Gmail Or Microsoft Exchange?

By Dipankar Das, Gaea News Network
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

email We use third party email service at our company. Recently, we are planning for an alternate email option. The choice is either Gmail or Microsoft Exchange. I jot downs the pros and cons during my study for both of the services and share it with you.

Exchange:

  • Exchange will be less expensive on a long run, however, the initial cost will involve new hardware, new licenses, possibly new anti-spam filters, new routers, new backup software, etc.
  • Exchange also requires lot of maintenance. If your IT department is very small, then you may have  difficulty to maintain Exchange Server.
  • Microsoft Exchange License is going to cost us around $65-70/user. But, Google Business Mail service costs $50/user/year.
  • The strong positive aspect of Exchange is that you can control the server, access to the server and how the data is backed up on the server,
  • Suppose, your internet goes down , but, your network is up.  You can still access your calendars and tasks lists with exchange.
  • You also get a good phone support mechanism with Exchange.  If your business is small and you can not afford a server with exchange on it, you can go for hosted exchange.

Gmail:

  • Every email service requires periodic maintenance and troubleshooting. For Gmail service, it is managed by Google, not by you. That’s why we can concentrate on our core project.
  • It provides huge capacity. ie more than 7 GB per user. Additionally, Gmail is free service.  However, the professional Gmail service that costs $50/user/year provides 25 GB storage and less spam.  
  • Gmail provides better antispam than Exchange. You don’t have to maintain it. Gmail does it for you.
  • You don’t have to mention  POP, SMTP, IMAP servers for Gmail Service. Everything is handled through Web.
  • When you archive in Outlook/Exchange, you do it using multiple containers. So, in case of search, it is going to be a slow process. But, Gmail archive all of your old mails in a single container. So, the search is relatively faster.
  • The email address of your XYZ company remains the same with new Gmail. ie username@xyz.com So, nothing has changed to outside people.

I am also trying to find out what are the other pros and cons for moving to Exchange or Gmail server. I will appreciate your feedback in this respect.

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