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SaneBox 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
SaneBox — $9.49/mo vs $18/mo for Shortwave
Free plan
Only Shortwave (SaneBox has paid plans only)
Best fit
SaneBox: People juggling several mailboxes across different providers · Shortwave: People who search and question years of Gmail history
Platforms
SaneBox: Web · Shortwave: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Trust score
About even — SaneBox 96, Shortwave 96

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

SaneBoxServer-side email triage that sorts your inbox by importanceShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

FactSaneBoxShortwave
CategoryEmail ManagementEmail Management
Pricing modelPaidFreemium
Starts at$9.49/mo$18/mo
Trust score96 / 10096 / 100
PlatformsWebWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
CompanySaneBox, Inc.Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Last verifiedOct 16, 2026Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

SaneBox

The most durable answer to inbox overload precisely because it is client-agnostic: it changes your mail server, not your mail app, so it works the same in Outlook, Apple Mail and Gmail. Skip it if you live entirely in Gmail and will spend an afternoon building filters yourself.

Pros

  • Operates at the IMAP and Exchange layer, so there is no client lock-in or extension to install
  • 14-day trial with no card required
  • Blackhole and digest behaviour is genuinely hard to reproduce with manual filters
  • Biyearly billing cuts the effective Snack rate to about $4.54 a month

Cons

  • Snack tier caps you at one account and only two features, so most users land on Lunch or higher
  • Paid utility with no free tier at all
  • No public developer API and api.sanebox.com does not respond
  • Sorting only continues while the service retains mailbox access

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 SaneBox if you need

  • People juggling several mailboxes across different providers
  • Outlook, Fastmail and iCloud users that Gmail-only AI tools ignore
  • Anyone who wants triage to persist across phone, laptop and web with nothing installed

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

SaneBox vs Shortwave: the questions people ask

Is SaneBox cheaper than Shortwave?

On published entry prices, SaneBox starts lower — $9.49/mo against $18/mo for Shortwave. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does SaneBox or Shortwave have a free tier?

Shortwave has a free tier; SaneBox has paid plans only.

More comparisons

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