Basic Group and Collaboration Site Options

Scenario

• You want to share stuff and/or coordinate events with a limited group of people
• Private, invite only, or exclusive access
• Following is a comparison of Office 365 SharePoint Online vs Facebook Groups vs Google Groups vs Google Plus Circles vs Windows SkyDrive Live Groups vs WordPress vs Blogger vs Meetup vs Evite
• Generally the free services are ad supported, while paid services are not.  Some free services offer an ad-free upgrade
• These are all fully hosted cloud based services

Features

1. Photo sharing
2. Video sharing
3. Presence and Instant Messaging
4. Document sharing
1. Online document editor integration (Office Online, Google Docs)
5. Owner/Organizer based event planning
6. Member based event planning
7. Multi-level security options - More than just Owner/Member
8. Email alerts/subscriptions
9. Standard login support: OpenID, Facebook, Live, or Google
10. Tasks
11. Wikis
12. Mobile/Web calendar integration: Google, Exchange, or Facebook
13. Mobile/Web contact integration: Google, Exchange, or Facebook
14. Map integration
15. Group Email Address
16. Personal Domain Name support
17. Blog / RSS

Options

• Office 365 - SharePoint Online - Monthly fee per user, designated user accounts
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (exchange distribution list), 16, 17
• Also includes Exchange Mail hosting, LiveMeeting accounts, Search, workflows, dashboards, Public Web Site Hosting, and Lync IM solution
• Integrates with SharePoint Workspace and Microsoft Office
• Designed for businesses/organizations
• Highly customizable and feature rich
• Facebook Groups - Free
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 (all), 12, 13, 14, 15
• Google Groups - Free
• Very limited
• Google+ Circle - Free
• Users have to manage their circle memberships separately (quasi-group)
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 9
• Windows Live SkyDrive Groups - Free
• Features: 1, 2, 3, 4 (specialty), 4.1, 5*, 6*, 7** , 8, 9, 10*, 12, 13, 15
• * 5, 6, and 10 are a shared calendar rather than a true invite and tasking system
• ** 7 has a co-owner role and folder/document level security 
• Blogger - Free
• Features: 1, 2, 16, 17 (specialty)
• Default is public
• WordPress - Free basic, Yearly per feature fees
• Features: 1, 2*, 16*, 17 (specialty)
• * 2 and 16 require paid subscription
• Default is public
• Meetup Group - Monthly fee
• Features: 1, 5 (specialty), 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 (manual sync), 14
• Local/activity based group promotion built-in
• Evite - Free
• Event management only, email based
• No grouping