Fastmail v Superhuman

digp · 20 May 2022, 07:10 AM

Thoughts please thanks

$30 a month for a web app that of itself is not even a mail provider is steep.

TenFour · 20 May 2022, 07:36 AM

Well, Superhuman completely turns me off right from the get go by not publishing their pricing either on the home page or somewhere obvious. Long ago I learned to simply not consider any product or service that hides its pricing, and I have never regretted the decision. Second, I can't imagine what functionality in email is worth $30 a month. I like my email simple and basic. I've been using email since before the World Wide Web and I just like it simple, logical, and without my email client doing things to my emails. I will use my own intelligence to sort my emails, thank you.

xyzzy · 20 May 2022, 07:55 AM

I simply use a FM mail fetch identity (plus some filter rules) to put a cover over my gmail account. Lot cheaper than $30/month.

BritTim · 20 May 2022, 12:31 PM

Superhuman is very curious. You are not even paying for full email support. You are only paying for a front end to your existing email service (usually, it seems, Gmail). If their website is to be believed, they have a huge number of employees for the number of users they currently support, and they are still trying to recruit more. They are also limiting the number of users they support (with a long wait list) presumably to ensure that their blazingly fast web interface is unaffected. I may be unfair, but it looks overhyped, probably looking for a big payday for its owners.

ioneja · 21 May 2022, 04:28 AM

I would personally get Hey.com over Superhuman any day of the week, but Superhuman gives users some cool power-user workflows. Now they support Outlook as well (used to be just Gmail).

The target market can definitely afford it, includes social networking-oriented, productivity-oriented, workflow-oriented, high intensity business kinds of customers that buy productivity services like Omnifocus, use GTD method, etc., those kinds of users, and so forth... it's more than just that, but those kinds of people will be attracted to it since it has some great social network insight info and tools integrated into your workflow, gives you the minimalist but boutique kind of experience that's been finely tuned for focusing on task or interaction at hand, very useful for customer/client management, sales, executive, marketing kinds of people. So for them, if they save some time during the day and have more insights into their customers/clients/employees/associates, then it's easily worth $30 per month.

But for a fresh workflow, I'd still steer towards Hey.com IMO, which gives you a workflow that covers some similar concepts, appeals to an overlap segment of the market, and I have no doubt Hey.com will be adding some more similar features like Superhuman over time, there's more overlap between them IMO than with other providers out there.

If there was a privacy-oriented version of Superhuman, I'd be interested. As it is now, you are relying on Gmail or Outlook as the underlying platform, and then of course Superhuman's own system that sucks in huge amounts of information about you -- all things I'm not interested in ever trusting my personal data and contacts with. But if there was a Protonmail-equivalent of Superhuman, I'd probably sign up. The workflows are potentially big time-savers.

My two bits.

ioneja · 21 May 2022, 05:12 AM

P.S. I forgot to mention the "vs. Fastmail" angle, lol. (I forgot the title of this thread and what subforum it was posted in).

As for Fastmail vs Superhuman, there is a small overlap in the Venn diagram of providers between them, but it's very small IMO. If you are very productivity-oriented and a long-time user of Fastmail, you'll know that Fastmail has been adding productivity features more and more in recent years, like snooze, undo, a side panel with insight on your contacts, etc... so Fastmail has definitely been improving in terms of those kinds of features. And if that's what you love about Fastmail, then Superhuman might be for you.

However, this evolution at Fastmail is a far cry from "rethinking" email, which is what IMO Hey.com and Superhuman are trying to do, to varying degrees of success, and to varying degrees of appeal to different market segments.

So I don't think there is a super-useful comparison matrix between FM and Superhuman, they're fundamentally different kinds of products for different people. In fact, FM might be on the other end of the Venn diagram since it has so many legacy/traditional features and can be set up and tweaked to different workflows, not to mention all the extra stuff you can do with aliases, domains, files, simple file hosting, etc... really very different products overall.

The more apt comparison would be between Superhuman and Hey.com, as I mentioned in my previous post.

Anyway, just my take on this.

I'm more of a privacy-oriented kind of user but I wish I could have all the great productivity features too.

As a concept, I'd say Superhuman shows one track where email is evolving IMO. Hey.com is another "fresh" take on email workflows, showing another track of rethinking and evolving email. And Fastmail is sort of like a workhorse provider with more "traditional" features under the hood, BUT they have also invested in workflow features in recent years, and yet they're still basically a more traditional/workhorse provider.

20 May 2022, 07:10 AM	#1
digp Master of the @ Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 1,316	Fastmail v Superhuman Thoughts please thanks $30 a month for a web app that of itself is not even a mail provider is steep.

20 May 2022, 07:36 AM	#2
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,583	Well, Superhuman completely turns me off right from the get go by not publishing their pricing either on the home page or somewhere obvious. Long ago I learned to simply not consider any product or service that hides its pricing, and I have never regretted the decision. Second, I can't imagine what functionality in email is worth $30 a month. I like my email simple and basic. I've been using email since before the World Wide Web and I just like it simple, logical, and without my email client doing things to my emails. I will use my own intelligence to sort my emails, thank you.

20 May 2022, 07:55 AM	#3
xyzzy Essential Contributor Join Date: May 2018 Posts: 472	I simply use a FM mail fetch identity (plus some filter rules) to put a cover over my gmail account. Lot cheaper than $30/month.

20 May 2022, 12:31 PM	#4
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,074	Superhuman is very curious. You are not even paying for full email support. You are only paying for a front end to your existing email service (usually, it seems, Gmail). If their website is to be believed, they have a huge number of employees for the number of users they currently support, and they are still trying to recruit more. They are also limiting the number of users they support (with a long wait list) presumably to ensure that their blazingly fast web interface is unaffected. I may be unfair, but it looks overhyped, probably looking for a big payday for its owners.

21 May 2022, 04:28 AM	#5
ioneja Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 713	I would personally get Hey.com over Superhuman any day of the week, but Superhuman gives users some cool power-user workflows. Now they support Outlook as well (used to be just Gmail). The target market can definitely afford it, includes social networking-oriented, productivity-oriented, workflow-oriented, high intensity business kinds of customers that buy productivity services like Omnifocus, use GTD method, etc., those kinds of users, and so forth... it's more than just that, but those kinds of people will be attracted to it since it has some great social network insight info and tools integrated into your workflow, gives you the minimalist but boutique kind of experience that's been finely tuned for focusing on task or interaction at hand, very useful for customer/client management, sales, executive, marketing kinds of people. So for them, if they save some time during the day and have more insights into their customers/clients/employees/associates, then it's easily worth $30 per month. But for a fresh workflow, I'd still steer towards Hey.com IMO, which gives you a workflow that covers some similar concepts, appeals to an overlap segment of the market, and I have no doubt Hey.com will be adding some more similar features like Superhuman over time, there's more overlap between them IMO than with other providers out there. If there was a privacy-oriented version of Superhuman, I'd be interested. As it is now, you are relying on Gmail or Outlook as the underlying platform, and then of course Superhuman's own system that sucks in huge amounts of information about you -- all things I'm not interested in ever trusting my personal data and contacts with. But if there was a Protonmail-equivalent of Superhuman, I'd probably sign up. The workflows are potentially big time-savers. My two bits.

21 May 2022, 05:12 AM	#6
ioneja Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 713	P.S. I forgot to mention the "vs. Fastmail" angle, lol. (I forgot the title of this thread and what subforum it was posted in). As for Fastmail vs Superhuman, there is a small overlap in the Venn diagram of providers between them, but it's very small IMO. If you are very productivity-oriented and a long-time user of Fastmail, you'll know that Fastmail has been adding productivity features more and more in recent years, like snooze, undo, a side panel with insight on your contacts, etc... so Fastmail has definitely been improving in terms of those kinds of features. And if that's what you love about Fastmail, then Superhuman might be for you. However, this evolution at Fastmail is a far cry from "rethinking" email, which is what IMO Hey.com and Superhuman are trying to do, to varying degrees of success, and to varying degrees of appeal to different market segments. So I don't think there is a super-useful comparison matrix between FM and Superhuman, they're fundamentally different kinds of products for different people. In fact, FM might be on the other end of the Venn diagram since it has so many legacy/traditional features and can be set up and tweaked to different workflows, not to mention all the extra stuff you can do with aliases, domains, files, simple file hosting, etc... really very different products overall. The more apt comparison would be between Superhuman and Hey.com, as I mentioned in my previous post. Anyway, just my take on this. I'm more of a privacy-oriented kind of user but I wish I could have all the great productivity features too. As a concept, I'd say Superhuman shows one track where email is evolving IMO. Hey.com is another "fresh" take on email workflows, showing another track of rethinking and evolving email. And Fastmail is sort of like a workhorse provider with more "traditional" features under the hood, BUT they have also invested in workflow features in recent years, and yet they're still basically a more traditional/workhorse provider.