{"id":95146,"date":"2017-11-09T21:30:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T21:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=95146"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:44:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:44:16","slug":"yahoo-mail-vs-gmail-is-there-really-a-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/yahoo-mail-vs-gmail-is-there-really-a-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Yahoo! Mail vs. Gmail: Is there really a contest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the older of the two, Yahoo! Mail is a bit like Gmail\u2019s quirky older brother<\/strong>. It\u2019s been around longer, has gone through several style changes, and had had its fair share of embarrassing moments (including a pretty big hack in 2013).<\/span><\/p>\n

Gmail is younger and fresher, but with a slightly geekier style<\/strong>. Techies love Gmail\u2019s fluid, streamlined interface, its assortment of features, and Google applications built in.<\/span><\/p>\n

But does that make Gmail better?<\/span><\/p>\n

Not necessarily. Familiarity, a recently revamped interface, integrated cloud support, and a huge storage allowance make Yahoo! Mail a surprisingly nimble client<\/strong>. And as we all know, experience is a big advantage, and Yahoo! Mail has this in spades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming most of us want a secure, easy-to-use, and feature-rich email client, let\u2019s see what each has to offer across these three areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Security<\/span><\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t want to rehash bad times, but Yahoo! Mail suffered a real doozy back in 2013.\u00a0A hacker stole the personal information of 3 billion users<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 every registered Yahoo! account \u2013 in the largest data breach ever. Yahoo was a little shady about the exact number at the time but has since \u2018fessed up with the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what has it done since? Well, at the time of the hack, they were using weak MD5 hashed encryption for passwords. They\u2019ve since upgraded to the far more secure Bcrypt algorithm. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yahoo! also encourages 2-factor authentication<\/strong>, where you use a password and a second form of identification \u2013 such as a mobile \u2013 to gain entry to your account. All your incoming mail is scanned for viruses<\/strong>, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Yahoo<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Gmail does all of the above, so they\u2019re fairly evenly matched. In fact, Gmail suffered its own security hiccup when\u00a0Orin Hafif, a security researcher, discovered a bug in Gmail\u2019s \u201cdelegate access\u201d feature<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that exposed Gmail\u2019s email addresses to theft. This didn\u2019t include passwords, but it would\u2019ve attracted massive phishing scams \u2013\u00a0something Gmail is regularly fighting<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Features<\/span><\/h3>\n

Both Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are formidable email clients. They\u2019re both free, come with Instant Messaging, and support cloud storage. But they each have elements that outshine the other. For example, Yahoo! Mail gives you 1TB (1,000 GB) of email storage.<\/strong> That\u2019s more than enough for even the most prolific emailers. Gmail only gives 15GB<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Google<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Gmail includes powerful productivity applications such as Google Documents, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, and Google Drive<\/strong>. Yahoo! Mail lets you attach files from Google Drive without leaving the app, but it doesn\u2019t integrate the other applications. With Gmail, you get a full suite of tools easily accessible from your Gmail navigation bar, which is convenient for people who like to have everything in one place.<\/span><\/p>\n

But another point goes to Yahoo! Mail for social media integration<\/strong>. It supports Facebook and Twitter \u2013 letting you post directly from the app \u2013 while Gmail only lets you access the less popular Google+ (it also supports YouTube natively, but I\u2019ll let you decide whether to count that as social media).<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Ease of use<\/span><\/h3>\n

Again, the two are fairly evenly matched when it comes to ease of use. But if you\u2019re used to one or the other, you\u2019re bound to find a few things frustrating.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, Yahoo! Mail bombards you with ads.<\/strong> While they claim to have reduced them, they\u2019re still quite invasive \u2013 taking up most of the right of the screen, and a banner on top.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Yahoo<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Gmail\u2019s ads are more discreet, sticking to banners only. This is a much nicer user experience, but there\u2019s a bigger issue that some of you won\u2019t like. To personalize ads, Gmail\u2019s algorithms read your emails. Although Google has said they\u2019ll stop targeting ads in this way,\u00a0they have no intention to stop reading your emails<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0So if you don\u2019t want Google\u2019s algorithms\u00a0knowing your intimate details, perhaps Gmail isn\u2019t for you. Having said that,\u00a0Yahoo! Mail has reserved the right to do the same<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another controversial difference between the two is in the way they organize your inbox. Gmail uses labels, while Yahoo! Mail uses folders. For some reason, people tend to prefer folders. Despite Gmail\u2019s labels offering greater functionality, like assigning multiple labels to each email, Yahoo! Mail\u2019s folders seem the more intuitive<\/strong>, and therefore easiest to use.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Gmail wins on its spam filters<\/strong> thanks to the powerful, data crunching algorithms that drive Google\u2019s search and analytical tools. These keep those Nigerian lotteries at bay, saving you the trouble of deleting them.<\/span><\/p>\n

And speaking of power, Google\u2019s vast server network does mean your emails get where they need to a little faster<\/strong>. Whether this is important or not depends on you. For most people, Yahoo! Mail is plenty fast enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see, both Yahoo! Mail and Gmail have their pluses and minuses. Which you prefer depends mainly on you. Yahoo! Mail might seem like the fun but dorky older brother, it\u2019s been around for ages and has acquired a loyal following who love its folders and generous storage.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re into tech, love to tinker, and want powerful tools at your fingertips, Gmail is the cool-but-slightly-aloof newer kid on the block you should make friends with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Either way, you\u2019ve made a great choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Download Yahoo! Mail<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the older of the two, Yahoo! Mail is a bit like Gmail\u2019s quirky older brother. It\u2019s been around longer, has gone through several style changes, and had had its fair share of embarrassing moments (including a pretty big hack in 2013). Gmail is younger and fresher, but with a slightly geekier style. Techies love … Continue reading “Yahoo! Mail vs. Gmail: Is there really a contest?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2040,"featured_media":95147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[2619],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-95146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionyahoo"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2040"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328458,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95146\/revisions\/328458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95146"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=95146"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=95146"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=95146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}