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Comment by sfsylvester | Hacker News Reader

As others have commented, there is a variety of alternatives to Google for the majority of their products, and the discussion has been had on HN a number of times . [0].

What really annoys me is how woven Google has now become to our working day processes. It's all very well having open-source alternatives for private use, but many (I included) used Inbox for work where we are obligated to use Gmail. This feels like a step backwards in many regards.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17280558

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I agree, it's mind boggling how Google managed to work their way into such major corporations and organizations. At a company I used to work for Google massively (massively) undercut Microsoft for Gmail and Google Docs vs O365. I guess like with Android, no one stopped to wonder why they're giving it away practically free?

It's astonishing what they have done in education too. Kids have no idea what any browser but Chrome is. They don't know that there is any other email besides Gmail. They're equating everything Google with the Internet.

It's actually rather frightening for the open web. Kids can't get away from Youtube. Even on mobile devices, so many searches promote Google products over anything else. Try looking for an address on an iPhone. You can't even copy/paste the address or open it in Apple Maps. it automatically brings up Google Maps and prompts you to install it.

I ended up switching to Bing on my iPhone because I got so sick of Google's invasive tactics. On my device.

> no one stopped to wonder why they're giving it away practically free?

Practically free!? Google Apps for domains is either $5 or $10+ a month per user, depending on feature set. That’s roughly the same price as most other commercial email providers. I don’t know for sure, but my guess is they make a profit on every account just on those monthly fees.

Office 365 is literally double the price of Gmail, and full-blown Exchange is even more expensive. I wouldn't call double the price "roughly the same".

It’s literally not double the price. Office 365 is $5-15 depending on edition (Business Essentials, Business, and Business Premier) and if you do an annual commitment. That’s the same price range as GSuite which is $5 to $25 depending on version (Basic, Business, Enterprise).

Sources:

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-busine...

https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html

That's small business pricing. Their enterprise pricing is higher: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-more-offi...

Ok, since you won’t give up even in the face of obvious facts:

O365 Enterprise E1 is $8/month

O365 Enterprise E3 is $20/month

O365 Enterprise E5 is $35/month

GSuite Enterprise is $25/month

So none of O365’s Enterprise editions are double the price and in fact all but one edition is cheaper than GSuite Enterprise.

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