Deciding on the right office suite for your business can be challenging. There are ultimately two key players to choose between \u2013 Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.<\/p>
From the early 2000s, Microsoft dominated the world of productivity, until 2006 when Google came along and launched their suite of products. Since then Microsoft and Google have been the biggest rivals in the productivity space.<\/p>
To help you decide which of these two office suite giants is best suited to your business, we put Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace side-by-side to see how they compare. Whilst on the surface they seem to be very similar in terms of functionality, once you scratch the surface there are some very different features that could sway your decision.<\/p>
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At a glance\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n At a glance, the two products look similar, don\u2019t they? But let\u2019s take a deeper dive into the key differences between the solutions.<\/p> <\/p>\n Microsoft 365 was launched in 2011 to help \u201cbring together\u201d Microsoft\u2019s existing productivity tools such as Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook into an \u201calways up-to-date cloud service\u201d. Recently,\u00a0 Microsoft announced new licence changes, making\u00a0Microsoft 365 the new Office 365, which now has over 200 million monthly active users world-wide.<\/p> <\/p>\n Migrating to Microsoft 365 takes your business into the cloud. And when moving into the cloud you want to ensure you have enough space to store all your businesses data. All Microsoft 365 business plans come with 1TB of OneDrive storage and 50GB of email storage\u00a0per user<\/u>, with the ability to buy more if needed.<\/p> Alongside their cloud storage, Microsoft offers hybrid solutions.<\/p> <\/p>\n Microsoft 365 is an application powerhouse with some of the leading productivity tools to help your business achieve fearless growth.<\/p> <\/p> Office applications:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p> Communication tools:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Microsoft invests over $1 billion into their products\u2019 security every year. Security is at the forefront of Microsoft\u2019s mind, to ensure that your business is secure when using their products.<\/p> Some of the security features you can take advantage of are:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When creating the Microsoft 365 solutions, Microsoft created subscriptions that would be suitable for everyone. In this they considered the cost when creating pricing to ensure they were affordable. Meaning you\u2019ll get more bang for your buck.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Google Workspace has now passed 2 billion users, but only 5 million of those are reaping the benefits of the paid platform.<\/p> <\/p>\n Googles cloud storage starts off much lower on their Starter plan at 30GB but dramatically jumps up to unlimited on the Enterprise plan \u2013 as does Microsoft 365 with their enterprise plans). So, it depends on the sort of storage your business needs.<\/p> <\/p>\n The applications Google have included in Google Workspace are very similar to the ones Microsoft include in their subscriptions.<\/p> Connect<\/strong><\/p> Google Workspace allows you to connect with other employees with ease. Within the solution you\u2019ll have access to:<\/p>\n Create<\/strong><\/p> Google Workspace prides itself on allowing businesses to create whatever you need to get the job done. You\u2019ll have access to three key solutions to help you be productive:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Security is at the heart of any decision when looking into new software. And Google have the basics in place across all pricing plans with two-step verification, Group-based policy controls, Advanced and Protection Programme and Endpoint management. All of this will provide you with the basic security features you need to start keeping your business secure \u2013 but many businesses want something more than that. And the higher Google Workspace plan you\u2019re on, the more security features you\u2019ll have access to \u2013 for example Vault and Data Loss Protection.<\/p> <\/p>\n Google has created four clear pricing plans to make it easy for businesses to select the one right for them. Whilst there is a clear difference between the plans the key difference is the amount of storage you have and the features you have access to.<\/p> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For us there\u2019s a clear winner. And that\u2019s Microsoft 365 \u2013 thanks to its security capabilities and variety of plans to suite any business of any size.<\/p> Cloud storage:\u00a0<\/strong>This is the bread and butter of a cloud productivity suite. You need to have enough storage in order for your data to be securely saved. Microsoft offers a generous amount of storage with the ability to add more if and when needed, but Google allows you to go that extra mile and will allow you to have unlimited storage if needed.<\/p> Security:\u00a0<\/strong>No one gets security like Microsoft does. With their huge yearly investment into security, its safe to say they\u2019re in the best position to keep you secure. Whilst Google has fantastic security tools available, some of which are very similar to the ones in Microsoft 365, Microsoft storms ahead with their comprehensive security solutions.<\/p> Price:<\/strong>\u00a0Microsoft have created a variety of pricing plans to help suite every business. Whilst Google have created four strong pricing plans, Microsoft wins us over with their vast range of plans suited for everyone.<\/p> Office applications:\u00a0<\/strong>In terms of features, applications and tools, there\u2019s not much in it. From the surface they come with variations of the same tools, but within the tools the functionality is quite different. Did you know, if you\u2019re using Google Workspace you need basic office applications, such as Excel and Word, in order to collaborate with third-parties \u2013 meaning you could be paying twice if you go for Google over Microsoft.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deciding on the right office suite for your business can be challenging. There are ultimately two key players to choose between \u2013 Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. From the early 2000s, Microsoft dominated the world of productivity, until 2006 when Google came along and launched their suite of products. Since then Microsoft and Google have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[],"post_media_type":[24],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-making-sense-of-microsoft-365","category-microsoft-365","post_media_type-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n
\n \n<\/th>\n Microsoft 365<\/th>\n Google Workspace<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Deployment<\/td>\n Cloud and hybrid<\/td>\n Cloud<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Offline access<\/td>\n Yes<\/td>\n Limited to certain applications<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Real time collaboration<\/td>\n Yes<\/td>\n Yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Desktop application access<\/td>\n Most plans<\/td>\n No<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Online application access<\/td>\n Yes<\/td>\n Yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Storage<\/td>\n From 50GB email and 1TB of drive storage per user<\/td>\n From 30GB combined email and drive storage per user<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Microsoft 365<\/h2>\n
Cloud storage<\/h3>\n
Applications<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Security<\/h3>\n
\n
Price<\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n \nPlan<\/th>\n Cost per user per month<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Microsoft 365 Business Basic<\/td>\n \u00a33.80<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Microsoft 365 Business Standard<\/td>\n \u00a39.40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Microsoft 365 Business Premium<\/td>\n \u00a315.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Microsoft 365 F3<\/td>\n \u00a37.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Microsoft 365 E3<\/td>\n \u00a328.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Microsoft 365 E5<\/td>\n \u00a348.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Google Workspace<\/h2>\n
Cloud storage<\/h3>\n
Applications<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Security<\/h3>\n
Price<\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n \nPlans<\/th>\n Cost per user per month<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Business Starter<\/td>\n \u00a34.60<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Business Standard<\/td>\n \u00a39.20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Business Plus<\/td>\n \u00a313.80<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Enterprise<\/td>\n No standard pricing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n What\u2019s the right office solution for me?<\/h3>\n