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Google Workspace vs ownCloud comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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 Content Collaboration Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Email Applications (1st), Wireless Email (1st), Cloud Storage (8th)
ownCloud
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
20th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 6.9%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ownCloud is 1.7%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Workspace6.9%
ownCloud1.7%
Other91.4%
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Hikmah Hikmah - PeerSpot reviewer
Brand Protection Analyst at Corsearch
Collaborative tools have improved team communication and file organization across projects
Before I was in a Microsoft environment, which had its own software that was not website-based. When I moved to Google Workspace, it was not seamless because I have to access it through a web view in the browser. Most of it does not have stable connection because it is based on web view. It would be great if Google Workspace had its own application built into the PC or a desktop application. The operation is a bit different from Microsoft, which makes it difficult for me. For example, with Microsoft, we could easily access the shared mailbox with one URL and have access to it. With Google Workspace, we have to set it up by ourselves inside our own mailbox, which is a bit difficult because of how it operates differently. I think it can be improved more. Currently, guidelines are just in the form of a document that we can read by ourselves. It would be really helpful if the guidelines themselves were built into the environment itself. Since Google Workspace is in web view, maybe that would be possible. That would be more helpful than just reading a document.
SC
Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Self-hosted file sync tool used to deploy custom web UIs.
I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market. It’s a full web application platform, an indispensable tool for a business of any size that needs to deploy any kind of custom web UI. If you build an ownCloud app, you’ve got authentication, storage, security, caching, and database layers already fully baked for you. You just need to build your UI and custom logic. Your app doesn’t even need to interact with files, sync, or interact with other ownCloud features. Any web UI can be included without ownCloud. It can even be a portal to web interfaces of other applications within a business using the external app to display external sites within ownCloud. This is the case as long as that site allows itself to be displayed within a frame.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 email is excellent."
"It was much easier and cheaper for us than most email solutions as we didn’t have to worry about anything except setting up users."
"It's a secure solution that enables you to choose those you wish to share with."
"We switched our company from an Intermedia Exchange server to Gmail for Business and I am extremely happy with the results."
"G Suite Enterprise is user-friendly, and the technical toolkits and other information are on the website. Additionally, the technical documents are comprehensive."
"The most beneficial feature is Gmail, which we use extensively."
"G Suite is a completely different experience, and its capabilities are more advanced."
"I think it’s probably the best self-hosted file sync tool on the market."
 

Cons

"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."
"Google Workspace doesn't have some of the Excel and PowerPoint presentation functions you get with Microsoft Office."
"The cost could be improved."
"Google Workspace needs to be more flexible, like Microsoft Excel."
"The performance speed could be improved when the internet connection is slow."
"Fairly frequent performance problems."
"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."
"Integration with Microsoft Outlook could be improved."
"Even with fast disks, it still takes a fair bit of time to write most schema changes to multi-GB tables."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."
"We normally purchase the license on a yearly basis."
"We pay a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."
"I give the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most affordable."
"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."
"There are different versions of the solution available, such as premium."
"The pricing is a bit on the higher side than normal. For a basic Google account it costs $100, but Enterprise is %150."
"There are several areas where a G Suite implementation can reduce costs: lower license fees than some competing products, reduced hardware, and IT support costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise29
No data available
 

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 Microsoft subscription is no longer continued, so I have the choice to use Google ...
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 Google Workspace, it was not seamless because I have to access it through a web view ...
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, with most of my usage being in Spreadsheet. I do use Google Groups, which combin...
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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
 

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.
CERN, Joy Global, Sciebo, Bauhaus, datto
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Google, Dropbox and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.