BoxBee vs Shortwave

Prices as published by the vendors themselves. Check the figure on the vendor's own page if you are reading this later. Last checked: July 2026.

Shortwave put the assistant at the centre. You ask a question about your mailbox and the app searches, reads and answers. It works well and is a real step up from a search box with filters.

BoxBee does more of its work in the background. The smart inbox sorts arriving mail by kind and urgency, the autopilot files what it recognises, the daily brief bundles in the morning what is still open. Rather than asking many questions, you should simply find less that needs your hands.

Shortwave is built around Gmail and gets a lot out of it: labels, threads and Google search logic are all reused. If your mailbox is on Google Workspace, that is an advantage, not a flaw.

If your mailbox is anywhere else, the conversation ends there. This is where the paths split. BoxBee connects mailboxes over IMAP and SMTP, the open standard almost every provider speaks: your domain host, Mailbox.org, Infomaniak, OVH, a regional provider or a server of your own. Setup needs an address and a password, BoxBee finds the servers itself and verifies them with a real login.

Shortwave asks $14 per user and month billed annually, with Business at $24. For a team of five on Business that is $120 a month. In return you get a very capable assistant, and if your team sits entirely on Gmail anyway, the offer is coherent.

BoxBee sits below that. The exact amounts live in the pricing section on the home page, so no stale figure is left here. Seven days to try, no mailbox migration.

An assistant that searches and summarises your mailbox inevitably reads content. That is true of Shortwave and it is true of BoxBee. The difference is where that content goes.

BoxBee uses Mistral, a model developed in France, and processes on servers in Europe. Shortwave works with models from US vendors. Anyone working in a law firm, in public administration, in healthcare or in a company with strict data protection knows exactly how far apart those two sentences are.

Again: BoxBee claims no certification and no legal safety at the push of a button. The statement is about the chain of model, servers and vendor domicile. The assessment stays yours.

Shortwave is most at home in the browser. BoxBee is a native app for macOS, Windows, iOS and iPadOS. You notice it in small things: system notifications, attaching files, reading offline, keeping the app in the dock. If you prefer everything in the browser, you will read that the other way round as a point for Shortwave.

A comparison where only one side ever wins is not a comparison. These points go against us:

• Shortwave’s assistant, answering questions across the entire mailbox history, is further along today than what BoxBee can do.
• Shortwave uses Gmail search and Gmail labels very deeply. In a pure Google Workspace environment that is an advantage.
• Shortwave is available on Android, BoxBee is not.
• Shortwave has more users, more public reports from the field and a longer operating history.

If your whole team sits on Gmail and the strongest available assistant is the goal, Shortwave is the right choice. There is little point in talking that down.

If your mailbox is not with Google, if you want native apps on Mac, Windows and iPad, or if you want to know that your content is processed in Europe, take BoxBee. Seven days with your real mailbox answers the question faster than any table.