You've set up your email workflow, carefully crafted your templates, and optimized your follow-up system. But when you check your inbox after a meeting, you're overwhelmed by the chaos—important client responses buried under newsletters, urgent team communications lost among promotional emails, and that investor email you swore you replied to nowhere to be found.

The struggle to maintain email sanity while juggling sales prospects, candidate conversations, or client relationships is all too real. With the average professional spending 28% of their workday on email, finding the right client can dramatically impact your productivity and peace of mind.

Today, we're comparing two popular premium email clients designed to transform your inbox experience: Hey and Superhuman. Both promise to revolutionize email management, but they take fundamentally different approaches to solving your inbox woes.

The Email Management Landscape

Traditional email clients like Gmail and Outlook have evolved over time, but they still operate on decades-old paradigms that prioritize chronology over importance. This creates significant challenges for professionals who depend on timely communication:

• Information overload: Critical messages buried under promotional emails and notifications

• Context switching: Constantly toggling between different conversation threads

• Follow-up failures: Important messages forgotten without effective reminder systems

• Integration gaps: Email data siloed from CRMs and other workflow tools

Both Hey and Superhuman aim to address these challenges, but they approach the solution from different angles.

Hey: Email Reimagined

Hey, created by Basecamp, takes a radical approach by completely reimagining what email should be. Rather than building on top of existing email services, Hey requires users to adopt a new @hey.com email address and use their proprietary system.

Key Features

• The Screener: All first-time senders must be approved before reaching your inbox

• The Imbox: A reimagined inbox that separates what needs your attention from what doesn't

• Reply Later: Mark emails to come back to without cluttering your main view

• Clips: Save important information from emails for quick reference

• Notes: Add personal notes to email threads that only you can see

Pricing

• $12/month for individuals

• $99/year for business accounts

Ideal For

Hey works best for:

• Users overwhelmed by email volume who want a fresh start

• Individuals seeking a simpler, more curated email experience

• People who value privacy and want control over who can reach them

• Those who don't heavily rely on integrations with other business tools

User Experiences

"Not having to mark things as read is a game changer," shares one Hey user on Reddit, highlighting the platform's unique approach to email management.

However, others express concerns about Hey's closed ecosystem: "My biggest complaint is the search, while greatly improved, is still weird," notes another user. Many also worry about the platform's long-term viability and the challenges of potentially migrating away from a @hey.com address in the future.

Superhuman: Speed and Efficiency

Superhuman takes a different approach by enhancing, rather than replacing, your existing email experience. It works as a layer on top of Gmail or Outlook, focusing on speed, keyboard shortcuts, and AI-powered features to make email processing dramatically faster.

Key Features

• Split Inbox: Organize emails into focused categories for better prioritization

• Keyboard Shortcuts: Navigate and process emails without touching your mouse

• Snippets: Create reusable templates for common responses

• Follow-up Reminders: Set timed reminders to resurface important emails

• AI-Powered Assistance: Get help with email drafting and prioritization

• Read Statuses: Know exactly when your emails are read

Pricing

• $30/month or $300/year

• One-month free trial available

Ideal For

Superhuman is best suited for:

• High-volume email users who need maximum efficiency

• Sales professionals, recruiters, and executives managing important relationships

• Teams that collaborate on email communication

• Users who want to keep their existing email address and provider

User Experiences

"I absolutely LOVE using Superhuman Email! I find it well worth its cost," enthuses one user. "I do have to do a lot of emailing and find it very productive for me!"

However, some users report frustration with certain limitations: "Biggest gripe for me is lack of Outlook add-ins for Slack, Asana and other apps," notes one reviewer. Others question whether the productivity gains justify the premium price tag, especially for those who don't process hundreds of emails daily.

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Let's break down how Hey and Superhuman compare across key dimensions that matter to professionals:

Email Organization

Hey: Creates a fundamentally different organization system with the Imbox (not a typo), the Feed, and the Paper Trail. Emails are automatically sorted based on their purpose, not just chronology.

Superhuman: Maintains the traditional inbox structure but enhances it with powerful filtering, sorting, and prioritization tools. Uses AI to help identify important emails.

Speed and Efficiency

Hey: Streamlines workflows through its redesigned interface but doesn't emphasize keyboard shortcuts as heavily. Focus is on reducing email volume through screening.

Superhuman: Built around the concept of speed with comprehensive keyboard shortcuts that enable processing emails twice as fast. Designed for power users who want to achieve "inbox zero."

Integration Capabilities

Hey: Limited third-party integrations due to its closed ecosystem. Does not offer API access, making it difficult to connect with CRMs, project management tools, or other workspaces.

Superhuman: Offers better integration with existing email tools and some third-party services, though users note it could improve integration with productivity apps like Slack and Asana.

Branding and Professional Features

Hey: Limited options for signatures and branding, which can be problematic for business users who need to maintain company aesthetics in their communications.

Superhuman: Preserves branding capabilities from Gmail or Outlook, allowing users to maintain their professional image with logos and formatted signatures.

Making Your Decision

When choosing between Hey and Superhuman, consider these factors:

Choose Hey if:

• You're willing to adopt a new email address for a fresh start

• Your primary concern is reducing email volume and unwanted senders

• You value privacy and want more control over who can reach you

• You don't rely heavily on integrations with other business tools

• You prefer a more affordable option ($12/month vs. $30/month)

Choose Superhuman if:

• You want to keep your existing email address and provider

• You process high volumes of email and need maximum efficiency

• You collaborate with team members on email communication

• You require professional branding capabilities

• You value keyboard shortcuts and speed optimizations

The LinkedIn Connection: Why Email Clients Matter

If you're reading this, you likely spend significant time managing not just email but also LinkedIn communications. The parallels between email overload and LinkedIn message management are striking—both can become overwhelming, with important messages easily buried.

While this article focuses on email clients, it's worth noting that similar productivity challenges exist in LinkedIn messaging. Many professionals find themselves juggling their email inbox alongside an equally cluttered LinkedIn inbox, leading to missed opportunities and delayed responses.

Kondo offers a solution specifically for LinkedIn messages, bringing Superhuman-inspired organization features to your LinkedIn inbox with labels, split inboxes, and keyboard shortcuts. If you're considering a tool like Superhuman for email efficiency, you might also benefit from applying similar productivity principles to your LinkedIn communications.

Final Thoughts

Both Hey and Superhuman offer innovative approaches to email management, but they serve different needs and work styles:

• Hey is revolutionary but requires commitment to a new ecosystem. It's ideal if you want a fresh start with less email volume.

• Superhuman enhances your existing email experience with speed and efficiency. It's perfect for high-volume email users who need to process messages quickly.

Before making your choice, take advantage of free trials to experience each platform firsthand. Consider both your immediate needs and long-term workflow implications, including how your email client will interact with the rest of your productivity stack.

Remember that the best email client is the one that disappears into the background, letting you focus on the messages and relationships that matter most to your professional success.