Mail and outlook: Which email application is right for you on Windows 10?

Microsoft offers two client email applications on Windows 10, Mail and Outlook operating systems. But how are these two email applications different? Pros and cons of it? And which application is right for you?

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Is Outlook free?

For many, perhaps the biggest difference between Mail and Outlook is cost.

Mail is completely free on all versions of Windows 10. It is preinstalled on this operating system. Although Mail is a standalone application on the operating system, it comes with the Calendar application in Microsoft Store. Therefore when installing an application you will have to install the other application.

Outlook is a paid application since it was first introduced to Microsoft Office in 1997. Today, it is distributed with Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. It is not part of the Office 365 Student package.

Mail versus Outlook: Use Email

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The most important thing of any email application is obviously how to handle mail. And of course, both Microsoft applications can do this. However, when you dig deeper, you will see Outlook more features.

For example, Outlook offers the ability to send plain text emails, clean up email messages, email categories and Ignore , IRM message support that you won't see on Mail.

Outlook also offers unique features that Mail does not have such as inbox rules, local email storage and the ability to send emails from shared inboxes.

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If using touch devices, Mail is a better choice, it offers custom swipe gestures not available in Outlook.

Access and manage contacts

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In addition to basic email management, two other essential features of the email application are contacts and calendar.

Mail uses its contact list from the original Windows 10 contacts application, People. You can add existing Outlook.com, Live, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Exchange, iCloud accounts and the application will automatically import your contacts and integrate them with the existing list. You can also easily add other IMAP and POP3 accounts on Mail.

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You need to perform contacts management tasks through the People application but cannot edit contact information on the Mail application.

People also have Pivot features, displaying a list of all your recent interactions with each contact including email, meeting and recently shared files.

In contrast, Outlook can retrieve contact information from connected accounts, but also allows local storage on the computer.

Calendar on Outlook compared to Calendar on Mail

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As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Calendar is part of the original installation in Mail. On Mail, the calendar from all connected accounts will be displayed when authorized correctly. However, you cannot view the calendar from the Mail but need to open the separate Calendar application.

Although there are no professional tools like Outlook, it can handle CalDAV files and register cloud-based calendars without difficulty.

List of Outlook's unique calendar features targeted at business users. It includes how to propose new times for events, shared calendars, the ability to open a colleague's calendar (depending on permissions), relay meetings, publish calendars, schedule groups, display information about each person attend and even find meeting rooms.

You can easily sync Outlook with Google calendar. In addition, the calendar on Outlook is part of the main application, you can access the tab at the bottom of the window.

Mail and Outlook integrated with other applications?

Mail does not provide any integration with third-party applications. If you want to access services like Google Drive, Evernote or Todoist, you will need to change to another window. It is important that it also does not integrate with Microsoft Office.

Integrated applications are Calendar, People and Microsoft To-Do. In fact, the Mail application only links to them, they are still outside the application.

Outlook is the opposite, it provides a seamless experience with other Microsoft productivity applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. In addition, there are many Outlook add-ins available in Microsoft's AppSource store.

For example, you can add Microsoft Translator, Salesforce, Boomerang, Trello, Dropbox, Zendesk and more. All add-ins carry the function of the corresponding application directly into Outlook, you can interact with it without leaving your inbox.

Which email application should you choose?

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It's hard to deny that Outlook is a better application. This is a business tool with more features.

But many features do not mean that the application is suitable for everyone. Even experienced Outlook users cannot use all the functions that the application provides.

Indeed, the complexity of Outlook can be annoying for many people because many of the features they don't need and complexity mean more complex settings.

If used with a normal level, which means that only one center for email and calendar accounts is required but does not run on the network of large users or businesses, the Mail application will meet your needs.

Home users should only consider using Outlook if they like productivity because Outlook targets professional users and businesses.

The two Microsoft email applications are all great in their own way, but they are not the only email application. Some third parties have developed excellent email tools. If you want to learn more, check out the Top 5 best Free Clients Email Applications for Desktop.