The literal answer to this question is no, you do not need Gmail. However, you do need a Google Account. You can create a Google Account with any email address, not just Gmail. There are a variety of tutorials on the internet which you can search for, but the easiest way is to just start with this link:
If what you really want to know is "Can I use OrbitKit without Google?" then I'm afraid the answer is no. Instead of building a username/password system (with all the risks and liabilities), we decided to offload that work to a trusted third party.
Why does OrbitKit use Google login?
Google login is fairly common for business-to-business applications like ours, provides 2-factor authentication and account recovery out of the box, and was quick to implement - allowing us to instead focus on business features like more integrations.
Why not Shopify login?
Shopify login would absolutely make sense for a Shopify-only publishing platform, but OrbitKit allows you to manage your designs across multiple marketplaces and POD platforms. Most of our users publish to several different places. Some of them publish to multiple different Shopify accounts!
Do I have to share my Google password with my team?
Absolutely not - please never do this! You can add additional users (with their own Google accounts) to your organization on your Settings page.