Lavender vs Shortwave: 2026 comparison
AI email coach for sales reps — scores cold emails in real time and rewrites them for higher reply rates.
AI email client — natural-language search, summary, scheduled send, and AI-drafted replies grounded in your inbox.
Lavender vs Shortwave — specs
| Spec | Lavender | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Rank | 65 / 100 (B) | 72 / 100 (A) |
| Autonomy | Assistant | Assistant |
| Pricing | Subscription · from $29 | Freemium · from $9 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Capabilities | Tool use, Memory | RAG, Memory, Tool use |
| Integrations | 5 apps | 3 apps |
| Verified | Verified | Verified |
| Released | Jan 2025 | Feb 2025 |
Agent Rank breakdown
- Autonomy fit
- 7
- Capabilities
- 4
- Integrations
- 6
- Pricing value
- 7
- Polish & maturity
- 5
- 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
- +Real-time email scoring inside Gmail/Outlook genuinely improves cold-email reply rates
- +Used by tens of thousands of SDRs — battle-tested in real outbound
- +Manager dashboards make team-wide email coaching measurable
- −Augments humans rather than automating outbound end-to-end
- −Best for teams using a real engagement platform (Salesloft/Outreach) underneath
- −Browser extension UX occasionally lags on heavy email days
- +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
- +5 emails/mo
- +Basic scoring
- +Unlimited scoring
- +Real-time coaching
- +Personalization data
- +Team coaching analytics
- +Manager dashboards
- +Custom playbooks
- +Basic AI summary
- +90-day search
- +Unlimited search
- +AI assistant
- +Scheduled send
- +Shared inboxes
- +Send delegation
- +Admin controls
Which one should you pick?
Pick Lavender if its specific capabilities (Tool use, Memory) match what you need.
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Frequently asked
Should I pick Lavender or Shortwave in 2026?+
Pick Lavender if its specific capabilities (Tool use, Memory) match what you need. Pick Shortwave if cost is the main constraint. Most working teams running both can use Lavender for primary work and Shortwave for the workflows where its specific strengths matter.
What's the price difference between Lavender and Shortwave?+
Lavender starts at Subscription · from $29; 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, Lavender or Shortwave?+
Both Lavender and Shortwave are Assistant agents — neither has a meaningful autonomy advantage over the other. The decision should hinge on capabilities and pricing instead.