Google Apps vs Exchange

Posted on February 22nd, 2007 in Google, Hosted Applications by dstevens

Google Apps vs Exchange (or hosted Exchange). After reading the big news today, it made me wonder:

Which is better - Google Apps or MS Exchange Server 2007?

I currently pay Mailstreet, a hosted Exchange Provider over $25 per mailbox per month. I get Wireless Access, Outlook Web Access, and SPAM/AV Filtering. However, that’s less than 500MB of disk space per account for $25 per month. Exchange is over-priced.

So, let’s see if I am giving up anything by switching from Hosted MS Exchange to Google Apps…

Google Apps Pros:

  • Free or $50/yr per user
  • Enterprise Features: Single Sign-on, Mail Compliance & Archiving APIs
  • Document Sharing built-in
  • Chat built-in
  • Opt-out of receiving Ads
  • Works like Gmail, no training needed!
  • 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
  • 24/7 Support
  • Great SPAM Filtering (Included)
  • Wireless Access built-in

    • MS Exchange Pros:

  • Fully Sync’s with Outlook 2003. Not just email, but calendar, contacts, tasks, etc…
  • What’s in your inbox is available via Outlook Web Access
  • Deep Support for Blackberry, Goodlink/Treo, and Windows Mobile

    • Verdict:
    While it’s quite a compelling offering, I’m still missing some important pieces. The most important pieces (in my opinion):

    1. Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks Sync. Currently you can buy a Calendar Sync. as a 3rd party add-on, but when will all this be standard?
    2. Google Apps offers mobile and even Blackberry access, so for me, their are only 2 major reasons left to have Exchange. Hopefully Google will address these.

    What’s more, it looks like Google has addressed all the major Enterprise concerns in this funny Press Release by a Hosted Exchange Provider.

    Post a comment, let me know what you think!

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