Best Free Email Tracker for Gmail in 2026 (Honest Comparison)
We tested the top free Gmail email trackers head-to-head on privacy, accuracy, and deliverability impact. Here's which one you should actually use.
If you've searched for a free Gmail email tracker, you've probably landed on the same shortlist everyone else gets: Mailtrack, Streak, a few Chrome extensions that haven't been updated since 2021, and maybe a mention of Yesware.
Most comparison posts stop at "these tools exist." This one goes further. We tested each one on the things that actually matter when you're tracking email professionally: privacy scope, open accuracy, deliverability impact, and whether it's actually free.
What makes a good Gmail email tracker?
Before the list, here's the rubric we used. A good tracker must:
- Use a minimal OAuth scope — does it read your inbox, or just send?
- Filter bots accurately — Apple Mail Privacy Protection, Gmail's image proxy, and known crawlers all inflate open rates if not filtered
- Not hurt deliverability — trackers that route through shared IP pools or add forced signatures affect your sender reputation
- Be honest about "free" — no forced signature, no 7-day trial disguised as a free plan
1. Maildriply (Best overall)
Free plan: 500 sends/month, no credit card, no branding in your emails
Maildriply is built around one constraint: it only requests gmail.send — the narrowest OAuth scope that lets it actually send email. That scope cannot read your inbox. Compare this to trackers that request gmail.readonly or full https://mail.google.com/ access.
Every email leaves your own Gmail account through the Gmail API. There is no SMTP relay in the middle, so your sender reputation stays intact.
Open tracking accuracy: Bot events from Apple MPP, Gmail's image proxy pre-fetch, and null user-agents are filtered before being counted. One recipient, one open — no duplicates.
Click tracking: Links are rewritten to HMAC-signed redirects. The destination is locked at send time, so no open-redirect risk for your recipients.
Free tier limits: 500 tracked sends per month. Templates, AI drafts (25/month), and the Chrome extension are all included.
Verdict: Best choice if you care about privacy, deliverability, and accuracy.
2. Mailtrack
Free plan: Unlimited sends, but every email gets "Sent with Mailtrack" appended
Mailtrack is the most widely installed Gmail tracker. The free plan is genuinely unlimited on sends, which is compelling — but it appends a signature to every email you send. For professional use, that's often a dealbreaker.
The paid plan removes the signature, but Mailtrack routes emails through its own infrastructure on some sending paths, which can affect deliverability on high-volume sends.
Open tracking is basic: no bot filtering, so Apple MPP events often inflate your rate. The interface is simple and quick to set up.
Verdict: Fine for casual personal use. Not appropriate for sales, recruiting, or professional outreach where the forced signature degrades your credibility.
3. Streak
Free plan: Limited CRM features, email tracking available on paid plans only
Streak is a full CRM built inside Gmail. Email tracking is a feature within that CRM, not the product itself. The OAuth scope Streak requests is expansive — it asks for read access to your inbox, which means Streak can see every email you receive.
That's a significant privacy tradeoff. For many users, granting inbox-read access to a third-party tool isn't worth the convenience of having a CRM in Gmail.
Verdict: Good if you need a Gmail-native CRM and are comfortable with the scope. Not the right tool if tracking is your primary need.
4. HubSpot Sales (Gmail integration)
Free plan: Basic tracking available, but requires a HubSpot account and CRM setup
HubSpot's Gmail integration works, but it's not a tracker — it's the tracking feature of a full CRM platform. Getting email tracking requires setting up HubSpot Sales Hub, connecting your CRM, and managing contacts inside HubSpot.
The From address in emails can also be complicated when routing through HubSpot's infrastructure, which can affect DMARC alignment.
Verdict: Right for teams already using HubSpot. Overkill if you just want to know who opened your email.
5. Yesware
Free plan: 100 sends/month (very limited)
Yesware is an older tool with a mixed track record. It routes emails through its own infrastructure, which means your sends share IP reputation with other Yesware users. The free plan caps at 100 sends per month.
Bot filtering has improved over the years but still lags behind more modern tools.
Verdict: The pricing and relay architecture make it hard to recommend when better alternatives exist.
Quick comparison table
| Feature | Maildriply | Mailtrack | Streak | Yesware |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan sends | 500/month | Unlimited | Paid only | 100/month |
| Forced signature on free | No | Yes | — | No |
| OAuth scope | gmail.send only | Broader | Full inbox | Broader |
| Bot filtering | Yes | No | Partial | Partial |
| Sends via your Gmail | Yes | No | No | No |
| HMAC-signed click tracking | Yes | No | No | No |
| AI drafts | Yes | No | No | No |
The one thing that separates them: OAuth scope
Every tracker on this list can tell you when your email was opened. The meaningful difference is what permission they require to do it.
Tools that request gmail.readonly or https://mail.google.com/ can read every email in your inbox. Tools that route through their own SMTP can see the content of your outbound mail too.
Maildriply requests only gmail.send. The OAuth spec makes it technically impossible for us to read your messages with that scope. If that matters to you — and it should — it narrows the list significantly.
Bottom line
If you want a free Gmail email tracker that:
- Doesn't add a signature to your emails
- Doesn't read your inbox
- Sends through your own Gmail account (not a shared relay)
- Filters bots properly so your open rates mean something
...the answer is Maildriply. 500 sends per month, no credit card, no branding injected into your emails.