If you've been researching boomerang email tracking, you've probably noticed that Boomerang is one of the most well-known Gmail productivity tools on the market. With over 2,100 reviews and a 4.2/5 rating on the Chrome Web Store, it has earned a strong reputation. But Boomerang was built as a scheduling tool first, and its email tracking features come with real limitations, especially on the free plan.

In this comparison, we'll look at what Boomerang does well, where its tracking falls short, and how it stacks up against TrackMailBox, a free extension built specifically for email tracking. If you're trying to decide between the two, or wondering whether you even need to choose, this guide will help.

What Boomerang Does Well

Let's give credit where it's due. Boomerang is a genuinely useful productivity tool, and it does several things better than most Gmail extensions.

Email scheduling is Boomerang's flagship feature. You can compose an email now and schedule it to send at the optimal time, whether that's tomorrow morning, next Monday at 9 AM, or any date you choose. The scheduling interface is polished, reliable, and deeply integrated into Gmail's compose window. If you send a lot of time-sensitive emails, this feature alone can be worth installing the extension.

Email snooze lets you temporarily remove emails from your inbox and have them reappear later. If you get a message you can't deal with right now but don't want to forget about, snoozing it to reappear on Friday morning keeps your inbox clean without losing track of anything.

Respondable is Boomerang's AI writing assistant. It analyzes your email drafts and gives you real-time feedback on tone, length, readability, and the likelihood of getting a response. It's a clever feature that helps you write more effective emails, particularly for cold outreach or follow-ups where word choice matters.

Follow-up reminders notify you if a recipient hasn't responded within a set timeframe. You can set a reminder when sending an email, and Boomerang will nudge you if no reply arrives within a day, three days, a week, or any custom interval. This is great for sales follow-ups and important business communications.

For a broader look at how different tools compare on features and pricing, see our comparison of the best free email tracking tools for Gmail.

Boomerang's Email Tracking Limitations

While Boomerang's scheduling and productivity features are strong, its email tracking capabilities have some significant constraints that are worth understanding before you commit.

Only 10 tracked emails per month on the free plan. This is the biggest limitation. Boomerang's free tier, called the Basic plan, allows you to track just 10 emails per month. If you send more than a handful of important emails per week, you'll hit this cap quickly. For context, most sales professionals or freelancers send 10 tracked emails in a single day, not a month.

Manual tracking on every email. Unlike tools that track automatically, Boomerang requires you to manually click a "Track" button or checkbox before sending each email. If you forget to click it, that email goes untracked. Over time, this manual step adds friction and means you'll inevitably miss tracking emails you cared about.

Paid plans start at $4.98/month. To get beyond the 10-email limit, you need a paid plan. The Personal plan starts at $4.98/month (billed annually), and the Pro plan is $14.98/month. Over a year, even the cheapest paid plan costs roughly $60 just to unlock more tracking capacity on what is primarily a scheduling tool.

Tracking is a secondary feature. Boomerang was designed around email scheduling, and tracking was added as a supplementary capability. This means the tracking interface, notifications, and analytics are less developed than what you'd find in a purpose-built email tracker. You get basic open notifications, but features like detailed analytics dashboards, link click tracking on free plans, and device/location data are limited or absent.

If you're curious about whether paying for tracking features is worth it in general, our guide on free vs paid email trackers breaks down the real differences.

Boomerang Free vs TrackMailBox Free Comparison

Here's a direct side-by-side comparison of what you get on each tool's free plan.

The comparison makes the trade-off clear. Boomerang gives you more productivity features (scheduling, snooze, AI writing), but its tracking is heavily restricted. TrackMailBox gives you one thing, email tracking, and does it without limits or friction.

When to Choose Boomerang Over TrackMailBox

Boomerang is the better choice if email scheduling is your primary need and tracking is a nice-to-have rather than a core requirement. Here are the scenarios where Boomerang makes more sense:

You schedule a lot of emails. If you regularly compose emails in the evening but want them delivered at 8 AM the next morning, or if you batch-write weekly updates and schedule them throughout the week, Boomerang's scheduling is best-in-class. No other Gmail extension does this as smoothly.

You want AI writing help. Respondable is a genuinely useful feature for cold outreach, sales emails, and any situation where you want feedback on your email's tone and effectiveness before hitting send. TrackMailBox doesn't offer this.

You only need to track a few emails per month. If you send 10 or fewer important emails per month where tracking matters, Boomerang's free limit might actually be sufficient. Not everyone needs unlimited tracking.

Email snooze is part of your workflow. If you rely on snoozing emails to manage your inbox, Boomerang handles this natively. It's a small feature, but people who use it tend to use it constantly.

When to Choose TrackMailBox Over Boomerang

TrackMailBox is the better choice if email tracking is your primary need and you want it to work automatically on every email without thinking about it.

You track more than 10 emails per month. If you're in sales, recruiting, business development, or any role where you send dozens of tracked emails per week, Boomerang's free tier is far too restrictive. TrackMailBox has no limit.

You don't want to think about tracking. With TrackMailBox, every email is tracked automatically. There's no button to click, no checkbox to remember, no risk of forgetting. You send an email, it gets tracked. With Boomerang, you have to actively opt in to tracking each time, which means some important emails will inevitably slip through untracked.

Link click tracking matters to you. If you regularly send proposals, pricing pages, portfolio links, or documents and want to know whether the recipient actually clicked them, TrackMailBox includes link click tracking on the free plan. This is one of the most valuable tracking features for sales and business development.

You don't need scheduling or AI writing. If your workflow doesn't require scheduled sends or AI-assisted drafting, Boomerang's main advantages don't apply to you. In that case, you're better off with a tool that focuses entirely on what you do need, which is tracking.

Can You Use Boomerang and TrackMailBox Together?

Yes, and this is actually the ideal setup for many users. Boomerang and TrackMailBox solve different problems, so they complement each other well rather than conflicting.

Here's how the combination works: Use Boomerang for its scheduling, snooze, and AI writing features. Use TrackMailBox for automatic, unlimited email tracking and link click monitoring. The two extensions run side by side in Gmail without interfering with each other.

This means you can schedule an email with Boomerang for 9 AM tomorrow, and TrackMailBox will automatically track it when it sends. You get the best of both tools without paying for Boomerang's premium plan just to unlock more tracking capacity.

The only consideration is that running multiple extensions does add some overhead to your Gmail interface. In practice, both extensions are lightweight and the performance impact is negligible. But if you prefer a minimal setup, choose the one that matches your primary need.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Boomerang email tracking free?

Boomerang offers a free Basic plan, but email tracking is limited to 10 emails per month. To track more, you need a paid plan starting at $4.98/month. By comparison, TrackMailBox offers completely free and unlimited email tracking with no monthly caps.

How many emails can Boomerang track for free?

Boomerang's free plan allows you to track up to 10 emails per month. Each tracked email also requires a manual click on the Track button before sending. Once you hit the 10-email limit, you cannot track additional emails until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade to a paid plan.

Can I use Boomerang and TrackMailBox together?

Yes. Boomerang and TrackMailBox work well together in Gmail. Use Boomerang for email scheduling, snooze, and AI writing assistance. Use TrackMailBox for automatic, unlimited email tracking and link click monitoring. The two extensions don't conflict with each other and cover different use cases.