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With the rise in popularity of real-time communication apps like Slack, WhatsApp, and Skype, you may find it surprising that email is still the primary tool for communication at work – and with 3.9 billion users around the world, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
Dominating that space are Gmail and Outlook – two of the most popular email providers in the world.
Although there are a lot of similarities between the two, Microsoft Outlook is more of an email client while Gmail is essentially webmail. The major difference between an email client and webmail is that with an email client users can access their emails without the use of internet, because the emails are saved on the computer. With Gmail being a webmail there is a requirement for an internet connection to access emails.
But which one is right for you? Let’s see how Gmail vs Outlook compare:
The History of Gmail and Outlook
There’s quite a lot of history behind the battle for dominance between Gmail and Outlook.
Let’s take a quick tour through the timeline.
- Outlook was originally called Hotmail and launched in 1996
- Microsoft buys Hotmail in 1997 and rebrands to MSN Hotmail
- MSN Hotmail is then rebranded to Windows Live Hotmail
- Gmail is launched in 2004 – with massive fanfare because it offered 1GB of free storage
- Eventually, Windows Live Hotmail is rebranded to Outlook to try and compete with Gmail
Despite working hard to compete, as of 2020, Outlook only has 9% of the email client market share compared to Gmail’s 28%.
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Gmail vs. Outlook: Features
Outlook’s Folder and File System
Outlook has a traditional folder and file system, much like most other email service providers. Its familiarity makes onboarding easier.
One of the downsides, though, is that Outlook’s folder and file system can feel restrictive. Emails can only be assigned to one folder, which limits how effectively you can organize your messages.
Gmail Labels
In typical Google style, Gmail’s launch changed the face of email on account of its innovative labels and categories system. It can take a little time to wrap your head around, but Gmail labels wins on features and functionality, hands down. The ability to add layers of granularity to your inbox is head and shoulders above the folder and file system.
Winner: Gmail
Gmail vs. Outlook: Design
Design can be very subjective. When it comes to choosing an email service provider, people are always going to have their own take on the look and feel that they prefer.
Today, Outlook arguably looks a little dated, while Gmail feels somewhat more cutting-edge.
The basic Gmail design:
The Outlook interface:
(Source)
As design and feel are so subjective, it’s difficult to declare a winner for this round.
Winner: Personal Preference
Gmail vs. Outlook: Productivity
A recent study found that office workers receive around 121 emails a day, with that number set to rise to 126 by the end of 2020. So if you’re going to keep your inbox clutter-free and your emails answered, you need to be able to customize your workflow.
Add-ons and Extensions
Let’s take a look at a few of the most popular add-ons, extensions, and add-ins for the two services:
Gmail
Right Inbox – Right Inbox thrives on helping people be more productive. There is a suite of tools that can help supercharge your inbox, from multiple signature management to customizable templates.
Crystal Knows – Have you ever wanted to discover more about someone, ahead of a key meeting? Crystal Knows can predict someone’s personality using only publicly-available data.
Voila Norbert – Norbert is a Chrome extension that helps you build lists and contact persons of interest to build resourceful relationships. It’s invaluable for tasks like sales and outreach.
Outlook
Docsend for Outlook – Docsend is a popular tool for secure file and document sharing. You can see who is reading your files and how much of those files they actually read. This is especially useful if you’re sending out proposals.
FindTime – Unfortunately, meetings are unavoidable. The only thing worse than a meeting that runs on too long is the chain of emails that takes place before it, in order to arrange a date and time that suits everyone. FindTime streamlines the process of pinpointing a slot in which all attendees are free.
Evernote – If you’re an Evernote user, then their Outlook add-in is a great way to save time on projects, and move note-taking directly into your inbox.
Who wins this round?
Simple. Gmail has so many more options for customization that it wins hands down.
Winner: Gmail
Additional Reading:25 Best Gmail Extensions for 2021
Gmail vs. Outlook: Cost
Outlook
Personal use of Outlook in your browser is free. Beware though – there are some restrictions on these accounts. Use of the app requires Office 365, for one, which is currently about $60 a year.
Gmail
Gmail is also free to individual users (if you’re using it for work, you may need a paid account). As a standalone product, Gmail just squeaks past Outlook for the win here.
Winner: Gmail
Gmail vs. Outlook: Storage and Attachment Limits
As you know from earlier in the article, the amount of storage that comes free with the account is crucial when it comes to winning market share.
So how do Gmail and Outlook compare?
Gmail storage is capped at 15 GB for the free service, whereas Outlook now boasts 15 GB of free storage for email and then an additional 5 GB for storing files on their OneDrive cloud product.
What about attachment sizes?
Gmail allows you to send attachments up to 25 MB. Outlook, on the other hand, has a maximum attachment size of 20 MB – so not a big difference.
Winner: Outlook
Gmail Vs. Outlook: Connectivity
It’s not uncommon nowadays for users to have multiple email accounts. The thing with multiple email accounts is that you need to manage them all somehow. Many people choose to use third-party tools to help manage this. One of the most popular on the market is Thunderbird.
So how do Gmail and Outlook stack up as far as connectivity is concerned?
Gmail supports both POP and IMAP. It’s also incredibly easy to set up – in fact, you can see our guide on Gmail SMTP settings here.
Outlook also supports POP and IMAP. This means there isn’t much to call between the two. While there’s some anecdotal evidence that suggests that Gmail is a little faster, there isn’t any hard data available.
Outlook loses out a little because it’s less intuitive than Gmail when it comes to setting it up.
Winner: Gmail (only pinching it because it’s easier to set up than Outlook).
There are many things you need to take into consideration when choosing an email service, from storage to attachment limits.
It’s pretty apparent though, that if you want to stay on top of your emails in 2021, you have to choose Gmail (sorry, Microsoft).
Stats say in 2019 Gmail had about 1.5 billion monthly active users. So no doubt, Gmail is one of the most widely used free email services, because of its simple yet powerful features.
So, if you want to make the most out of Gmail, leverage it with the Gmail Add Ons — simple extensions to Gmail that are lesser-known to users. These make sure you’re productive enough and life is just easy with these in hand!
Table of Contents
- Productivity Gmail Add Ons: Save Your Time
- To-Do & Project Management Add Ons for Gmail
- File Sharing & Document Signature Add Ons
- Team Communication Gmail Extensions
- Email Tracking & Scheduling Add Ons
- Best Gmail Plugins for Sales & Marketing Teams
What are Gmail Add Ons?
Gmail Add Ons & Extensions are smart & easy-to-use features that you can to your Gmail inbox. These make your Gmail supercharged and just get things done in a quicker way. To better understand this, think of Gmail Add Ons as the fuel to the fire!
So, why should you use these Gmail Add Ons?
It’s simple! They help individuals and teams (Sales, Marketing, Office Operations) to make the most out of their Gmail & enhance the way they work. In this article, we cover those Gmail Add Ons that help you with better personalization of emails, trigger timely emails, email tracking and sending relevant follow-ups, error-free emails, creating tasks and calendar events within Gmail, etc.
Best Gmail Add Ons & Extensions to Leverage your Gmail
Gmail add ons and extensions can be accessed from the GSuite Marketplace or your browser’s web store. We’ve tried and tested around 30+ add ons to come up with the list of 20 Best Gmail Add Ons for you!
For each of these, we’ve covered how it helps users with Gmail, some interesting features, their rating on the marketplace, pricing & also what browsers/inboxes do they cater to. So, jump to the category you wish to leverage your Gmail upon and get started!
But before that, we’ll show you how to add these Gmail Add Ons & Extensions.
Go to your Gmail inbox, and on the right-side pane, you’ll see a ‘+’ symbol. Click on that to access the Gmail Add Ons. From here, you can type the add on you wish to install, or search using the categories as well.
Productivity Gmail Add Ons: Save Your Time
1. Checker Plus
Rating: 4.7/5
Pricing: Free
Browser: Chrome, Mozzila
We all know, we can ramp up our productivity by not checking emails, and focusing on the current work item. But what if you miss out on urgent emails?
Checker Plus for Gmail is to your rescue. It helps check multiple email accounts without opening your Gmail mailbox.
This add on lets you easily manage multiple email accounts under one platform, get notified on your browser and reply instantly without opening your inbox. So you can save up some time and reply to time-critical emails instantly.
An Interesting feature – this add on also supports voice notification, so you can just hear what the email has to say while you’re playing some media on your browser.
A very simple add on that just does its job without any complexities.
2. SmartSheet for Gmail
Rating: 4.1/5
Pricing: This Add On is available to all plans of SmartSheet.
Browser: Chrome, Firefox, Safari
Using SmartSheet as your database? This SmartSheet Add On is the best for storing your labeled emails, new conversations, new attachments in emails to new or existing rows in SmartSheet. All of it automatically!
This add on lets you create immediate context by adding emails & attachments as new rows to your SmartSheet spreadsheet without leaving Gmail.
If you wish to go a step ahead in creating automated workflows between SmartSmeet, Google Sheets, Gmail, and other apps, try Automate.io. See all SmartSheet Integrations.
3. Grammarly
Rating: 4.6/5
Pricing: Forever free. Paid Plans with advanced features start from $29.95/mo.
Supports: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge.
Are you a grammar nazi but sometimes fail to correct your own stuff? Never mind. Grammarly extension helps you write the best emails with enhanced vocab and error-free copy.
While writing too many emails in a day, making the first impression while sending out the perfect pitch is really important. Make Grammarly your right hand to deliver classy emails. Grammarly can be installed as an add-on on your Google Chrome that works well with Gmail.
4. Mailstrom
Rating: 3/5
Pricing: Free trial available. Paid Plans start from $9/mo.
Supports: Google, Yahoo, and Outlook inbox
According to productivity expert, Merlin Mann -“In the Inbox Zero concept, the zero is not a reference to the number of messages in an inbox; it is the amount of time an employee’s brain is in his inbox. ”
Looking to achieve Inbox Zero efficiently? Mailstrom helps you clean your inbox by allowing you to remove hundreds of emails at once in a quicker and smarter way.
With this intelligent add on, you can group emails, go through hundreds of them and take action immediately.
To-Do & Project Management Add Ons for Gmail
5. Todoist for Gmail
Rating:3.4/5
Pricing: Free Add On for every Todoist user.
Browser: Chrome
Connect Todoist & create a More Powerful To-Do List on your Gmail. A to-do list app can help you sort your work, create tasks and visualize what needs to be prioritized and get timely reminders on those tasks. Well, in short, they help you get things done!
Gmail inbox is where you might receive important emails on tasks to be taken care of, or any good newsletter read which you wish to add to your tasks. So, what better way than integrating your Todoist app with Gmail to create tasks from emails without any hassle!
Once you install the Todoist add on for Gmail, you can turn emails into tasks, add priority, comments and deadlines. These will get automatically synced to your Todoist account logged in across devices.
Pro Tip: While this add on lets you create tasks from emails manually, Automate.io lets you connect Todoist with Gmail and create an automated workflow.
So every time there is a new email with a particular filter & label, Automate.io creates a task in Todoist for you. All of this without you clicking on the email and adding it manually to Todoist.
6. Sortd
Rating: 3.6/5
Pricing: Starts from $6/mo/user
Browser: Chrome
Sortd lets you turn Emails into To-Dos on a Kanban Board.
Evernote Sign In With Google
We all know, visuals of your to-do-lists work on your psychology to get things done.
Wish to view all your tasks that are mentioned in a dread long email, on a Kanban Board? Sortd is your go-to Gmail Add On. With this add on, you can add tasks from emails, assign due dates, and add reminders with a simple drag & drop interface in your Gmail.
And if you’re a sales rep, customer support rep or someone who just hangs in Gmail on their daily tasks and updates, Sortd is for you. Manage your Gmail in a better way and ultimately supercharge your productivity.
Some teams also use it as an alternative to pricey CRMs to manage their contacts & deals within Gmail.
7. Evernote for Gmail
Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Comes along with all the Evernote Plans.
Supports:Gmail Web, Gmail iOS, Gmail Android
Does it ever happen that you come across interesting facts/snippets in your email that you wish to clip or save it somewhere? Evernote for Gmail lets you add notes & important emails to your Evernote account where all your other notes and lists are synced across devices.
Not just notes, you can also add attachments from your email to Evernote directly from the Gmail Inbox. With this add on, you can save content in a better fashion and access them easily in your Evernote account.
8. Drag App
Rating: 3.8/5
Pricing: Extension comes along with Drag paid plans.
Browsers:Chrome, Firefox & Safari
Drag App is the best add on for Gmail Project Management.
Get your teamwork, tasks and collaboration under the Gmail platform. With powerful features like shared inbox, creating tasks in Kanban Lists, and internal chat option, this is the best project management add on for productive teams!
Tagging emails to tasks, looping in other stakeholders on a task, or just having a complete view of a particular project along with all the conversations behind them, Drag lets you do it all.
As their tagline says, Drag lets you do work in one tool, one way, not many!
9. Trello for Gmail
Rating: 3.7/5
Pricing: Free for Trello users.
Browsers: Chrome
Trello is one of the most popular project management & to-do list apps for solopreneurs, small teams, and enterprise teams.
So while you’re managing your tasks on your Trello Board, why miss out on those that come in via emails on Gmail?
Use Trello <> Gmail Add On and quickly add emails as tasks. You can also add email attachments to existing cards to help you & your team get a clear picture of the task. Build context, collaborate and keep your team in sync!
Here’s how the Trello Gmail Add On works:
File Sharing & Document Signature Add Ons
10. Dropbox
Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Free for all Dropbox users
Browsers: Google Chrome
Worried about your messy organization of documents and important attachments scattered across your emails & instant messages. Dropbox is your solution to maintain a repo of all these on cloud & in a secured way, so you can access them from anywhere & anytime. And not to forget, it also helps you with large files. Add these to Dropbox instantly without worrying how much space these attachments are eating away in your inbox!
But it’s, of course, a time-taking process to download everything from your inbox and add it to your Dropbox. This Dropbox for Gmail helps you add docs & files from your email directly to Dropbox account without leaving Gmail.
What’s more interesting about this add-on?
It runs in the background, so you don’t have to update on long email threads about a document being updated. Dropbox shows links to the latest version, so you & your team can be in sync throughout.
Pro Tip: When you know you’re bound to receive attachments for all the emails with a particular label, going to every email to add it to Dropbox, makes no sense. Automate this!
Automate.io lets you integrate Gmail & Dropbox. So you can trigger your workflow for every new email that has an attachment & add it to Dropbox!
11. My Signature for Gmail
Pricing: $4/mo per signature
Supports: Gmail & Outlook
Personalization & social proof give your emails more chances to be replied back to. And this comes along with adding a simple signature. Empower your business & personal emails with a nerve cracking signature that speaks a thousand words about you.
My Signature for Gmail (not essentially an add on), helps create the simple & creative signatures. These can be created on the My Signature platform and added to your Gmail/Outlook accounts.
It has pricing plans that serve individuals as well as business teams.
Here’s how you can create your signature:
12. DocuSign E-Signature
Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing: Free with all DocuSign plans
Browsers: Google Chrome
When the whole world is going digital, it’s no surprise that you can now even sign documents electronically without worrying about the manual paperwork.
DocuSign’s electronic signature feature lets you sign a doc & automatically generate a link to your recipient via email wherein they can view the signed document! With the DocuSign <> Gmail extension, you can send documents from your Gmail directly to DocuSign for signatures.
You can receive real-time updates on the document status, get reminders for signing documents, and send notifications to others too.
Best part? It’s free to sign unlimited documents on your account! But, if you wish to get signatures from others, paid plans start from $15/mo for sending out documents for 5 signatures.
Pro Tip: It’s best to keep your project management apps & DocuSign in sync so that whenever an attachment is added, you can send a request to DocuSign for signature. Everything automated!
Automate.io lets you integrate DocuSign to 100+ apps like Monday.com, Asana, Trello.
Team Communication Gmail Extensions
13. Zoom for Gmail
Rating:4.4/5
Pricing: Free for Zoom users.
Browsers: Chrome, Outlook, Firefox
Working remotely? Collaborating across with your teammates spread across the world? Or just hosting a virtual meet-up? Zoom is one of the best video conferencing apps for individuals & businesses to host one-one meetings to huge conference calls.
Productivity shoots up when you spend less time juggling between apps and let add-ons do the smart work for you. So, to let you immediately create events from your Gmail inbox, use the Zoom for Gmail add on.
Once you install this add on, you can turn emails into meetings, invite members of the email and schedule your meeting on the go!
Best part? When you start using this add on, it automatically suggests you pull the email’s subject line as event agenda & mail description as the event description.
14. Cisco Webex
Rating: 4.5/5
Pricing: Free for Cisco Webex users.
Browsers: Chrome
If you’re heavy on meetings and collaborating via communication apps like Cisco Webex, using it’s Gmail Add On helps in reducing the manual work for you.
Expand the room for collaboration with your team & Exchange ideas via emails & conferencing using Cisco Webex <> Gmail together.
So the next time you have an email and you wish to turn it into a meeting, use this add on. It’ll help you invite the email participants, send out the Cisco Webex meeting link and description of the event, all within Gmail.
Email Tracking & Scheduling Add Ons
15. GMass
Rating: 4.8/5
Pricing: $8.95/mo
Browser: Requires Chrome to use this Gmail Add On.
GMass for Gmail is for Mail Merge & Schedule Mass Emails. It can be used by anyone who wishes to schedule their emails or run simple email drips. For example, marketing professionals with a lower budget can use GMass for one-time campaigns. (Ex. link building outreach, cold outreach, etc.). Some of the best features:
- Personalize your mass email campaigns.
- Analyze your campaigns with in-depth analytics reports, tracks open & clicks.
- Automatic Follow-Ups & Reply Management option.
- Google Sheets Integration to help you send emails that you’ve collected in your database.
16. MailTrack for Gmail
Rating: 3.9/5
Pricing: Freemium plan for unlimited tracking. Paid Plans start from $4.99/mo with white-labeling options, activity dashboard, and other premium features.
Works with: Chrome browser. Gmail on browser and android devices.
Are you running outbound or marketing campaigns? Or just want to know who opened your emails and what links were clicked?
MailTrack for Gmail add on lets you track opens, link clicks, get real-time notifications on metrics, reminders and even daily email reports.
It’s easy as the way its name says. Mail Tracking!
17. Boomerang
Rating: 4.3/5
Pricing: Free plan for 10 message credits/mo. Paid Plans start from $4.99/mo.
Supports: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge, and Safari.
Boomerang for Gmail is the best way to manage timely and scheduled emails. So while you’re away from your inbox, let this add on work for you and trigger emails at specific times.
It started off as scheduling add on for Gmail, back when Gmail didn’t have an inbuilt schedule feature. It grew to provide additional features like email reminders, read receipts, triggering follow-up emails, Gmail Snooze, Response Tracking — basically, covering a ton of email tracking & management options.
So, the next time you have a high-potential sales lead in a different timezone, use this add on to schedule emails and remind you to follow-up as well.
Evernote Add In For Gmail
18. Right Inbox
Rating: 4.7
Pricing: Freemium available. Paid plan starts at $7.95/month.
Browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox
Looking for an all-in-one tracking, scheduling, and email sending add-on? Right Inbox has everything you need to automate email tracking and scheduling. While you focus on getting important work done, trust Right Inbox to sort your email tracking and monitoring.
From scheduling emails to sending recurring emails, and knowing who opened an email and when – Right Inbox lets you reach your recipients’ inboxes at the right time with its time-zone support. So next time you want to send an email to someone who is in another time-zone, don’t worry because Right Inbox has it all under control.
Interesting feature: Right Inbox lets you add privacy notes to help you keep a tab on other email details apart from email contact. It easily syncs with your choice of CRM, lets you add GIFs in your emails, use templates, and set up reminders for follow-ups .
Best Gmail Plugins for Sales & Marketing Teams
19. Clearbit Connect
Rating: 4.4/5
Pricing:Free for Clearbit users.
Supports: Gmail & Outlook
Scraping email addresses from multiple sources – websites, LinkedIn, or random directories? Forget all those and use a single tool like Clearbit to enrich your contacts.
Clearbit Connect – as a lead enrichment tool is one of the go-to tools of marketers & sales reps, to help them populate their lead data, without any manual work on their end.
So with the basic functionality of this tool, how awesome would it be if it’s tied to your Gmail as an extension!
The next time you wish to write an email, say to, the Growth Head at XX company, just type in the company name in Clearbit Connect on your Gmail and see the data populate by itself.
Not just that, if you’re writing a cold-outreach email, to the side you’ll have all their data enriched. It’ll help you in personalizing that outreach, trigger at a scheduled time looking at their location, and do much more with the contact data. These are just some of the fields. There are many that Clearbit Connect provides you with – company funding rounds, company size, social handles!
20. Streak CRM
Rating:3.9/5
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $58/mo per user.
Browsers: Google Chrome
Streak is a powerful CRM for teams relying heavily on GSuite. Streak makes it easy for Sales teams to have a bird’s eye view of their deal data, contacts and conversations all within Gmail.
Want to know more about Streak? Head to our complete review of Streak – CRM for Gmail on our Best CRM Apps blog.
While Streak is a complete GSuite integrated CRM, a lot of CRM apps have their own Gmail extension/add on with basic functionalities so you can access & sync emails across your apps. CRMs that have Gmail Add Ons & Plugins are HubSpot, Insightly, Salesforce, Copper & Capsule CRM.
21. Gmelius
Rating: 4.6
Pricing: Freemium available. Paid plans start from $12/user/mo.
Browser: Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave
Gmelius is a shared inbox & CRM, that works even more effectively when used as an add on for Gmail. It helps teams do their work right from Gmail and empower GSuite Users to leverage their use of Gmail.
Here’s what you can do with Gmelius:
Evernote Gmail Login
- Create tasks from emails, view Trello-like boards/kanban view of your tasks, and keep your teams in sync.
- Use shareable email templates to use across teams for group emails.
- From delivering customer support right from Gmail, tracking emails and automating sales sequences, helping marketing teams to deliver projects without switching between apps, Gmelius helps teams across your company.
Conclusion
Use from these best add ons we researched for you guys to supercharge your Gmail inbox and stay productive!
Evernote Gmail Account
Each Gmail Add On is unique in its way and just helps users get done with things that you once thought were hard to get onto! So, go ahead and apply these in your Gmail and look for the wonders yourself! With these Gmail Add Ons, combined with some interesting Gmail Tips & Tricks, Gmail can be leveraged even more!
And, we’re always on the lookout to add the best to the list, so if you have any more in mind, let me know.