Comparison

Email vs Microsoft Outlook

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

Head to head
About

Email

Manage multiple email accounts in one unified inbox. This app offers fast email fetching, smart search for important information, and tools to reduce inbox clutter. It prioritizes privacy and security with features like sender blocking and biometric protection.

Highlights
  • Unified inbox for all accounts
  • Fast email fetching and search
  • One-tap unsubscribe
  • Sender blocking
  • Customizable swipe actions and templates
  • Biometric inbox security
Features
Read full description

"The way to go if you own an iPhone" -Business Insider "Unsubscribe with just a tap!" -TechCrunch "Faster than Gmail, faster than Outlook" -Walt Mossberg @The Verge "Well designed" - New York Times “All essential features of every other mail app, clear and easy to use interface, free and very transparent about how it handles your data and how it stays free. I cannot really find anything to complain.” - msaiddi (Edison Mail user) Edison Mail is the #1 independent email app on the App Store (4.5 rating) for a reason. Reduce email volume and eliminate inbox distractions. Research shows that over checking email wastes as much as 21 minutes per day. Take time back with the best app to manage and clean your inbox. Edison Mail fetches email faster than other mail apps (we have the speed tests to prove it) and simplifies searching for important information like subscriptions, travel plans, bills, packages, and more. Manage everything in one place. Edison Mail allows you to connect an unlimited number of email accounts and offers a unified inbox that keeps all of your inboxes in one view. We support all the major providers — Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, Office/ Outlook 365, Exchange, AOL, Gmail, and IMAP* mail accounts on both iPhone and iPad. From the Pioneers of One-Tap Unsubscribe. Block senders to banish unwanted senders permanently. No targeted ads or invasive tracking pixels are allowed into your inbox. Protect your email with Touch and Face ID. Secure your inbox even further from the dangers of email phishing scams with Edison Mail+. Mail, the way it should be. Yours. Customize Edison Mail to fit your inbox needs. Change swipe actions, create custom templates, change the color settings, enable or disable Focused Inbox, and more. Life just got easier. Download Edison Mail today. It just works. – *Support for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 2 and above. **Please note select assistant features (i.e. bill and receipts, entertainment, travel, and package alerts) are currently limited to US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India only. Privacy By Design is Our Promise to Our Users All emails are fetched from your phone and stored on your device directly. We access new email subject headers (deleted thereafter), required to send notifications of an email arrival. Only commercial emails (example: receipts, Travel, Package Delivery) are stored to deliver Edison Mail Assistant features built into the Email app and Edison Trends. Personal information like your name or email address is NEVER shared. If you’d prefer to opt-out of participating in our anonymized research, you can do so in the settings menu. Edison Mail+ An auto-renewable premium subscription that offers more advanced email experience, particularly in the areas of contact management and security, for 14.99 USD / Month or 99.99 USD / Year. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period.

About

Microsoft Outlook

Consolidate all your email accounts and calendars into one streamlined application. Manage your inbox, schedule meetings, and access files from various cloud services. Enhance productivity with AI-powered writing assistance and smart inbox features.

Highlights
  • Unified inbox for multiple email accounts
  • Smart inbox sorting
  • Quick swipe actions
  • Meeting scheduling and availability sharing
  • File access from cloud storage
  • AI-powered email summarization and drafting
  • Editing of Office documents
Features
Read full description

Outlook lets you bring all your email accounts and calendars in one convenient spot. Whether it’s staying on top of your inbox or scheduling the next big thing, we make it easy to be your most productive, organised and connected self. Here's what you'll love about Outlook for iOS: - Focus on the right things with our smart inbox - we help you sort between messages you need to act on straight away and everything else. - Swipe to quickly schedule, delete and archive messages. - Share your meeting availability with just a tap and easily find times to meet with others. - Find everything you're looking for, including files, contacts, and your forthcoming trips. - View and attach any file from your email, OneDrive, Dropbox, and more, without having to download them to your phone. - Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint attachments to edit them directly in the corresponding app and attach them back to an email. - Recap extra-long email threads in an instant with Summarise with Copilot* - Type a few words to have Copilot* jump-start your writing with an outline or draft - Before sending off your email, use Coaching with Copilot* to get tips and suggestions that help improve the overall tone, sentiment, and clarity *Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscription or business account enabled with Copilot required to use Copilot features -- Outlook for iOS works with Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com (including Hotmail and MSN), Gmail, Yahoo Email, and iCloud. -- To make an in-app purchase of a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription, open the app, go to Settings, and tap on Upgrade next to your Outlook.com or Hotmail.com account. Subscriptions begin at $6.99 a month in the US, and can vary by region. With a Microsoft 365 subscription, you get 1TB of storage for each user, access to all features in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, and you can install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on PCs or Macs. Microsoft 365 subscriptions purchased from the app will be charged to your iTunes account and will automatically renew within 24 hours prior to the end of the current subscription period, unless auto-renewal is disabled beforehand. To manage your subscriptions or to disable auto-renewal, after purchase, go to your iTunes account settings. A subscription cannot be cancelled during the active subscription period. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy and Cookies: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839 Terms of Use: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=530144 Contract Summary: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/outlook/contract-summary Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2259814

Screenshots

Email4 screens
Microsoft Outlook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Email at none against Microsoft Outlook's shown. Email also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). Microsoft Outlook's advantage is ratings volume (9.3M vs 79K) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). On price, review sentiment, 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. Email sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Microsoft Outlook sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Microsoft Outlook holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Microsoft Outlook has 9.3M ratings behind it against 79K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of Email's written reviews are positive against 64% of Microsoft Outlook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Email ships an update fortnightly, Microsoft Outlook weekly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Email versus Microsoft Outlook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEmailMicrosoft Outlook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (79K ratings)4.8 (9.3M ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.0% of reviews — better64.4% of reviews
Number of ratings79K9.3M — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#11 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size220 MB464 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEdison Software Inc.Microsoft Corporation

Customer experience

Email

All ratings78,577 ratings
Positive88.0%
Neutral4.3%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews2,154 reviews
Positive66.0%
Neutral9.2%
Negative24.7%

Microsoft Outlook

All ratings9,258,706 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral2.5%
Negative0.9%
Written reviews7,289 reviews
Positive64.4%
Neutral7.9%
Negative27.7%

User reviews

Email

From 79K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🔒 Secure with Face ID support
  • 📦 Helpful package tracking and delivery updates
  • 🔍 Effective unsubscribe and spam blocking features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Unreliable notifications and email sync issues
  • 🔄 Frequent app crashes and freezes
  • 🔍 Inconsistent search and filtering functionality
  • 🔑 Issues with logging in and account connectivity
  • 📧 Problems with sending and delivering emails

Microsoft Outlook

From 9.3M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for corporate email
  • 👍 Customizable and user-friendly
  • 🚀 Seamless integration with Microsoft 365
  • 👍 Solid email and calendar functionality

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and unstable at times
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🔒 Security issues with password resets
  • 👎 Limited file attachment options

Bugs and requests

Email

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Emails disappearing from the Outbox
  • Incorrect unread email badge counts
  • Emails not loading or displaying properly
  • Account settings randomly resetting

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Customizable snooze and scheduling options
  • Integration with calendar and reminders
  • Ability to move emails between accounts
  • More granular control over folder management

Microsoft Outlook

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes when adding accounts
  • Delayed email notifications and syncing issues
  • Inability to delete emails in bulk
  • Calendar reminders not working as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved search and filtering capabilities
  • Better integration with native iOS apps and services
  • Enhanced calendar management features

In-app purchases

17 purchases

Email

Subscriptions17
  • Edison Mail+1 Month trial$3.997 Days
  • Edison Mail+1 Month trial2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$9.991 Month
Show 14 more
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$11.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial2 variants$14.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+1 Month trial2 variants$14.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$16.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$19.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$24.991 Month
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+1 Month trial$66.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$66.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial2 variants$99.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+1 Month trial2 variants$99.991 Year
  • Edison Mail+7 Days trial$109.991 Year
4 purchases

Microsoft Outlook

Subscriptions4
  • Microsoft 365 Basic$1.991 Month
  • Microsoft 365 Personal$9.991 Month
  • Microsoft 365 Family$12.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Microsoft Copilot Pro$20.001 Month

Questions

Is Email free?
Email is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Microsoft Outlook free?
Microsoft Outlook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Email or Microsoft Outlook?
Microsoft Outlook is rated higher. Email averages 4.5 out of 5 from 79K ratings, while Microsoft Outlook averages 4.8 from 9.3M ratings.
Do Email or Microsoft Outlook have ads?
Microsoft Outlook shows ads; Email does not.
Which is updated more often, Email or Microsoft Outlook?
Email ships an update fortnightly, and Microsoft Outlook weekly. Most recently, Email was updated on September 24, 2026 and Microsoft Outlook on September 24, 2026.

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