Gmail, without the AI cloud.

Shortwave keeps your mail in its cloud so its AI can work on it, and charges per seat each month.
zora keeps your mail on your Mac, and you pay once.

AI, only on your terms.

zora works fine without AI, and starts with it switched off.

Nothing about AI runs, and nothing is sent anywhere, until you turn it on in Settings.

Summaries, suggested replies and writing help with your OpenAI, Anthropic or xAI (Grok) key. You pay the provider only for what you use.

Just the conversation you have open goes to your provider, straight from your Mac. Your inbox is never indexed in anyone's cloud.

Your Gmail labels, nested ones included, in the sidebar and on every thread.

Add iCloud, Fastmail, Yahoo or any IMAP account next to Gmail, all in one window.

A local MCP server lets Claude Code search, read, label and draft. It never sends, and it's off by default.

Mail is cached on your Mac. It opens instantly and stays readable without a connection.

A command palette on ⌘K, plus J K to move, E to archive and R to reply.

System font, native window and menus, light and dark, nine color themes.

Shortwave does things zora doesn't. Better you know before you switch.

No zora for the web, Windows, iPhone or Android.

zora's AI sees one conversation at a time, on purpose. No AI search across years of mail.

zora is for one person's mail, and doesn't schedule anything yet.

A lifetime license costs about as much as a few months of a premium email subscription.

No subscription. One payment. Try every feature free for 14 days first, no account needed.

No server in between. zora talks straight to Google. Nobody else receives your mail, including me.

One person, no investors. No growth targets, no upsells, no acquisition email.

Requires macOS 14 or later.

Shortwave is a trademark of its respective owner. Gmail is a trademark of Google LLC. zora is an independent app and is not affiliated with either.