Superhuman Mail vs Things 3: Comprehensive Comparison

Francesco
Francesco
Francesco
Francesco

2

minutes reading
January 5, 2026

Overview

In today's fast-paced world, choosing the right productivity tool can make all the difference. This comprehensive comparison between Superhuman Mail and Things 3 will help you understand which tool best fits your workflow and productivity needs.

⚡ Quick Summary

Aspect

Superhuman Mail

Things 3

Best For

Premium email client for Gmail and Outlook with AI-powered productivity features and keyboard shortcuts

Things 3 is an award-winning task management app for Apple devices that helps users plan their day, organize projects, and track progress with an intuitive, distraction-free interface.

Pricing

Starts at $30/user/month ($25 annually). No free tier. Three tiers: Starter ($30/month), Business ($40/month), Enterprise (custom pricing).

One-time payment from $9.99-$49.99 per platform

Platforms

Web, iOS, Android, Mac

Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro

What is Superhuman Mail?

Superhuman Mail is a premium email client designed for Gmail and Outlook accounts, emphasizing speed and productivity through extensive keyboard shortcuts, AI-powered automation, and team collaboration tools. It helps power users and teams process high email volumes by organizing inboxes, drafting replies, summarizing conversations, and integrating calendar scheduling to achieve Inbox Zero efficiently.

Visit Superhuman Mail →

🌟 Key Features of Superhuman Mail

  • ✦Extensive keyboard shortcuts to hit Inbox Zero and fly through emails twice as fast

  • ✦AI Auto Labels that automatically organize inbox into categories like responses needed, marketing, or custom prompts

  • ✦Instant Reply and Auto Drafts for AI-generated email responses based on context, calendar, and documents

  • ✦Split Inbox for focused views on specific email types, combined with Auto Labels

  • ✦Auto Summarize conversations with 1-line updates that expand for details, plus one-tap event scheduling from emails

  • ✦Team collaboration tools like sharing live email views for comments, plus integrations with calendars, Zoom, HubSpot, and Salesforce

What is Things 3?

Things 3 is an award-winning task management app that helps users plan their day, organize projects, and track progress toward goals with an intuitive, distraction-free interface. It combines simplicity with powerful organizational capabilities, making it a favorite among users who appreciate both aesthetics and functionality within the Apple ecosystem.

Visit Things 3 →

🌟 Key Features of Things 3

  • ✦Projects and Areas: Group tasks into projects with headings, checklists, notes, and deadlines; use Areas for life categories like Work or Family.

  • ✦Today, This Evening, Upcoming: Daily planning views combining tasks and calendar events with drag-and-drop rescheduling.

  • ✦Calendar Integration: Syncs with Apple Calendar to show events alongside tasks in Today and Upcoming views.

  • ✦Magic Plus and Quick Entry: Instant task creation from anywhere with natural language for dates and deadlines.

  • ✦Tags and Quick Find: Categorize and instantly search tasks, projects, or tags for flexible organization.

  • ✦Cross-Device Syncing: Fast and reliable sync across all Apple devices via Things Cloud.

📊 Feature Comparison

Feature

Superhuman Mail

Things 3

📅 Calendar Integration

✓ Yes

✓ Yes

✅ Task Management

✗ No

✓ Yes

⏰ Time Blocking

✗ No

✗ No

🗣️ Natural Language Processing

✓ Yes

✓ Yes

🔔 Notifications

◐ Limited

✓ Yes

🌍 Time Zones Support

◐ Limited

✗ No

📆 Scheduler

✓ Yes

✓ Yes

📈 Analytics

◐ Limited

✗ No

🔗 Integrations

Superhuman Mail

Grammarly, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Google Docs, Asana, Copper, Dex, Undock, Mailman, Yapify, Akiflow, Google Chrome, Metaflow AI, Nocode HQ

Things 3

Apple Calendar, Siri, Apple Shortcuts, AppleScript, URL schemes, limited third-party via workarounds

💰 Pricing Comparison

Superhuman Mail

Starts at $30/user/month ($25 annually). No free tier. Three tiers: Starter ($30/month), Business ($40/month), Enterprise (custom pricing).

Starter: $30/user/month or $25/user/month billed annually ($300/user/year) - Best for individuals and small teams wanting faster email and basic AI. Business: $40/user/month or $33/user/month billed annually ($396/user/year) - Adds advanced AI and sales/CRM features for growing teams. Enterprise: Custom pricing (contact sales) - Designed for larger organizations needing advanced security, control, and dedicated success. No free tier available.

Things 3

One-time payment from $9.99-$49.99 per platform

$49.99 for Mac, $19.99 for iPad, $9.99 for iPhone/Apple Watch - one-time purchases per platform

💡 Things to Consider

When Choosing Superhuman Mail

  • →Is your email volume and role high enough to justify the cost? Superhuman is positioned for power users, executives, and teams processing 50–100+ emails per day, where shaving minutes off daily email time compounds into real value.

  • →You must be on Gmail or Microsoft Outlook, and comfortable with a keyboard-driven workflow. Superhuman only supports Gmail and Microsoft Outlook accounts and its value centers on extensive keyboard shortcuts with a learning curve.

  • →Premium features: AI, Inbox Zero workflow, and team collaboration. Superhuman offers AI features like Write with AI, AI drafting and summarization, split inboxes, reminders/follow-ups, scheduled send, and calendar/meeting integration central to maintaining Inbox Zero.

When Choosing Things 3

  • →Apple Ecosystem Only: Things 3 is only available on Apple devices - no Windows, Android, or web access, which is a dealbreaker for cross-platform users.

  • →Individual vs Team Use: Designed for personal task management, not team collaboration - lacks shared projects, assignees, or multi-user features.

  • →Cost Structure: Requires separate purchase per platform ($9.99-$49.99 each), which can be expensive compared to cross-platform subscription tools.

⭐ User Reviews

Superhuman Mail

"Superhuman is the single best email client I've ever used. It's expensive but the time it saves me compared to using vanilla Gmail more than makes up for the monthly cost."

Things 3

"Things 3 is widely praised for its elegant design, smooth performance, and simple-but-powerful task management, especially for Apple-only users. However, it's criticized for being Apple-exclusive, relatively expensive with separate per-device purchases, and lacking collaboration features and some power-user capabilities like deep task hierarchies."

🎯 Conclusion

Both Superhuman Mail and Things 3 are excellent productivity tools with their own strengths.

Superhuman Mail excels in Extensive keyboard shortcuts to hit Inbox Zero and fly through emails twice as fast, while Things 3 shines with Projects and Areas: Group tasks into projects with headings, checklists, notes, and deadlines; use Areas for life categories like Work or Family.. The best choice depends on your specific needs, workflow preferences, and budget.

We recommend trying both tools to see which one fits better with your productivity style.

Try Akiflow now for a 10x productivity boost
7 days free with Aki. Cancel anytime.
Try Akiflow now for a 10x productivity boost
7 days free with Aki. Cancel anytime.
Try Akiflow now for a 10x productivity boost
7 days free with Aki. Cancel anytime.
Try Akiflow now for a 10x productivity boost
7 days free with Aki. Cancel anytime.