Gmail vs Outlook: which to connect
Both capture job emails the same way — the real difference, and why you connect one shared inbox.
The short answer: connect whichever your business already runs its email on. Both do the same job — capture emails carrying a job number onto your jobs, and let you reply from within VanMan — so the choice is not about features.
You connect one shared inbox for the whole business, not one per person. The decision is simply: is your central bookings@ or office@ inbox a Google account or a Microsoft 365 account? Connect that one.
What's the same
- Both watch the inbox and file emails whose subject carries a job number onto the matching job.
- Both let you reply from VanMan's Messages tab.
- Both capture attachments onto the job.
- Both are near real time.
- Both are a single shared connection, set up by an admin.
The one real difference
Reply threading. When you reply from VanMan, Gmail threads your reply into the original conversation cleanly. Outlook may send your reply as a new email rather than threading it — it still reaches the customer and is still logged on the job, but it may not appear inside the original thread on their end.
If tidy threading on the customer's side matters to you and you have a genuine choice, Gmail has the edge. If your business runs on Microsoft 365, connect Outlook and simply know this about it.
What is not a difference
There is no per-user connection on either side, no "one provider at a time" rule that stops you exploring both cards, and no difference in how matching works. Do not choose based on those — they are the same.
Tutorial: decide and connect
Identify the single address customers reply to — bookings@, office@, whatever it is. That inbox is what you are connecting, not anyone's personal mail.
Is that inbox a Google Workspace account or a Microsoft 365 account? That answers the question. You connect the provider your mailbox actually lives on — you cannot connect a Microsoft mailbox as "Gmail".
Some businesses have both available. In that case, the tie-breaker is reply threading — Gmail threads cleanly, Outlook may not. Lean Gmail if the customer-side thread tidiness matters to you.
Follow connecting Gmail or connecting Outlook. Either way you end with Connected and a green Watching for emails.
There is no scenario where each team member connects their own email. It is one shared inbox for the business — set that expectation with your team so nobody waits for a personal connection that does not exist.