A lighter Kiwi for Gmail alternative

Kiwi for Gmail has long been a way to keep several Gmail and Google Workspace accounts in one Gmail desktop app for Mac. If you're shopping for an alternative, Smails covers the same essential need, all your Gmail accounts in one window, with a lighter footprint and a simpler price. The five-way comparison table shows exactly where the two differ, row by row.

Native and lean

Smails is built with Swift and WebKit, the engine already in macOS, so the whole app is a couple of megabytes and starts instantly. There's no separate browser engine bundled along for the ride, which keeps memory and battery use low. That is the same argument as our Shift alternative page, where the gap is much larger.

The real Gmail, every account a click apart

• One window for every account. A thin sidebar, click or ⌘1–9 to switch instantly, each account in its own private, signed-in session. It is how we think multiple Gmail accounts on a Mac should work.
• The actual Gmail. Labels, search, filters, chat, your settings, untouched.
• Links open in your browser, not trapped in the app.
• Default mail app. Clicking a mailto: link pops a quick account picker and Gmail's compose, pre-filled.

If you arrived here because Mailplane shut down and Kiwi was the next name on the list, the Mailplane alternative page is written for exactly that journey.

One-time price

Smails is $9.99, one time, free with one account and a single payment for unlimited accounts. No subscription, free updates. Why that matters over three or four years is on the email app without a subscription page.

Smails vs Kiwi for Gmail