Alrighty vs Outlook for Mac

Outlook for Mac is the right pick if you need mail and calendar in one app, your work runs on Microsoft 365, or you also use Outlook on your phone or the web. Alrighty is the pick if you want your Outlook, iCloud and Gmail accounts in one inbox with no ads, your mail searched on your computer, and one action that stops a sender for good. Alrighty has no calendar, so if you switch, keep a calendar app open next to it.

The facts about Outlook below come from Microsoft's own support pages and its Mac App Store listing, as of November 2026. Alrighty is our app.

How do Alrighty and Outlook for Mac compare?

	Alrighty	Outlook for Mac
Devices	Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux	Mac (macOS 14 or later), Windows, iPhone, Android and web
Accounts	Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live, Microsoft 365, iCloud, Gmail	Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud, IMAP and POP
Price	14-day trial with no card, then Free or Pro; no ads on any plan	Free with ads; Microsoft 365 Personal from $9.99 a month removes them
Calendar	None	Yes, with My Day beside your inbox
Where Gmail and iCloud sync	Straight from Google and Apple to your computer	Through the Microsoft Cloud, unless you choose to sync directly
Unwanted mail	Stop mail, Clean up, Filters, phishing checks	Block sender, Unsubscribe, Focused Inbox, junk and phishing reports, rules
AI	Reply drafts when signed in; your own AI is off until you connect it	Copilot, with a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro plan or a Copilot license

Is Outlook for Mac free?

Yes, with ads. Microsoft says "Outlook is free to use with your personal Outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, and IMAP accounts," and that a Microsoft 365 subscription gives you "an ad-free experience, more storage, and advanced email security" (Microsoft). The Mac App Store listing shows "Contains Advertising" and lists the in-app subscriptions: Microsoft 365 Personal at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and Microsoft 365 Family at $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year. It also lists a second yearly Personal price of $119.99.

Work and school accounts are different. They need "a license assigned by your IT administrator" that includes the desktop Microsoft 365 apps.

Alrighty has a 14-day trial with no card. After it, you keep a Free plan or move to Pro. Neither plan shows ads. The Free plan has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups.

Does Outlook send my Gmail or iCloud mail through Microsoft?

Unless you choose otherwise, yes. When you add a Google, iCloud, Yahoo or IMAP account to the new Outlook for Mac, Microsoft sets it up to sync "with Microsoft Cloud to improve sync performance, reliability" (Microsoft). To avoid that, you click the Not [provider]? link while you add the account, then choose Sync directly with your provider. Microsoft's page doesn't say what data it copies to its cloud. POP accounts can't use the Microsoft Cloud at all.

The App Store privacy labels add one more detail. Microsoft lists "User Content (emails or text messages)" as data used for "Developer's Advertising or Marketing" and "App Functionality," as data not linked to your identity. Apple notes the labels "have not been verified by Apple."

Alrighty connects to each provider directly. Gmail syncs through the Gmail API, Outlook and Microsoft 365 through Microsoft Graph, and iCloud over IMAP. Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your computer, and your sign-ins stay on your computer, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. No Alrighty server holds them. Alrighty's AI features are the exception: they send the emails they need through Alrighty's server to OpenAI and other model companies (see the AI section below).

Which one has a calendar?

Outlook. The App Store listing says you can "Use My Day to surface your agenda and a two-week calendar view alongside your inbox," and Microsoft's feature list shows the calendar and snoozed reminders as available in the new Outlook (Microsoft).

Alrighty is a mail app with no calendar of its own. If your day is run by meeting invites, that alone may decide it for Outlook. If you use Alrighty, keep Outlook, Apple's Calendar or another calendar app for meetings.

How do they deal with junk and newsletters?

Outlook gives you a set of separate tools. Microsoft's feature list for the new Outlook for Mac shows Block sender, Unsubscribe, Focused inbox, Mark mail as junk, Mark mail as phishing and Rules as available (Microsoft). Focused Inbox splits mail into two tabs rather than removing any of it. For the click-by-click steps to block someone, see how to block a sender in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail.

Alrighty puts unsubscribe, archive and block into one action. Stop mail unsubscribes every way the message offers (one-click, an email to the list, or the list's web page), archives the sender's mail, and moves new mail from them out as it arrives. It contacts only senders whose mail passed DMARC and wasn't marked spam, so a scammer never learns your address is live. Clean up lists the senders you likely don't want, such as scams, cold outreach and newsletters you never open, so you can stop them in one pass. Filters catch a kind of mail that comes from a new sender each time, like cold sales, either from rules or from a description in your own words. A sure phishing message goes to Junk, and a likely one stays with a warning.

Alrighty doesn't screen first-time senders. A new sender's first email lands in your Inbox. Stopped mail goes to Archive, not Junk. Clean up sends each sender's address and up to 3 of their newest emails to Alrighty's server, where an AI model sorts them. If spam in an Outlook account is your main problem, our spam filters for Outlook page covers tools that work inside Outlook too.

Copilot or your own AI: which AI does each app use?

Outlook uses Microsoft Copilot. For personal accounts, Copilot comes with a "Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro subscription," and work accounts need "a Copilot license" (Microsoft). On a Family plan, "Copilot is only available to the person who sets up the subscription," so the other people on the plan don't get it. Microsoft's Mac release notes list Copilot rewrite, Attachment Summaries and Prepare with Copilot (Microsoft). Without one of those plans, Copilot isn't included.

Alrighty has two kinds of AI. Its own: when you're signed in, opening a reply starts a suggested draft in your voice, written from what you sent that person before. It's always a draft, and you send it. You can ask for a change in your words ("say yes to Friday") or click Shorten, Warmer or Formalize. You can also ask a question about your mail and get the answer with the emails it came from. These features go through Alrighty's server to OpenAI and other model companies, and they're on when you're signed in.

The other kind is the AI you already pay for. Alrighty's local MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model read and search all your accounts, Outlook included. It's off until you turn it on with Connect AI. The AI can also work in a window you watch, and nothing sends until you click Send. To give Claude your Outlook mail without Alrighty, see the best Outlook MCP servers.

What does Outlook do better than Alrighty?

• Calendar and contacts in the same app.
• Every platform. Copilot's page lists "Outlook apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and the web." Alrighty runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no phone or web app.
• More accounts. Outlook adds Yahoo, IMAP and POP accounts. Alrighty takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook only.
• Office tools. Categories, Snooze and "Send later" (with Microsoft 365) are on Microsoft's feature list.
• A long track record. Alrighty is new.

Outlook has gaps too. Microsoft's feature page says "Support for legacy Outlook for Mac will end in October 2026," and lists features the new Outlook doesn't have, such as "Compose in plaintext," "View sync errors" and "View sync status." "Search across all items" is still marked "Under Investigation." Our Outlook alternatives for Mac page covers why people leave in more detail.

Can I keep my Outlook.com address in Alrighty?

Yes. You keep your address, your folders and your mail. Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and Microsoft 365 accounts connect with Sign in with Microsoft (setup). Your mail stays with Microsoft, so Outlook on your phone or the web still shows the same mail. Archive a message in Alrighty, and it's archived in Outlook too.

Which should you pick?

• You want Outlook, iCloud and Gmail in one inbox with no ads: Alrighty.
• Newsletters and cold email bury the mail you need: Alrighty.
• You want Claude or ChatGPT to read and work in your mail: Alrighty.
• You need a calendar in the same app: Outlook.
• Your work runs on Microsoft 365, or your company pays for Copilot: Outlook.
• You want the same app on your phone and the web, or have a Yahoo or POP account: Outlook.

See all of Alrighty on the features page, or browse more comparisons.

Questions

Can I use Alrighty for mail and Outlook for my calendar?

Yes. Both read the same Microsoft account, and Alrighty asks Microsoft for mail access only. Keep Outlook, or Apple's Calendar, open for meetings and read your mail in Alrighty.

Is Copilot included in the free Outlook for Mac?

No. Microsoft lists Copilot in Outlook with a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, Premium or Pro plan for personal accounts, and with a Copilot license for work accounts. On a Family plan, only the person who set up the plan gets Copilot.

How do I stop Outlook for Mac from syncing Gmail through Microsoft?

Microsoft gives the choice when you add the account. Click the Not [provider]? link and choose Sync directly with your provider, as Microsoft's setup page describes. The page doesn't describe how to switch an account you already added.

Does Alrighty show ads?

No. There's no ad code in Alrighty, on the Free plan or on Pro.