As a business owner, one of the most burning questions you may have when choosing productivity software is “should I choose Microsoft 365, or do I go with Google Workspace?” Choosing the right solution for your organization can be quite difficult, but we at Techmedics are here to help.
In this blog post, we will break down the key differences between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, such as their pricing, included apps, and other features. At the end of this article, we will determine whether your business should opt for Google’s or Microsoft’s offering.
Both Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) and Google Workspace (formerly G-suite) are productivity platforms where you can perform the following tasks via the internet:
Google Workspace has over 3 billion users worldwide, while Microsoft 365 has over 345 million as of 2023.
One of the biggest differences between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace is that the former offers a range of desktop applications. These are software that you install on your computer instead of accessing online.
Anyone can use the online apps of both suites for free. This includes Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerPoint Online, as well as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. However, to gain access to more features, you need to consider getting a paid subscription.
Let’s take a look at the pricing for Google Workspace first:
There are four plans to choose from for Google Workspace:
These prices are based on an annual plan. Should you wish to pay on a monthly basis, you will need to pay at least 20% more per month.
Let’s compare the four plans in detail:
You can try Google Workspace for 14 days so you can better determine if it’s the right productivity platform for your business.
Microsoft 365’s pricing options are a lot more complicated than Google Workspace’s as there are different versions available. These include Home, Business, Enterprise, and Government, among others. However, for the sake of this article, we will only focus on the business and enterprise options.
Business Plans
Microsoft 365 Business plans are aimed at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with up to 300 employees. You can choose from four annual plans:
There’s also a less expensive set of Business plans if you don’t need Microsoft’s collaboration app Teams:
Enterprise Plans
Microsoft 365 Enterprise Plans are meant for larger organizations that require comprehensive productivity tools, advanced security features, and more storage space.
You may notice that there are “Microsoft 365” and “Office 365” plans for the enterprise level. The main difference between the two is that the former includes a subscription to the operating system Windows 11, while the latter doesn’t. Newer apps like Loop, Clipchamp, and Lists are also unavailable under Office 365 plans.
While it’s helpful to have an idea of the prices of each platform’s plans, you must also assess which of their apps align better with your organization’s needs and objectives. In this section, we’ll compare the most used apps in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 so you can understand their unique offerings and how they can benefit your organization.
Google Docs and Microsoft Word are powerful tools that many people use today to create documents, collaborate in real-time, and share information. However, they have some subtle differences that may make one more suitable for your business than the other.
For instance, Microsoft Word is designed to primarily work offline. This means you can create, edit, and save documents even without an internet connection. While Google Docs also offers offline capabilities, you need to enable offline mode first and pre-load documents for offline access.
And when it comes to advanced formatting and complex document creation, Word performs better than Google Docs. It has several options for customizing styles, layouts, and formatting, and boasts over 200 pre-built business document templates. This way, you can be sure that your document will always look good and be consistently formatted.
But if your business values real-time collaboration the most, Google Docs might be the better option for you. This is because it offers more seamless real-time editing where multiple users can edit the same document concurrently, with changes instantly appearing for everyone. Google Docs also has a more user-friendly interface for collaboration, making it easier to suggest edits and comment directly on a document.
Three major factors to consider when determining which spreadsheet application is better for your business are data analysis, collaboration, and advanced features.
Both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets offer a wide selection of formulas, but Excel has slightly more at almost 500. This makes tasks like statistical analysis, data organization, and accounting easier. Excel also has more chart types than Google Sheets — ranging from popular ones like column, pie, bar, and line to more complex ones, such as histogram, surface, and radar. On the other hand, Google Sheets only has 20 main types of charts.
But where Google Docs shines is collaboration as this feature is naturally integrated into the platform. Sharing, commenting, and real-time editing require minimal setup. Google Sheets also has a cleaner interface, making it easy for anyone — regardless of skill level —to collaborate with others. While Excel has made significant strides to catch up to Google Sheets in this aspect, its approach is still not as intuitive as Google’s.
Similar to the two comparisons we did earlier, choosing between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint comes down to which one you value more: collaboration or powerful features. If you like the idea of collaborating easily with your teammates, go for Google Slides. But for other things, PowerPoint does better.
Like Word, PowerPoint offers plenty of customizable templates and themes. It also has a Designer feature where you can instantly create professional-looking slides just by selecting a design, and inserting pictures, dates, and lists.
Furthermore, you can access an extensive library of animations and transition effects so you can create engaging and dynamic presentations. And like Word and Excel, you can use PowerPoint even when offline, so you can create and edit your presentations without an internet connection.
Gmail and Microsoft Outlook are two of the most popular email services today. But if you value simplicity, Gmail is the one to go for. It has a user-friendly interface with a minimalist design, making it easy to use. You can also find emails faster on Gmail, thanks to its rich set of search operators (e.g., from:, to:, subject:, date:, has:attachment, filename:) that allow you to narrow down your search results and quickly find the message you’re looking for.
Conversely, Outlook shines when it comes to advanced email management. For instance, its Focused Inbox feature separates your inbox into two tabs: Focused and Other. Your most important messages can be found on the Focused tab while the rest gets placed in the Other tab. Outlook offers tight integration with Microsoft applications as well, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams, enabling efficient productivity and workflow. You can even read, compose, and manage your emails even if you’re not connected to the internet.
Google offers different platforms for team collaboration: Google Meet for videoconferencing and Google Chat for messaging. Under Google Chat, you can find Spaces, a feature where you can collaborate with your team members on projects or share updates with a group.
On the Microsoft side of the fence, Microsoft combines group chat, online meetings, videoconferencing, workspaces, and calendars under the Teams app. This means you can chat, share files, and initiate video conferences with your teammates in one unified app. And like Outlook, Teams is tightly integrated with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive.
Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have robust security features like data encryption, multifactor authentication, data loss prevention, and advanced threat protection.
However, Google Workspace may have a leg up over Microsoft 365 when it comes to blocking threats. This is because Gmail leverages artificial intelligence (AI) that Google claims can block more than 99.9% of malware, phishing, and spam. On top of this, since Google Workspace is built for the cloud, it uses a zero-trust security approach. Under this, the system authenticates every user and device before granting access to a file, ensuring data security.
While Google Workspace excels in these areas, Microsoft 365 still has some useful security and compliance features. For one, it boasts a wider range of compliance certifications designed for specific industries like finance and healthcare. This is crucial for organizations with strict regulatory requirements.
Microsoft 365 offers strong data loss prevention policies that can be applied across different services, including devices, email, and files. These policies ensure that sensitive data doesn’t leave the organization. Finally, Microsoft 365 often integrates more seamlessly with current enterprise IT infrastructure. This includes security information and event management systems, Active Directory, and other enterprise applications.
Generative AI is a subset of AI focused on producing text, images, or other forms of content in response to a user’s prompt or request. While this type of AI has been around for quite some time, the technology gained significant popularity with the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Not long after, Google and Microsoft came out with their own generative AI tools through Gemini and Copilot.
Gemini can analyze, summarize, and generate content in Docs, Sheets, and Slides based on your emails and files. In Gmail, Gemini can summarize emails, suggest reply options, and find information from older emails. It can even take meeting notes, create meeting summaries, and enhance video and audio quality during calls. Finally, Google Workspace comes with NotebookLM, an AI tool that helps you organize information, take notes, and brainstorm ideas.
Microsoft 365 Copilot has been around longer and is more popular than Gemini. Like Gemini, it can create new documents and presentations based on prompts or produce content based on an existing document. Copilot can also analyze data in Excel and provide insights, such as trends, patterns, and anomalies, helping you make more informed decisions. It can write and summarize emails in Outlook and summarize points of meetings and suggest action items in Teams. Finally, Microsoft 365 Copilot features Power Automate, a tool that lets you optimize and automate workflows using AI.
Gemini and NotebookLM are included in all Business and Enterprise editions of Google Workspace. Microsoft 365 Copilot, on the other hand, costs an extra $30.
Google Workspace is the perfect choice if you value:
Microsoft 365 could be the better choice for you if your prefer:
If you need help implementing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 into your business, Techmedics can help. With over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, we specialize in helping SMBs make the most of their technology. We help businesses save on costs through our software procurement services.
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