Freemium / Open Source · From Free (Community Edition); paid cloud plans from EUR 21.90/month
Best for: Organizations that want one free, self-hosted suite covering email, projects, a lightweight CRM, and helpdesk ticketing without paying for separate business apps.
Open Source, Freemium (free self-hosted Community edition plus paid cloud and add-ons) · From Free (self-hosted); Online plan from $12/month
Best for: Small businesses and public-sector teams that want groupware plus CRM, invoicing, and a Kanban board, and are willing to pay a modest one-time Professional license fee once they outgrow the free Community feature set.
Best for: IT teams and hosting providers that need rock-solid, standards-based email, calendar, and contact sync at scale, across thousands of mailboxes, without extra business-app overhead.
At a Glance
egroupware
Group Office
SOGo
Primary category
Collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Freemium / Open Source
Open Source, Freemium (free self-hosted Community edition plus paid cloud and add-ons)
open-source
Starting price
Free (Community Edition); paid cloud plans from EUR 21.90/month
Free (self-hosted); Online plan from $12/month
Free
Free plan
Yes
Yes
Not documented
Free trial
Not documented
Yes
Not documented
Platforms
Web, iOS, Android
Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows
Web, iOS, Android
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Yes
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Yes
Standout Differences
EGroupware bundles the broadest business suite for free
EGroupware's free Community Edition includes InfoLog (a lightweight CRM and task tracker), a dedicated Projectmanager app, helpdesk/ticketing, and Jitsi/BigBlueButton video plus Rocket.Chat integration, all with no license cost and no artificial feature limits.
egroupware
SOGo is the leanest, most protocol-complete option
SOGo skips CRM and project management entirely and instead focuses on email, calendar, and contacts, backed by the widest native sync protocol support of the three (CalDAV, CardDAV, GroupDAV, and Microsoft ActiveSync) and proven deployments at thousands of mailboxes.
SOGo
Group Office keeps business tools out of the free tier
Group Office's Community edition covers core groupware with unlimited users for free, but CRM-style contact and deal tracking, ticketing, time tracking, and the Studio Kanban board only unlock on the paid Professional tier (about 439 euros plus 219 euros per year for updates).
Group Office
First-party hosted cloud differs across the three
EGroupware and Group Office both sell their own hosted cloud plans directly (EGroupware's eCloud, Group Office's Online plan from about $12/month), while SOGo's cloud option runs through its commercial steward Alinto's SOGomail rather than the core open-source project itself.
egroupware, Group Office, SOGo
All three are free to self-host indefinitely
Every one of the three ships a genuinely free, open-source, self-hosted edition with no user caps, so none of them force a paid plan just to run the core groupware functions at any scale.
egroupware, Group Office, SOGo
Feature-by-Feature
Core Groupware and Mobile Sync
Feature
egroupware
Group Office
SOGo
Email, calendar, and contacts
Available
Available
Available
Device sync protocols (CalDAV/CardDAV/ActiveSync)
Limited
Limited
Available
Business Extensions
Feature
egroupware
Group Office
SOGo
Project management
Available
Limited
Unavailable
CRM / deal tracking
Available
Limited
Unavailable
Helpdesk / support ticketing
Available
Limited
Unavailable
Team chat and video conferencing
Available
Limited
Not documented
Deployment and Support
Feature
egroupware
Group Office
SOGo
Free self-hosted edition with unlimited users
Available
Available
Available
First-party vendor-hosted cloud plan
Available
Available
Limited
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
egroupware
Community Edition — Free N/A
eCloud — EUR 24.90/month Monthly, 2-user minimum
EPL Smart — From EUR 62.50/month Monthly, 10-user minimum
eFlat School — EUR 1,295/year Annual
Universal / eFlat — Custom (price on request) Annual
Group Office
Community — Free One-time (self-hosted)
Professional — About 439 euros license plus 219 euros per year for updates One-time license plus annual update fee
Online (Cloud) — From about $12/month Monthly
SOGo
Self-Hosted (Open Source) — Free N/A
Commercial Support (via Alinto) — Custom pricing Contract
Pros & Cons
egroupware
Pros
Fully-featured Community Edition is free and open source under the GPLv2 with no artificial limits
Can be self-hosted for full data control, or run as EU-hosted cloud SaaS
Broad feature set covering email, calendar, files, projects, and helpdesk in one suite
Modular design lets organizations enable only the apps they need
Cons
User interface feels dated compared to newer SaaS collaboration tools
Self-hosting requires ongoing server administration and update management
Enterprise-tier and cloud pricing require contacting sales or reading tiered per-user documentation
Smaller ecosystem and community than larger open-source rivals like Nextcloud
Group Office
Pros
The Community edition is free, open source, and supports unlimited users, making it inexpensive to deploy at scale.
Self-hosting gives organizations full control over data location, which matters for public-sector and privacy-conscious deployments.
Bundles groupware, CRM, invoicing, and helpdesk functionality in a single suite rather than requiring separate tools.
Has been in continuous development since 2003, giving it a long production track record versus newer self-hosted alternatives.
Offers both self-hosted and managed cloud deployment options, so organizations can choose based on their operational capacity.
Cons
The user interface is dated compared to modern SaaS collaboration tools like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
Self-hosting requires PHP and database administration skills, which smaller organizations may not have in-house.
Advanced business features are locked behind the paid Professional tier and add-ons rather than included in the free edition.
Support for the free Community edition relies on community forums rather than guaranteed response times.
Smaller ecosystem of third-party integrations and plugins compared to larger groupware and productivity platforms.
SOGo
Pros
Free and open source with no per-user licensing cost for the core server
Broad native client support through CalDAV, CardDAV, and ActiveSync
Integrates with existing LDAP, Active Directory, and IMAP infrastructure
Proven at scale in production environments with thousands of mailboxes
Active commercial steward (Alinto) available for organizations that want paid support
Cons
Requires in-house IT expertise or a paid support contract to install, secure, and maintain
Web interface looks dated compared to modern SaaS email clients
No official cloud-hosted SaaS version directly from the core project, only third-party hosting
Documentation can be technical and geared toward system administrators rather than end users
Use Cases
Choose egroupware: Organizations that want one free, self-hosted suite covering email, projects, a lightweight CRM, and helpdesk ticketing without paying for separate business apps.
Choose Group Office: Small businesses and public-sector teams that want groupware plus CRM, invoicing, and a Kanban board, and are willing to pay a modest one-time Professional license fee once they outgrow the free Community feature set.
Choose SOGo: IT teams and hosting providers that need rock-solid, standards-based email, calendar, and contact sync at scale, across thousands of mailboxes, without extra business-app overhead.
egroupware
European data-sovereignty-conscious collaboration — Organizations that must keep email, calendar, and file data on EU soil use EGroupware's self-hosted or German-hosted cloud options instead of US-based SaaS suites.
Nonprofit and school administration — Nonprofits and schools use discounted eCloud NGO or flat-rate eFlat School plans to run email, scheduling, and file sharing on a fixed annual budget.
Self-hosted Microsoft 365 alternative — IT teams that already manage their own servers deploy the free Community Edition to replace proprietary groupware licensing costs.
Group Office
Self-hosted email and collaboration for public-sector organizations — Government agencies and schools deploy Group Office on their own infrastructure to keep email, calendars, and files under direct organizational control.
Small business CRM and invoicing — Small businesses use the Professional edition to manage contacts, projects, time tracking, and invoicing in one suite instead of stitching together separate tools.
Low-cost productivity suite alternative — Cost-conscious organizations replace hosted productivity suites with Group Office's free, self-hosted Community edition for email, calendar, and file sharing.
SOGo
Self-Hosted Business Email — Small and mid-size businesses replace hosted email suites with a self-hosted SOGo server for full control over data and infrastructure.
ISP and Hosting Provider Webmail — Hosting providers deploy SOGo to offer webmail, calendar, and contact services to thousands of customer mailboxes across multiple domains.
Exchange Alternative for Regulated Industries — Organizations with data residency or compliance requirements use SOGo to keep email and calendar data on infrastructure they control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of these three includes CRM or project management for free?
EGroupware includes both InfoLog (a lightweight CRM) and a Projectmanager app in its free Community edition. Group Office gates full CRM and project management to its paid Professional tier. SOGo does not offer either as it focuses purely on email, calendar, and contacts.
Do all three support mobile calendar and contact sync?
Yes, all three sync with mobile devices. EGroupware confirms CalDAV and CardDAV support, Group Office confirms general device sync without naming specific protocols, and SOGo documents the widest protocol support with CalDAV, CardDAV, GroupDAV, and Microsoft ActiveSync.
Can I run any of these without paying anything?
Yes, all three offer a genuinely free, open-source, self-hosted edition with unlimited users: EGroupware's GPLv2 Community Edition, Group Office's AGPL Community edition, and SOGo's GPL/LGPL v2 core server.
Which one has a first-party hosted cloud plan I can subscribe to directly?
EGroupware (eCloud, from EUR 24.90/month) and Group Office (Online plan, from about $12/month) both sell their own hosted cloud directly. SOGo's hosted variant, SOGomail, is offered through its commercial steward Alinto rather than the core open-source project.
Which is best for a large-scale or ISP-style email deployment?
SOGo is purpose-built and proven for large-scale, multi-domain deployments with thousands of mailboxes, making it the strongest fit for hosting providers and ISPs among the three.
Do any of them include built-in team chat or video calling?
EGroupware bundles both video conferencing (via Jitsi or BigBlueButton) and team chat (via Rocket.Chat) at no extra license cost. Group Office offers Rocket.Chat-based chat and video only as a paid add-on. SOGo does not document a built-in chat or video feature.