Tools

Office 365 vs Google Workspace : Which One Should You Choose?

Call them office suites, productivity suites, or otherwise, Office 365 and Google Workspace are amongst the two most popular packages of business tools and features. There are many shared features between each, such as business email, calendars, online storage, and a host of apps for producing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. But which one should you choose?

Features of Both Products

As mentioned, there are various features that both products offer. There are many distinct differences between each product. At the time of writing, here are the offerings from each of the suites:

Pricing Plans

Package Name	Price per user	What You Get
Business Basic	$5/month	Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook Business email 1TB OneDrive for Business storage SharePoint and Microsoft Teams support
Apps	$8.25/month	Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook Minimum 1TB of OneDrive for Business
Business Standard	$12.50/month	Everything in Business Basic Outlook Customer Manager Microsoft Invoicing
Business Premium	$20/month	Everything in Business Standard Microsoft Intune management and deployment tools Advanced Threat Protection tools
E1	$10/month	Enterprise plan with all Cloud services Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook 50GB mailbox per user 1TB of OneDrive for Business per user
E3	£20/month	Everything in E1 Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook 100GB mailbox per user Unlimited OneDrive storage eDiscovery features for Administrators
E5	$35/month	Everything in E3 Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Office 365 Cloud App Security Unified communications plan that integrates with phones

Package Name	Price Per User	What You Get
Business Starter	$6/month	Gmail with a custom domain Web-based apps 30Gb Cloud storage per user across both Drive and Gmail Video meetings of up to 100 participants
Business Standard	$12/month	Everything in Business Starter Storage increased to 2TB per user 150 participants for meetings and save recordings to Google Drive Team Drives for specific teams Additional security and admin controls
Business Premium	$18/month	Everything in Business Standard eDiscovery features for email Storage increased to 5TB per user 250 participants for meetings
Enterprise	$25/month	Everything in Business Premium Enhanced security features (S/MIME encryption, hardware-based security keys) Unlimited personal storage Leak detection features AppSheet (app-building tool)

How do they compare?

Each of the productivity suites from Microsoft and Google includes such a wide variety of different tools and features that it’s best to compare them in specific areas, rather than trying to compare them as a whole.

Office apps/software

Also known as productivity apps, Google once led in this respect by allowing their apps to be used via a browser with no need to download any software. Microsoft has since brought its suite of tools online, but desktop/web app availability differs from package to package. While Google offers convenience, however, Microsoft Office software tools tend to be much fuller featured. However, many note that Google Doc and Sheets files tend to be easier to export and import to different software.

Cloud features

Google  Workplans works natively and exclusively through desktops, meaning that it is built to work seamlessly online with the Cloud as its foundation. While a user’s storage allotment is shared between both Drive and Gmail, it scales from 30Gb up to 5Tb. Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 offers 1TB of personal Cloud storage in even its most standard Business package.

Email

With Google Workplace, you get an inbox size of 30GB as standard which, as mentioned, is shared by Drive. Meanwhile, Microsoft Outlook offers 50GB or 100GB mailbox sizes. However, while the Microsoft Exchange Online tool built for Outlook can only be used with desktop clients, Gmail is much better optimized for mobile apps and web browsers, too.

Which one is better for you?

The productivity suite that works best to your needs will depend on what you’re looking for. Smaller teams that start with Google Workspace tools may find them easier to continue working with, and find that their ease of use makes them the best suited for productivity. However, when it comes to Cloud storage allocation, security features, and full-featured office software, Microsoft Office 365 will win by most metrics.