Gmail vs. Outlook for Business: Which Email Provider Is Better?

Americans spend an average of 149 minutes per day checking emails at work. That means your company’s email provider has a big impact on daily operations. If you’re in the market for a new email host for your business, you won’t want to take this decision lightly.

If you’ve narrowed the list down to Gmail vs. Outlook for Business, you’re on the right track, as these are two quality choices. Still, if you’re not an expert in communication software, you’ll want to take your time comparing these options (as well as the potential alternatives). Understanding the specific advantages and disadvantages of each is key to picking the best tool for your needs.

In this post, we’ll compare Gmail and Outlook for Business in key areas such as security, pricing, and more. Let’s begin!

What Is an Email Provider?

Before diving into our comparison guide, let’s start with the basics. What is an email provider?

Simply put, it’s a company that provides you with email hosting services. This way, you’ll have space on a server to store your emails online.

It’s also important to note that an email provider is technically different from an email client. The latter is an application that allows you to send, receive, and manage emails.

When talking about Gmail and Outlook for Business, this distinction is important. Both Gmail and Outlook are email clients. However, Gmail bundles in free email hosting on a Gmail server. Meanwhile, Microsoft Outlook uses the Microsoft Exchange Server.

Gmail vs Outlook for Business: 5 Key Factors Compared

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s move on to our comparison of Outlook and Gmail in five important aspects.

1. Key Features

Since both Gmail and Outlook are quality providers, there’s plenty of overlap in their features. For instance, both offer advanced search options, so you can easily look for past emails. They also provide spam filtering, email folders, and advanced threat protection.

Still, there are some important distinctions. Gmail is part of the larger collection of Google Workspace apps:

It gives you everything you need to send, manage, and organize emails. For example, Gmail separates messages into different tabs, such as Primary, Promotions, and Social:

You can also create custom Labels to further organize your inbox storage. Plus, you can turn on Gmail’s Smart Compose feature and use AI to craft emails faster (Outlook only offers basic text predictions).

To sign up, you’ll need to create a Gmail account. You’ll get 15 GB of storage space. However, it’s important to note that this is spread across several Google services, including Google Drive and Google Photos.

Now, let’s take a closer look at Microsoft Outlook for Business:

This is a premium email service. So while some of the basic features may not be as sophisticated, you’ll get functionality more geared towards business communications than with the free version of Gmail.

On any of Outlook’s paid plans, you’ll get email accounts for up to 300 employees. Plus, you’ll be able to create a custom business email, such as name@yourcompany.com. This can help to build customer trust.

Additionally, each employee will get 1 TB of cloud storage. Plus, each email account will have access to other Microsoft Office tools, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Since this is a premium email service, you’ll also be able to contact customer support for help.

2. User Interface (UI)

Next, let’s compare Microsoft Outlook and Gmail in terms of their User Interfaces (UI). Gmail lets you customize your inbox in a variety of ways. You can personalize its appearance by density, theme, and inbox type:

Plus, you can choose the layout of your reading screen, and decide whether or not to thread emails. You’re also able to customize which Google apps appear on your main screen.

Overall, Gmail is user-friendly and intuitive. What’s more, due to all the available customization features, you can modify your inbox to be minimalist and streamlined.

Meanwhile, Outlook’s interface is more functional, with less room for personalization. However, it lets you view messages as “conversations” (which are similar to Gmail’s threads). As with Gmail, you can access some of your Microsoft Office apps directly from the screen, such as your calendar.

Microsoft Outlook may appear more cluttered than Gmail. This is partially because it has more settings accessible via a horizontal toolbar at the top of the screen.

However, this may be more comfortable for users who are familiar with other Microsoft Office tools. Similarly, you might prefer Gmail if you have experience with other Google Workspace apps.

3. Integrations

Gmail integrates seamlessly with all of the applications in Google Workspace. These include Google Drive, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Sheets, and Google Meet:

If you use all of these tools, this can help to boost productivity and streamline your business.

For instance, thanks to Google’s Calendar app, you can insert your availability directly into emails. And you can hold virtual meetings using Meet. Likewise, your employees can communicate more quickly using Chat and share documents via Drive.

Outlook offers just as many integrations, and everything in the Microsoft Office Suite. This includes OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams:

One of the most important of these solutions (for businesses) is Microsoft Teams, which Outlook offers as a set of collaboration tools for employees. Teams lets employees schedule meetings, share folders, chat, and more.

As you can see, the main difference here is between Google and Microsoft overall. Both software ecosystems offer lots of the same tools and features. If you heavily use one or the other already, it may be best to simply opt for the matching email provider.

4. Email Security

Now, let’s discuss security features. When it comes to Gmail, you’ll get sophisticated encryption so all your communications are secured. In fact, Gmail has a 99.9 percent success rate at stopping spam, malware, and malicious emails. 

As mentioned earlier, Gmail also supports spam filtering and two-factor authentication. It even has a Confidential Mode, which lets you set message expiration dates or require verification from recipients.

Meanwhile, Microsoft Outlook’s business premium plans give you all the standard email security and compliance features you’ll need. These include encryption, spam and malware protection, cloud-based email filtering, and multi factor authentication.

You’ll even be able to manage security threats by creating password policies. In addition, you can control Outlook user access by making security groups and setting custom permissions. In terms of security features, these tools are fairly similar.

5. Pricing and Plans

Finally, let’s go over the pricing options. Gmail is completely free, while the cheapest Outlook Business plan costs $6 per user per month.

For that price, Outlook does give you a lot more storage than the free version of Gmail. However, you can get added storage with a Google One subscription. If you want more storage and a custom email domain, though, it makes more sense to upgrade to Gmail for Business, which gives you that plus 30 GB of pooled storage.

Gmail for Business costs $6 per user per month. That means unless you have very basic needs, these email providers cost exactly the same (but you’ll get more storage space per user with Outlook).

The Best Alternative To Outlook and Gmail

There’s no clear winner between Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. Ultimately, the decision will come down to personal preference and what other tools you use.

However, if you’re just launching your online business (and website), you’ll need more than either Outlook or Gmail can offer. Instead, you can simplify your online business management by signing up for email hosting with SirsteveHQ.

That’s because this hosting platform gives you everything you’ll need in one place. That includes a custom business domain, secure and powerful web hosting for your site, and email hosting. Plus, unlike many other email services, with SirsteveHQ you’ll get access to expert support 24/7/365.

Moreover, you’ll get multiple email accounts, and you’ll be able to access them from mobile devices. Other benefits of email hosting at SirsteveHQ include:

• 5–Unlimited GB of email storage (depending on your chosen plan)
• Robust spam protection
• Regular email backups
• An integrated calendar
• Free migrations

For your domain, you can also get useful add-ons like privacy protection. On top of that, SirsteveHQ offers all the optimization and security features you’ll need to run a safe and high-performing website, such as free SSL certificates.

Conclusion

If you’re debating between Outlook for Business and Gmail, it’s important to understand each platform’s main features, security offerings, integrations, pricing, and usability. Your email provider plays a huge role in how reliably and safely your business messages are delivered.

Rather than opting for one of these email providers, you can instead sign up for email hosting at SirsteveHQ. This provides you with a complete platform offering everything your business needs to establish a strong online presence. The email hosting comes with generous storage, lots of security features, and expert support – plus you can get a professional business email that matches your domain.

Do you have any questions about how to choose the right email provider and hosting for your business? Let us know in the comments section below!