Devin vs Shortwave: 2026 comparison
Autonomous AI software engineer that ships PRs end-to-end.
AI email client — natural-language search, summary, scheduled send, and AI-drafted replies grounded in your inbox.
Devin vs Shortwave — specs
| Spec | Devin | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Rank | 78 / 100 (A) | 72 / 100 (A) |
| Autonomy | Autonomous | Assistant |
| Pricing | Subscription · from $500 | Freemium · from $9 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Capabilities | Code, Tool use, Browser, Memory | RAG, Memory, Tool use |
| Integrations | 3 apps | 3 apps |
| Verified | Verified | Verified |
| Released | May 2025 | Feb 2025 |
Agent Rank breakdown
- Autonomy fit
- 9
- Capabilities
- 8
- Integrations
- 6
- Pricing value
- 4
- Polish & maturity
- 10
- Verifiability
- 10
Auto-computed from autonomy, capabilities, integrations, pricing, maturity and editorial verification. Updated every deploy. How is this computed?
- Autonomy fit
- 7
- Capabilities
- 6
- Integrations
- 6
- Pricing value
- 8
- Polish & maturity
- 6
- Verifiability
- 10
Auto-computed from autonomy, capabilities, integrations, pricing, maturity and editorial verification. Updated every deploy. How is this computed?
Pros & cons
- +Highest autonomy in the coding category — ships PRs end-to-end with minimal oversight
- +Iterates on failing tests until they pass; explains what it did in the PR description
- +Multi-agent UI for managing parallel sessions
- −Pricing puts it firmly in team territory — overkill for solo founders
- −Will ship working code that's wrong for your codebase if architectural context is missing
- −Session memory weak past hour-long stretches
- +Best AI-native email client in 2026 — search, summarize, draft all natural-language
- +Built specifically for Gmail; faster + smarter than Gmail itself
- +Cheap relative to Superhuman with better AI features
- −Gmail-only — no Outlook support
- −AI assistant is helpful but not yet revolutionary
- −Smaller user base means fewer integrations than Gmail/Outlook ecosystems
Pricing
- +Unlimited sessions
- +Slack + GitHub + Linear integrations
- +10 concurrent sessions
- +Email support
- +Everything in Core
- +Priority queue
- +40 concurrent sessions
- +SSO
- +Shared knowledge base
- +Custom concurrency
- +Dedicated VPC option
- +SOC 2 II reports
- +Onboarding engineer
- +Basic AI summary
- +90-day search
- +Unlimited search
- +AI assistant
- +Scheduled send
- +Shared inboxes
- +Send delegation
- +Admin controls
Which one should you pick?
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Frequently asked
Should I pick Devin or Shortwave in 2026?+
Pick Devin if you want the highest autonomy and the verification loop is in place. Pick Shortwave if cost is the main constraint. Most working teams running both can use Devin for primary work and Shortwave for the workflows where its specific strengths matter.
What's the price difference between Devin and Shortwave?+
Devin starts at Subscription · from $500; Shortwave starts at Freemium · from $9. Shortwave is the cheaper entry option. For team deployments the TCO can differ — use the AI Agent Rank TCO calculator for your specific volume.
Which is more autonomous, Devin or Shortwave?+
Devin is the more autonomous of the two (Autonomous vs Assistant). Higher autonomy ships throughput faster but requires verification loops in place — see our autonomous-vs-copilot framing for when each tier wins.