- April 3, 2023
- fothion_re
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- April 2023
Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace — Which is Better?
Many people are often confused about which workspace to use to enhance their team’s efficiency. The two popular choices of virtual workspaces are Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite).
Including its desktop programs — most of the subscriptions of Microsoft 365 allow you access to fully installable versions of industry-standard Microsoft applications. This feature is one of the key incentives for many users to select Microsoft 365 over Google Workspace (Outlook, Word, etc.). These are often more feature-rich than Google counterparts, making blending online and offline work easier. The file storage and email quotas on the 365 entry-level plans are also more extensive than Google Workspace.
The main advantage of using Google Workspace versus Microsoft 365 is interoperability: Workspace apps allow you to edit files created with both workspace and 365. (though it is only advisable where simple documents are concerned). And the fact that everything in Google Workspace is cloud-based encourages users to work more collaboratively.
In this blog, we have compared two main options to help you find the perfect workspace for your business.
What do Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace do?
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are productivity tools that allow you to execute standard business tasks “in the cloud” via a web browser, which include:
sending emails
managing calendars
creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations
video conferencing
file management
team collaboration.
Microsoft 365 also includes a wide variety of desktop applications, which you can install on your computer rather than online. Both programs have recently changed names: Microsoft 365 was formerly known as ‘Office 365,’ and Google Workspace was previously known as ‘G Suite (and, before that, ‘Google Apps’).
Pricing — how do Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 compare?
The pricing structure for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 varies according to location but is mainly consistent across borders.
For this comparison, we’re comparing plans priced in US dollars, but our observations apply to 365 vs workspace in general.
Let’s start with Google Workspace price.
Google Workspace pricing
Selecting a Google Workspace plan is a simple process. There are four plans to choose from which are –
Business Starter – $6 per user per month
Business Standard – $12 per user per month
Business Plus – $18 per user per month
Enterprise – Custom Pricing
The main differences between these plans are as follows:
Storage: The “Business Starter” plan limits the storage space to 30 GB; however, the ‘Business Standard’, ‘Business Plus’ and ‘Enterprise’ plans provide 1TB, 2TB and unlimited storage per user, respectively.
User Accounts: The ‘Business Starter,’ ‘Business Standard,’ and ‘Business Plus’ plans all have a limit of 300 user seats; if you need additional user accounts, you must purchase an ‘Enterprise’ plan.
Video Calls: A call can have 100 participants with the ‘Business Starter’ plan, 150 with the ‘Business Standard’ plan, and 500 with the ‘Business Plus’ and ‘Enterprise’ plans. (All plans let you record calls; however, ‘Business Plus’ allows you to record video and track attendance; ‘Enterprise’ plans go one step again by offering you noise cancellation and in-domain live streaming options).
Security Features: Security features are greatly enhanced on the ‘Business Plus’ and ‘Enterprise’ programs. These include ‘Vault,’ a tool for storing and searching users’ data, and endpoint management, which allows you to control how users access Google Workspace services and data across many devices.
Searching Features: Except for the ‘Business Starter’ plan, all plans provide access to ‘Google Cloud Search,’ an intelligent search tool. This feature makes finding files in an organization’s Google Workspace storage easier.
App Creation: If you have an ‘Enterprise subscription, you can use Google’s ‘Appsheet’ service. This is a ‘no-code’ solution that allows you to create mobile and web apps without having to code.
Microsoft 365 pricing
Microsoft 365 pricing is a bit complicated to understand as there are home, enterprise, business, non-profit, government, and education versions under which further sub-divisions exist; this means there is much freedom — but it might be challenging to sort through all the plans to determine which one is best suited to your needs.
In this comparison, we are going to emphasize the plans of Microsoft 365, which are aimed at small businesses and enterprise users. These are the following:
Small Business/SEMs
Microsoft’s ‘Business’ plans are priced according to the requirements of small or new businesses. There are four plans to choose from:
Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business: $8.25 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $22.00 per user per month
Enterprise
There are four major ‘Enterprise’ plans that you can consider. The naming for these is a little strange – a combination of letters and numbers are utilized rather than more ‘obvious’ labels:
Microsoft 365 E1: $10 per user per month
Microsoft 365 E3: $23 per user per month
Microsoft 365 E5: $38 per user per month
Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise: $12 per user per month
The following are the key points to remember regarding these plans:
Pay Annually: Each 365 ‘Business’ plan is a few dollars more expensive if paid monthly, and there is no option to do so with the ‘Enterprise’ plans. In contrast, all Google Workspace pricing is based on a monthly basis, which may suit some organizations better, such as those with frequent fluctuations in the number of employees or those that use contractors.
Storage: The Business plans all provide 1TB of storage per user; however, based on the plan and the number of users, the Enterprise plans can include up to 5TB.
Desktop Apps: The ‘Microsoft 365 Apps’ plans exclusively include desktop apps such as the versions of Excel, Word etc., that you install on your computer for efficient working.
Users: The maximum number of users on the Microsoft 365 ‘Business’ plans is 300; in contrast, the ‘Enterprise’ Microsoft plans to allow an infinite number of users. However, you can mix and match license types – for example, within the same organization, you could utilize 300 Business Standard licenses, 300 Business Premium licenses, and 100 Enterprise E3 licenses.
Not all plans include installable versions of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.): The ‘Business Basic’ plan only allows you to use the mobile and internet versions, while the ‘E1’ plan allows you to use the browser-based version.
Not all 365 options provide an email account: If you wish to utilize Microsoft 365 for email, you should avoid the Business and Enterprise ‘Microsoft 365 Apps’ plans.
A perfectly functioning version of Microsoft Stream: Microsoft 365’s video collaboration tool is only available on Enterprise subscriptions (all but the Apps for Enterprise plan).
As you can see, while knowing the pricing of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace is helpful, there are so many different plans that a pricing comparison will not provide you with a clear answer on which of these products is ideal for you.
Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace: Features
File Storage
If we’re talking about entry-level plans, Microsoft 365 comes out on top: the ‘Business Basic’ plan comes with a hefty 1TB of storage, which compares favorably to Google’s somewhat paltry 30GB on its ‘Business Starter’ plan. To add insult to injury, Google includes emails in this 30GB restriction and beginning 2 May 2022, newly produced Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard slides that weren’t previously recognized as taking up space will also contribute towards storage.
However, when you upgrade to the Google Workspace ‘Business Standard’ or ‘Business Plus’ plans, Google becomes more competitive. These Google Workspace plans include 2TB or 5TB of storage, which is highly handy for any business that needs to keep many files in the cloud. This contrasts with Microsoft’s ‘Business’ plans, which all cap file storage at 1TB.
Although Microsoft’s 1TB limit is also quite generous, you’d be amazed how quickly 1TB of storage may be drained if you upload a large image or audio/video file to the cloud. However, if you’re only working with basic spreadsheets and documents, a 1TB limit per user should be plenty for most small to medium-sized enterprises.
Microsoft does provide more extensive file storage on its ‘Enterprise’ plans; if you’re on a $23+ plan, you may get 5TB storage per user as long as your organization has 5+ users. However, if cloud storage is your major issue, Google Workspace is generally a win here – on most of its plans, you can receive more file storage for less money than with 365.
It’s worth noting that Microsoft 365 allows you to purchase additional storage per user, whereas Google Workspace does not; you must upgrade your entire plan, which can be costly if you have a large staff. Microsoft does not publish pricing for storage increases; you must contact the firm to discuss them.
Storage
Microsoft 365 “Business Basic” plan, which costs $6 per month, is significantly more generous than Google Workspace when it comes to email storage; in addition to the 1TB of file storage, it offers a dedicated 50GB inbox storage.
The overall storage limit for the $6 per person, per month Google Workspace “Business Starter” plan, including emails and files, is 30GB. The constraints are more forgiving than those of Microsoft if you’re on one of the other Google plans, ranging from 2TB to 5TB of storage (or unlimited storage if you’re on the “Enterprise” plan).
Microsoft’s email storage restrictions may be more forgiving than the figures indicate because of a function known as “auto-expanding archiving.” This feature is available on the “E3” and “E5” subscriptions and enables you to archive an additional 1.5TB of emails.
Email Apps
Technically, you may access your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mail using whatever email program you like, although the default apps offered are Gmail and Outlook. Given Google’s expertise in this area, Gmail’s search functionality would be substantial, quick, and easy to use when locating messages.
The Gmail search bar offers personalized suggestions based on previous user behavior, such as how frequently you typically communicate with a particular coworker using Gmail while looking for an email exchange or contact information. Additionally, a wide variety of third-party apps are readily available for Gmail due to its popularity, adding proper functionality to the process.
Gmail does not allow you to sort or categorize emails, which most users frequently need from an email app. (You can sort or group messages using proper sorting or grouping features, but it could be more helpful.) You can search for messages and emails using prefixes like “from” or “to.”
As a result, you can use Gmail in addition to a desktop email program, such as the fantastic (and cost-free) Thunderbird or, whisper it, Outlook. Speaking of which, Microsoft 365’s main selling point is the availability of Outlook.
On most 365 plans, can access to browser-based and desktop versions of Outlook. The browser-based version of Outlook is adequate, but Gmail likely outperforms it in most ways (mail sorting functionality aside). The desktop version of Outlook is feature-rich and offers much flexibility in terms of how you can sort, group, label, and manage your email in general.
Desktop applications: the main argument for using Microsoft 365?
Things start to become interesting at this point, and many potential users of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace will be tempted to go over. You receive the desktop and cloud-based versions of every Microsoft product with most of the 365 plans. The complete versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook, among other “traditional” programs, can be installed on your desktop computer and used to work conveniently offline.
As mentioned earlier, there is a solid case for having desktop versions of all the programs since many firms still transmit each other data written locally using them, even though we are in the era of cloud computing. Additionally, your team can collaborate with these file formats more readily if the desktop versions are installed. Functionality is a further justification for installing Microsoft apps in your company. Compared to their Microsoft desktop software counterparts, Google apps are unquestionably more basic in terms of what they can achieve.
It’s also true that the Microsoft apps’ online versions are less advanced or feature-rich than their desktop counterparts. If you need to perform advanced number crunching, Excel will typically outperform Google Sheets. Therefore, Microsoft Word is required rather than Google Docs if you want to add “Smart Art” to a document. Powerpoint is also preferable to Google Slides if you need slick slide animations in a presentation. That said, you shouldn’t wholly forego utilizing Google Workspace since
For many people, the functionality offered by Google’s apps is still rather vast and more than sufficient.
Microsoft Office documents can open in Google Workspace apps, where you can also edit and save them in MS format (and, thanks to a recent update to Google Workspace, this can be done not just online but offline too).
The issue with utilizing Google Workspace to create or modify Microsoft files is that sometimes the precise formatting of Office files cannot be preserved when saved using a Google Workspace app.
Depending on the type of your firm, you’ll have to decide how big of a deal this is for you. You may struggle to do that with Google Workspace if clients regularly want you to deliver them extensive, flawlessly formatted MS Office files. However, you may get by fine with Google’s suite of products if you only sometimes need to open an MS Office file or send something simple to a customer in MS Office format.
The Microsoft desktop programs are installed locally, regardless of how great and comfortable your team may use them. This is another vital point to keep in mind. This implies that someone inside your organization will need to handle this component of the situation, and this person needs to be knowledgeable in their field.
Therefore, adopting Microsoft desktop apps may have unintended IT costs associated with the “local install” feature. At the very least, there is a time cost involved; your team will need to set aside some time to download, install, and update the programs regularly.
Your team is more likely to use collaboration features if you establish a working environment where your organization only uses browser-based applications that save documents to the cloud. Google apps are more likely to influence users in this direction because they only work in the cloud. In contrast, your data is arguably more secure (as long as you have backup procedures).
Finally, while discussing programs, keep in mind that nothing stops you from utilizing the MS Office and Google Workspace apps simultaneously. If you are tempted by Google Workspace’s limitless cloud storage but still want to save Word documents there, you may purchase offline versions of the Microsoft programs you frequently use and protect the files they make to your Google Drive account.
(However, operating in this manner would limit numerous opportunities for real-time cooperation and increase costs.)
Web applications in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 include various web-based programs comparable in both product families. These programs include:
Word > Google Docs (word processing)
Excel > Google Sheets (spreadsheets)
Powerpoint > Google Slides (presentations)
Outlook Online > Gmail (email)
One Note Online > Google Keep (notes)
SharePoint > Google Sites (website building)
Microsoft Teams > Google Meet (conference calling / chat messaging)
Yammer > Spaces (internal social networking/intranet)*
Whiteboard > Jamboard (digital whiteboard tools)
These are merely general equivalents because the similar app’s feature set won’t exactly match theirs. ‘Stream’ and ‘Sway’ are two Microsoft 365 apps for which Google Workspace has yet to have an alternative.
Microsoft Stream: It is a video service that lets users in your company upload, view, and share videos securely. These videos could be recordings of classes, meetings, presentations, training sessions, or other videos that support team collaboration. Microsoft Stream is available on the E1, E3, and E5 plans.
Additionally, this tool makes it simple to tag timecodes in comments, exchange remarks on videos, and add descriptions that refer to particular parts of videos. Additionally, it uses speech recognition technologies to automatically translate video material, improving the ‘searchability’ of videos using text searches.
Microsoft Sway: It is a brand-new online application for producing presentations, newsletters, and other communications (accessible on E1, E3, and 365 apps for enterprise plans). This may appear to be a simple combination of Word and PowerPoint. However, it differs significantly from both programs because it uses artificial intelligence and online content aggregation to help you design, compile, and present your communications more quickly and efficiently than the conventional Microsoft programs. (The fundamental idea is explained in the video below.)
Collaboration: The collaborative opportunities working on the cloud opens up are a significant perk. People who want to work on the same file can access it in a browser to see the updates each person viewing it is making, eliminating the need for markup and “tracking changes” altogether. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 make this kind of online collaboration simple using their web programs.
Additionally, you may now collaborate on documents with other team members in real-time using Microsoft’s desktop apps (who can collaborate with you while using either the online or offline version of them).
In our tests, we discovered that the installed versions of Microsoft 365 apps were occasionally sluggish when displaying updates to our documents, but overall, they all worked fine. Our experience using the desktop versions of Microsoft 365 apps to collaborate could have been smoother a process as doing so using the online versions.
Overall, Google Workspace’s collaboration features are a little bit simpler to understand than those of Microsoft 365, perhaps due to the product itself.
Overall, both product suites enable productive teamwork, although, for the Microsoft apps, we recommend adopting the cloud-based versions for the smoothest collaborative experience.
Video Calls: With “Google Meet” and “Microsoft Teams,” respectively, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer video conferencing capabilities. However, Microsoft 365 is slightly lenient regarding video call participant caps.
You can host online meetings for up to 300 people using its “Business” plans and online calls for up to 1,000 participants and 20,000 view-only attendees using certain of its “Enterprise” plans.
In contrast, a Google Meet can have a maximum of 100 attendees on the “Business Starter” plan, 150 participants on the “Business Standard” plan, or 500 participants on the “Business Plus” plan.
Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace: conclusion
In the end, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are both great solutions for managing the productivity aspect of your business, with Google Workspace maybe winning when it comes to making collaboration simple. Additionally, Google Workspace offers more affordable prices for file storage (so long as you are not on its entry-level plan).
When choosing among the instruments, we would likely pay close attention to the following six crucial factors:
The need your organization may have to edit Microsoft Office documents
Your file storage requirements
Your email storage requirements
The nature of your working environment
IT implications
Scalability
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