Guides › Compare · About Gmail, Outlook and Proton Mail
Gmail vs Outlook vs Proton Mail: which inbox fits your week
I ran all three on one Android phone for a week. Here is where each wins on search, privacy, calendars and business email.
CompareGmailIllustration generated for this guide · Sample
Mara LindqvistSampleReviewer · published Nov 1, 2026 · 8 min read
01How I tested the three inboxes
I put Gmail, Outlook and Proton Mail on the same mid-range Android phone for the week of Oct 27 and gave each one a real job. Gmail ran my personal Google account, Outlook ran a work address on Microsoft 365, and Proton Mail ran a new free account that I forwarded newsletters and a few contacts to. Each morning I triaged all three, searched for something old, accepted a meeting and sent at least one reply with an attachment.
This is not a lab benchmark. It is a week of ordinary email, which is what decides whether you keep an app. Prices and storage below are the providers' published plans when we checked them; confirm them on each provider's own pricing page before you pay for anything.
Sample comparison for the prototype. Plans and prices change; check each provider's pricing page.
Gmail is the fastest at finding things. Searching a first name and one word from the subject surfaced a thread from last spring in about a second, and the chips for attachments and dates work well with a thumb. Outlook's search is good inside the work account and noticeably better than it used to be, but it is slower on large mailboxes. Proton Mail searches encrypted mail on the device, which is the price of its privacy model; on the phone it found recent messages quickly but older ones took longer, and the first search on a new device builds an index.
For day-to-day triage, Gmail's swipe actions and snooze felt the most natural, Outlook's Focused inbox did the best job of hiding noise without any setup, and Proton Mail's interface was the calmest of the three, partly because it does less.
This is where Proton Mail earns its place. Mail between Proton users is end-to-end encrypted, and messages are stored encrypted, so the provider cannot read them. You can send password-protected mail to people on other services. Gmail and Outlook encrypt mail in transit and at rest, but both providers can technically access message content, and Gmail's confidential mode limits forwarding rather than adding end-to-end encryption.
If you handle health information, legal matters or sources, Proton Mail is the obvious pick. If your worry is mainly spam and phishing, Gmail's filters were the most effective in my week: nothing suspicious reached the Primary tab.
04Calendars, files and the office suite around them
None of these apps is just an inbox. Gmail sits on Google Workspace, so attachments open in Docs and Sheets and save to Drive, and invites land in Google Calendar. Outlook is the front door to Microsoft 365: Word, Excel and OneDrive, plus the best calendar of the three, with shared calendars and scheduling that small offices rely on. Proton has its own calendar and cloud storage, both encrypted, but the document editing story is thinner.
In practice, pick the inbox that matches the office suite you already pay for. Fighting the suite your team uses costs more time than any feature saves.
05Business email and custom domains
All three can run business email on your own domain, and all three charge for it. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 bundle mail with documents, video calls and admin controls, which suits teams that live in shared files and need features like e-signature workflows or CRM add-ons. Proton's business plans focus on encrypted mail, calendar and storage for teams that care most about confidentiality.
For a freelancer sending quotes and invoicing a handful of clients, any of the three works; choose by where your documents already live. For a team of ten, the deciding factor is usually the calendar and shared files, which favours Outlook or Gmail.
06What you pay for when you outgrow the free plan
All three are free to start, and all three make money when you need more. Gmail's free storage is shared with Drive and Photos, so a phone that backs up photos fills it faster than mail ever will; extra space comes from a Google One plan. Outlook's free account is generous for mail alone, and a Microsoft 365 subscription adds the desktop Office apps and more OneDrive space. Proton's paid plans unlock custom domains, more storage and extra addresses.
The useful question is not which is cheapest, but which bill you would pay anyway. If you already pay for cloud storage with Google or Microsoft for photo backups, the matching inbox comes along at no extra cost. If you would pay only for privacy, Proton is the one of the three whose paid plan is mainly about that.
07Using more than one account
If you juggle several addresses, Outlook is the most comfortable: it shows a combined inbox across accounts, including Gmail ones. Gmail adds other providers but keeps each account separate, which I prefer for keeping work and personal mail apart. Proton Mail handles Proton addresses well; other accounts need forwarding or the paid bridge on a computer.
On a phone, the difference shows up at notification time. Outlook's combined inbox means one badge for everything, which is calm until a work message hides among newsletters. Gmail's separate accounts let me silence the personal inbox during the day and keep the work one on High priority only, which is how I prefer to run a week.
The takeaway
Choose by the life around your inbox. If your files are in Google Drive and your phone runs Android, Gmail is the least friction. If your team runs Microsoft 365 and lives in shared calendars, Outlook wins. If privacy is the requirement rather than a preference, Proton Mail is the one built for it.
Gmail came out ahead on search and day-to-day speed in my week, and our full review covers how it holds up beyond the comparison. The button below opens it.
AppDigest Weekly is independent and not affiliated with Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation or Proton AG. This guide reflects the reviewer's own setup; menus can differ by device and version.
CompareGmail
CompareIHG One Rewards
TipsGoodreads
Best picksProton Mail
Best picksAgoda
CompareKAYAK
How-to7-Zip