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 22.9% mindshare in EA, compared to Microsoft’s 14.1% 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

6,268 Views
5,616 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange Online

Read 89 Microsoft Exchange Online reviews

4,555 Views
3,562 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 (2nd)

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 April 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 22.9%, down from 23.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online is 14.1%, down from 15.4% 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

"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."

"The email is excellent."

"The solution is very stable."

"I use Keep to assign tasks to a team of programmers, which is very easy."

"Google integrates well with our system. G Suite has an open API, so you can connect any open system with Google capable of working with API. This is the main reason we use it."

"Reduces IT spend, freeing up cash for other areas: sales, marketing, recruitment, etc."

"Google Mail lets you link a task to a specific email and add a reminder. That's helpful for reviewing your schedule. It's based on Slack, so you don't have these folders like in Microsoft mail. Using Slack instead of folders is a bit more intuitive. It's easier to find again a specific email than using Microsoft Suite. If you misplace things, it's much easier to find them because of Google's search capability."

"Google seems to be a more stable environment than our current on-premise Microsoft solution that we're replacing."

More Google Workspace pros

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

"With the Exchange Server, there is a lot of capability for version controlling."

"The overall usage was all good."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange Online is if you have people that are geographically distributed from each other is good. For example, if you have people in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, having an online solution works best because then you can reach the scale of the data centers that are available by Microsoft. Additionally, if you're only going to have two to three people using the solution the cost is a lot less than having an onsite server and licensing. It is highly beneficial in these areas."

"The platform's security and compliance features are good."

"It is a fantastic solution."

"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."

"Microsoft Exchange Online is a very stable solution."

More Microsoft Exchange Online pros

Cons

"The initial setup is not intuitive at all."

"We need more functionality with Google Sheets"

"The solution needs to be more user-friendly and improve its tools and features."

"There seems to be a bit of vulnerability on some operating systems, specifically on the iPhone. There isn't as much control as if a person is using an Android. That's a bit of a concern."

"Our users have faced an issue with increasing their email quotas over the last three months."

"I would rate the stability a five out of ten."

"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."

"There is some redundancy in the functionality between certain modules."

More Google Workspace cons

"The solution’s pricing could be better."

"The product needs to embed AI for intelligent searches and analytics."

"For non-technical people, some configurations might be a little bit difficult. We can use it on our laptops or our portable devices like mobiles and others gadgets, but we have had repeated problems with syncing. That is, when using different gadgets and devices, there are issues with syncing. The configuration could definitely be improved."

"Exchange Online has issues with its mail flow and content search."

"The solution’s technical support could be improved."

"Exchange Online's scalability could be improved."

"I would prefer an anti-malware functionality in at least the basic version."

"It is tricky to integrate Microsoft Exchange Online if you are in an infrastructure provided by other vendors."

More Microsoft Exchange Online cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The main challenge regarding startups with identity services is you could be on a platform that works well but the services are expensive. For example, Microsoft Azure costs approximately $30 per user which is expensive. You end up choosing a different platform, such as G Suite Enterprise because it is priced reasonably and is less expensive than other solutions."

"There are different versions of the solution available, such as premium."

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

"2,500 Rupees per month per user."

"Careful consideration should be given to the different licensing options and provisions should be made for additional applications that may be required for your particular business."

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

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

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

"The subscription fee is monthly."

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

"The price is a bit high. It is especially expensive in the Indian market."

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

"Our organization pays for a corporate license to use the solution."

"I pay approximately $120 or $150 per year, and as long as I pay that amount, they will do regular updates so that I always have the most recent and greatest version of the application."

"The model is one which is pay-per-use go. There is no license. We are talking about per-user subscription-based use."

"The product is expensive and has an annual subscription."

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

Comms Service Provider

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...

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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 3% of the time

Office 365 vs Google Workspace

Compared 3% of the time

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Amazon WorkMail vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 10% of the time

Zoho Mail vs Microsoft Exchange Online

Compared 6% 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 4% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Online Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

March 2025

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange Online

March 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

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