LotusLive iNotes vs. Google Apps

October 4, 2009 by Jimson Lee

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If you think Microsoft Office Web Apps is the only competitor to Google Apps, think again.

Self-hosted software “Lotus Notes” is alive and well, and last week, IBM launched a bare bones web-based email system.

LotusLive iNotes service starts at $36 per year per user, compared to the $50 per year per user for Google Apps Premium Edition.

For $14 a year difference, IBM LotusLive iNotes includes 1 GB of storage compared to Google Apps Premium Edition 25 Gb storage. The latter also includes Google Doc’s Spreadsheets and Presentations. However, LotusLive iNotes users can buy an additional 100GB storage if required.

As a former sysadmin, I can tell you the Executive’s mailbox storage is anywhere from 2 to 10 GB per user from all their attachments. Even the free Gmail user account of 7376 Mb of free storage is challenge to keep lean.

LotusLive iNotes main selling point is anchored toward the small to medium business owner who needs to step up their email platform without the expense and overhead of a heavy duty feature-rich collaboration capabilities such as Microsoft Exchange.

But then again, it’s hard to beat Google Apps Standard Edition which is free.

At $3.75 monthly, LotusLive iNotes cost the same as a single premium coffee at Starbucks. Not a bad business case, right?

The only caveat is at $9 per month, IBM has an existing premium package called LotusLive Notes (note no “i”). This product competes with Microsoft’s web-based email package at $10 per month.

IBM is also banking on their hardware reputation as a selling point for reliability to all those anti-Google and anti-Microsoft users out there.

But I am sure there are anti-IBM people out there, too.

And all Executives care about is uptime and Blackberry support. Then the CFO will cut the check.

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