I've been using Superhuman for years and haven't opened Gmail more than a handful of times in that period.
But there's no beating around the bush: it's expensive. Subscriptions start at around $25 per month—and if you're using it for business, you'll still need to pay the monthly subscription for a professional Google Workspace or Microsoft Outlook account.
If you're on the fence about whether to splash almost 30 bucks every month on an email productivity app, this guide is for you. I'll walk you through 10 of the best features to help you weigh whether a Superhuman subscription is worth it.
What is Superhuman?
Superhuman is an email app designed to help you manage emails more effectively. It's available for Mac, Chrome, iOS, and Android.
Because Superhuman an
email client—not a hosting service—you'll need either Outlook or Gmail to use it. But it's more visually appealing than most inboxes, faster to move around, and offers more advanced features than those you'd find in a free email client.
The Superhuman experience is what justifies the cost for me. From the personalized onboarding experience to the revolving celebratory
Inbox Zero images, it makes spending 10+ hours per week in my inbox less painful and less draining.
Superhuman review: 10 of the best Superhuman features
To say I'm a die-hard Superhuman superfan would be an understatement. It helps me manage my emails more productively, which is why for me, Superhuman is wholeheartedly worth the price. Here are the features that help me do so.
- Autosummarize email threads
- Split inbox
- Read receipts
- Snippets
- Calendar management
- Schedule send
- Contact information panel
- Instant replies
- Easy unsubscribe
- Keyboard shortcuts
1. Autosummarize email threads
Email threads can get long, and if you're balancing multiple conversations each in different threads, it can be difficult to surface the information you're looking for. This is where Superhuman's AI-powered summary feature comes into use: it summarizes the entire email thread into bullet points and saves it beneath the subject line for easy referencing.
In this email I got from
Podia's marketing team, for example, Superhuman condensed it into four bullet points. I could scan these notes to find out what the email said without actually having to read the entire announcement.
2. Split inbox
I treat my
inbox as a to-do list; I only mark a conversation as "Done" when there's no further action required on my end.Split inbox helps me divide my inbox into mini to-do lists without the need for another project management tool. (I use
Asana to manage my workload, but it doesn't make sense to create a new task that says "Reply to email." I just leave it in my designated inbox until I get the time to address it.)I'm a writer, so I can have separate Superhuman inboxes for Google Drive notifications—like comments from an editor that I don't specifically need to action but do need to monitor—without crowding my actual inbox. I also have one for "Coaching," which filters emails I get when a coaching client replies to my email, books a coaching session through
Calendly, or inquires about the service.You might also use this feature for:
-
Emails that a VA needs to respond to
-
Notifications from your
project management software -
Emails from colleagues or specific team members
-
Booking or appointment confirmations from your
meeting scheduler
3. Read receipts
Read receipts allow you to see when people opened your email, the device they used, and how many times they've read it.
It's especially useful for pitching. If someone's opened my emails multiple times, they're more likely to be interested in my services, so I prioritize them when following up with leads.
Bear in mind that you can only use this feature if you actually send the email via Superhuman. If you've sent it via Gmail or Outlook and follow up in Superhuman, you won't be able to track opens.
4. Snippets
If you're sending the same type of email frequently, Snippets is a Superhuman feature that rivals
Gmail email templates.You can use Snippets to create templates for emails you send frequently:
-
Pitches
-
Scheduling meetings or sending agendas
-
Company announcements
-
Responses to inquiries
-
Asking for feedback
-
Vacation requests
To create a Superhuman Snippet, open a new email thread, and type out your template. You can even use custom variables to personalize emails you're basing off the template:
{first_name} will add the recipient's first name, for example. (This is something you have to use an awkwardmail merge feature to do in Gmail.)
Customize your templates at any time from the Snippets tab, then insert them (and customize the individual email—without editing the original template) from the email editor.
Here's what that looks like for the Snippet I use to respond to inquiries when I'm fully booked.
What's especially great about Superhuman Snippets is that you can add bits and pieces at a time. Type out phrases or paragraphs that you say often, save it as a Snippet, and easily embed it into future emails with the ; keyboard shortcut.
For example: if you're onboarding a new client, write a personalized email and insert the Snippet you've written to describe what your process looks like. Your client still gets the same personalized email including any project-specific details up top, while the Snippet ensures that everyone gets the same step-by-step process (without rewriting it manually each time).
5. Calendar management
You don't need to open a separate
calendar app when arranging a meeting in Superhuman. As soon as the email app detects a date or time in your conversation, it'll pull data from your calendar (provided you've enabled the integration with Google or Outlook).
Granted, the in-app pop-up isn't incredibly detailed, but it can show whether you're free in-email without opening your calendar in another tab. It's great for checking whether there's a calendar clash before agreeing to a set date or time.
Plus, if you're creating new events, you can do this without leaving the Superhuman dashboard. Use the pop-up to create calendar events, invite guests, and add Zoom or Google Meet links from your inbox.
6. Schedule send
Schedule send is a feature that's commonplace in most email clients—
Microsoft Outlook andGmail included. Superhuman is no different: you can write out an email and choose a date/time in the future for your email to be sent.
The main difference with Superhuman is that the
scheduled email won't be sent if you get a reply from the recipient in the meantime. If you're checking in with someone, for example, you won't send a follow-up if they've replied to you before the scheduled time. The scheduled email will automatically turn into an unsent draft.This has saved me in multiple scenarios—especially when it comes to pitching. As soon as I send an initial pitch, I schedule a follow-up email a few days later. It wouldn't be a good look if that scheduled follow-up was sent out while I was midway through a conversation with a lead who had responded to my original email.
7. Contact information panel
Superhuman differs from other email apps in the sense that you can get extra insight on who you're emailing.
Where available, it pulls data associated with someone's email address—LinkedIn profile, X profile, website, location, previous email threads, and a short blurb—and displays the information in a panel beside your conversation.
It's a great feature to rely on if you're contacting lots of different people.
When I'm working with freelance clients, for example, I can easily pull up previous threads, like the one containing my signed contracts, for easy referencing. I can also visit the company's website (and subsequently, their blog) directly from the Superhuman contact panel, without having to open a separate browser tab.
(For context: you can get a similar effect inside Gmail, but you'll need to find and populate the data in Google Contacts. Superhuman, on the other hand, pulls this information for you without saving each person as a contact.)
8. Instant replies
Generative AI has made its way into most apps by this point. And Superhuman has its ownemail artificial intelligence features that can automatically write a response for you, based on the contents of the sender's message.Take this response I got to a pitch email, for example. The recipient wasn't looking for a freelance writer at that time, so Superhuman suggested three different options for me to choose from. I ended up going with the one titled "No worries."
This feature is particularly useful if you're replying to a ton of emails each day and you don't have the brain space to craft a thoughtful response for each.
Even if you don't use the suggested response in its entirety, it's great for overcoming that fear of the blank page. You can use the suggestion as the foundation for your email response and build on top of it.
9. Easy unsubscribe
If you're like me and have subscribed to way too many marketing emails, this feature is for you. Superhuman makes it easy to bulk unsubscribe from an email list without actually pressing the unsubscribe button in the email itself.
To do it, open the email you want to unsubscribe from and press command + U or Ctrl + U. (If you're looking for other shortcuts, press command + K or Ctrl + K to launch the Superhuman Command Center. Type what you're looking for, and hit Enter.)
To save even more time condensing your emails, Superhuman gives you the chance to "Trash all" or "Mark all as done" when unsubscribing. Both options will remove all of the sender's emails from your inbox, getting you one step closer to a clutter-free inbox.
10. Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are what makes Superhuman so much faster than other email clients. You don't need to click around to navigate your inbox (great when my Apple mouse is made redundant when it needs charging from the port at the bottom!).
My most used Superhuman shortcuts on Mac are:
-
command + K to open commands
-
L to label
-
# to trash
-
R to reply; F to forward
-
Command + ; to use a snippet
-
G + I to go to inbox
Is Superhuman worth it?
For me, Superhuman is absolutely worth the monthly subscription.
Features like calendar management and split inbox save me from switching between multiple apps. The ability to mark conversations as "Done" (and be rewarded with a pretty stock photo once I reach inbox zero) is an added bonus.
If you're still on the fence, I'd strongly suggest taking Superhuman for a test drive, particularly if you want a visually appealing interface, need to manage multiple things from the same dashboard, and are interested in incorporating AI into your email processes.
Related reading: