Comparison

Shortwave vs e

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Shortwave

This AI-powered email client streamlines your inbox with intelligent assistance for writing, organizing, and scheduling. It offers real-time team collaboration, advanced search, and customizable workflows to boost productivity.

Highlights
  • AI-powered email writing and drafting
  • Intelligent inbox organization and clutter removal
  • Real-time team collaboration and email sharing
  • AI-driven meeting scheduling
  • Advanced AI-powered search and analysis
  • Customizable workflows and AI snippets
Read full description

AI-NATIVE EMAIL FOR BUSINESS "The AI revolution is coming for your email" – Business Insider "This app is like ChatGPT for your email, and it changed my life" – Digital Trends "The Google Inbox successor I’ve been waiting for" – The Verge YOUR AI EMAIL ASSISTANT Supercharge your productivity with advanced AI & real-time team collaboration. Write emails, improve drafts, schedule meetings, analyze threads, translate text, and more using Shortwave’s powerful AI Assistant. ORGANIZE YOUR INBOX WITH AI With 1-tap, Shortwave’s AI Assistant can identify urgent emails, group threads into todos, and sweep away the remaining clutter so you can get to inbox zero with zero effort. SHARE & DISCUSS EMAILS WITH YOUR TEAM Get the right people involved and bring everyone up to speed fast with private team comments and live thread sharing. Assign emails to teammates to delegate next steps. WRITE EMAILS WITH AI Write personalized emails with AI in seconds, or use instant AI replies to get full drafts in just one tap. Shortwave learns your unique writing style and even facts about you from the emails you send. IMPROVE AND PROOFREAD DRAFTS Complete your drafts, adjust length and tone, translate into other languages, and more with a built-in AI editor. SEARCH AND FIND ANSWERS Use AI-powered search to find emails fast, or to analyze your entire team's emails & attachments for the answers you need SCHEDULE MEETINGS WITH AI Spend less time juggling calendars with AI-powered scheduling features. Create events, send AI-generated scheduling emails, accept calendar events with one click, and more. GET ORGANIZED WITH SPLITS AND BUNDLES Focus your time & attention by dividing your inbox into tabs for important emails, specific senders, labels & even custom queries. Use bundles for fast triage of promotions, newsletters, updates, and other automated emails. TURN EMAILS INTO TODOS Transform your overflowing inbox into an organized list of action items. Group, rename, prioritize, and add notes, right in your inbox. SET DELIVERY SCHEDULES Avoid interruptions by deferring when emails arrive in your inbox, so you only receive emails when you want them. VIEW READ STATUSES See when people read your emails to get the context you need to prioritize your time and write effective follow-ups. Close more deals and collaborate better with your team. SCREEN UNWANTED SENDERS Guard your inbox from noise with one-click block and unsubscribe. FINE-TUNE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS Granular push controls let you minimize distractions with personalized alerts for specific senders and types of emails. CUSTOMIZE EVERYTHING Customize AI prompts and automate your team’s work with AI Snippets & AI Automations. Adjust tons of details in settings, and make Shortwave yours with custom colors and beautiful light & dark modes. MANAGE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS Organize all of your Gmail accounts from one app and seamlessly switch between them in a single swipe. SYNCS WITH GMAIL Migrate seamlessly to Shortwave from your existing Gmail or Google Workspace account with all of your labels, filters, and other settings imported. If you have questions or want to learn more about Shortwave and best practices, you can find resources here: https://www.shortwave.com/docs/

About

e

This secure email platform offers encrypted communication, file storage, and video conferencing. It integrates PGP tools and private note-taking to boost productivity while ensuring total privacy.

Highlights
  • Encrypted email
  • Encrypted attachments
  • PGP tools
  • Secure note-taking
  • Private file storage
  • Video conferencing
Features
Read full description

e‑Patra is the next-generation encrypted email platform designed for modern communication, total privacy, and unlimited productivity. Built with cutting-edge technology, e‑Patra offers more than just email — it integrates encrypted attachments, PGP tools, secure note-taking, private file storage, and built-in video conferencing, all within a single platform. Every feature is crafted to enhance your productivity while protecting your digital privacy.

Screenshots

Shortwave4 screens
e4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Shortwave at 65% against e's 0%. Shortwave also leads on ratings volume (754 vs 2). e's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

e holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Shortwave has 754 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of Shortwave's written reviews are positive against 0% of e's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, e every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Shortwave versus e: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShortwavee
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (754 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews65.4% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings754 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB87 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShortwave Communications, Inc.Anisoft

Customer experience

Shortwave

All ratings659 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral1.8%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews211 reviews
Positive65.4%
Neutral10.9%
Negative23.7%

e

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Shortwave

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unreliable email bundling and threading
  • Inconsistent performance and stability issues
  • Bugs with email forwarding and attachment handling

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more email providers
  • Improve iPad and tablet optimization
  • Enhance customization options for labels and actions
  • Integrate with more productivity apps and services
  • Provide better transparency around data usage and privacy

e

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Shortwave

No in-app purchases

None

e

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shortwave free?
Shortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is e free?
e is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shortwave or e?
e is rated higher. Shortwave averages 4.8 out of 5 from 754 ratings, while e averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Shortwave or e have ads?
Neither Shortwave nor e shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shortwave or e?
Shortwave ships an update every 4 weeks, and e every 2 months. Most recently, Shortwave was updated on November 3, 2026 and e on November 3, 2026.

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