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Google Workspace vs IceWarp vs Microsoft Exchange Online comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 14.7%, down from 23.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IceWarp is 4.9%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online is 10.6%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Workspace14.7%
Microsoft Exchange Online10.6%
IceWarp4.9%
Other69.80000000000001%
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

AR
Assosiate Professor at Palazzo del Mediterraneo
Collaborative work with students has improved but storage limitations and support issues remain
We have Google Workspace, and we use it primarily for Drive to collect items. We categorize folders with topics and material either for students or for research. We use Google Doc to share documents, especially when we assign homework to be corrected for peer correction or classroom correction. With Teams and Microsoft, we use it for collective calls and exam supervision because we use video surveillance through camera with Teams. We use Teams for meetings and to share material with students. The ability to share documents with students and assign them things and correct them in real time has been beneficial. You can verify what they write, and they can contribute and cooperate to create a collective document, which is something that our society nowadays requires. The ability to cooperate, especially those who work with languages and those who work with writing, need to learn how to cooperate. There is co-editing and co-writing, all these sorts of things. I love the fact that I can easily have access to folders that I can categorize and where I can upload research material and teaching material.
AvinashLotke - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Head at Team Computers
Useful for collaboration and storage but improvement is needed in API integration
The solution has traditional SSL integration, SAML, and Federation Services. In its latest version, it added SAML integration. However, it needs to work on API integration, especially for dashboards or integration with SAP for log and data system management. It doesn't yet have the kind of API that Google and Microsoft provide for synchronizing users with Active Directory. I think IceWarp needs to improve in a few areas. They have two types of admin consoles - a web-based one and a remote one. I'd like to see these combined into a single web-based admin console. The log reading and information system also needs improvement. The current way of showing incoming and outgoing logs isn't very clear. For new users, it's hard to understand these logs, especially compared to Office 365 and other systems with easier-to-read logs. They should also add an export option to get all logs with a single click whenever we need them.
AM
Assistant General Manager, IT Infrastructure at SAMI Pharmaceuticals (Pvt.) Limited.
Offers flexibility and cost-effectiveness with multiple service options but could improve support and mobile features
There are many things to consider about email management in Microsoft Exchange Online. The online management is good, the storage is sufficient, and we use most of the features such as the custom rules in Microsoft Exchange Online, which we cannot find in any other email solution. That is a very good option, as we have many options to create custom rules in Microsoft Exchange Online. Regarding security features in Microsoft Exchange Online, we also use Defender for Exchange which includes the basic Exchange Online protection that has spam and threat controls. The use of Defender is beneficial for our security. The flexibility of choosing plans in Microsoft Exchange Online is good. We have chosen the best plan for our use, including multiple licenses such as plan one and business basics, which leads us towards cost-effectiveness, and the pay-as-you-go option is more flexible. Microsoft Exchange Online is very scalable.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The solution's technical support is very good."
"Valuable features of the solution are that it's simple and effective."
"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."
"The features we use quite a lot are the mail and Google Drive. We can store documents and share documents between both employees here, locally in Sweden, and we have an office in the US as well. It's a very easy way to share information and documents, and have online meetings and stuff with Google Meet. We use it quite a lot."
"Good performance, even on relatively slow connections; no local apps required."
"I like everything that Google does. They have good products."
"The calendar is the most valuable feature, and the interface is user-friendly."
"The solution's voice services work well for our company."
"The most valuable feature of IceWarp is the chat rooms and file-sharing, they are useful. It is convenient that everything is in one place. You can easily share and collaborate documents, making the program's unity a significant advantage."
"The solution is easy to manage and includes features such as smart documents and the archiving of user data."
"An effective, functional, very good tool for controlling resources at a low cost."
"IceWarp has multiple applications that are easy to use for many people."
"Its price is the most valuable. It is definitely one of the lowest price solutions."
"It's scalable and stable."
"If you have a small to medium business and you require a professional collaboration server that focuses on the main services of emails and calendar scheduling, I recommend IceWarp."
"The initial setup is straightforward and easy to configure."
"It is a scalable product. We are using it for 500 users."
"I chose Microsoft Exchange Online to cut this risk on our day-to-day operations for organizational communication with clients."
"Its most valuable feature is the unlimited storage. It also has very little downtime."
"Having the solution on the cloud has alleviated the need to have hardware on-premises, so I no longer have to deal with the expense of power usage and the hardware taking up space, and we can now focus more on the business instead of our assets."
"Microsoft Exchange Online is one of the best email solutions in the world."
"Microsoft Exchange Online's resiliency is its most valuable feature."
"Microsoft Exchange Online is a stable product."
 

Cons

"I think Meet is not as well-positioned as Zoom."
"There are 120 different products and Google is ready to copy their competitors and vice versa. Some of them work, and some of them don't. There are many newer tools with no-code environments which allow for a leaner self-owned system, where I'm not tied to paying hundreds and thousands of dollars a year to another company."
"Less customizations than there used to be."
"Our users have faced an issue with increasing their email quotas over the last three months."
"I believe that Sheets could have a more functional and user-friendly interface."
"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."
"Google Mail's spam filter needs improvement. If I'm sending mail to another email user, sometimes it goes to the spam folder, and they won't know unless they check because they aren't seeing it in the primary inbox."
"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."
"Our customers sometimes have problems receiving mail."
"Although the documentation is extensive and in depth, you must familiarize yourself with it before taking full advantage of the product."
"The database query for creating new database and querying about activities are too simplistic."
"With multiple databases for VOIP, chat and web IMAP, maintenance is cumbersome."
"Although it is not a tool, video conferencing should be scalable and operate in a professional and efficient way."
"Our customers sometimes have problems receiving mail."
"The solution should improve the mailing list feature. Google has a similar feature where you can automate sending files to different people in a sequence, but that feature is no longer available in the current version of IceWarp. Other features may also have been removed in the current version."
"Support is not good and it is challenging to receive a timely response."
"Cloud security is always a concern and the solution can always increase their security."
"Using this solution is initially quite complicated."
"This product is too complex to use."
"I think that the price is a little high, especially considering that Google have a similar, free email solution."
"This product is too complex to use."
"The solution could be a bit cheaper."
"The solution’s pricing could be better."
"The solution could improve with the integrations with some of the known applications is still not possible, there must be more connectors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"There are benefits that can provide a competitive advantage, e.g., improved productivity (with appropriate training), increased collaboration (with correct use of tools), flexible working - work from home or remote locations, easy to scale - fast onboarding of new employees, and ability to add and remove licenses, as required."
"It's about $8.30 up a user per month."
"The pricing is very high, although I cannot tell if this is the result of the Indian vendors artificially inflating it."
"Pricing is something concerning. We find the solution very expensive."
"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."
"We pay a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."
"The price of G Suite Enterprise is reasonable compared to HotSpot. I'm not going to say G Suite Enterprise is affordable. It's valuable, you find value in paying your gas bill or your electricity bill, because of what it allows you to do."
"The solution is inexpensive which is its main benefit."
"The license is based on the number of users."
"Costs far less than other solutions."
"Our licensing is on a yearly basis. There were no additional costs."
"I would rate the pricing and eight out of ten."
"Pricing and licensing is very competitive and in some cases, cheap."
"There are various licensing plans available based on geographic zone."
"It is definitely one of the lowest price solutions."
"The costs of this platform vary based on subscriptions, but it is generally reasonable."
"This is an expensive solution."
"I would give the cost a five out of ten."
"My company needs to make monthly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product. I feel that the price of the product is affordable."
"We have an enterprise agreement for licensing."
"We have a license per user scenario."
"The licensing cost increased at least 15 to 20 percent recently and it would be helpful for them to be reduced."
"The price of the license depends on a lot of factors, such as the number of licenses and company specifics."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise40
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Workspace?
The company made the decision to migrate, so I'm not sure why specifically. The company is moving the data and the Mi...
What needs improvement with Google Workspace?
Before I was in a Microsoft environment, which had its own software that was not website-based. When I moved to Googl...
What is your primary use case for Google Workspace?
I have been using Google Workspace for file organizing, including Google Drive, Spreadsheet, Gmail, and Google Form, ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IceWarp?
IceWarp was very cost-effective, offering services at a significantly lower cost than Google, which was appealing for...
What needs improvement with IceWarp?
The solution needs improvements in security, particularly regarding document management. Users currently have the rig...
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 o...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Exchange Online?
If I segment it into three points: low price, average, and high price, I would place Microsoft Exchange Online betwee...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Exchange Online?
There is room for improvement in Microsoft Exchange Online. Technical support for Microsoft is good, but in all fairn...
 

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
No data available
Exchange Online, Exchange Online Plan 1, Exchange Online Plan 2, MS Exchange Online
 

Overview

 

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.
Marriott, Toyota, Sony, Wendy's, Canon
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Blue Star Infotech, Scitec Nutrition, Resolution Films, British Airways, Empire Cinemas, InnoGames
Find out what your peers are saying about Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Email Applications. Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.