No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Google Workspace vs Zarafa comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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 Email Applications
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Wireless Email (1st), Cloud Storage (8th), Content Collaboration Platforms (2nd)
Zarafa
Ranking in Email Applications
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 17.7%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zarafa is 1.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Workspace17.7%
Zarafa1.9%
Other80.4%
Email Applications
 

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.
it_user302112 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant IT Infrastructure at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Our customers are able to use this groupware solution to connect to Active Directory and OpenLDAP, although Postgres support would be an improvement.
Zarafa has several very valuable features, among them a very good Outlook-like web interface. Furthermore, ZPush for talking between ActiveSync and mobile devices is a valuable asset. In addition, one is able to connect via Outlook and the exchange protocol to Zarafa. This makes Zarafa a free, and working, alternative to Microsoft Exchange.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They are always ahead of the competition, there is not much to improve as long as they keep maintaining the same momentum."
"The tool helps me keep a backup of old emails. Like everyone else, I love the Google search engine for searching emails on webmail. The Google Workspace connector for Outlook works well, so I have no issues with that."
"The solution is easy to use, and you don't need a lot of knowledge for it."
"The security and privacy policies of G Suite make it efficient, and the organizational data is secure."
"Google seems to be a more stable environment than our current on-premise Microsoft solution that we're replacing."
"Google Workspace enhances my productivity within my organization."
"Convenient to share and collaborate documents."
"The enterprise edition is quite stable compared with simply using Google on the browser to read email."
"This makes Zarafa a free, and working, alternative to Microsoft Exchange."
 

Cons

"Better integration without visual misrepresentation with the Microsoft suite is required."
"G Suite does not make it easy for a one-person business to go in and figure this stuff out and make it easy."
"Google Workspace has limitations as a document or file management system. Without a workspace account, manual actions are required to perform tasks such as managing groups of people. Additionally, managing permissions individually is a time-consuming and inefficient process. It's difficult to articulate, but the process is not very streamlined."
"The user interface, especially on Google Drive, could be better."
"G Suite is not as powerful as Microsoft Office Suite, so sometimes we have to change to Excel and PowerPoint."
"Based on my experience, the technical support is extremely poor. Even as a technical person, I struggle to find appropriate contact numbers or email addresses."
"Although I appreciate the product, the integration with Oracle Apex and pricing are minor downsides."
"I don't recommend Google Workspace to others. It's expensive. Also, Google doesn't have enough oversight on their partners, so you will face some difficulties dealing with them instead of directly with Google."
"Not really, although the Zarafa-index component was using a lot of memory and disk I/O bandwith."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 give the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most affordable."
"The price per client within the business is too high."
"We receive value for the price that we pay."
"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 a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."
"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."
"Licensing costs are on a yearly basis."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Applications solutions are best for your needs.
921,749 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
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 Goo...
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...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

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.
Tivoli, InterAkt Contour, Riagg Rijnmond, Lammerink, Revell, KMP, International School of the Hague
Find out what your peers are saying about Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Email Applications. Updated: October 2026.
921,749 professionals have used our research since 2012.