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Google Workspace vs Microsoft Exchange vs Zoho Mail 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 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. The mindshare of Zoho Mail is 5.0%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Sunil-Nair - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Hesham Hussain - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
AvinashLotke - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good security with effective spam filtering but has update issues
Zoho is not just a traditional software-based company. It offers a wide range of APIs and other integration tools, including a CRM tool and various other products, so integration is not limited. Zoho has operations management and developers, making integration feasible with any system. Zoho is a cloud-based solution, meaning maintenance is managed by their system. They don't provide access to unauthorized persons. Zoho handles maintenance. Traditionally, we haven't recommended Zoho as extensively because we prefer systems we have thoroughly tested and can confidently endorse. We've deployed Zoho a few times with mixed success. In comparison, we've had more success with Google deployments, with higher implementation rates and ease, offering better revenue opportunities. Based on requirements, I might recommend Zoho, but for higher needs or better collaboration, I'd suggest Google, possibly combined with iSoft. If there is no other support, Google remains a strong recommendation. Overall, considering support, I rate the solution a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The valuable features of this solution are ease of use, performance is great, and collaboration. It is very easy to share and joins documents."
"From a security point of view, Google will alert you if anything strange is happening. They will flag it for you so you are aware."
"The product is user-friendly and knows how to appeal to a user. Google Docs accepts some of our requirements. Its most valuable feature is performance. The product's integrations are good."
"What I like most about Google Workspace is the Google Drive app because you can easily access it from anywhere and from any device. I also find the solution easy to use. It's user-friendly."
"It is quite a useful tool. It allows many people to work on a document. You can actually provide review comments and tag anybody to make the comment changes. You can also attach a document in Google Chat."
"The initial setup is easy because it's all pre-configured."
"We find Google Drive and mail useful for our services."
"The solution's technical support is very good."
"The tool's most valuable feature is associated with the fact that it stands out for being beneficial for managing emails."
"It is very well integrated with other Microsoft programs, teams, and so on. They work well together."
"I find Exchange's basic mail features to be highly valuable."
"I like the logistics and the Microsoft protocol of reaching Outlook anywhere."
"With the cloud coming in, scalability is not an issue even for Microsoft."
"The best features are that Exchange is very customer-friendly, its interface is self-explanatory, it doesn't hang, and it keeps evolving."
"Customers can benefit from this new pricing model because it's expensive and now with the subscription they can budget for this."
"The backup and archiving features are valuable, it is user friendly too."
"Zoho Mail is a cost-effective solution."
"Zoho Mail organizes your email well, and you can do a lot of things if you use other Zoho applications along with it."
"I like Zoho Mail's user interface."
"The notifications, scheduling, and meetings are all integrated."
"Zoho gives you a set amount of free users, so you can use it until you reach the limit and see if it's something you want to adopt. I tried it and stuck with it. Since then, I've seen a lot of improvement. I already think it's top-notch, but I believe it will become one of the best in the world."
"It uses an alert system and other monitoring tools."
"We can create email accounts for our customers."
"The most valuable features of Zoho Mail are its security, integration with cloud storage, and wide range of features available. It integrates well with Outlook and mobile devices."
 

Cons

"The initial setup is not intuitive at all."
"I'm not sure if Google Drive has a customizing feature, however, if it did, then it would be better."
"Google needs to improve its support."
"Everything is online, so you don't have a client on your desk. Working on email is online work, so can't do work offline and go back online. Sometimes it's not so intuitive. If you answer an email, it puts your answer at the bottom of the existing email."
"There's a bit of a learning curve."
"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."
"We use Zoom most of the time for official meetings, and we use Google Meet only for internal meetings. I would like to get an improvised Google Meet. It would be good if they can make Google Meet more clear in communication and more scalable like Zoom."
"We would like to use something within Google Workspace for project management, but we didn't find it there."
"Some users encounter stability issues. I connect with the support team through my local partner, which takes time."
"Currently, its administration is too cumbersome. It's unwieldy. It's slow. It consumes too many resources. Configuration needs to be much more streamlined and administratively automated."
"The setup is difficult so could be easier."
"It is important to have the updated version for scalability."
"I don't have the best impression of customer service and support. It should be faster and more clear, and more human. T"
"The filtering of spam needs significant improvement, as many spam emails are not getting detected."
"They could offer simultaneous features for Exchange Online and on-premises versions. Specific features such as litigation hold and audit setups should be available on-premises."
"An improvement would be to combine Exchange and Teams so that emails, calls, and chats can be integrated into one window."
"Zoho Mail needs to add an IT system management feature."
"The solution doesn't need to be improved."
"The solution's meeting plans and online virtual activity task list could be improved and made more seamless."
"They have issues when they are rolling out updates"
"The interface isn't quite good. Everything looks a little low-quality."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"The initial setup of Zoho Mail can take some time because we have 30 to 35 users and we need to register each one. This can take one or two days to complete. The process could be better for administrators to register their users. If the setup interface was better in explaining the process it would be helpful to become more user-friendly."
"Zoho Mail needs to improve its integration because direct integration is not possible with many applications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We pay on yearly basis."
"G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 offer products with similar functionality at several different price points. Zoho offer a more extensive range of products and attempts to provide all the applications required to run most small and medium-sized businesses."
"You pay for Google Workspace based on your usage and the apps you use, but in my case, it's free, but if I used it a lot more, I'd probably need to pay. 15GB is enough for me, but I see myself upgrading and paying the additional charges for more storage regularly."
"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."
"Licensing costs are on a yearly basis."
"Approximately $6 per user, per month."
"Traffic management tools may be required for larger setups and should be included in any pricing calculations."
"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."
"This solution is expensive."
"We are currently using enterprise licenses for the solution. They are different pricing models available. There are individual, cloud-based, and enterprise licenses all with different pricing models. The larger the number of users, the lesser the price. For small to medium companies like us, we feel it is expensive."
"Microsoft Exchange is a very well-priced solution."
"There are different prices depending on the customer's use cases and amount of users. The price of the solution could improve."
"Compared to the other options in the market, the licensing costs attached to Microsoft Exchange seem reasonable."
"The solution's pricing is fine...I do think the tool offers value for money."
"Its price is okay."
"If you have ten users, for Google, you'll pay $100. With Zoho Mail, you'll only pay $30 to $40."
"Zoho Mail is more cost-efficient than its competitors."
"The solution is not costly."
"One of the reasons people use Zoho in Nigeria is because we can pay for it in Naira. It's very affordable already. For example, we can get Zoho Mail for somewhere between 1000 naira per user, which is less than one dollar. In my opinion, it's very affordable."
"The solution’s pricing is very reasonable."
"The solution is more affordable compared to other products. It is cheap."
"There is no license required to use Zoho Mail."
"Zoho One has all 50 applications in it, and Zoho Mail is part of it. Zoho One is about 35 GBP per person per month. It includes Zoho Projects, Zoho Mail, Zoho CRM, and everything else."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Retailer
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
7%
 

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 custom...
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.
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,...
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 ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange?
The initial setup was straightforward and fast.
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. How...
What do you like most about Zoho Mail?
It also offers the search functionalities. For end users, the search is quite easy to use. There are a few tabs to se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho Mail?
Zoho Mail is more cost-efficient than its competitors.
What needs improvement with Zoho Mail?
The solution's meeting plans and online virtual activity task list could be improved and made more seamless.
 

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
No data available
 

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.
Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting
BBDO, HuffPost
Find out what your peers are saying about Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Email Applications. Updated: March 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.