Outlook vs. Gmail: Which platform is best? [2026]

Many folks are as fiercely loyal to their chosen email platform as they are to their sports team. That makes the world pretty divided on Outlook and Gmail, so I decided to get to the bottom of the Outlook vs. Gmail debate.  I’m a Gmail user, but I created new accounts on each platform to test them for myself. Here’s what I found. Table of contents: Outlook vs. Gmail at a glance Outlook for Microsoft users, Gmail for Google users Gmail has a better user experience on the free plan, but Outlook of