Email is an integral part of almost every business today and there are many competing services available. Two notable names are Zoho Mail and Gmail, email clients that offer productivity tools and more. It is crucial to choose one and stick to it as this will promote a uniform platform for all workers.
Below, we’ll compare the features, pricing plans, and more of Zoho Mail and Gmail. Continue reading to learn more about the details.
What is Zoho Mail?
Zoho Mail is an email client that is part of Zoho Workplace, a suite of productivity tools that allows teams from any location to work on a single project. It has no ads and has a clean, minimalist aesthetic designed for professionals. Zoho has a variety of advanced features that make collaboration natural.
What is Gmail?
Gmail You don’t need a detailed introduction here. Being the most popular email platform in the world, many users already have Gmail as it is linked to their Google accounts. The basic Gmail client is free, but paid subscriptions include professional features.
Characteristics
Now that you have a basic understanding of both platforms, we can delve into the features these clients offer.
Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail has many advanced features that make professional email communication second nature. These include the following.
- API (application programming interface)
- Archive emails
- live chat
- Comment emails
- Folder-specific notifications
- Scrub
- Data recovery
- Routing
- Shared inboxes
- Task management
- Bidirectional audio and video communication.
- White lists and black lists
While Gmail has some of these features, they may not be as effective or inherent. For example, Zoho Mail has a designated way to whitelist or blacklist specific addresses, while Gmail does not have a method for direct blacklisting.
You can see here that Zoho Mail can do more than just send emails as it has live chat and even calling features. These are crucial for real-time collaboration as they are much faster methods of communication.
Scrub is a great way to delete or archive large amounts of emails from up to five senders. Instead of manually clicking on them one by one, all you need are several clicks. Zoho Mail will take care of the rest.
Like some clients, Zoho Mail can split emails into folders, but it also allows folder-specific notifications. If you configure Zoho Mail to only send notifications for a specific folder, it will do so. This feature is useful if you want to stay up to date on urgent messages.
These aren’t even all the features available, as we’ve only covered the unique ones that Gmail doesn’t have.
Gmail
The various G Suite plans offer some powerful features that help teams collaborate. Here’s a selection of features exclusive to Gmail.
- Email templates
- Email Tracking
- Mobile-optimized emails
- Third party integrations available
The email templates are self-explanatory. They are a feature that allows users to choose between templates to get the perfect message. Gmail has this feature, but Zoho Mail does not. Templates can save time when composing emails, but they are not an essential feature.
Some employers choose to track emails and prevent their employees from abusing work email addresses. This is for security reasons and to keep trade secrets away from rival companies. It’s great that Gmail has this capability because accountability is vital in the workplace.
You may notice that Gmail changes messages if you’re on a mobile device so you can read them without squinting. Mobile-optimized emails are helpful but not crucial, as many people can read the messages without problems.
Where Gmail definitely defeats Zoho Mail is in the ability to support third-party integrations. Gmail can be combined with other apps, such as Slack and Zoom, streamlining your workflow and keeping everything in a single window.
Zoho Mail and Gmail have unique advantages, but the former has features geared toward quick team communication. Integrations are really useful, but many workplaces don’t use a lot of them. Therefore, Zoho Mail takes the win in this regard.
Prices
Both clients have free plans, but the advanced features are mostly locked behind a business account. This is a natural limitation, but rest assured. Zoho Mail and Gmail business plans are not expensive subscriptions.
Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail’s free plan has 5 GB of storage and the free plan works with a business domain, if you have one. The extra features of a paid plan are worth getting for $1 a month for each user at the time of writing.
The pricing plans are as follows:
- Mail Lite: $1 per month
- Premium Email: $4 per month
- Workplace: $3/month
Workplace refers to the entire Zoho Workplace communication suite. It has tools like an online word processor, presentation software, and more.
Gmail
You can’t use Gmail’s free plan with a commercial domain, and to use an address with a custom domain, you have to pay $6 per month per user. This plan also unlocks many of the business features.
Here are all the Google Workspace plans and their prices:
- Business starter: $6 per month
- Commercial Standard: $12/month
- Business Plus: $18 per month
Google Workspace is powerful, but the plans are quite expensive, especially for smaller businesses. That’s why Zoho Mail offers more bang for your buck.
Accessibility
Using collaboration software on a laptop or workstation is the standard, but many of these services offer mobile apps so workers can access projects on the go. Fortunately, Gmail and Zoho Mail have apps for Android and iOS.
One drawback that Gmail and Google Workspace have is that the services are pided into several applications. On the other hand, Zoho Workplace only requires the download of one app.
Apps aren’t the whole experience, but it’s still beneficial to be able to check in when you’re out of the office.
Zoho Mail wins
Zoho Mail and Gmail are beneficial services as many rely on them for business communication. While Zoho Mail has more features suitable for secure professional communication, Gmail’s ubiquity makes it the most widespread email client. The lower prices of Zoho Mail plans make it a better option for smaller businesses, although there’s nothing wrong with Google Workspace’s business plans. Ultimately, you’ll want to choose the email client that best suits your situation.