Rythm vs. Hey.com: What's Different and Who Each Is For
A transparent comparison of Rythm and Hey.com from the Rythm team. What's different, where Hey wins, and who each product is built for.
We get asked about Hey.com a lot. It makes sense: Hey changed the conversation about email and proved that people are willing to pay for a calmer inbox. We admire what 37signals built.
But Hey and Rythm solve the same problem in fundamentally different ways. Both belong to a broader shift away from probabilistic filtering, which we covered in our guide to what economic email filtering actually is. This post is our honest take on the differences, written from our perspective as the Rythm team. We will be upfront about where Hey wins.
What Hey.com Gets Right
Credit where it’s due. Hey introduced “The Screener,” a gate where every new sender is held until you manually approve or reject them. It forces intentionality. It puts you in control. And it works.
Hey also respects privacy. No tracking pixels. No open-rate surveillance. The product philosophy is genuinely thoughtful. The design is beautiful, and the team ships with conviction.
Where Hey Wins Over Rythm
We will be honest about this:
Complete email experience. Hey isn’t just a filter. It’s a full email client with opinionated design choices (Imbox, Paper Trail, The Feed). If you want a totally reimagined email experience, Hey delivers that. Rythm is a layer on top of your existing client, not a replacement.
No payment involved for senders. Hey’s Screener is a manual approve/reject. Nobody has to pay anything. Some people prefer that simplicity, especially for personal use where the cover charge concept feels like overkill.
Privacy-first design throughout. Hey blocks tracking pixels, hides read receipts, and generally treats privacy as a first-class product feature. Rythm inherits whatever privacy posture Gmail or Outlook provides.
Where Rythm Differs
You keep your email address natively. Hey gives you a new @hey.com address. You can forward from Gmail and send as your old address from within Hey, but your primary inbox moves to Hey’s client. Hey for Domains ($12/user/month) lets you use a custom domain. Rythm works directly on top of your existing Gmail or Outlook with no address change at all.
Automatic guest list. Hey’s Screener requires you to manually approve every new sender (though imported contacts bypass it automatically). Rythm builds your guest list from your contacts, sent mail, and inbox activity. Your existing relationships pass through without you doing anything.
Economic filtering. Rythm uses a cover charge (about 4 cents by default) for unknown senders. This is the core philosophical difference: instead of asking you to manually sort every new sender, Rythm asks the sender to prove sincerity with a tiny payment. A real person pays without hesitation. A mass sender can’t afford it at scale. We explain the full payment flow in how it actually works under the hood.
Earnings from strangers. Cover charge payments settle directly to your wallet, not Rythm’s. This doesn’t exist in Hey’s model.
Lower cost. Hey is $99/year. Rythm starts as low as $1.65/month. Both are reasonable prices, but the difference matters for some people.
Comparison Table
| Feature | Hey.com | Rythm |
|---|---|---|
| Keep your email address natively | No (new @hey.com, forwarding available) | Yes |
| Unknown sender screening | Manual approve/reject | Automatic + cover charge |
| Auto-learn whitelist | No (imported contacts bypass Screener) | Yes |
| Payment gate | No | Yes |
| Earnings from strangers | No | Yes |
| Full email client | Yes | No (layer on existing) |
| Tracking pixel blocking | Yes | No (inherits from provider) |
| Monthly cost | $8.25 | As low as $1.65 |
| Nothing deleted | No (Recycling Center auto-deletes after 30 days) | Yes |
Who Should Choose What
Choose Hey.com if you want a complete, opinionated email experience and you’re open to a new @hey.com address (with forwarding from your old one). Hey is a beautiful product with a strong philosophy. If you don’t mind the transition, it’s excellent.
Choose Rythm if you want screening and economic filtering on your existing Gmail or Outlook, without changing your email address. Rythm is the better fit if you need to stay on your current provider (for work, established contacts, or personal preference) and want the only option where strangers pay you instead of the other way around. For a broader view of all options, see how Rythm fits into the email protection landscape.
Other Options Worth Knowing About
SaneBox ($7-36/month) uses AI to sort incoming email by predicted importance. It works well for reducing noise, but it’s probabilistic. The AI guesses, and sometimes it guesses wrong. No payment gate. Works with most IMAP providers. See our detailed comparison of Rythm vs. SaneBox for a deeper look.
Clean Email (~$10/month) offers a Screener for unknown senders plus bulk cleanup tools. Every approval is manual, with no auto-learning and no economic filtering.
Gmail/Outlook DIY (free) lets you build manual filter rules, but neither platform has a robust “is from my contacts” filter condition. Most people abandon DIY setups within weeks.