Outlook vs. Gmail, Which One Should You Choose?

Lisa Hendrickson | March 6, 2012 | 0 Comments

In the past year, many people have moved to the popular Gmail and apps for running their email system. Some of these people completely got off using Outlook and moved to the web based Gmail and smartphone/iPad/tablet instead. Some continued to use Outlook for their email reader but used the Gmail servers. As an avid fan and knowledgeable troubleshooter of Outlook, I never feared everyone leaving Outlook for Gmail, but wondered how this Gmail would change business email.

This past week I have received three calls from clients asking to get back on Outlook and off of Gmail servers, too many glitches and issues. So needless to say, I was quite happy to hear that folks are coming back to Outlook and using their own servers for email again. YAY.

Here are a few factors to consider before switching over to Gmail if you are on the fence. (or just submit a request and have us help you)

If you are an average emailer and want a decent free email, Gmail is the way to go. I have to recommend it over yahoo, hotmail and other free email services. I see less hacking from Gmail and it does play nicely with Outlook for the most part. I will tell folks that it’s sometimes simple to set up Gmail in Outlook, sometimes not. Usually it is. Call us at 612-865-4475 if you are confused.

If you are in business for yourself and have your own website domain and email from a company such as Go Daddy, then staying on your own system is what I recommend. Outlook and Go Daddy play fairly well together and if you have two computers, I recommend getting IMAP, so you can have the two computers and Outlook synchronize. Go Daddy’s support is very good and fairly quick, so if you have an issue with your email, contacting them is a breeze.

If you are in business for yourself and want to use Gmail and other Google products, then most of my clients have a software company move all of their information to Google for them. Not many people do it themselves and we here at Call That Girl do not offer that service. Mostly because we are a Microsoft shop and support Microsoft products. Clash of the titans? Nah, I just don’t believe in everything being in the cloud. I really like that email can be stored offline and backed up locally. I also like that many email accounts can be run in Outlook with different inboxes and managed separately. I don’t like Gmail folder structure either, but then again, I am old school Outlook and to get me to move will be very difficult, if never.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of some Google products, like the calendar synch tool, gtalk and their analytics, but that’s about it. I have been troubleshooting Gmail for years and am quite knowledgable about the product, just not a fan of it. So if you are reading this blog and are on the fence yourself on what choice to make, feel free to comment below and I will try to help figure out your best course of action. Check out our website to find out more about our other areas of expertise!