Chanty
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Comparison · Comms
Stalwart vs Superhuman
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Stalwart and Superhuman — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Stalwart vs Superhuman: at a glance
| Feature | Stalwart | Superhuman |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Comms | Comms |
| Velocity score | 5.0 | 7.5 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 1 |
| Top themes | mail-server, jmap, imap, rfc-compliance | mcp, auto-drafts, agent-native, multi-account |
| Last editorial update | 20h ago | 20d ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Stalwart?
Stalwart is chasing mail RFCs and its own storage layer at the same time
Stalwart ships roughly weekly, and the releases divide cleanly between standards implementation and correctness work. v0.16.18 turns toward resource control — bounds on decompressed inbound DMARC and TLS report size, a cap on RocksDB block-cache memory, column families tuned per access pattern, and a queue scheduler that stops rescanning from the earliest pending event. The preceding releases added IMAP UIDONLY, UIDBATCHES and MESSAGELIMIT, plus JMAP email push and VAPID.
What is Superhuman?
Superhuman is rebuilding around the assistant: pre-drafted replies and multi-account MCP.
Superhuman ships small and often, and its releases now split cleanly in two. One half is conventional client work — calendar on Android, multi-day views on iPhone and iPad, personalized availability sharing. The other is an aggressive agent surface: Auto Drafts 2.0 pre-drafts a reply to every message that needs one, and the Mail MCP now drives multiple Gmail and Outlook accounts from Claude, ChatGPT and Codex.
Stalwart vs Superhuman: editorial side-by-side
Stalwart
5.0COMMS
Stalwart is chasing mail RFCs and its own storage layer at the same time
◆ Current state
Stalwart ships roughly weekly, and the releases divide cleanly between standards implementation and correctness work. v0.16.18 turns toward resource control — bounds on decompressed inbound DMARC and TLS report size, a cap on RocksDB block-cache memory, column families tuned per access pattern, and a queue scheduler that stops rescanning from the earliest pending event. The preceding releases added IMAP UIDONLY, UIDBATCHES and MESSAGELIMIT, plus JMAP email push and VAPID.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads run through every release. One is RFC coverage across IMAP, JMAP, CalDAV and WebDAV, implemented close to the specification including drafts. The other is a long tail of protocol-conformance fixes, many of them cases where JMAP and IMAP disagreed about the same state. The newest release adds a third: memory and scheduling limits, which is what a server codebase starts doing when deployments get large enough for defaults to hurt.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued RFC additions across the JMAP and IMAP surfaces, with more of the storage-tuning work that v0.16.18 started as RocksDB deployments scale.
Superhuman
7.5COMMS
Superhuman is rebuilding around the assistant: pre-drafted replies and multi-account MCP.
◆ Current state
Superhuman ships small and often, and its releases now split cleanly in two. One half is conventional client work — calendar on Android, multi-day views on iPhone and iPad, personalized availability sharing. The other is an aggressive agent surface: Auto Drafts 2.0 pre-drafts a reply to every message that needs one, and the Mail MCP now drives multiple Gmail and Outlook accounts from Claude, ChatGPT and Codex.
◆ Where it's heading
The centre of gravity is moving off Superhuman's own client. Each recent release makes the mailbox more usable from somewhere else — first a Codex plugin with prebuilt workflows, then parallel search across every connected account — while in-app work is mostly mobile parity. Superhuman is positioning as the mail layer assistants call, and it names the single-account limit of the first-party Gmail and Outlook connectors as the reason to switch.
◆ Prediction
Expect the MCP surface to keep absorbing the features that only the client could do — Split Inbox triage, Read Statuses, Smart Send are already listed — with the native apps continuing to trail on platform parity.
Alternatives to Stalwart and Superhuman
Other Comms products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Stalwart or Superhuman.
Proton Bridge
Proton Bridge spends its first release in ten weeks on crashes, memory bounds and dead code
Mux
Every manual control Mux ships now arrives with a Robots workflow that does it for you
Netcore Cloud
Netcore's feed remains a demand-generation channel; ten entries, zero product releases.
mailcow
mailcow's release notes are almost entirely upstream security currency.
Openfire
Openfire keeps its XMPP server current without changing what it is.
See all Stalwart alternatives → · See all Superhuman alternatives →
Recent activity from Stalwart and Superhuman
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoStalwartResource limits arrive for inbound reports and RocksDB caches
- 8d agoStalwartIMAP gains UIDONLY, UIDBATCHES and message-limit extensions
- 16d agoStalwartJMAP delivery push arrives; strict relays stop rejecting calendar mail
- 20d agoSuperhumanMultiple email accounts in Claude, ChatGPT, and MCP 🤖 ⚡
- 23d agoStalwartFix-only release: JMAP semantics and a credential escalation
- 29d agoStalwartVAPID lands for JMAP Web Push
- 1mo agoSuperhumanAuto Drafts 2.0 ✨ ⚡
- 1mo agoStalwartFreeBSD support, plus OAuth scopes for IMAP, SMTP and Sieve
- 1mo agoSuperhumanMulti-day views on iPhone & iPad 📆
- 1mo agoSuperhumanCalendar on Android 💚
- 1mo agoSuperhumanSuperhuman Mail Codex plugin 🤖
- 2mo agoSuperhumanPersonalize share availability ✨
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Stalwart and Superhuman?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Superhuman is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Stalwart better than Superhuman?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Superhuman is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Comms products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Stalwart?
Top Stalwart alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Stalwart alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/stalwart for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Superhuman?
Top Superhuman alternatives in Comms are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Superhuman alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/superhuman for the full list with editorial commentary on each.