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Google Vault vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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 Vault
Ranking in Email Archiving
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
eDiscovery (2nd)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Email Archiving
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (10th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Archiving category, the mindshare of Google Vault is 5.2%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 18.2%, down from 23.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Archiving Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 36518.2%
Google Vault5.2%
Other76.6%
Email Archiving
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Gill - PeerSpot reviewer
GWS/M365 Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported data retention and export tasks while leaving room for greater automation and feature expansion
If we can have more APIs open for Google Vault, that would be great, and instead of doing it manually, it would be better to do it programmatically. I think there is an API available with Google Vault, though I'm not certain about it. I have never used Vault programmatically, but if APIs exist, then it's beneficial, and if there aren't any, we should have the capability for programmers to create some sort of scripting so they can fetch the data. I assess the export feature in Google Vault in terms of ease and efficiency as quite efficient because most of the data we want to see is available in MBOX and PST formats. If possible, I would want to see Google Vault support additional formats such as iCal, iCad, or CardDAV, which are for iPhone users.
Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Vault is a solution we can use for the data export of end-users."
"The audit part of the tool is the most useful for me."
"What I appreciate about Google Vault is that one of the best features is the ability to use retention policies; it covers mail, chat groups, calendars, sites, Drive, and Google Voice, and the data will remain in Google Vault even if it gets deleted by the user accidentally or intentionally."
"Overall, I would rate Google Vault a ten out of ten."
"My impression is that the initial setup process is not that difficult."
"The most valuable features are automatic document and email retention."
"You can retrieve any type of data; for example, if a user accidentally deletes data, as an admin with access to Google Vault, you can easily restore the deleted data."
"Data retention is very valuable to us."
"It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment."
"One of the best features of the tool is its capability to aggregate insights from different workloads, basically from the Office 365 and endpoints part."
"The insights provided with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are helpful because it comes with the E5 license, and by default, we can use a lot of capabilities."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is data backups that we can provide through ticket requests."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"I like its investigation capabilities, as that is what is most important to me. It is fairly simple with a user-friendly interface."
"The product's scalability is good."
"The DLP feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is valuable, and we also use the DLP feature for email real-time detection."
 

Cons

"It would be nice if Google would let us download the data in different formats."
"So, when doing a search, perhaps in some instances when you use terms, the information is not very precise in the sense that I'm not getting what I'm looking for. And in some instances, the information, not all the time, but in some instances, it might not be accurate. For example, when doing a search, if you use too many terms, it might not return any results."
"Searching could be improved. There's a lot of limitations when searching with Google Vault."
"The price of the solution could improve and the search could be easier."
"eDiscovery could be improved with additional information and an easier way to retain it."
"Although it does a good job of searching through data and exporting it, I feel that Google Vault should have more export options available to the user. As a reseller, our customers demand a lot from their Google products, and exporting is one area where there's a lot of improvement needed."
"The knowledge base is not as in-depth as it should be."
"Compared to Microsoft, they have more features in terms of compliance and retention policies."
"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."
"The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster."
"They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."
"If you look at other products, such as Wiz or Palo Alto's cloud, because they also have similar components in terms of how they protect cloud infrastructure or enable cloud security, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is not up to that extent."
"I assess the stability and reliability of the solution as seven out of ten."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"If you have Google Enterprise, then Google Vault is free to use."
"Last year, the price was randomly increased and our customers were really facing a challenge around this. Google launched new pricing under different plans, where formerly there were only three plans, and now there are four, each with their own separate usage allowances. I think it's good, though. The basic plan is now the Business Starter plan, and many customers find this plan very convenient and minimal in price. Overall, the pricing for all the plans is good."
"Google Vault comes as part of a package deal for us."
"Google Vault is a cheaply priced product. Monthly payments are to be made towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no extra costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the solution."
"The pricing is fairly cheap."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"It's a user-base subscription."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Vault?
There is no setup cost; it's only the pricing which one needs to pay upon subscribing to Google Vault services.
What needs improvement with Google Vault?
If we can have more APIs open for Google Vault, that would be great, and instead of doing it manually, it would be better to do it programmatically. I think there is an API available with Google Va...
What is your primary use case for Google Vault?
A few use cases for Google Vault involve using it for custodian purposes where we have to store their mails, calendars, and mostly the mails, which we have done as a custodian process in order to s...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents, protecting my documents, and protecting attachments. I also use it to conduct ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Defender for Office 365
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Broadcom, Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Globeflight, Maven Wave, McClatchy, NII Holdings, Safetec, Sheboygan County
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Vault vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.