Is Drift or Shortwave better?

Neither clearly leads. Drift starts at $2500/month and Shortwave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Drift or Shortwave?

Shortwave has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2500/month for Drift and Free for Shortwave.

Does Drift or Shortwave run on more platforms?

Drift runs on Web. Shortwave runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.

Can I use Shortwave for free?

Yes. Shortwave has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Drift starts at $2500/month.

What is Drift best used for?

Drift is most often used for lead qualification, meeting booking, customer support, account-based marketing. Of those, lead qualification and meeting booking are not what Shortwave is typically brought in for.

What can Drift do that Shortwave cannot?

Drift covers Live chat, AI chatbots, Meeting scheduling, Email sequences. Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering, Intelligent Autocomplete, Voice-Style Composition, Meeting Scheduling.

Technology · head to head

Drift vs Shortwave

Drift

Technology

The Conversation Cloud

From: $2500/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Shortwave

Email Marketing

AI-powered email assistant for intelligent inbox management

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Shortwave has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Drift product is being sunset by Salesloft with successor service (1mind) recommended; Shortwave per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
They diverge on capability: Drift covers Live chat, Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Drift and Shortwave actually diverge.

Attributes where Drift and Shortwave differ
Attribute	Drift	Shortwave
Starting price	$2500/month	Free
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web	iOS, Android, macOS, Windows
Category	Technology	Email Marketing
Founded	2015	Unknown

Identical on both: pricing model (Unknown), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Drift

Live chat
AI chatbots
Meeting scheduling
Email sequences
Visitor intelligence
Conversation routing
Mobile app
Analytics dashboard

Only in Shortwave

AI Email Filtering
Intelligent Autocomplete
Voice-Style Composition
Meeting Scheduling
Email-to-Todo Conversion
AI-Powered Search
Team Collaboration
Email Summaries

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Drift

Lead qualificationnot Shortwave
Meeting bookingnot Shortwave
Customer supportnot Shortwave
Account-based marketingnot Shortwave
Sales accelerationnot Shortwave

Shortwave

Reducing inbox overload through AI-powered organizationnot Drift
Drafting professional emails using natural languagenot Drift
Scheduling meetings without back-and-forth coordinationnot Drift
Searching email archives using conversational queriesnot Drift
Converting emails to tasks for team task trackingnot Drift

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Drift

Product is being sunset by Salesloft with successor service (1mind) recommended
Mandatory bundling within Salesloft increases cost
No free tier available
Customer support and knowledge base have been deprioritized
Limited to enterprise B2B pipeline generation focus

Shortwave

Per-seat pricing increases team costs compared to flat-rate email solutions
AI features may require higher tier plans, limiting value for smaller teams
Dependency on third-party integrations for full feature depth
Learning curve for effective use of AI-powered features
Limited customization for AI filter behavior compared to manual rules

Pricing, plan by plan

Drift

$2500/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Drift review.

Shortwave

Free

FreeFree
- Email search and organization
- Basic inbox tools
- Limited AI features
Business$30/month
- Full standard search history
- 5 years AI search history
- Max 50 threads per AI search
Premier$45/month
- Everything in Business
- 2x more AI usage
- Unlimited AI search history
Max$120/month
- Everything in Premier
- 6x more AI usage
- Max 150 threads per AI search

Which should you pick?

Choose Drift if

You need live chat.
You also want ai chatbots.

Drift review

Choose Shortwave if

You need ai email filtering.
You want to start without paying.
You work on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
You also want intelligent autocomplete.

Shortwave review

Questions people ask

Is Drift or Shortwave better?: Neither clearly leads. Drift starts at $2500/month and Shortwave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Drift or Shortwave?: Shortwave has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2500/month for Drift and Free for Shortwave.
Does Drift or Shortwave run on more platforms?: Drift runs on Web. Shortwave runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Shortwave for free?: Yes. Shortwave has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Drift starts at $2500/month.
What is Drift best used for?: Drift is most often used for lead qualification, meeting booking, customer support, account-based marketing. Of those, lead qualification and meeting booking are not what Shortwave is typically brought in for.
What can Drift do that Shortwave cannot?: Drift covers Live chat, AI chatbots, Meeting scheduling, Email sequences. Shortwave covers AI Email Filtering, Intelligent Autocomplete, Voice-Style Composition, Meeting Scheduling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Drift: What is the current status of Drift in 2026?

On March 6, 2026, Clari and Salesloft announced the gradual sunset of Drift's conversational marketing solution, with 1mind named as its exclusive AI successor. Drift remains available but its future is limited.

Source

Shortwave: Is there a free trial for Shortwave?

Yes, Shortwave offers a 14-day free trial for all paid plans with no credit card required.

Source

Drift: How much does Drift cost?

Drift pricing starts around $2,500/month ($30,000/year) for Premium chat-only capabilities, with Enterprise plans exceeding $80,000/year. Drift is bundled within Salesloft and billed annually only.

Source

Shortwave: What platforms does Shortwave support?

Shortwave is available on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows for full cross-platform email management.

Source

Drift: What features come with Drift Premium?

Premium plans include live chat widget, custom chatbot flows, meeting scheduling with calendar integration, basic playbooks, email sequences, and standard integrations.

Source

Shortwave: How much AI usage do I get per plan?

Business plan includes 3 AI-powered filters and standard AI usage. Premier (2x more AI) and Max (6x more AI) plans provide increasing levels of AI feature access.

Source

Drift: Does Drift offer a free plan?

No, Drift no longer publicly advertises a free plan as of 2026. All plans require annual billing through Salesloft.

Source

Shortwave: What integrations does Shortwave support?

Shortwave integrates with Slack, Calendar, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, and 3,000+ apps via Tasklet.

Source

Drift vs Shortwave

Drift

Shortwave

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Drift

Only in Shortwave

What people use each for

Drift

Shortwave

Where each one falls short

Drift

Shortwave

Pricing, plan by plan

Drift

Shortwave

Which should you pick?

Choose Drift if

Choose Shortwave if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Drift

More on Shortwave

Keep looking

Other head to heads