Google Workspace vs Microsoft Exchange Online comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Google is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8. Google holds a 23.3% mindshare in EA, compared to Microsoft’s 14.4% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Workspace

Read 101 Google Workspace reviews

6,330 Views
5,707 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange Online

Read 89 Microsoft Exchange Online reviews

4,675 Views
3,650 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Workspace

Microsoft Exchange Online

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Microsoft Exchange Online and Google Workspace compete in the email and collaboration tools sector. Microsoft Exchange Online appears to have the upper hand with its strong security framework and compatibility with Office applications, while Google Workspace is favored for its exceptional collaboration tools and ease of use.

Features: Microsoft Exchange Online offers stability, comprehensive integration with Office applications, and a substantial security framework. It boasts significant storage capacity and is praised for its spam filtering capabilities. Google Workspace shines with its collaboration tools, document sharing via Google Drive, and seamless application integration. Its interfaces are user-friendly and support real-time collaboration.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Exchange Online could enhance third-party app integrations and simplify administration. It faces challenges with migration processes and security vulnerabilities. Google Workspace needs better integration with traditional email clients, improved performance for offline tasks, and enhanced compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats. Users also seek more flexibility in Google Meet.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Exchange Online is available across private, public, and hybrid clouds, with substantial technical support. However, users desire quicker response times. Google Workspace operates mainly on public clouds with straightforward integrations but receives mixed reviews on technical support, with expectations for faster resolutions.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Exchange Online tends to have a higher price point due to its extensive features and security options, offering a good return on investment by reducing on-premise costs. Google Workspace offers competitive pricing with a flexible suite of tools. Although affordable, some users find its pricing high for the functionalities available compared to alternatives like Microsoft 365 but value its productivity enhancements.

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

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange Online

March 2025

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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

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

101

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (2nd), Cloud Storage (6th), Content Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Microsoft Exchange Online

Ranking in Email Applications

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 23.3%, up from 23.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online is 14.4%, down from 15.2% 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

Babatunde-Olugbode

Technical presales engineer at Avetium Consult Ltd

Offers good user interface and seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft services

I like its user interface. I don't struggle or face any challenges while using it. The design interface is simple. I haven't had any trouble managing it for a long time. Even if I encounter a challenge or two, I can always reach out to Microsoft for help. So, overall, it's been a very positive experience. Having everything under one account was valuable. I just had to go through cybersecurity for licensing and download everything. With one account, you can download Office and use Online features directly from your Exchange. There are security solutions in place, and we take customer data very seriously. For example, if I accidentally create a forwarding rule or send an email with an image attached, I get a notification immediately. Compliance-wise, it's quite good online. We can do many things. Even if I can't click on something or upload a specific file type, it'll still be stored for compliance or investigation purposes. So, subscribing to these features. The benefits are widespread and effective communication. We use Microsoft Teams for meetings within and outside our organization. Additionally, Teams can be used for chat, allowing us to track communication and see user activity. Those are the key points that have proven to be beneficial.

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

"I find smart sheets in Google Sheets to be useful."

"The document sharing in which multiple people can work on the same document. To go along with that is the archiving of documents. If you mess up a document, it's easy to go get a previous version."

"G Suite and all of Google were the first to have a built-in multifactor authentication without needing to purchase another product."

"It's certainly easier to meet. We have offices around the world and the ability to have a company meeting on Google Meet platform makes it a whole lot easier to actually have everybody virtually in one room at the same time."

"The user interface is fantastic. It's also available for the individual person, so that's also a great thing about it."

"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."

"G Suite Enterprise is scalable."

"It is a stable platform. It is very easy to use, and most importantly, it is very easy to administer. It also gets up and running quite easily."

More Google Workspace pros

"The product was simple to use."

"The online version is faster, as it is a cloud instance. We can have massive mailbox capacity: 100 GB per user, which is huge. We can't provision such capacity internally, as the company would get burnt out paying for mailbox storage."

"The solution is scalable."

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

"All of the Microsoft Exchange Online is very useful, such as the sections, the information protection, and the mail flows."

"Microsoft Exchange Online is a stable product."

"Message trace is the most valuable feature of the product."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange Online are the frequent updates. They upgrade and optimize the features to make them better and better. They have a very strong ecosystem and they integrate together."

More Microsoft Exchange Online pros

Cons

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

"We noticed that sometimes when we forward emails to somebody, it is being relocated as part of the communication somewhere else. The traceability and other features should be improved."

"I'm not sure if Google Drive has a customizing feature, however, if it did, then it would be better."

"Google Workspace needs to be more flexible, like Microsoft Excel."

"There's a bit of a learning curve."

"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 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."

"Expensive with a complicated licensing structure."

More Google Workspace cons

"Microsoft needs to lower the price of the extra production add-ins for Exchange Online."

"Exchange Online's scalability could be improved."

"The demo version we were provided had issues with emails bouncing or being delayed."

"From an IT perspective, we need clearer documentation to understand the product’s configuration process."

"In the past, we had issues with DB in mailboxes."

"In terms of machine controls, it was very confusing, and some of the administrative parts will be done from the control, but in online writing mostly we can handle everything."

"The solution is expensive."

"There is room for improvement in terms of security, as it could be better."

More Microsoft Exchange Online cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution can vary."

"We normally purchase the license on a yearly basis."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I can't recall the exact pricing per user for Google Workspace, but I know it's not that expensive. I'm in a mid-sized company that's able to maintain and afford Google Workspace, so it has competitive pricing, and I would rate its price as four out of five."

"We have purchased an annual subscription."

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

"The pricing is comparable, it's pretty decent."

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

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Exchange Online is an affordable solution."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange Online security could improve. The overall price of the solution is reasonable."

"I am using Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange Online comes as the package. It cost approximately $13 per month."

"The solution costs $12 to $16 per user per month."

"The pricing could be improved."

"This solution requires a license."

"The license for the solution is cheap, but it could be more affordable in the long term."

"The pricing is a bit more expensive than other solutions."

More Microsoft Exchange Online 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

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

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?

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?

As far as Google Workspace is concerned, it is working fine for us. Our needs are fulfilled, so that's fine. However, integration with Microsoft Outlook could be improved. The new integration was i...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange Online?

The benefits are widespread and effective communication. We use Microsoft Teams for meetings within and outside our organization. Additionally, Teams can be used for chat, allowing us to track comm...

See all answers

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

The pricing for Microsoft Exchange Online is quite reasonable, in my opinion. Many licensing options are available so that we can choose based on the customer's needs. For example, if a customer on...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Exchange Online?

There are always improvements needed. My personal issue with using OfficeSuite and the Exchange Server is that one has to cobble together a whole bunch of different applications. Therefore, a lot o...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon WorkMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 29% of the time

ProtonMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon WorkDocs vs Google Workspace

Compared 4% of the time

IceWarp vs Google Workspace

Compared 4% of the time

Zoho Mail vs Google Workspace

Compared 3% of the time

More Google Workspace Competitors

Amazon WorkMail vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 10% of the time

Zoho Mail vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 5% of the time

ProtonMail vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 4% of the time

Zimbra Collaboration vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 4% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Online Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

February 2025

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange Online

February 2025

Download Microsoft Exchange Online 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 Online, Exchange Online Plan 1, Exchange Online Plan 2, MS Exchange Online

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

Exchange Online helps protect your information with advanced capabilities. Anti-malware and anti-spam filtering protect mailboxes. Data loss prevention capabilities prevent users from mistakenly sending sensitive information to unauthorized people. Globally redundant servers, premier disaster recovery capabilities, and a team of security experts monitoring Exchange Online around the clock safeguard your data.

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.

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Blue Star Infotech, Scitec Nutrition, Resolution Films, British Airways, Empire Cinemas, InnoGames

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange Online

March 2025

Free Report: Google Workspace vs. Microsoft Exchange Online

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

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