Google Workspace (Google Suite) v Microsoft 365: Which is best for your business?

Choosing an office suite is essential for modern business. While Microsoft used to be the only game in town, in recent years, Google has come out with its own comparable service. Business owners now need to choose between the two. If you’re not sure whether to choose Microsoft or Google, read this article to learn more about each service!

Both services offer the same essential tools and are subscription based models, where businesses are charged per user, per month on varying tiers. While these similarities are striking, they are also not as profound as they appear. The two programs take fundamentally different approaches to both construction and design.

Microsoft 365 is built for power. It is based off of its desktop apps, while also offering web based alternatives. Alternatively, Google Workspace is built for collaboration and is browser based (and optimized for Chrome).

Pricing

Google has four plans: Business Starter ($6 per user per month), Business Standard ($12 per user per month), Business Plus ($18 per user per month), and Enterprise (listed as “Contact sales for pricing”).
Microsoft has a more complex model. Monthly per-user prices for Microsoft 365 plans range from $5 to $35 per user per month, and if none of their predefined plans work for you, you can always mix and match features from different plans to create a custom one.
Here is a breakdown of the core applications each company offers:

Email

To this day, email remains the primary method of business communication, making it essential to choose an email platform that works for your business.

Gmail: Gmail is intuitive and easy to use. The Gmail for business user interface looks just like the personal one, so employees will feel right at home using the system. While an administrator can set it to be used offline, the offline version is clunky and does not always perform well. It also does not allow for sorting group mail, which can be frustrating for users who get a lot of emails from different people. Gmail can be used in conjunction with google calendar and contacts.

Outlook: Outlook is built for power. It has many useful features such as thread tracking, anti-malware protection, spam filtering, and group aliases. It seamlessly integrates with contacts and calendar. It has many customization options and an intuitive folder system. While the web app is not as powerful as the desktop app, it still performs very well. For many businesses, the features that come with Outlook alone make Microsoft the worthwhile choice.

Communication and Conferencing

Google Meet and Chat are excellent browser communication options. Google’s basic plan allows for up to 100 participants per call, and their best plan can have up to 250 people per call. When it comes to real time collaboration on documents, spreadsheets, etc. Google has an excellent user interface.

Microsoft’s real time collaboration, while also good, is more of an add-on to their services, and cannot match Google’s seamless live editing. It does, however, have Microsoft Teams which is a top-notch collaboration tool,that Google cannot currently match. It is a desktop app (with web and mobile versions) that combines video conferencing, messaging, calendar, and file-sharing. It integrates with OneDrive for a seamless user experience. Video calls can have up to 1000 participants. You will, however, have to pay a steep premium to access all of these features.

Productivity

Google: Google Docs, sheets, and slides are great tools if you’re just looking for essential productivity features. For basic spreadsheets and documents, especially if there’s a lot of real-time collaboration, Google is the way to go. If, however, you’re looking to do more powerful work such as pivot tables, and hardcore data analysis, Google’s programs will be found wanting.

Microsoft: There’s no doubt that Microsoft dominates in this arena- its software is feature rich and powerful. Its programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint remain the industry standard. Microsoft has excellent formatting features and hundreds of templates to choose from.

All of these tools do make Microsoft more complex, with a steeper learning curve. They’re excellent if you’re going to use them, but expensive and needlessly complicated if you’re not.

Cloud Storage

Google Workspace’s lowest tier offers a paltry 30GB of storage per user, which includes the storage used by Gmail. The two upgraded tiers, however have excellent storage options from 2TB to unlimited. Google Drive is used to store and manage files.

Microsoft offers OneDrive for Business with 1TB for lower tiers and upgrades to unlimited. Each user also gets 50 GB of email storage, separate from the drive storage.

Final Thoughts

It’s difficult to call one program objectively better than the other. Choosing the right software has more to do with what is important to you, how your team operates, and what industry you are in. For many industries such as finance, Microsoft is the only choice. Google’s tools simply do not have the capabilities (such as excel functions) that these businesses will need. For smaller start-ups, however, Google really shines; its lower costs and simpler interface makes it an ideal choice.
If you’re still having trouble deciding which tool is right for your business, try answering these checklists.

Google Workspace is right for your business if:

• Collaborating on documents is essential to your workflow. Google’s live collaboration features are significantly better than what is offered by Microsoft.
• Your company doesn’t need all the sophisticated features of Microsoft’s individual applications. While each of Microsoft’s individual applications are more powerful when compared to their Google counterparts, not every business needs those features. Think about what kind of work you and your team does- if you’re not going to end up using Microsoft’s extra features, it may be worth it to go with the simpler and easy-to-use Google Workspace.
• You do most of your work online. Google was born online and was built to function there. The performance of its online applications are much more seamless than the online versions of Microsoft applications

Microsoft is right for your business if:

• Powerful and sophisticated features are essential to your workflow. When it comes to power and sophistication of tools, Microsoft is second to none.
• You do a lot of offline/in office work. While Google does have offline capabilities for their applications, they can be limited and clunky. The desktop versions of the Microsoft apps are top-notch best for offline work.
• Fidelity to Microsoft Office files is important to your business. If your business needs to send, receive, and edit Microsoft Office files, then having Microsoft Office is a must.

If you’re looking to purchase or switch software platforms for your business and have questions about your choices or implementation, feel free to reach out to our team of IT experts anytime! By taking the time to consult with professionals will help ensure the software you purchase will best suit your unique business needs.