Group-Office vs SOGo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted groupware options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
SOGo
Scalable groupware server with webmail, calendar and contacts
| Feature | Group-Office | SOGo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Groupware | Groupware |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | Objective-C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 279 | ★ 2,165 |
| First released | 2003 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Microsoft 365, Google Workspace | Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 |
What are Group-Office and SOGo?
Group-Office
Group-Office is a PHP-based groupware suite that bundles email, calendar, contacts, file sharing, and project management. The community edition is open source and self-hostable.
- Email, calendar and contacts
- ActiveSync and CalDAV support
- Project and document management
- Modular and extensible
SOGo
SOGo is a fully featured, scalable groupware server offering shared calendars, address books, and webmail. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Outlook via ActiveSync and with CalDAV/CardDAV clients.
- CalDAV and CardDAV support
- Microsoft ActiveSync compatibility
- Shared calendars and contacts
- Integrated AJAX webmail
Group-Office vs SOGo: key differences
Group-Office is written in PHP, while SOGo is built with Objective-C. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Group-Office versus GPL-2.0 for SOGo. Group-Office is the more established project (first released 2003), while SOGo arrived in 2009. SOGo has the considerably larger community, at 2,165 GitHub stars versus 279.
Why pick each one
Choose Group-Office if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Watch out for
- Some modules are commercial
- Dated user interface
Choose SOGo if…
- Strong Outlook compatibility
- Scales to many users
Watch out for
- Complex initial setup
- Requires separate mail server
Frequently asked questions
Is Group-Office or SOGo better?
Neither is universally better. SOGo has the larger community, while Group-Office is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Group-Office and SOGo free and open-source?
Yes. Group-Office is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SOGo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Group-Office and SOGo with Docker?
Group-Office: yes. SOGo: yes.