Marc Valk dot Net
blogging about…… Microsoft, Cloud Computing
Google apps vs. Exchange Online (and BPOS)
10 Jun 2009Google just released Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. With this tool you can connect your Outlook with your Google Apps Premier Edition Account. So now you can use your familiar Outlook interface.
The cost of this premier account is $50 per user / year. A bit cheaper then exchange online, which costs $120 per user / year.
A little comparison:
I also put BPOS in the comparison, cause for $60 per user / year, you get a whole lot more.
|
Google Apps |
Exchange Online |
BPOS |
|
|
Price user/ year |
$ 50 |
$ 120 |
$ 180 |
|
Mail Storage |
25gb |
5gb1 |
5Gb1 |
|
Mail Sync |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Calendar Sync |
Yes2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Contacts Sync |
Yes2 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Tasks Sync |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Document Collaboration |
Yes (Google Docs) |
No |
Yes |
|
Web Client |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IM / Chat |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
|
Mobile Phone Integration3 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
1 You will get 5Gb per user, but you can give a user between 256Mb and 25Gb of storage. It just takes the space away from you overall storage
2 Sync in Google Apps uses Google Apps Sync, which only runs on windows
3 if you want contact / calender sync on your mobile and you don’t use a Blackberry. Do not consider Google Apps.
There are also some other things to consider. See this page and read through the section “What’s Different from Exchange”
My opinion: If cost is an issue go for Google, else go for BPOS. But I am a bit biased 
.
