Gmail And Outlook.com they are the two most popular email services in the world and each brings its own advantages and disadvantages. Many people use both email providers as their primary or secondary account.
Since there is a lot to appreciate about both Gmail and Outlook, in this article we decided to compare them and understand their features and performance in order to facilitate the choice for those who are deciding which provider to use for management. of your emails.
To best answer the question: “Which to choose: Outlook.com or Gmail?” we looked at the following 10 criteria.
1. Ease of use
While Gmail has “occasional” page loading issues on browsers other than Chrome, once you’re logged in you can browse without any issues. There are various categories and inbox folders that help you properly organize all your emails (snoozed, important, sent, draft, spam, trash, categories, etc…)
Gmail lets you take action on any email directly from the shortcut icons at the top. Whether you want to set a label, mute/block a contact, or delete emails in bulk, it only takes one or two clicks. The search bar provides precise results based on the keywords entered. It is very easy to track older emails, received or sent.
Using the Gmail feature “smart compose” you can save a lot of time because it allows you to automatically complete words as you type them.
Outlook.com, on the other hand, has a slightly retro look while maintaining the style of the old Hotmail. The compose box is tidy, which is a big plus, but the font styles and effects haven’t been updated. It is possible to encrypt emails directly from this window, but other than that, there are no interesting new features.
Compared to Gmail, Outlook’s interface is seriously behind the times. For example, you need to resize manually windows every time and it takes longer to mark multiple emails to delete them in bulk.
If you have thousands of unread emails in Outlook webmail you will then have difficulty managing them. With Gmail, however, it’s much easier to get rid of unwanted emails that clutter up your inbox.
Conclusions: Gmail is easier to use thanks to its more advanced features and more user-friendly interface.
2. Integrations
Both Gmail and Outlook have mobile apps that sync easily with Android, iOS, and Chrome OS. If Outlook has its own desktop email client, it fails to integrate a personal Hotmail account with Thunderbird.
Gmail, on the other hand, supports Thunderbird properly. In fact, it can be more pleasant to use Gmail on Thunderbird since emails are always accessible from a proper desktop client.
Gmail It also supports other email clients including Mailbird, Apple Mail, and even Windows Mail. Additionally, you can also use Alexa speakers to check your inbox. Outlook.com also supports many of these clients, but lack convenient access with Thunderbird It is the main disadvantage.
Result: Gmail wins this round but only by a slight margin.
3. Desktop Experience
One of the best features of Outlook.com is its desktop client on Windows 11/10. It is much easier to use than the corresponding webmail or mobile app version. Many people have been using the Outlook client in their company for several years.
Also, using an account Office 365you can connect your Outlook emails to the entire Microsoft suite.
Whether you’re editing a Word file directly, connecting to Skype contacts via email, moving emails to OneDrive, or managing your Office 365 subscription, you get a service that’s manageable from a single window.
Gmail, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a comparable desktop experience.
Result: Outlook.com definitely has a superior desktop experience.
4. Basic functions
One of the basic features that a good email service must have is that of calendar. Outlook Calendar is much more sophisticated and easier to use thanks to its desktop client. You can set up meetings directly and have reminders based on an automatic schedule you want.
Gmail has a nice calendar, but accessing it isn’t very easy. It also doesn’t support the advanced scheduling features that Outlook has.
Outlook has a very useful signature feature that allows you to use colorful templates with watermarks and fingerprints. Creating a professional Gmail signature typically requires an external app like “Wisestamp” or “Hubspot“. Gmail has bypassed many of these basic features and gone straight to the advanced stage.
Result: Outlook.com has better coverage of basic functions
5. Accessibility
On a browser Gmail can sometimes be a little inaccessible, which can be annoying. You sometimes receive a “temporary error” when trying to access your Gmail account from Mozilla Firefox.
For many Gmail users, this is becoming a serious problem. While they can always access Gmail from their phone apps, it can sometimes be unresponsive in a desktop browser, especially if you’re not using Chrome.
Gmail also denies the use of VPN and always classifies it as suspicious activity. Once this happens, you can only log in after receiving a text message on your phone, even though you may have removed your phone number from your Google account.
Outlook almost never denies you access to your email account. With or without a VPN your Outlook email account is always accessible from any device.
Result: Outlook is always more accessible than Gmail and will never leave you out of your account.
6. Interface
The design of an email window influences your “desire” to compose emails. Gmail’s text editor seems a little unprofessional because it pops out of nowhere on the screen, which can be distracting. Furthermore, it only covers three-quarters of the window in full-screen mode. If you need to type multiple emails, this arrangement may require more effort.
Outlook.com, on the other hand, has a simple text editor accessible from a side panel that works best for composing emails.
Result: Outlook has a more “useful” design
7. Security and Privacy
Both Gmail and Microsoft offer powerful email functionality safety. From a privacy perspective, Microsoft’s policies on data sharing are slightly more transparent and favorable.
What many like about Microsoft is that you can access all the statistics about the information users share with law enforcement. Very little data (5 to 6 percent) correlates to the actual content of the emails.
Gmail offers no such statistical overview.
Result: If you value your privacy, you’ll probably be safer with Outlook than Gmail.
8. Contact management
Open, edit and delete Gmail contacts it’s more complicated. You must first go to the icon at the top right (with the name dots) and then select Contacts.
Outlook instead has an icon “Contacts” dedicated which opens in a new window. From that window you can easily delete contacts, add phone numbers, import business cards and much more.
Result: Contact management is simpler and more intuitive in Outlook
9. Premium Features
Gmail lets you access other Google features from its window including Google Maps, YouTube, Play Store, Google Drive, Translate, Photos, and GSuite. Although none of them are directly related to email, they are still of great use to everyone.
You can access multiple delegated Gmail accounts from the same login, add labels and new themes, and sync everything to a mobile device. Outlook, on the other hand, focuses only on emails.
Result: Gmail has more advanced features
10. Space available
While free Gmail accounts are limited to 15GB, you can increase your space three to four times by adding new Google accounts. In comparison, an Outlook account comes with 1TB dspace thanks to OneDrive support.
Result: Outlook offers more space for your account.
Conclusions
By analyzing all the criteria listed and described above, surprisingly (perhaps) you will notice that Outlook.com wins on several fronts. But this is not enough to say that Outlook is better than GMAIL because in the end it is always the user’s needs that make the difference. For example, for the needs of a company (where the presence of a desktop client is essential), Outlook represents the best solution. For those who want a simpler and more intuitive service, GMAIL is certainly ahead of Outlook.
