Google Workspace vs Microsoft Exchange comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Google is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.9, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Google holds a 24.1% mindshare in EA, compared to Microsoft’s 11.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Workspace

Read 100 Google Workspace reviews

6,715 Views
6,038 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange

Read 89 Microsoft Exchange reviews

3,942 Views
3,406 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Google Workspace

Microsoft Exchange

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 29, 2024

Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace are leading email and collaboration platforms. Google Workspace seems to have the upper hand due to its diverse features and user satisfaction.

Features: Microsoft Exchange users value its robust security, integration with other Microsoft products, and advanced email management. Google Workspace is praised for its seamless integration with Google services, real-time collaboration tools, and cloud-based flexibility.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Exchange users highlighted a need for more intuitive management tools and better mobile app performance. Google Workspace users noted occasional issues with offline access and the complexity of managing multiple user accounts.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Exchange generally requires more complex setup and configuration, with some users reporting challenges with installation. Google Workspace is known for its straightforward cloud-first deployment. Customer service for Microsoft Exchange is deemed responsive, yet not as consistent as Google Workspace, which is noted for its comprehensive support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Exchange's setup costs are often higher due to its deployment complexity and on-premises requirements. Google Workspace's pricing is considered competitive, with many users reporting excellent ROI driven by productivity gains and lower maintenance costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Google Workspace

Ranking in Email Applications

1st

Ranking in Wireless Email

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

100

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Storage (4th), Content Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Microsoft Exchange

Ranking in Email Applications

3rd

Ranking in Wireless Email

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File Archiving (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 24.1%, up from 21.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.4%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Jerome Poudevigne

CTO at Lounivo

Seamless collaboration with advanced calendaring and real-time document editing

One area of improvement for Google Workspace is the Google Meet functionality. Currently, users cannot upload files directly through Google Meet; instead, they have to share links via Google Drive, which adds unnecessary steps and complexity. This is especially frustrating when dealing with external users who do not have Google IDs. Another area requiring improvement is the chat/messaging feature, which is basic compared to other products like Slack. Having an integrated and efficient messaging system would be beneficial.

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Dean Della Pella

Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Offers great reliability and good mobile access features

In my company, the product takes care of email communications as it handles all the emails and scheduling emails. Within the tool, the calendars are used extensively by our company and its customers. The tool has improved the areas revolving around calendars and scheduling tasks since it has helped in the unification of everyone working in the company under the same system. The most beneficial features of email management stem from the tool's ability to let its users combine the tasks and the calendar while also being able to organize emails. The security and compliance features have impacted our organization, and it has been extremely helpful since such functionalities are needed for compliance purposes. For the customers and my company, being secure and having control of the handling of emails is extremely important. The integration capabilities do not have a direct impact on the email portion of the product, but it does have the ability to set up meetings with the help of Microsoft Teams. The mobile access feature provided by the product helps our company in the area of productivity. I recommend the product to others who plan to use it. Based on the features and functionalities of the product, it would be beneficial to rule for any company where it is chosen. The product offers good functionalities and reliability. I rate the overall a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"They are launching more and more features for mobile, which I understand our customers appreciate."

"It has saved us money."

"It's stable. There isn't really any downtime."

"The initial setup of Google Workspace is straightforward."

"The solution is stable."

"G Suite Enterprise provides many features, such as business increased search visibility, email address, and domain. It's a large whole ecosystem that is the major benefit. You can manage your whole team and have many tools. Over seven years, the solution has gone through some drastic upgrades and improvements which are done automatically, I do not have to manual upgrade."

"Only a few competitors can do precisely what Google Workspace does in terms of email management and calendar management through its Gmail and Google Calendar apps. It's a very seamless platform."

"I like everything that Google does. They have good products."

More Google Workspace pros

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange is its ease of use."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"It's very well integrated with OneDrive and Teams Calendar."

"On-premises Microsoft Exchange is good because it protects data privacy."

"The initial setup is very simple."

"I like the logistics and the Microsoft protocol of reaching Outlook anywhere."

"The functionality on the user side is quite good. Exchange provides an excellent platform for collaboration between users."

"The initial setup is easy."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

Cons

"It would be a lot nicer if the default Gmail came with features that we currently need add-ons for, such as tables, automatic BCC, resizing of the panel on the left-hand side, email highlighting, and configuring the display of time and date against each email."

"I find the price high for the full suite features. Compared to Exchange Online, the price might not be too high, but you cannot choose only one functionality. When you buy Google Workspace, you have to get everything, including file storage and communication tools, which I don't use."

"There are too many steps for sharing pictures."

"I talked with G Suite recently because my G Suite has a temporary block. I communicated with the G Suite representative or Google representative, and he told me that I sent a lot of emails, so my email was temporarily blocked. But I know I have not sent more than 500 emails daily to reach the limit. I sent only 5,200 emails, but unfortunately, my G Suite account was temporarily blocked for 24 hours, and then he resolved it. I think they need to improve G Suite because this temporary block is not fair."

"The stability should be addressed."

"In some cases, we are using the Google Meet functions but only when we have external clients. Internally, we are using Slack. Google Meet virtual meeting function is not as advanced as the one in Slack and should improve."

"In the next release, I would like to see more encryption of documents, mail, and things like that. There should be a better way to encrypt mail and documents that are pushed through this system. That would be some improvement or additional features that could be good to have."

"It takes a long time to import the data from G Suite into another platform."

More Google Workspace cons

"Sometimes we don't get support quickly enough - for example, if there's some global hacker attack, we don't get served as quickly. The skills of the technical staff can also vary, and Microsoft could perhaps improve their training."

"Microsoft Exchange could improve by being more secure. We are always looking to have more security."

"Sometimes the client part generates some trouble. It can be very slow, though this might be related to our company's installation and configuration rather than the product itself."

"Microsoft Exchange needs to improve how it handles and assigns policy and security."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange could improve, it is priced high."

"I think it could be more scalable."

"Microsoft needs to make some modifications to meet the current needs of the environment. For example, they need to add more cell service features because people work from home during the pandemic, and certain elements should be available as a mobile service."

"They could improve on the search function, it takes too much time."

More Microsoft Exchange cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is a bit on the higher side than normal. For a basic Google account it costs $100, but Enterprise is %150."

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing is very high, although I cannot tell if this is the result of the Indian vendors artificially inflating it."

"We have purchased an annual subscription."

"The pricing of Google Workspace, so far, has been reasonable."

"We pay a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."

"There are several areas where a G Suite implementation can reduce costs: lower license fees than some competing products, reduced hardware, and IT support costs."

"Pricing is something concerning. We find the solution very expensive."

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

"The product pricing is reasonable if you utilize its full suite of features."

"I rate Microsoft Exchange's pricing a six out of ten."

"I don't have enough information about the licensing costs of Microsoft Exchange, but I do know that you need two types of licenses to run it. You need the product key and the client access key to activate Microsoft Exchange. This means that apart from the standard Microsoft Exchange licensing fees, you have to pay additional costs."

"They are flexible when it comes to pricing, unlike most of the other vendors I have dealt with."

"Microsoft Exchange is an inexpensive application."

"We are currently using enterprise licenses for the solution. They are different pricing models available. There are individual, cloud-based, and enterprise licenses all with different pricing models. The larger the number of users, the lesser the price. For small to medium companies like us, we feel it is expensive."

"It's a little bit expensive."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange is reasonable."

More Microsoft Exchange pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Workspace?

Easy-to-build forms are allowing me to get feedback and information from my internal teams as well as from the customers very efficiently with the result data in structured manner.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Workspace?

I'm not satisfied with the cost because I feel these services should be free as they use our data.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Workspace?

Google Workspace lacks the ability to copy and move files from one folder to another easily. I also find it challenging to perform many operations using the context menu in Google Sheets, Google Do...

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How does Zimbra Collaboration compare with Microsoft Exchange?

Zimbra is a free, open source collaborative software suite. The features I like best are the ease of integration and the email, calendar, and collaboration server with web interface. In addition, I...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange?

The initial setup was straightforward and fast.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Exchange?

The licensing and pricing are quite costly, which can demotivate customers from opting for features and upgrades. However, the solution provides value for money if one is well-acquainted with Excha...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Google Workspace

Compared 34% of the time

Amazon WorkMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 31% of the time

ProtonMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 6% of the time

IceWarp vs Google Workspace

Compared 4% of the time

Dropbox vs Google Workspace

Compared 1% of the time

More Google Workspace Competitors

Zimbra Collaboration vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 24% of the time

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 18% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 12% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 11% of the time

ProtonMail vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

December 2024

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange

December 2024

Download Microsoft Exchange product report

Also Known As

G-Suite Enterprise, G-Suite, Google Apps for Business, G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G-Suite Basic, G-Suite Business, Google Vault

Exchange, MS Exchange

Learn More

Google

Microsoft

Overview

Similar to G Suite, all Google Workspace plans provide a custom email for your business and include collaboration tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more.

As we’ve evolved G Suite into a more integrated experience across our communication and collaboration tools, we’ve rebranded to Google Workspace to more accurately represent the product vision.

Built to deliver the enterprise-grade security and reliability that businesses require, Microsoft Exchange provides email, calendar and contacts on your PC, phone and web browser.

Sample Customers

There are over five million businesses that use Google Apps for Business worldwide. Some key customers include The Roche Group, National Geographic, American Red Cross, City of Los Angeles, Flight Centre, and Konica Minolta.

Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange

December 2024

Free Report: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange

Find out what your peers are saying about Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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See our Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange report.

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