Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace: How to Choose the Best Suite for Your Business

Choosing the right suite for your business could make the biggest difference in your company’s productivity. But with two giants like Microsoft and Google competing for your trust, it becomes very difficult to choose the best for your business.

When choosing the best office suite for your business, there are a few factors that come into play including: 

• User-friendliness
• Costs
• Storage
• Security and Compliance

Despite the above factors looking so straightforward, you must look diligently to determine what will work for your business. 

In this blog, we have extensively compared Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace features to ensure you choose the best one for your business. 

Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace

Between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, which is better? If this is a question that’s always difficult for your company, we’re here to answer.

These two are very similar.   Both are subscription-based services that charge companies monthly fees based on the number of employees, at different levels, based on the features that their clients require. Despite being mostly web-based, Google Workspace can also operate offline. Additionally, Microsoft 365 offers web-based versions of its cloud-based applications, but with fewer functionality than the installed desktop versions.

Both suites are compatible with a variety of gadgets. Google Workspace is compatible with most operating systems and web browsers because of its web-based nature. Additionally, Google provides mobile applications for iOS and Android. Microsoft offers web-based programs that are compatible with all browsers, and Microsoft office client apps that run on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

The same fundamental core apps are also available in the suites. Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, calendar, contacts, videoconferencing, and note-taking tools are all included in each. Every one of them has cloud storage linked to it. However, the particular apps and the administration tools for managing them in a corporate setting vary greatly throughout suites. Additionally, both suites come with a ton of extra tools. So choosing the right suite for your organization can be challenging.

This composition fills that need. We provide a thorough analysis of all the features included in the office suites, including pricing, support, application-by-application comparisons, collaboration capabilities, app integration, pricing, and more. Here, we’re more interested in how the suites function for corporations than for personal usage.

• Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace: Cost Comparison

Checking the costs is a smart place to start when deciding which office suite is best for you. Businesses should look to the paid Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions for the essential security and management features, but individuals can use many of the cloud-based applications from both suites for free, including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides as well as Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerPoint Online.

To compare plans and prices, look at the following tables, first for Microsoft 365 and then for Google Workspace.

• Google Workspace Pricing for Businesses

There are four commercial versions of Google Workspace available: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Business Starter offers 30GB of storage per user together with the entire range of applications for $6 per user per month. All of that is included in the $12 per user per month Business Standard plan, along with 2TB of storage per user, archiving, enterprise search capabilities, and more administrative tools. All the features of the Business Standard version are included in Business Plus, which costs $18 per user per month, along with additional administrative controls and business tools.

Enterprise has a low-code application builder, additional administrative controls, and all of the features included in Business Plus. For information on Enterprise pricing, you will need to get in touch with Google.

See Google’s website comparing price options for more specific details. It should be noted that certain features found in Google Workspace plans at higher tiers can be purchased separately. Google also provides a variety of free and commercial Workspace versions for nonprofits and educational institutions, in addition to customized versions of Workspace Enterprise for healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing, and government companies.

• Microsoft 365 Pricing for Businesses

Microsoft 365 Business Essentials, the most basic version for small organizations, costs $5 per user per month; Microsoft 365 E5, the most feature-rich version for enterprises, costs $35 per user per month. Microsoft 365 business subscriptions are more complex. Microsoft confusingly changed the names of all of its plans for small businesses from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, yet it still offers both Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans for larger businesses.

The contents of each edition are listed in the tables below. The first table has three plans designed for small firms with up to 300 employees, while the second table contains plans intended for larger organizations.

Click here to learn more about the Office 365 enterprise plans, Microsoft 365 enterprise plans, and Microsoft 365 small business plans. Additionally, Microsoft provides a range of Microsoft 365 options for government, charitable, and educational establishments.

Microsoft 365 vs Google Docs: Other Factors to Consider

Different businesses have different demands, and yours could value some apps more than others. Word processing and email may be the most crucial office suite applications for certain businesses, while a robust spreadsheet application may be the most essential tool for others.

To assist you, we’ve analyzed the key office applications in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace so you can focus on the ones that matter most to your company and use their advantages and disadvantages to inform your choice as a whole. We’ve merely covered the highlights of some programs below:

1. Word Processing

This usually comes down to Microsoft Word vs  Google Docs. It’s not too difficult to determine whether Google Docs or Microsoft Word is a better fit for your company. Which do your users value more, simple-to-use teamwork or the most extensive feature set for creating and modifying documents? Google Docs is superior when it comes to teamwork. You should choose Word if you want a word processor with the most features available.

I don’t mean to suggest that Word contains a ton of capabilities that your company might never use. I refer to excellent features that streamline and increase the productivity of your workflow.

For instance, Word provides a great collection of pre-built templates that are ideal for making reports, brochures, resumes, and nearly any other type of document. This allows you to quickly start writing while guaranteeing that your work will have a professional and functional layout. There are 300 distinct business templates in Word, compared to just 55 in Google Docs—including personal, business, and instructional templates. 

Microsoft Word is said to include thousands of templates, however we were unable to enumerate them all. Word also provides more chart styles and kinds for document embedding.

But when it comes to real-time collaboration, Google Docs beats Word. While Word’s collaboration features are more complicated, less extensive, and seem like an afterthought rather than an essential component of the software, Word’s collaboration features are seamless and were incorporated into the app from the beginning.

Word has long been the industry standard for non-live collaboration (editing and annotating documents for other people to review), but Google Docs has advanced to the point where it is now almost as excellent as Word. The editing tools in Word are basically equal except for the slightly finer-grained controls.

2. Collaboration

As I’ve mentioned several times in this post, Google Workspace offers better collaboration than Microsoft 365 because it’s integrated into the design naturally, unlike the Office apps where it seems like an afterthought. Everything you need to invite others to work together, provide them permission to do so, and communicate with them while you complete the task at hand is there in front of you. utilizing Office for collaboration has a steeper learning curve than utilizing Google apps, and even if you get the hang of it, the experience is not quite as smooth.

However, collaborating on separate documents is simply one aspect of the situation. Google Workspace is outperformed by Microsoft 365 in terms of sophisticated enterprise-wide collaboration features. For instance, Microsoft Teams offers a more advanced and practical combination of group chat, online meetings, videoconferencing, calendars, configurable workspaces, and shared team file repositories than what Google offers. Additionally, Teams offers seamless connectivity with Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, and other Office products, demonstrating its close ties to the entire Office suite.

For its part, Workspace provides messaging via Google Chat and video conferencing via Google Meet. Spaces is a collaboration and workflow integration platform that is relatively new to the Workspace app suite. It integrates with Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Tasks. You can assign tasks, share files, and have conversations in shared workplaces that you can set up using Spaces. These capabilities are not quite as powerful as Microsoft 365’s offerings, but they are nonetheless basic and useful.

Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 provide its own social network-like platform for communication, called Currents for Workspace and Yammer for Microsoft 365. However, neither of them is directly connected with the corresponding office suite, and Google recently revealed that Spaces will eventually replace Currents.

3. Email Suite

You can use your company’s domain name as your email address with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace’s bespoke business email feature.

• Gmail vs. Outlook

Microsoft’s email client, Outlook, enables email sending and receiving. You may also use it to schedule meetings, manage and organize communications, and keep track of your responsibilities. Outlook is accessible from a PC, MAC, or mobile device. Email management is made easier by Outlook’s ability to sort, group, and label emails.

Google Mail, commonly referred to as Gmail, is an online email service. The AI-powered function in Gmail is a useful tool that makes word and phrase suggestions as you type. You may use several third-party apps with Gmail to expand its features. However, since these are independent apps, getting about and utilizing them might be a little difficult and time-consuming. Despite the lack of a desktop application, Gmail accounts can be linked to other programs like Thunderbird or Outlook. 

Conclusion

While both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have their own strengths, using them together is impractical. Google Workspace’s documents aren’t saved locally, leading to formatting issues when converting between the two suites. Workflow complications arise from transferring files back and forth, undermining the efficiency of online collaboration. Additionally, using one suite for creation and another for communication can create convoluted workflows, causing a loss of the benefits of integrated features. Managing two office suites also increases costs and complexity without significant benefits. Therefore, it’s best to choose one suite based on your company’s needs: Google Workspace for superior collaboration or Microsoft 365 for powerful features.