Fixie vs Shortwave: 2026 comparison
Build durable agents that act on your internal data — open framework.
AI email client — natural-language search, summary, scheduled send, and AI-drafted replies grounded in your inbox.
Fixie vs Shortwave — specs
| Spec | Fixie | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Rank | 72 / 100 (A) | 72 / 100 (A) |
| Autonomy | Semi-autonomous | Assistant |
| Pricing | Free · OSS | Freemium · from $9 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Capabilities | Tool use, RAG, Memory, Multi-agent | RAG, Memory, Tool use |
| Integrations | 3 apps | 3 apps |
| Verified | — | Verified |
| Released | Feb 2025 | Feb 2025 |
Agent Rank breakdown
- Autonomy fit
- 8
- Capabilities
- 8
- Integrations
- 6
- Pricing value
- 10
- Polish & maturity
- 5
- Verifiability
- 6
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
- +Real multi-agent primitives — planner + workers + reviewer out of the box
- +Strong for internal-tool agents over your own data
- +Permissive license; auditable end-to-end
- −Framework, not a finished product — engineering effort to ship anything
- −Smaller community than LangChain / LlamaIndex
- −Cloud pricing not yet published — usage-based and opaque
- +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
- +Apache-2.0 framework
- +Self-host
- +Bring your own models + data
- +Hosted runtime
- +Multi-agent orchestration
- +Observability
- +Basic AI summary
- +90-day search
- +Unlimited search
- +AI assistant
- +Scheduled send
- +Shared inboxes
- +Send delegation
- +Admin controls
Which one should you pick?
Pick Fixie if cost is the main constraint or if you want the highest autonomy and the verification loop is in place.
Try Fixie →Pick Shortwave if you want a vendor we've verified for accessibility and pricing accuracy.
Try Shortwave →Affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Frequently asked
Should I pick Fixie or Shortwave in 2026?+
Pick Fixie if cost is the main constraint or if you want the highest autonomy and the verification loop is in place. Pick Shortwave if you want a vendor we've verified for accessibility and pricing accuracy. Most working teams running both can use Fixie for primary work and Shortwave for the workflows where its specific strengths matter.
What's the price difference between Fixie and Shortwave?+
Fixie starts at Free · OSS; Shortwave starts at Freemium · from $9. Fixie 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, Fixie or Shortwave?+
Fixie is the more autonomous of the two (Semi-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.