Comparison

Gmail vs Mail

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Gmail

This application provides a secure and efficient email experience with advanced features like spam blocking, smart replies, and multi-account support. It integrates with other Google services for enhanced productivity and collaboration.

Highlights
  • Robust security & spam blocking
  • Real-time notifications
  • Multiple account support
  • Smart Reply & Compose
  • Undo send
  • Google Chat & Meet integration
  • Threaded conversations
Features
Read full description

The official Gmail app brings the best of Gmail to your iPhone and iPad with helpful AI features, robust security, real-time notifications, multiple account support, and intelligent search that works across all your mail. With the Gmail app, you can: • Make Gmail your default email app on iOS • Stay up to date on your latest packages, upcoming events, bills, and travel details with helpful summary cards • Declutter your inbox with built-in email subscription management • Use Gemini* in Gmail to summarize lengthy emails, craft or refine responses, or search your inbox to find what you’re looking for • Connect and switch between multiple email accounts from different providers • Automatically block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, malware from ever reaching your inbox • Quickly add events to Google Calendar based on your emails with Gemini in Gmail • Find top deals faster with a personalized Promotions tab • Respond to emails faster with AI-powered Suggested Replies that understand the context of your emails and match your unique tone and style • Undo send for up to 30 seconds, to prevent embarrassing mistakes • Access Google Meet and Google Chat without leaving Gmail • Organize your mail by labeling, starring, deleting, and reporting spam • Swipe to archive/delete, to quickly clear out your inbox Gmail is part of Google Workspace, allowing you and your team to easily connect, create, and collaborate. You can: • Connect with coworkers via Google Meet or Google Chat, send an invite in Google Calendar, add an action to your task list, and more without leaving Gmail • Use Gemini in Gmail features like Help me write, Suggested Replies, AI Overviews, and Proofread to help you stay on top of work and take care of simple tasks, so you can be more efficient with your time • Stay safe. Our machine learning models block more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware from reaching our users *Some Gemini features may require a Google One AI subscription. Internet connection required. Language and country availability may vary. Check responses for accuracy.

About

Mail

Consolidate all your email accounts into a single, organized inbox. Prioritize important messages, quickly respond with smart replies, and manage your inbox efficiently with features like scheduling and snoozing. Enjoy enhanced privacy with IP address hiding and read receipt prevention.

Highlights
  • Unified inbox for multiple accounts
  • Automatic message categorization
  • Priority Messages and summarization
  • Schedule send, snooze, and unsend emails
  • Smart Reply for quick responses
  • Mail Privacy Protection
Features
Read full description

Access, view and manage messages from all your email accounts in one place. Categorize your messages into easy to browse categories. Catch up on email easily with Apple Intelligence powered Priority Messages and summarizations. Manage your inbox by scheduling emails to send later, snoozing emails you want to get back to later and unsend an email in one tap. Features • Access email from iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, Yahoo, and Outlook as well as many other email providers - all in one place. • View all of your accounts in a single inbox, choose a specific mailbox or filter to see just Unread or Flagged messages. • Automatically organize your messages in to Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions categories and focus on the messages that matter most. • Stay on top of emails with Priority Messages, a new section at the top of your inbox that shows urgent emails. • Use Smart Reply to quickly respond to messages with a few taps. • Catch up on email quickly with summarization of messages and threads. • Find messages by sender, recipient or subject. Top hits make it easy to find what you’re looking for. • Manage your inbox by blocking a sender or muting notifications from an overly active thread. • Flag important contacts as VIPs to receive notifications when their emails arrive. • Triage email messages using swipe gestures that help you quickly archive, delete, flag, or mark messages as read or unread. • Use Mail Drop to send large attachments from any account through iCloud. • Hide your IP address with Mail Privacy Protection so senders can’t link it to your other online activity or determine your locations, and prevent senders from seeing if you’ve opened their email. • App Keywords (do not to exceed 70 characters): Mail, email, email app, productivity email, intelligent email

Screenshots

Gmail4 screens
Mail3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mail at none against Gmail's 14. Mail also leads on ads (none vs shown) and device support (5 vs 2). Gmail's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 11 months) and chart position (#3 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Gmail sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Mail asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Gmail against 4.6 for Mail. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.4M and 4.4M respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 29% of Gmail's written reviews are positive against 34% of Mail's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gmail ships an update weekly, Mail every 11 months. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Gmail versus Mail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGmailMail
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.4M ratings) — better4.6 (4.4M ratings)
Positive reviews29.3% of reviews33.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.4M4.4M — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 11 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#3 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS18.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size719 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGoogleApple

Customer experience

Gmail

All ratings2,439,152 ratings
Positive93.1%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews4,072 reviews
Positive29.3%
Neutral10.1%
Negative60.6%

Mail

All ratings4,444,576 ratings
Positive90.8%
Neutral2.7%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews8,358 reviews
Positive33.9%
Neutral8.1%
Negative58.0%

User reviews

Gmail

From 2.4M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient email management
  • 👍 Easy to use interface
  • 🔒 Secure and reliable
  • 😊 Positive user experience overall

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 💡 Lacking advanced features
  • 🔒 Security concerns
  • 🔋 Drains battery quickly

Mail

From 4.4M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient email management
  • 🔒 Secure and private
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 💡 Useful categorization of emails

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent swipe gestures
  • 🐛 Unreliable search function
  • 🐛 Emails disappearing or not syncing properly
  • 🐛 Slow email download and loading times
  • 🐛 Buggy performance after updates

Bugs and requests

Gmail

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notifications not working properly
  • Emails disappearing from inbox
  • Inability to remove accounts
  • Conversation view issues

Requested features

4 requests
  • Swipe to delete/snooze emails
  • Ability to mark all emails as read
  • Customizable notification settings
  • Improved file attachment functionality

Mail

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Emails not downloading from server
  • Inconsistent behavior when deleting emails
  • Notifications not working as expected
  • Drafts and sent emails disappearing

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add snooze functionality
  • Improve email organization and filtering options
  • Provide more customization options
  • Integrate better with other Apple apps and services

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Gmail

Subscriptions7
  • 100 GB2 variants$1.991 Month
  • 100 GB1 Month trial3 variants$1.991 Month
  • 200 GB2 variants$2.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • 200 GB1 Month trial$2.991 Month
  • 2 TB1 Month trial$9.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (2 TB)2 variants$9.991 Month
  • 100 GB1 Month trial$19.991 Year
None

Mail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gmail free?
Gmail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mail free?
Mail is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gmail or Mail?
Gmail is rated higher. Gmail averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.4M ratings, while Mail averages 4.6 from 4.4M ratings.
Do Gmail or Mail have ads?
Gmail shows ads; Mail does not.
Which is updated more often, Gmail or Mail?
Gmail ships an update weekly, and Mail every 11 months. Most recently, Gmail was updated on September 24, 2026 and Mail on September 24, 2026.

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