Micro vs Superhuman: Beyond the Fastest Email Client

I was a Superhuman power user. Loved it. The speed, the keyboard shortcuts, the feeling of reaching inbox zero in 15 minutes instead of 45.

Then I'd close Superhuman, open HubSpot to update a deal, open Notion to check my notes, open Linear to create a task, and open Google Calendar to see what's next. The 15 minutes I saved on email, I spent context-switching between everything else.

Superhuman made email fast. But email was never the whole problem.

The core difference

Superhuman is the fastest email client. It takes Gmail and makes it dramatically faster with keyboard shortcuts, split inbox, AI triage, read receipts, and instant search. It does one thing — email — and does it exceptionally well.

Micro is a workspace that starts with email but includes CRM, meetings, tasks, documents, and AI. Everything shares one data layer, so when you read an email, you see the sender's deal stage, meeting history, and open tasks without leaving your inbox.

Superhuman optimizes one tool. Micro replaces the need for multiple tools.

Where Superhuman wins

Pure email speed. Superhuman is, bar none, the fastest email experience. The UI is buttery smooth. Keyboard shortcuts cover every action. Split inbox sorts email intelligently. If email speed is your single biggest bottleneck, nothing beats it.

Read receipts. Superhuman's read tracking is the best in class. See exactly when someone opens your email and on what device. Micro doesn't have this yet.

Polish and design. Superhuman has had years to polish every pixel of the email experience. Animations, transitions, micro-interactions — it's a premium feel throughout.

Calendar integration. Superhuman recently added calendar features that let you see and manage your schedule alongside email. Clean implementation for availability sharing and scheduling.

Where Micro wins

CRM that lives in your inbox. When an email arrives in Micro, you see the sender's full context: contact details, company info, deal stage, past meetings, open tasks, and LinkedIn messages. In Superhuman, you see an email. The CRM context lives in a completely different app.

AI with full context. Superhuman's AI helps you write emails faster. Micro's AI can answer "what did I promise to send Acme Corp after our last meeting?" because it has access to your email, meeting notes, CRM, and tasks. Different depth of intelligence.

Meetings that connect. Micro's AI joins your calls, takes notes, extracts action items, and links everything to the right contacts automatically. After a call, the notes, tasks, and follow-up drafts are already connected to the contact's timeline. Superhuman doesn't do meeting notes.

Tasks and docs. Need to create a task from an email? In Micro, it's one action — the task links to the email thread and contact. Need to draft a doc? It lives alongside everything else. In Superhuman, you switch to Linear or Notion.

One workspace, no tab-switching. This is the fundamental difference. Superhuman makes email 10x better. Micro makes the entire founder workflow 3x better by eliminating the seams between email, CRM, calendar, tasks, and docs.

Price. Superhuman costs $30/month for just email. Micro includes email, CRM, meetings, tasks, docs, and AI for $29/month. That's $29/month vs. $30 (Superhuman) + $29 (Attio) + $10 (Linear) + $10 (Notion) + $15 (Otter) = $94/month in tools that Micro replaces.

Feature comparison

Feature	Micro	Superhuman
Email client	Yes	Yes (best-in-class speed)
CRM	Yes	No
AI meeting notes	Yes	No
Task management	Yes	No
Document editor	Yes	No
AI email drafting	Yes	Yes
AI workspace assistant	Full-context	Email-only
Read receipts	Coming soon	Yes
LinkedIn integration	Yes	No
Split inbox / triage	AI-powered	Yes
Keyboard shortcuts	Comprehensive	Best-in-class
Calendar	Yes	Yes
Price	$29/mo (everything)	$30/mo (email only)

Who should use Superhuman

• Executives and professionals whose primary bottleneck is email volume
• People who already have a CRM, task manager, and docs tool they're happy with
• Users who value email speed and polish above all else
• Teams where email is the main workflow and other tools are secondary

Who should use Micro

• Startup founders who manage everything from their inbox — sales, investors, hiring, partnerships
• Investors who need email, CRM, and meeting notes connected for relationship management
• Small teams (1-10) who want to consolidate email, CRM, tasks, and docs into one tool
• Anyone spending $80+/month on separate tools for email, CRM, tasks, and meeting notes

The bottom line

Superhuman is the best email client. Full stop. If email is your only problem, it's an excellent solution.

But for most founders, email isn't the only problem. It's email + CRM + meetings + tasks + docs + AI, and the gaps between them. That's the problem Micro solves.

Try Micro free and see what happens when everything lives in one place.