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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 September 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 20.6%, down from 24.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.3%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Mail is 5.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Google Workspace20.6%
Microsoft Exchange11.3%
Zoho Mail5.4%
Other62.699999999999996%
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.
Harry Murdani - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps with email services and communication with internal and external contacts
Everything is useful. The only useful thing Microsoft Exchange could do is give us more of a discount on pricing because it's so expensive. Regarding the calendaring functions of Exchange, there is a problem when scheduling an event for the whole day. When you click the whole day event, the scheduling doesn't really work. For example, if I schedule a meeting with you and block your whole day, instead of just putting a time from morning to afternoon, other people can still block your time, which results in double booking. It's kind of a bug that allows people to double-book. So, the scheduling isn't working properly yet. We also faced challenges with backup services. You need to use a third-party backup solution to back up the whole Exchange server properly. You can't use the native Windows backup services. It's like they're forcing me to buy another product, which means additional costs. The backup solution and the double booking issues. If Microsoft Exchange can fix these two things, then it will be very good.
Salem Shafik - PeerSpot reviewer
Zoho Mail suits small businesses well but can improve user organization features
For the admin side of Zoho Mail, they need to add features for organizing users in organizational units. We currently only have the ability to add users to groups, but some admins need to organize users in organizational units and apply security policies or other configurations based on these units.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Google Chat is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"Ability to co-edit and collaborate on content."
"Google Workspace is an excellent tool for communicating with people, which allows users to collaborate and edit files simultaneously."
"Only a few competitors can do precisely what Google Workspace does in terms of email management and calendar management through its Gmail and Google Calendar apps. It's a very seamless platform."
"The implementation was very easy."
"It's secure. It offers data security and user privacy. I use it for personal purposes. The interface is okay, and it's easy to use."
"The initial setup of Google Workspace is straightforward."
"The most valuable features are the speed at which G Suite Enterprise works."
"The search tools are good."
"It integrates well with other tools."
"On-premises Microsoft Exchange is good because it protects data privacy."
"The technical support services are good."
"Internal communication stability within Exchange is ensured by the stability of the internal network which is guaranteed by default."
"Microsoft Exchange is a powerful solution. It can easily integrate with Active Directory and other business applications. It does not require any training, it is flexible and simple to use. When comparing Microsoft Exchange to other solutions, such as Lotus Note, it is more straightforward for business."
"It is a product that is simple to manage, and easy to use."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange are its ease of use, and simplicity of communication, and we can track communications between teams."
"I like Zoho Mail's user interface."
"Their experience with Zoho Mail has been positive, as customers haven't complained about anything."
"We can create email accounts for our customers."
"Zoho Mail is a cost-effective solution."
"It uses an alert system and other monitoring tools."
"The interconnectivity between these applications makes it particularly useful."
"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."
"The notifications, scheduling, and meetings are all integrated."
 

Cons

"The solution could always be more secure, although that doesn't affect me so much."
"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 tool should improve its on-prem capabilities to include people who are working offline. The pricing is also a challenge for both the Indian and overseas markets. The tool has a cap of 300 licenses. The product's price has also increased by 10 percent. Businesses are struggling to justify the ROI. Users cannot block emails unless they have a strong firewall."
"There's a bit of a learning curve."
"G Suite is not as powerful as Microsoft Office Suite, so sometimes we have to change to Excel and PowerPoint."
"The performance speed could be improved when the internet connection is slow."
"It would be a lot nicer if the default Gmail came with features that we currently need add-ons for, such as tables, automatic BCC, resizing of the panel on the left-hand side, email highlighting, and configuring the display of time and date against each email."
"The synchronization is a bit of an issue."
"I'd like the archiving process to be faster."
"In the version we have, I would like to see better communication between the end device and the Exchange server."
"It is costly, so it depends on how much you want to pay."
"Microsoft Exchange could improve the price."
"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."
"The only thing that could be improved is the pricing."
"They keep making all these changes, and our system was down for four or five days. They finally got it up, but there are still lots of quirks."
"For the next release, there are some features on the cloud-based Exchange that aren't included on-prem. It would be great if these features were made available in the next release. For instance, integration between Exchange and its on-prem calendar is not available for the on-prem solution."
"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."
"I once tried doing bulk email sending with Zoho Mail, but it was declined. I didn't realize it was declined until several hours later when I checked for responses."
"Zoho Mail needs to add an IT system management feature."
"Zoho Mail needs to improve its integration because direct integration is not possible with many applications."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"They have issues when they are rolling out updates"
"We face some challenges in our current architecture with the introduction of data privacy regulations. When you are sending a calendar invite to a group of people for a meeting or an event, there is no structure for privacy. You can't hide all the contacts. Maybe that feature exists, but I don't know where it is."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have purchased an annual subscription."
"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."
"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."
"The pricing is a bit on the higher side than normal. For a basic Google account it costs $100, but Enterprise is %150."
"I rate Google Workspace's pricing five to six out of ten. We do not pay any extra costs."
"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."
"We receive value for the price that we pay."
"There are different versions of the solution available, such as premium."
"There are different prices depending on the customer's use cases and amount of users. The price of the solution could improve."
"The price of Microsoft Exchange could improve. In Egypt, the price keeps increasing."
"Its price is very affordable, and basically, it is the standard of the industry. We have the Exchange 365 subscription, which includes the usage of Exchange Online. I don't know the specific cost, but it is the retail price of Microsoft 365 E3 licenses. Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. Microsoft changes rules every other day, which makes it difficult for us to understand the licensing not only for Exchange but also for other products. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing."
"Microsoft Exchange itself does not require a license, but users who will have mailboxes will require a license. It depends on the number of users to choose which license. If you exceed 2,000 mailboxes, it's preferable to get the enterprise license."
"The platform has a reasonable price."
"They are flexible when it comes to pricing, unlike most of the other vendors I have dealt with."
"Microsoft Exchange is a very well-priced solution."
"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."
"The solution is more affordable compared to other products. It is cheap."
"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."
"Zoho Mail is more cost-efficient than its competitors."
"The solution’s pricing is very reasonable."
"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."
"If you have ten users, for Google, you'll pay $100. With Zoho Mail, you'll only pay $30 to $40."
"There is no license required to use Zoho Mail."
"The solution is not costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
20%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Retailer
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business63
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise35
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
 

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?
The pricing for Google Workspace is moderate. I would rate it a five out of ten, indicating it is neither cheap nor e...
What needs improvement with Google Workspace?
I don't see many areas of Google Workspace that could be improved or enhanced because everything I have been using ha...
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?
Microsoft Exchange is costly, and its licensing model can be expensive over time as more users require licenses.
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 economical compared to Microsoft and Google Workspace. Speaking specifically about Egypt and the region,...
What needs improvement with Zoho Mail?
They could increase the available space which is currently 5 GB. Gmail provides 15 GB of storage space, which would b...
 

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: August 2025.
866,391 professionals have used our research since 2012.