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Google Workspace vs Zarafa comparison

 

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 (7th), 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 March 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 Zarafa is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Workspace14.7%
Zarafa0.9%
Other84.4%
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.
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

"The calendar is the most valuable feature."
"I like everything that Google does. They have good products."
"G Suite and all of Google were the first to have a built-in multifactor authentication without needing to purchase another product."
"The real-time editing feature is valuable."
"The Hangouts feature is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us."
"It's a secure solution that enables you to choose those you wish to share with."
"It is a stable platform. It is very easy to use, and most importantly, it is very easy to administer. It also gets up and running quite easily."
"Users can work anywhere with an internet connection."
"This makes Zarafa a free, and working, alternative to Microsoft Exchange."
 

Cons

"G-Suite is excellent for what we're trying to do, but it could use some extra features. For example, it would be helpful if we had a seamless way to convert Excel macros to Google Sheets."
"When I compare with Office 365, G Suite has fewer features."
"Integration with Microsoft Outlook could be improved. The new integration was implemented last September, and we are facing some issues with OAuth 2.0 authentication."
"The initial setup is not intuitive at all."
"G Suite could offer something a little more solid in terms of chat — something that is a little more like Slack and integrates with everything. But, unfortunately, the chat is very basic there. It doesn't offer that many features and feels like it doesn't belong there."
"The UI could be more graphic and sassy, but otherwise, it is quite functional."
"Their tool called Sheets is the counterpart to Excel but it doesn't have the same functionality that Excel would have. So usually if somebody needs to go back to Excel or Office, it's because of Excel."
"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."
"Not really, although the Zarafa-index component was using a lot of memory and disk I/O bandwith."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The pricing is a bit on the higher side than normal. For a basic Google account it costs $100, but Enterprise is %150."
"We pay on yearly basis."
"There are different versions of the solution available, such as premium."
"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise28
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.
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: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.