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 8.4, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Google holds a 22.2% mindshare in EA, compared to Microsoft’s 11.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Workspace

Read 102 Google Workspace reviews

6,065 Views
5,500 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange

Read 92 Microsoft Exchange reviews

3,160 Views
2,736 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Google Workspace

Microsoft Exchange

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace compete in the business email and collaboration software market. Based on feature comparison, customer feedback, and user deployment ease, Google Workspace seems to have an upper hand due to its strong collaboration tools and simpler deployment.

Features: Microsoft Exchange offers Message Tracking, integration with third-party apps, and on-premises data protection, which are ideal for businesses heavily invested in Microsoft products. Google Workspace stands out with its real-time collaboration tools like Google Docs and Google Meet, intuitive interface, and seamless integration across all Google services.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Exchange users suggest improvements in storage management, deployment processes, and integration with non-Microsoft products. Google Workspace users point out a high learning curve and desired enhancements in chat features and compatibility with traditional email clients.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Exchange offers flexibility with on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments but requires significant initial setup. Its customer service has room for improvement. Google Workspace provides simple cloud-based deployment, making it accessible for small teams, with generally satisfactory customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Exchange has a complex licensing model, considered cost-effective for large enterprises but potentially costly for smaller companies. Google Workspace provides flexible pricing tiers suitable for businesses of varying sizes, offering a strong ROI, especially valued for collaboration efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange

April 2025

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Helped 850,671 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

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

102

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Storage (6th), Content Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Microsoft Exchange

Ranking in Email Applications

3rd

Ranking in Wireless Email

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File Archiving (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 22.2%, down from 24.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.4%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Sunil-Nair

IT Manager at Universal Carpets & Rugs

Email collaboration and accessibility have improved team productivity

The valuable features include the email service, email updates, and Google Drive. People are given email access to Google Drive. The team can share manual files and work accordingly. They can access different teams from anywhere, collectively putting files, sharing them, and managing them. Additionally, the manufacturing product does not require any downgrades. It works fine and continuously for the last three or four years. Users can access their emails from anywhere in their browser without a laptop or can directly access from Gmail. This is helpful for salespeople.

Read full review

Hesham Hussain

Head Of Infrastructure at ValU

A good solution for large enterprises, but is expensive when compared to other solutions

Regarding the decision of increasing the number of users, it depends on the organization's choice, whether to opt for CapEx or OpEx. Both options involve expenses over the years. Building an in-house Exchange solution requires investing in hardware, storage, connectivity, and administrative resources. Office 365 shifts the budget solely to OpEx as a subscription service. Scalability is another factor. Starting a new company favors Office 365 due to cost efficiency. As the organization grows, the choice depends on available resources and technical expertise. An internal Exchange setup is feasible with skilled engineers, while Office 365 suits those lacking in-house resources.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool helps me keep a backup of old emails. Like everyone else, I love the Google search engine for searching emails on webmail. The Google Workspace connector for Outlook works well, so I have no issues with that."

"A complete integrated environment for our business. I get Google docs, Gmail, online space, and calendar where I can easily perform all documentation, storage, and communications online."

"G Suite is a powerful suite of tools for messaging and collaboration that has met the fundamental needs of my company, both increasing productivity and reducing costs."

"Google Apps for Business and Skype for Business are the perfect solutions for every business thriving online. It is very easy and inexpensive to get work done with these applications online."

"The solution's technical support is very good."

"I have found the solution to be pretty stable."

"The initial setup is simple."

"The valuable feature of Google Workspace is its integrated environment where everything is pre-integrated, like chat and document sharing in Gmail."

More Google Workspace pros

"Our customers are satisfied with the features included in Microsoft Exchange."

"The availability group settings are better, so it has inherent scalability. In 2010, they added several sensible rules."

"I find Exchange's basic mail features to be highly valuable."

"It is very well integrated with other Microsoft programs, teams, and so on. They work well together."

"Microsoft has a very good support team."

"It is easy to set up."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange are it is always online and has broad email and file-sharing capabilities."

"Exchange is very scalable, it's one of the most important things about this software."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

Cons

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

"Better integration without visual misrepresentation with the Microsoft suite is required."

"We've had difficulty using PowerPoint files in G Suite. PowerPoint has some functions that are not available in G Suite, so when you convert from PPTX to the Slides format, they don't work."

"They could increase the number of third-party integrations on offer."

"The solution could improve the Google Cloud identity login to laptops that sometimes do not work. The collaboration for Google sites, they are not equivalent to others, such as Sharepoint."

"Some people complain that Google Mail is inflexible. It was advanced 10 years ago, but other solutions are cleaner and clearer."

"The problem with the presentation is that if you upload a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation and you convert it to Google presentation, the slides or pictures, their images are not editable. You can't edit the slides that you brought in. They're just images."

"Google Meet can have a bit more functionality. It should show the views of more people. Right now, it shows just eight at a maximum, or six. When there are more people on the call, more than eight, everyone is not showing."

More Google Workspace cons

"The setup is difficult so could be easier."

"It's not always the finest solution in terms of integration with products that are not from Microsoft. It integrates very well with Microsoft products but not with third-party products."

"From a security perspective, Microsft Exchange can be improved. All that needs to be added is security, but that's an internal hierarchical problem from the product itself and not the end-users."

"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."

"The tool is not easy to use. Every person has to have at least administration-level experience to use the tool."

"Microsoft Exchange's customer support could be faster and more knowledgeable."

"There is a lot of spam email that comes in, so they should add functionality to help fix this problem."

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

More Microsoft Exchange cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."

"Approximately $6 per user, per month."

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

"Traffic management tools may be required for larger setups and should be included in any pricing calculations."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's about $8.30 up a user per month."

"I give the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most affordable."

"Licensing costs are on a yearly basis."

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

"Its price is fair."

"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."

"It's working very well. There is no problem, but the price is not the best."

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

"Since my company is on Microsoft Cloud, we pay for the licenses per user. Compared to volume licensing, I would say the present licensing cost is not expensive."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange is reasonable."

"Microsoft's licensing structure is too complex, but its prices are affordable, though not cheap."

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

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

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

10%

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.

See all answers

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

The pricing for Google Workspace is moderate. I would rate it a five out of ten, indicating it is neither cheap nor expensive. The current cost is approximately seven to ten euros per user per mont...

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What needs improvement with Google Workspace?

I do not have any major suggestions for improvement. However, while the security functionalities are similar to those in competitors like Active Directory, they could be optimized for stronger secu...

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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

Amazon WorkMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Google Workspace

Compared 28% of the time

ProtonMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 9% of the time

Office 365 vs Google Workspace

Compared 5% of the time

GoDaddy vs Google Workspace

Compared 2% of the time

More Google Workspace Competitors

Zimbra Collaboration vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 19% of the time

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 18% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 13% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 12% of the time

IceWarp vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

April 2025

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange

April 2025

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

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.

Google

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.

Microsoft

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

April 2025

Free Report: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange

Find out what your peers are saying about Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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