ForthWrite vs Shortwave

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan: Shortwave — $18/mo vs $24/mo for ForthWrite
Free plan: Both have one
Higher Trust score: Shortwave — 96 vs 82 for ForthWrite
Best fit: ForthWrite: Accounting, tax, advisory and lending firms that want every client email drafted under written rules · Shortwave: People who search and question years of Gmail history
Platforms: ForthWrite: Web, Chrome extension · Shortwave: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

ForthWriteDrafts client email replies in Gmail and Outlook in your own voice, learned from sent mail, with compliance rules for firms

ShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

Fact	ForthWrite	Shortwave
Category	Email Writing	Email Management
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$24/mo	$18/mo
Trust score	82 / 100	96 / 100
Platforms	Web, Chrome extension	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Company	Aesir Labs, LLC	Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

ForthWrite

ForthWrite's draft-in-your-own-voice idea now comes wrapped in a compliance layer aimed at accounting, tax and advisory firms, which is a sharper pitch than the generic email assistant it was a month ago, and the free 10 drafts a week are enough to judge whether the voice match holds on your own sent mail. Price it honestly: the entry tier jumped from $15 to $24-29 a month, it only works in Gmail and Outlook on Chrome, and the whole thing is one founder's product, so weigh continuity before rolling it out to a firm.

Pros

Learns tone from the user's own sent mail rather than a generic template
Compliance rules stop a non-conforming draft and require a written reason, with admin reporting
Free tier and 14-day Pro trial need no card, and a bring-your-own Claude or Gemini key cuts the price
A person still sends every message, so nothing goes out unreviewed

Cons

Chrome plus Gmail or Outlook web only
Entry price rose from $15 to $24 a month billed annually, $29 monthly
Teams needs two seats and the annual rate is only 'from' $59
Built and run by one person, with no address or governing law in the terms

Shortwave

Still the most capable AI layer we have seen on top of Gmail, and it is now cheaper to try: a free plan and an $18 individual Pro tier sit below the $30-plus business seats. The value is in asking questions of years of old mail, so people who only triage today's inbox will not get much from the paid tiers.

Pros

Free plan and an $18 individual tier make it possible to test the assistant without a business seat
AI search answers questions across the mail archive, not just keyword hits
Model tier, AI quota and filter count scale clearly from plan to plan
Native apps on all major desktop and mobile platforms

Cons

Business seats at $30 to $120 a month are expensive next to Gmail's built-in AI
Free plan limits search history to 90 days and adds a Shortwave signature to sent mail
No annual discount is offered; billing is monthly only

Which one fits

Choose ForthWrite if you need

Accounting, tax, advisory and lending firms that want every client email drafted under written rules
Gmail or Outlook users on Chrome with a heavy reply load who want drafts in their own tone
Small teams that need per-person reporting on rule overrides

Choose Shortwave if you need

People who search and question years of Gmail history
Small teams that share threads and assign emails inside the inbox
Users who want AI filters to sort incoming mail without hand-written rules