Google Vault vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the eDiscovery category. Google is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.8. Google holds a 4.7% mindshare in eD, compared to Microsoft’s 9.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Vault

Read 13 Google Vault reviews

1,914 Views
1,608 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

Read 8 Microsoft Purview eDiscovery reviews

2,617 Views
1,884 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Google Vault

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2024

Google Vault and Microsoft Purview eDiscovery compete in enterprise information governance. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery often has the upper hand due to its advanced features, making it a valuable investment.

Features: Google Vault integrates seamlessly with Google's ecosystem and offers basic archiving capabilities. While Microsoft Purview eDiscovery provides comprehensive legal hold functionality, advanced search options and analytics for in-depth data management.

Room for Improvement: Google Vault users note limitations in complex search functionalities, reporting capabilities, and features offered. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is often criticized for the complexity of navigating its extensive features, which may overwhelm new users, potential usability enhancements and simplified interface needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Vault is known for easy setup, swift deployment in the Google workspace, and straightforward customer service. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, although requiring a steeper learning curve initially, benefits from strong technical support and provides long-term value once integrated.

Pricing and ROI: Google Vault often has a lower initial setup cost, appealing for basic functionalities. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is more expensive yet known for better ROI due to its advanced capabilities and suitability for robust enterprise-grade needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Vault vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Google Vault vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

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 Vault

Ranking in eDiscovery

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (4th)

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

Ranking in eDiscovery

1st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (22nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the eDiscovery category, the mindshare of Google Vault is 4.7%, down from 16.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is 9.8%, down from 26.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

eDiscovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery	9.8%
Google Vault	4.7%
Other	85.5%

eDiscovery

Featured Reviews

Rahul Gill

GWS/M365 Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Has supported data retention and export tasks while leaving room for greater automation and feature expansion

If we can have more APIs open for Google Vault, that would be great, and instead of doing it manually, it would be better to do it programmatically. I think there is an API available with Google Vault, though I'm not certain about it. I have never used Vault programmatically, but if APIs exist, then it's beneficial, and if there aren't any, we should have the capability for programmers to create some sort of scripting so they can fetch the data. I assess the export feature in Google Vault in terms of ease and efficiency as quite efficient because most of the data we want to see is available in MBOX and PST formats. If possible, I would want to see Google Vault support additional formats such as iCal, iCad, or CardDAV, which are for iPhone users.

Read full review

John Alvis

Manager, Information Technology Operations & Security at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

Enables us to guarantee that we followed the regulations

The ability to query everything that's in Microsoft and send links or add people, like managers, to review the documents is valuable. It's easy as I don't have to download and email anything. I just add them as a reviewer, and they can access it from there. Purview's inclusion of critical regulations is essential. Lawyers will ask how we gathered information. With Purview, we can guarantee that we've followed the regulations. The visibility into what's happening and who has access is great for legal matters and saves us a lot of time.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Google Vault is a solution we can use for the data export of end-users."

"Data retention is very valuable to us."

"Search feature is valuable for our customers."

"What I appreciate about Google Vault is that one of the best features is the ability to use retention policies; it covers mail, chat groups, calendars, sites, Drive, and Google Voice, and the data will remain in Google Vault even if it gets deleted by the user accidentally or intentionally."

"One of the noteworthy aspects is that nothing ever gets deleted, which is convenient."

"Overall, I would rate Google Vault a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable features are automatic document and email retention."

"It is a very stable solution...It is a very scalable solution."

More Google Vault pros

"Tasks that took an entire day before we implemented Purview now take just 30 minutes."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is its ability to search across various platforms, including Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. It enables a streamlined, unified process for searching across these platforms."

"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery has saved me personally a lot of time because I can query it, and it touches everything we have as a full Microsoft shop."

"The speed of it is valuable. I am able to search even 10,000 mailboxes for specific content. It helps search and accommodate the often limited information provided by users regarding what they need."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is the content search. We can use it to find the data we need by searching for keywords, phrases, or the sender or recipient. It helps us gather information from current employees or ones who have left the company."

"The return on investment is saving the equivalent of one or two full-time IT department employees and a few hours per week for legal staff."

"The ability to query everything that's in Microsoft and send links or add people, like managers, to review the documents is valuable. It's easy as I don't have to download and email anything. I just add them as a reviewer, and they can access it from there."

"The tool has been beneficial. Some of our previous users left the organization without sharing the information they had at a personal level. This information was related to the organization, and they didn't disclose it. Thanks to the product, it's easy for me to search and find out what communication a specific user has done, whether it's from SharePoint or any other platform. With Microsoft Purview eDiscovery, we can easily retrieve and restore this data."

More Microsoft Purview eDiscovery pros

Cons

"Google Vault lacks speed."

"Searching could be improved. There's a lot of limitations when searching with Google Vault."

"It would be nice if Google would let us download the data in different formats."

"Customer service has been a bit lacking."

"For us, customer service has been a bit lacking, probably with a rating of a five out of ten."

"The knowledge base is not as in-depth as it should be."

"The price of the solution could improve and the search could be easier."

"Google Vault needs to improve its data export timing because sometimes, it takes a very long time to export the data."

More Google Vault cons

"The sorting and filtering of the result data need improvement, and the interface for writing queries is not user-friendly for business users. We still need all the backend stuff. We have to use Graph API to interface with everything and create custom interfaces on the front end to make it easier for the end users, which is costly. The reporting, sorting, and filtering capabilities that other products have aren't available natively in Purview."

"The sorting and filtering of the result data need improvement, and the interface for writing queries is not user-friendly for business users."

"We find that many critical functions are available only to E5 license holders. It would be beneficial to have more options available for E3 customers. Enhanced Teams functionalities and better capture of text message data, both SMS and MMS, would also be improvements."

"I would suggest adding more platforms. Currently, it's compatible with OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and Exchange. Adding more features, as Microsoft continues to expand their cloud offerings, would be beneficial. Exploring options like Azure Files might be an avenue for improvement."

"Purview eDiscovery works, but it's not entirely perfect. There were times when search results would get hung up or error codes would be presented and we'd have to contact Microsoft to get that sorted out."

"It has been one of the most solid tools I have worked with. However, Purview Data Loss Protection for remediating policy violations needs refinement, for example, in defining what constitutes a credit card because that is where I get the most false positives."

"Purview Data Loss Protection for remediating policy violations needs refinement, for example, in defining what constitutes a credit card because that is where I get the most false positives."

"The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be beneficial. Copilot is expected to add such functionality in the future."

More Microsoft Purview eDiscovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Last year, the price was randomly increased and our customers were really facing a challenge around this. Google launched new pricing under different plans, where formerly there were only three plans, and now there are four, each with their own separate usage allowances. I think it's good, though. The basic plan is now the Business Starter plan, and many customers find this plan very convenient and minimal in price. Overall, the pricing for all the plans is good."

"The solution is expensive."

"If you have Google Enterprise, then Google Vault is free to use."

"Google Vault is a cheaply priced product. Monthly payments are to be made towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no extra costs apart from the licensing costs attached to the solution."

"The pricing is fairly cheap."

"Google Vault comes as part of a package deal for us."

"With the full bundle, pricing is not a significant concern. As an M3, I find the Purview pricing of 1250 per user worthwhile."

"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery comes as part of Microsoft 365 licenses."

"The pricing and licensing with Microsoft can be complex, and licensing is known to be a challenge because it changes frequently. While the licensing for Purview is not as tricky as other Microsoft products, navigating licenses since the shift to E3 and E5 plans has been a task, as individual licenses must now be purchased separately."

"In the positions that I've had through contracting over the years, I've heard talk of it being overpriced and underperforming compared to its competitors."

"The costs associated with E5 licensing are currently expensive for us, so we use the E3 license, which comes with fewer features and functionalities."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Government

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Vault?

There is no setup cost; it's only the pricing which one needs to pay upon subscribing to Google Vault services.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Vault?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Vault?

A few use cases for Google Vault involve using it for custodian purposes where we have to store their mails, calendars, and mostly the mails, which we have done as a custodian process in order to s...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?

The setup process was very straightforward. We acquired pricing through our reseller in NASDAQ, eliminating the need to search for prices ourselves.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?

The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be benefici...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?

I sometimes use it for legal holds or to find lost items, and to determine what is going on. However, most of the time, my use case is legal-related.

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Purview Audit vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Vault

January 2026

Download Google Vault product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

January 2026

Download Microsoft Purview eDiscovery product report

Overview

Google Vault lets you retain, hold, search, and export data to support your organization’s archiving and eDiscovery needs. Vault supports:

Email messages
Chats in classic Hangouts with history turned on and Google Talk chats that are on the record
Google Groups
Files in Google Drive and Team Drives
Conversations in Hangouts Chat

Vault is entirely web-based, so there's no need to install or maintain any software. Vault is included with G Suite Enterprise, Business, Education, or Drive Enterprise edition. (Compare editions) Or you can buy Vault licenses for an additional $5 per user, per month.

Google

Efficiently respond to legal matters or internal investigations with intelligent capabilities that reduce data to only what’s relevant. Discover data where it lives. Discover and collect data in place, within your Microsoft Purview boundary. Manage workflows efficiently. Streamline your eDiscovery process with an end-to-end workflow from one platform. Accelerate your process. Get insights quickly with built-in capabilities, reducing review time and costs.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Broadcom, Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Globeflight, Maven Wave, McClatchy, NII Holdings, Safetec, Sheboygan County

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Google Vault vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

February 2026

Free Report: Google Vault vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery

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