Comparison

Gmail vs ChatInbox

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

Head to head
About

Gmail

Manage your emails efficiently with intelligent AI features, robust security, and real-time notifications. This app offers multiple account support, smart search, and tools to declutter your inbox and stay organized.

Highlights
  • AI-powered email summarization and response drafting
  • Intelligent search across all mail
  • Automatic spam, phishing, and malware blocking
  • Multiple email account support
  • Email subscription management
  • Integration with Google Meet and Chat
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

ChatInbox

This app reimagines your email by organizing it around people, not dates. View all conversations with a contact in a chat-style format, making it easy to find past messages and attachments. It supports multiple email accounts and devices, offering a streamlined inbox experience.

Highlights
  • Contact-centered inbox
  • All accounts in one inbox
  • Smart contact grouping
  • Attachments by person
  • Calendar view
  • Email reminders
Features
Read full description

ChatInbox organizes your inbox by people. Each person you email gets one conversation that holds everything you've exchanged: every subject, every reply, every attachment. When a new email arrives, its person moves to the top, with your whole history right there. Newsletters, receipts and alerts file themselves into Feeds, so mail from people is never buried. ORGANIZED BY PEOPLE Your list shows people, not a pile of messages. Tap a person to see every email between you, across every subject, in one place. Read it as cards by thread or as a chat with your replies on the right. Put a company or a team together in one row. Many people use ChatInbox as a simple CRM: every client's emails, files and follow-ups in one place. PEOPLE FIRST, FEEDS SEPARATE Newsletters, receipts and notifications go to Feeds automatically. Clear a sender in one go: Mark All as Read, Archive All, or Unsubscribe & Delete All. TODAY'S INBOX, DONE FAST Triage sorts today's mail into a plan: what needs a reply, what can be archived, codes you no longer need. Apply it at once, with Undo. AI THAT STAYS ON YOUR DEVICE With Apple Intelligence, ChatInbox shows what people are waiting on you for, lists the questions in an email and drafts your answer, catches you up on what's new from people, and answers questions about your mail with the email it came from. Translate an email in place, on your device. FIND ANYTHING Search reads the words inside your emails and even inside PDFs and other attachments. Or open a person, and everything with them is already there. YOUR ACCOUNTS, YOUR DEVICES Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo and any IMAP account. Type your address and ChatInbox finds the settings. Works on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and one purchase covers all three. CALENDAR, TO-DOS AND TAGS See your week beside your mail, turn an email into an event or a to-do, and tag conversations to track them on a board. PRIVACY FIRST Your email never passes through our servers: ChatInbox connects directly to your mail provider. No data mining, no tracking. Turn on image blocking and tracking pixels load only for senders you approve. FREE AND PREMIUM ChatInbox is free with one email account. Premium adds unlimited accounts with Profiles, advanced filters, your full mail history and custom notifications. Try it free for 7 days with the yearly plan, or buy Lifetime once. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Gmail4 screens
ChatInbox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: ChatInbox at none against Gmail's shown. ChatInbox also leads on review sentiment (61% vs 30%). Gmail's advantage is ratings volume (2.5M vs 33) and rating (4.7 vs 4.5). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and ChatInbox sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gmail holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gmail has 2.5M ratings behind it against 33, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 30% of Gmail's written reviews are positive against 61% of ChatInbox's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gmail ships an update weekly, ChatInbox every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Gmail versus ChatInbox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGmailChatInbox
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.5M ratings) — better4.5 (33 ratings)
Positive reviews29.6% of reviews61.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.5M — better33
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#3 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size707 MB91 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGoogleInnovatism LLC

Customer experience

Gmail

All ratings2,450,456 ratings
Positive93.1%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews4,968 reviews
Positive29.6%
Neutral10.6%
Negative59.8%

ChatInbox

All ratings30 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral8.3%
Negative30.6%

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

ChatInbox

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Gmail

Subscriptions5
  • 100 GB2 variants$1.991 Month
  • 100 GB1 Month trial3 variants$1.991 Month
  • 200 GB2 variants$2.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • 200 GB1 Month trial$2.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (2 TB)2 variants$9.991 Month
3 purchases

ChatInbox

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$59.99

Questions

Is Gmail free?
Gmail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChatInbox free?
ChatInbox is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Gmail or ChatInbox?
Gmail is rated higher. Gmail averages 4.7 out of 5 from 2.5M ratings, while ChatInbox averages 4.5 from 33 ratings.
Do Gmail or ChatInbox have ads?
Gmail shows ads; ChatInbox does not.
Which is updated more often, Gmail or ChatInbox?
Gmail ships an update weekly, and ChatInbox every 5 days. Most recently, Gmail was updated on November 7, 2026 and ChatInbox on November 3, 2026.

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