Email better than Gmail: The top solution reviewed

With over 1.8 billion users, Gmail is the most widely accepted email service and has been the industry leader for years. It’s popular for good reason, offering several advantages, including a free plan, a clean user interface, and seamless integration with Google Workspace.

However, as digital communication needs grow more complex, many Gmail users encounter limitations that impact daily productivity. For example, syncing issues can delay important email communication. At the same time, Gmail’s spam filters occasionally misclassify essential emails, forcing users to dig through clutter for critical messages. 

If you’re looking for an email better than Gmail to overcome these common workflow snags, this article will give you a few options to consider. Before exploring them, it’s worth explaining what makes a good email provider in the first place.

Your Gmail alternative should have all the things you love about Google’s solution, minus the drawbacks. Specifically, there are five factors to consider when choosing your next service:

1. Design and user experience

2. Feature availability

3. Integrations

4. Cross-platform support

5. Workflow automation 

There aren’t many complaints about Gmail’s user interface (UI). You get a relatively clean, minimalistic design without obstructive elements and complex features. From this perspective, Gmail is certainly better than some of its main competitors, like Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo Mail.

Still, the UI isn’t perfect. Your inbox becomes home to paid ads and promotions, which most Big Tech platforms include in their free solutions to monetize them in some way. They’re placed in the Promotions tab in Gmail, so they’re not too obstructive, but they’re still an unnecessary distraction.

Composing an email also leaves room for improvement. Gmail has a potentially frustrating drawback of opening an immovable window in the bottom-right corner for a new email, which blocks a section of your inbox from view.

As you explore alternatives to Gmail, look for a solution that provides a smoother email experience free from pesky ads or design flaws. While a platform’s aesthetic appeal is largely subjective, every provider worth considering should follow UI design best practices and help maximize your productivity.

One of the main reasons for Gmail’s popularity is access to the various useful features that come with the free plan, most notably:

• Confidential Mode

• Custom labels

• Access to the productivity tools from Google Workspace

When switching to another provider, find a solution with a broad scope of features that cater to all your needs. Some of the main features to look for include the following:

• Advanced email organization through filters, folders, and labels

• High attachment limits (Gmail’s limit is only 25 MB, but you can send larger attachments using Google Drive)

• Malware and phishing protection

• Custom domains (especially important if you’re a business user)

Many providers hide the above features behind a paywall, but there are still prominent services that include them for free.

Despite Gmail’s flaws, credit should be given where it’s due—native and third-party integrations are excellent, and many Big Tech providers can’t compare to Google’s solution from this perspective.

In addition to Google Workspace apps, you get a rich library of add-ons, and Gmail works seamlessly with various productivity tools like Slack and Dropbox. 

Few commercial email providers offer such extensive integrations. Outlook and Apple Mail mostly operate within their closed native systems with only a handful of third-party add-ons, while Yahoo has virtually no integrations at all.

As you explore potential alternatives, it’s also worth checking how well the email client handles add-ons in terms of performance. There’s not much point in finding an option that supports numerous integrations but gets bogged down once you install them.

Gmail supports all major browsers and has dedicated Android and iOS apps. There are no desktop apps, though, which might be frustrating for some users. If your browser slows down while you’re working, you may not want to overwhelm it with another web app.

Your Gmail alternative should fix this issue and ensure a seamless workflow between different devices. Besides app availability, this is achieved through several features, such as:

• Real-time auto-syncing

• Offline mode for mobile apps

• User-friendly interfaces on all platforms

The main point of cross-platform support is consistency, so find an email service that makes switching between devices feel natural. The key features should be available on all the devices/versions you use without disrupting your workflow.

Considering the advancements in the tech space, one key factor to consider when seeking an email that performs better than Gmail is how well it supports automation and boosts workflow productivity. Gmail offers basic tools for email triage and workflow automation that barely support power users managing the complexities of modern work.

Take Gmail filters, for instance. They help organize incoming emails, but setting up and maintaining the complex filter rules can be time-consuming, especially with a high volume of emails. Gmail’s interface allows for some customization, such as themes and layout adjustments, but it’s fairly limited for users who need more control to build their inbox around specific workflows.

If you need an email solution that surpasses these workflow limitations, offering intelligent automation, deep customization, and smarter task management, Notion Mail presents a tech-forward alternative.

Designed with AI-first features and extensive customization options, the platform tailors your email experience to your unique work needs, making it easier to stay focused and productive.

Notion Mail is an AI-driven email client that brings powerful customization, organization, and intelligent tools into the email landscape. It’s designed to adapt seamlessly with your workflows and boost productivity through smart automation.

With a layout inspired by Notion’s familiar builder-first approach, Notion Mail allows you to move beyond traditional email to create personalized inbox views to serve your projects, priorities, and communication needs.

Notion Mail is particularly useful for professionals, business owners, and productivity-focused users who want a more intentional and organized way to manage email. It uses AI to automatically sort and prioritize emails into specific labels and even helps you draft and generate contextual email responses.

For example, if you’re managing different streams of communication—whether across teams, clients, or projects—Notion Mail can help you stay organized. You can create personalized inbox views for each project and use AI to auto-sort emails from these different clients and teams into each view. This reduces the time spent on repetitive manual tasks and frees you up for high-impact work.

In addition to its advanced AI automation tools, Notion Mail’s tight integration with the Notion ecosystem also sets it apart. This allows you to connect emails directly to your notes, projects, and other work tools, keeping all your work in one organized, distraction-free space. You can also enjoy the built-in Notion Calendar for fast and conflict-free scheduling for you and your teams.

Notion Mail’s powerful AI-first capabilities work together to streamline your workflow right from when you sign up. Here are some of its core features: 

• AI autopilot: Set simple prompts to auto-sort and prioritize your incoming emails to ensure you never miss important messages and neatly put away less important ones.

• Customizable views: Create tailored inbox views to fit your specific criteria, such as project, sender, or priority, so that you control what your inbox looks like.

• /Schedule command: Schedule meetings straight from your inbox using the /schedule command. It inserts a scheduling button like Calendly into your email, allowing recipients to book meetings on your calendar without the email ping-pong.

• Response suggestions and quick replies: Get AI-powered suggestions for fast, contextual replies, enabling you to respond quickly and more efficiently.

• Email summaries: Generate summaries of emails using AI so that you can grasp the message without reading through every word. 

Notion Mail is free to use and available on Windows, Android, and iOS. To get started, visit the signup page.

Notion Mail comes with many default AI features, but you have the option to get the for advanced functionalities.

If you wish to compare a few other options before choosing an alternative to Gmail, the following table presents seven providers to consider:

Bonus read: Want to see how other popular tools compare and explore their alternatives? Check out our other guides:

• Top Gmail app alternatives

• Alternative to Apple Mail

• Alternative to Zoho Mail

• Gmail vs. Apple Mail

• Best Outlook alternatives

• Tutanota vs. Proton Mail

• Fastmail vs. Gmail

• Best Proton Mail alternatives