Quick disclosure: I make one of the apps below, so read accordingly. Now the useful part. When people search for a "Gmail client for Mac," they're usually picturing one thing, a proper Mac app instead of a browser tab, but there are actually two very different kinds of Gmail client, and picking the wrong kind is the main way people end up disappointed. Once you see the split, the choice gets easy.
The two kinds of Gmail client
A native rebuild takes your Gmail data out of the browser and recreates it as a true native Mac email app, using the Gmail API. Mimestream is the standout here, built by a former Apple Mail engineer. It looks and behaves like a Mac app because it is one, all the way down. The trade: it's a new interface to learn (not the Gmail you know), it's mail only, and it's a subscription.
A native shell around the real Gmail keeps the actual Gmail web app, your labels, filters, keyboard shortcuts and layout exactly as they are, and hosts it in a native Mac window instead of a browser tab. Orbit is this kind. Nothing to relearn, and it carries the whole account (Calendar, Drive, Meet, Gemini), not just mail.
Neither is "better" in the abstract. They answer different questions.
The free options (try these first)
Before paying anyone: Apple Mail is free and can connect to Gmail over IMAP. It's fine for light mail, but it flattens Gmail into folders and drops labels, search operators, and the Google apps. And a Chrome app shortcut (open Gmail in Chrome, More Tools → Create Shortcut, "open as window") is free and keeps the real Gmail in its own window. Both are genuinely enough for one account. They fall apart when you add more, Apple Mail has no Gmail-native feel, and Chrome shares one sign-in across every account.
Where the paid clients pull ahead: multiple accounts
The moment you run work, personal, and client Google accounts, the free options stop keeping up, and this is where a real client earns its price. The failure mode with a browser is well known: all your accounts share one sign-in, so one security re-check can log every account out at once, and it's easy to send from the wrong identity.
This is Orbit's specific reason to exist. Each Google account runs the real Gmail in its own sealed session with its own cookies, side by side in one native window, switched with ⌘1 through 9. Accounts can't log each other out because there's no shared sign-in, and there's no server in the middle, so everything stays on your Mac. It's native Swift on Apple's WebKit, a 12 MB app with no bundled Chromium, and a one-time purchase of $89 with a 14-day free trial. macOS 14+ on Apple silicon.
So which Gmail client should you use on your Mac?
Light mail, free: Apple Mail.
One account, want the real Gmail free: a Chrome
app shortcut.
One mailbox, want a polished native rebuild:
Mimestream, if a subscription is fine.
Several Google accounts, want the real Gmail (plus
Calendar/Drive/Meet) in one quiet native window, paid for once:
that's exactly what Orbit is for.
The honest summary: if you have one Gmail account, you have good free and native options and don't need to overthink it. The reason to reach for a paid client is account count, and that's the fork that decides between a rebuild and the real thing.