 365	iCloud, Yahoo, other IMAP	Its pages disagree	Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, web

Alrighty: best Superhuman alternative for iCloud, Gmail and Outlook

Alrighty is a mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts in one inbox. Gmail connects with Sign in with Google, Outlook with Sign in with Microsoft, and iCloud with an app-specific password. Your mail stays with Apple, Google and Microsoft, and Alrighty keeps its copy and search index on your Mac. Your sign-ins stay on your Mac too, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. No Alrighty server holds them.

Superhuman sells speed. Alrighty is built around two problems instead.

• Unwanted mail stops. 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 as it arrives. Clean up lists the senders you probably don't want, such as scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open, so you can stop them all at once.
• Your own AI works in your mail. Superhuman's MCP sits on its Business plan and covers Gmail and Outlook. In Alrighty, a local MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model read and search all your accounts, iCloud included. That AI can work in a window of its own while you watch, and nothing sends until you click Send. See the MCP setup guide.
• Suggested replies. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a draft in your voice, written from what you sent that person before. You send it.
• Search that finds what you remember. It runs on your Mac and matches what you mean as well as the words: "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.

Where AI sends your mail. Alrighty's own AI features send only the emails they need to Alrighty's server, which passes them to an AI model (OpenAI's for answers and replies). With MCP, your mail goes to the assistant you connect, and a local model keeps it on your Mac.

Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro.

What it can't do. There's no iPhone, Android or web app, which Superhuman has. It takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only, so no Yahoo or other IMAP. It's a new app with no long track record yet.

Pick it if you're on a Mac, you have an iCloud account or a mix of accounts, and you want less junk and your own AI in your mail.

Shortwave: closest to Superhuman for Gmail

Shortwave is the nearest thing to Superhuman's idea of an AI-first inbox. It offers AI search, summaries, custom AI filters, and replies that learn "your unique voice and style from the emails you send" (Shortwave). It runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.

Price. Business is $30 per seat per month, Premier $45 and Max $120, with a 14-day free trial (pricing). The plans name their models: Claude Sonnet 4.6 on Business and Premier, Claude Opus 4.6 on Max.

Accounts. It's built around Gmail. Yahoo, iCloud, Fastmail and Zoho come in by forwarding into Gmail, Outlook.com is "forwarding only, cannot send from address," and Microsoft 365 and Exchange are "not supported at this time" (Shortwave). It says "there is no default option to view a unified inbox" (Shortwave).

Where your mail goes. "All Shortwave data is stored in Google Cloud's highly secure & compliant data centers," and besides Google Cloud it uses "OpenAI, Anthropic, and Pinecone" (security).

Pick it if all your mail is Gmail and you want strong AI. Its lowest listed price is higher than Superhuman Starter's, not lower.

Spark: best lower-cost alternative across devices

Spark runs on Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android and takes iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange, Yahoo and IMAP (Spark). The free plan has unlimited accounts. Plus is $10 a month or $99 a year and Pro is $20 or $199, with a seven-day trial when you subscribe in the app (pricing). Paid plans add Spark +AI, which runs on Azure OpenAI (Spark). Gatekeeper screens new senders so you can accept or block them (Spark).

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

Pick it if you want Superhuman's reach on phones, with iCloud, for about a third of the price.

Canary Mail: cheapest AI mail app with iCloud

Canary runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows and Android. Its free plan lists "Unlimited Mail Accounts" and a unified inbox. Growth is $36 a year and adds AI Copilot for writing and summaries, and Pro+ is $100 a year (pricing). It works with "Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Exchange, and IMAP accounts" (Canary) and offers 1-Click Unsubscribe (Canary).

Where your mail goes. Its privacy policy says your data is "stored on your device and is never transferred to our servers." The exception is push on phones, where "Canary will temporarily store your email address, credentials, sender, subject line." Copilot uses models from "OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google and others."

Pick it if you want an AI mail app on every device for the least money.

Mimestream: best native Mac app for Gmail

Mimestream is a native Mac app for Gmail that "only stores your data and tokens on your device" (Mimestream). It's $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). It needs macOS 12 or newer, and an iPhone and iPad version is in beta.

What it can't do. It takes several Gmail accounts and names no other provider, so no iCloud or Outlook. Its AI is Apple Intelligence Writing Tools (releases). If you need more than Gmail, see our Mimestream alternatives.

Pick it if you left Superhuman for price, all your mail is Gmail, and you want a fast native Mac app.

Apple Mail: best free alternative

Apple Mail comes with macOS and adds "iCloud, Gmail (Google), Exchange, school, work, or other" accounts (Apple). It can unsubscribe from mailing lists "directly in Mail" and block up to 3,000 senders (Apple). With Apple Intelligence, "a short summary automatically appears under each unread email in your inbox," and it can suggest replies (Apple).

The catch. Search depends on Spotlight and can miss mail you can see. Our Apple Mail search guide has the fixes.

Pick it if you want free and built in.

Mailspring: best free app for Yahoo and other IMAP

Mailspring supports "Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, FastMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo!, and IMAP/SMTP," and says "your email goes straight from your mail provider to your machine, not through our servers" (Mailspring). It's free on Mac, Windows and Linux, and Pro is $8 a month or $85 a year for read receipts, send later, follow-up reminders and templates (pricing).

What it can't do. Its FAQ says "POP3 support is not planned," and Exchange Web Services and ActiveSync aren't supported, though Microsoft 365 is. We found no AI on its pages.

Pick it if you have Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP accounts that neither Superhuman nor Alrighty takes.

What about AI assistants that add on to Gmail or Outlook?

If you liked Superhuman's AI more than its app, an add-on may be enough. Fyxer drafts replies in Gmail or Outlook, and "you decide what gets sent" (Fyxer). Our Fyxer alternatives compare it with cheaper tools. Gemini is built into Gmail, and Copilot into Outlook. Our guide to the best AI email assistant compares them by which AI reads your mail and whether it can send without you. If replies are the part you want, see the best AI email reply generators.

How to choose

• iCloud, Gmail and Outlook on a Mac, less junk, your own AI: Alrighty.
• Gmail only, AI-first, cost is no issue: Shortwave.
• Lower cost on iPhone and Android: Spark or Canary.
• Gmail only, native Mac app: Mimestream.
• Free and built in: Apple Mail.
• Yahoo, Fastmail or other IMAP: Mailspring.
• Gmail or Microsoft 365 team that wants speed: stay with Superhuman.

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

Questions

Does Superhuman work with iCloud?

No. Superhuman says it "is only able to support Google or Microsoft 365-hosted accounts as of now." For iCloud on a Mac, Alrighty, Spark, Canary, Apple Mail and Mailspring all take it. Our list of the best email apps for iCloud Mail shows how each one adds it.

Is there a free alternative to Superhuman?

Apple Mail is free with macOS. Mailspring is free, and Spark and Canary have free plans with unlimited accounts. Alrighty has a Free plan after its 14-day trial.

How much does Superhuman cost?

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

Which Superhuman alternative lets Claude or ChatGPT read my mail?

Alrighty lets Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model read iCloud, Gmail and Outlook through a local MCP server, and nothing sends until you click Send. Superhuman's own Mail MCP is on its Business plan and covers Gmail and Outlook. Our guide on how to let Claude read your email has the steps.