Compare HubSpot Email Marketing vs Shortwave

Both tools in AI Email

HubSpot Email Marketing

Free-to-start email marketing inside HubSpot's CRM platform, with AI email generation, smart personalization, and automation that scales to enterprise.

0 upvotesintermediate

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Shortwave

AI EmailPaid

AI-native Gmail client built by former Google Inbox engineers, with thread bundles, natural-language search, AI summaries, and team shared inboxes.

0 upvotesbeginner

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Pricing

Pricing Comparison

HubSpot Email Marketing

Free$0

2,000 email sends/month, forms, basic reporting, HubSpot branding

Marketing Hub Starter$20/seat/mo

1,000 marketing contacts, removes branding, basic automation

Professional$890/mo

Full workflows, A/B testing, smart content, 3 seats

Enterprise$3,600/mo

10,000 contacts, custom objects, advanced governance

Shortwave

Business$24/mo

Billed annually ($30 monthly), full AI features, team inboxes, 5-year AI search history

Premier$36/mo

Billed annually, advanced AI intelligence, unlimited search history, 10 AI filters

Max$120/mo

Billed annually, highest AI usage, custom enterprise features

Features

Feature Comparison

HubSpot Email Marketing

CRM-Powered PersonalizationAI Email GeneratorDrag-and-drop EditorSmart ContentSend-time OptimizationA/B TestingWorkflow AutomationList SegmentationEmail Health ReportingContact Activity TrackingFormsLanding PagesAd ManagementRevenue AttributionEmail TemplatesDeliverability ToolsTeam PermissionsMobile Optimization

Shortwave

AI Natural-language SearchThread BundlesPriority InboxAI Thread SummariesAI Reply DraftingShared Team InboxesTeam CommentsTeam Read StatusesKeyboard ShortcutsEmail PinningEmail SnoozingScheduled SendMarkdown SupportPresence IndicatorsTasklet IntegrationAI Email FiltersFull History SearchCustom Bundling Rules

Fit

Best For & Not For

HubSpot Email Marketing

✅ Best For

✅Startups and small businesses that need a CRM anyway and want email marketing living on the same contact database

✅Sales-driven teams where marketing emails, sales sequences, and deal pipelines must share one source of truth

✅Marketers who care about revenue attribution and want to trace closed deals back to specific campaigns

✅Companies planning to scale into full inbound marketing with landing pages, ads, and automation under one roof

❌ Not For

❌Solo creators who only need newsletters, since dedicated tools like MailerLite deliver more email features per dollar

❌Budget-sensitive teams that will outgrow Starter, because Professional jumps to $890 per month plus a $3,000 mandatory onboarding fee

❌Users who want advanced automation cheaply, as workflows are gated behind the Professional tier

❌Anyone wanting a lightweight tool, since HubSpot is a full platform with a corresponding learning curve

Shortwave

✅ Best For

✅Gmail-first professionals drowning in threads who want AI search that answers questions instead of returning links

✅Small teams managing a shared support@ or hello@ inbox who do not want to pay for a full helpdesk platform

✅Google Workspace companies that want a modern, Inbox-by-Gmail experience with AI baked in from day one

✅Founders and operators who process high email volume and need AI summaries to read long threads in seconds

❌ Not For

❌Outlook and Microsoft 365 users, since Shortwave is Gmail-only with no cross-platform support

❌Teams that need autonomous AI handling of email rather than a faster client to process it themselves

❌Individuals wanting a free long-term plan, since the free tier was removed and every plan now starts with a 14-day trial

❌Solo users on tight budgets where the Business plan at $24 per month per seat is hard to justify for just inbox speed

Availability

Platform & Accessibility

HubSpot Email Marketing

web-basedmobileapi

Shortwave

web-basedmobiledesktop

Use & Audience

Tasks & Who It's For

HubSpot Email Marketing

Tasks

ai-email ai-sales

Who it's for

marketer small-business

Shortwave

Tasks

ai-email

Who it's for

small-business solopreneur marketer

Integrations

HubSpot Email Marketing

CRM

Salesforce

E-commerce

Shopify

Communication

SlackGmail

Automation

Zapier

Marketing

WordPress

Shortwave

Communication

Gmail

Other

Google CalendarGoogle Workspace

Automation

TaskletZapier

Use Cases

Real-world Use Cases

HubSpot Email Marketing

Neha, a startup marketer, sends her first campaign from the free plan and watches each recipient's opens and clicks appear on their CRM record, so sales knows exactly who to call first.

A B2B software company builds a workflow where downloading an ebook triggers a 5-email nurture, and attribution reporting later shows the sequence influenced $84,000 in closed deals that quarter.

A real estate agency uses smart content so buyers see new listings while sellers see valuation offers in the same monthly email, doubling click-through rates.

Shortwave

Kavya, a startup COO, types 'what did the investor ask about our runway in the last two months?' into AI Search and gets a summary of three threads in seconds instead of scrolling for 10 minutes.

A 5-person SaaS team sets up a shared hello@ inbox in Shortwave, assigns threads with one click, and resolves customer inquiries 40 percent faster without buying a helpdesk tool.

Rajan, a consultant with 200 emails a day, uses thread summaries to scan 15 long client conversations in under 5 minutes each morning, cutting his inbox session from 2 hours to 45 minutes.

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