Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: What’s the perfect workplace suite for enterprise?
Google Workspace has turn into a strong, feature-filled various to Microsoft Office. We break down the professionals and cons of every suite that can assist you determine which is correct for what you are promoting.
Thinkstock / Google / Microsoft
Once upon a time, Microsoft Office dominated the enterprise world. By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Microsoft’s workplace suite had brushed apart rivals similar to WordGood Office and Lotus SmartSuite, and there was no competitors on the horizon.
Then in 2006 Google got here together with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a collaborative on-line phrase processing and spreadsheet duo that was mixed with different enterprise companies to kind the Google Apps suite, later rebranded as G Suite, and now as Google Workspace. Although Google’s productiveness suite didn’t instantly take the enterprise world by storm, over time it has gained each in options and in reputation, boasting 6 million paying clients, based on Google’s most up-to-date public stats in March 2020.
Microsoft, in the meantime, has shifted its emphasis away from its conventional licensed Office software program to Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365), a subscription-based model that’s handled extra like a service, with frequent updates and new options. Microsoft 365 is what we’ve centered on on this story.
Nowadays, selecting an workplace suite isn’t so simple as it as soon as was. We’re right here to assist.
Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have a lot in widespread. Both are subscription-based, charging companies per-person charges each month, in various tiers, relying on the capabilities their clients are in search of. Although Google Workspace is web-based, it has the aptitude to work offline as effectively. And whereas Microsoft 365 relies on put in desktop software program, it additionally supplies (much less highly effective) web-based variations of its purposes.
Both suites work effectively with a spread of units. Because it’s web-based, Google Workspace works in most browsers on any working system, and Google additionally presents cellular apps for Android and iOS. Microsoft supplies Office shopper apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and its web-based apps work throughout browsers.
The suites additionally supply the identical primary core purposes. Each has phrase processing, spreadsheet, presentation, electronic mail, calendar, and contacts applications, together with videoconferencing, messaging, and note-taking software program. Each has cloud storage related to it. But these particular person purposes are fairly completely different from one suite to the opposite, as are the administration instruments for taking good care of them in a enterprise atmosphere. And each suites supply scads of extra instruments as effectively. So it may be exceedingly troublesome to determine which suite is best for what you are promoting.
That’s the place this piece is available in. We supply an in depth take a look at each facet of the workplace suites, from an application-by-application comparability to how effectively every suite handles collaboration, how effectively their apps combine, pricing, assist, and extra. Our focus right here is on how the suites work for companies, quite than particular person use.
Pricing: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions in contrast
“Follow the money” is the hallowed chorus of investigators in all places, and once you’re beginning to determine which workplace suite is best for you, it’s an excellent place to start out as effectively. Individuals can use a number of of the net apps from each suites — together with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides in addition to Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerLevel Online — at no cost, however companies ought to look to the paid Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions for mandatory safety and administration options.
Check out the next tables, first for Google Workspace, after which for Microsoft 365, to match plans and pricing.
Google Workspace pricing choices for enterprise
Google Workspace is available in 4 industrial variations: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise. Business Starter, at $6 per person monthly, comes with the complete suite of purposes and 30GB of storage per person. At $12 per person monthly, the Business Standard plan contains all that, plus 2TB of storage per person in addition to archiving, enterprise search capabilities, and extra administrative instruments. Business Plus at $18 per person monthly contains the whole lot the Business Standard model presents, plus much more administrative controls and enterprise instruments.
Enterprise has the whole lot that Business Plus does, in addition to extra administrative controls and a low-code utility builder. You’ll should contact Google for pricing particulars for Enterprise.
Google Workspace enterprise plans
1 All cellular apps out there for Android and iOS
Business Starter
Business Standard
Business Plus
Enterprise
Price
$6/person/mo.
$12/person/mo.
$18/person/mo.
Contact Google gross sales for pricing
Create paperwork, spreadsheets, displays
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Mobile versions1 of Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Email, customized domains, shared calendars, videoconferencing, staff messaging
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Drive file storage
30GB per person
2TB per person; shared drives for groups; search throughout all firm content material in Google Workspace
5TB per person; shared drives for groups; search throughout all firm content material in Google Workspace
Unlimited; shared drives for groups; search throughout all firm content material in Google Workspace
Additional enterprise instruments
Forms, Sites, Keep, Smart Fill, Smart Cleanup, Answers
Forms, Sites, Keep, Smart Fill, Smart Cleanup, Answers
Forms, Sites, Keep, Smart Fill, Smart Cleanup, Answers
Forms, Sites, Keep, Smart Fill, Smart Cleanup, Answers, AppSheet
Security and administration instruments
Basic instruments together with endpoint administration and group coverage primarily based controls
Everything in Basic plus extra highly effective instruments together with Google Workspace Migration Tool
Everything in Business Standard plus extra highly effective instruments together with safe LDAP, superior endpoint administration, and Vault for retaining, archiving and looking information
Everything in Business Plus and extra highly effective instruments together with enterprise-level endpoint administration, information loss prevention, S/MIME encryption, extra
For extra detailed info, take a look at Google’s web page evaluating pricing plans. Also word that some options out there in higher-level Google Workspace plans can be found for buy as standalone companies. Additionally, Google presents specialised variations of Workspace Enterprise for healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing, and authorities organizations, and there are a selection of free and paid Workspace variations for nonprofits and academic establishments.
Microsoft 365 pricing choices for enterprise
Microsoft 365 enterprise subscriptions are extra sophisticated and vary from $5 per person monthly for Microsoft 365 Business Essentials, probably the most primary model for small companies, to $35 per person monthly for Microsoft 365 E5, probably the most feature-packed model for enterprises. Confusingly, Microsoft renamed all of its small enterprise plans from Office 365 to Microsoft 365, however on the enterprise stage, it presents each Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans.
The tables beneath define what you get with every model. The three plans within the first desk are for small companies with as much as 300 workers; those within the second desk are meant for bigger organizations.
Microsoft 365 small enterprise plans
1 Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerLevel desktop apps out there for Windows and Mac
2 All cellular apps out there for Android and iOS
3 Publisher and Access desktop apps out there for Windows solely
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Pricing
$6/person/mo.
$8.25/person/mo.
$12.50/person/mo.
$22/person/mo.
User restrict
300
300
300
300
Create paperwork, spreadsheets, displays
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Desktop1 / mobile2 variations of Word, Excel, PowerLevel, Outlook
No / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Exchange electronic mail internet hosting, customized domains, shared calendars
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Microsoft Teams and SharePoint
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
OneDrive file storage
1TB per person
1TB per person
1TB per person
1TB per person
Additional enterprise instruments
OneNote, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, Visio, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft Bookings
Access3, Publisher3, OneNote, Visio
Teams, OneNote, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, Visio, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft Bookings
Teams OneNote, Outlook, Microsoft Forms, Visio, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft Bookings
Security and administration instruments
Basic instruments together with menace administration, archiving, and auditing
Only primary instruments, not together with archiving and auditing
Everything in Business Basic plus electronic mail safety
Everything in Business Standard plus superior menace safety, Azure info safety, and Intune cellular system administration
Office 365 and Microsoft 365 enterprise plans
Scroll proper to see all plans.
1 Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerLevel desktop apps out there for Windows and Mac
2 All cellular apps out there for Android and iOS
3 Publisher and Access desktop apps out there for Windows solely
Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise
Office 365 E1
Office 365 E3
Office 365 E5
Microsoft 365 E3
Microsoft 365 E5
Pricing
$12/person/mo.
$10/person/mo.
$23/person/mo.
$38/person/mo
$36/person/mo.
$57/person/mo.
User restrict
No restrict
No restrict
No restrict
No restrict
No restrict
No restrict
Create paperwork, spreadsheets, displays
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Desktop1 / mobile2 variations of Word, Excel, PowerLevel, Outlook
Yes / Yes
No / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Exchange electronic mail internet hosting, customized domains, shared calendars
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Microsoft Teams / SharePoint
Yes / No
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
Yes / Yes
OneDrive file storage
1TB per person
1TB per person
5TB per person; extra out there on request (if fewer than 5 subscriptions, 1TB per person)
5TB per person; extra out there on request (if fewer than 5 subscriptions, 1TB per person)
5TB per person; extra out there on request (if fewer than 5 subscriptions, 1TB per person)
5TB per person; extra out there on request (if fewer than 5 subscriptions, 1TB per person)
Windows
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Additional enterprise instruments
Delve, Sway, OneNote, Publisher3, Access3, Forms
Everything in M365 Apps/Enterprise plus Stream, Visio for the online, Planner, To Do, Microsoft Whiteboard, Yammer, Viva Insights, Viva Connections, Power Apps, Power Automate, extra
Everything in O365 E1 plus Outlook desktop shopper, Dataverse for Teams, extra
Everything in O365 E3 plus cellphone and audio conferencing and Power BI Pro
Everything in O365 E3
Everything in O365 E5
Security and administration instruments
Identity and entry mgmt, system and app mgmt, Group Policy assist, Microsoft Graph API, shared laptop activation, Active Directory sync for SSO
Identity and entry mgmt, system and app mgmt, primary authorized compliance, Active Directory sync for SSO
Everything in O365 E1 plus Group Policy assist, shared laptop activations, info safety, primary eDiscovery and auditing
Everything in O365 E3 plus superior compliance, menace safety, Office 365 Cloud App Security and Threat Protection
Everything in O365 E5 plus superior endpoint and app mgmt, menace analytics, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Intune
Everything in M365 E3 plus superior info safety, menace safety, identification and entry mgmt, compliance
Find out extra about Microsoft 365 small enterprise plans, in addition to the Office 365 enterprise plans and Microsoft 365 enterprise plans. Microsoft additionally presents an array of Microsoft 365 plans for instructional, authorities, nonprofit, and different establishments.
In addition, many Office apps and companies can be found on an à la carte foundation. Some firms favor to pay for a lower-level plan after which pay for one or two of these things as add-ons quite than paying for a higher-level complete plan.
Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: App by app
Every enterprise has completely different wants, and yours might place better worth on sure apps than others. For some firms, phrase processing and electronic mail is perhaps a very powerful apps in an workplace suite, whereas others would possibly want a strong spreadsheet program above the whole lot else.
To assist, we’ve in contrast the key workplace apps in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 so you’ll be able to zero in on the apps which can be most essential to what you are promoting and let their strengths and weaknesses information your general determination. We’ve included solely the highlights beneath; in order for you extra particulars about every app, we’ve linked to Computerworld articles that supply in-depth comparisons.
Word processing: Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word
Deciding on whether or not what you are promoting can be higher off with Google Docs or Microsoft Word is pretty simple. Which is extra essential to your customers: easy-to-use collaboration or the best vary of doc creation and enhancing options? For collaboration, Google Docs is best. For as totally featured a phrase processor as you’ll discover anyplace, you’ll need Word.
By saying Word has superior options, I don’t imply a bunch of instruments that what you are promoting might by no means use. I imply nice capabilities that make your workflow simpler and extra productive.
For instance, when you’re making a report, brochure, resume, or virtually some other sort of doc, Word presents a superb set of pre-built templates so you may get writing quick, realizing that your doc could have a stable, helpful design. Word has 300 completely different enterprise templates alone, whereas Google Docs solely has 55 complete templates of every kind, together with private, enterprise, and academic ones. (Microsoft claims Word has hundreds of templates, however we couldn’t depend all of them.) Word additionally presents extra chart varieties and types for embedding into paperwork.
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Microsoft Word has way more highly effective options than Google Docs, together with many pre-built templates from which to decide on when creating a brand new doc. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
But Google Docs outshines Word in terms of dwell collaboration. Collaborating is seamless and has been constructed into the app from the bottom up, whereas in Word it’s tougher to make use of, not as complete, and feels tacked-on quite than an integral a part of this system.
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When it involves doc sharing and dwell collaboration, Google Docs outshines Microsoft Word by a large margin. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
For non-live collaboration — enhancing and marking up paperwork for assessment by others — Word has all the time been the gold commonplace, however Google Docs has come a great distance and now could be practically nearly as good as Word. Word’s enhancing instruments have barely finer-grained controls, however other than that, they’re about even.
For a extra in-depth comparability, head to “Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word: Which works better for business?”
Spreadsheets: Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel
Do customers in your organization largely work alone on spreadsheets, or do they regularly collaborate with others? The reply to that may decide whether or not Excel or Google Sheets is best for what you are promoting.
For those that primarily work by themselves, Excel is the clear winner. As with Word, its vast collection of templates presents a humiliation of riches. For instance, there are greater than 80 templates only for various kinds of budgets. Whether it’s a enterprise funds or a special-purpose funds, similar to for a advertising occasion, you’ll doubtless discover one that matches your wants and that may be simply edited. By distinction, Google Sheets has solely three completely different funds templates.
Excel additionally presents way more chart varieties than Google Sheets — 19 in all — together with standard ones similar to column, line, pie, bar, and space; extra advanced ones similar to radar, floor, and histogram; and a few which can be recognized primarily to information professionals, like field & whisker. And many chart varieties have a number of subtypes — for instance, among the many bar charts you may discover clustered bar, stacked bar, and so forth, and every of these has two variations. Google Sheets has solely seven primary forms of charts and a handful of particular person charts that may’t be categorized. It’s additionally easier to create charts with Excel than it’s in Google Sheets.
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Excel has way more subtle options than Google Sheets, together with many extra chart varieties. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Google Sheets far outpaces Excel in real-time collaboration, although. As with Docs, collaboration is baked instantly into Sheets. Not solely does it have extra highly effective instruments, however they’re naturally built-in and straightforward to entry. The identical holds true for enhancing and commenting on spreadsheets.
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Google Sheets’ collaboration instruments are highly effective and straightforward to make use of. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
For a extra in-depth comparability, see “Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel: Which works better for business?”
Presentations: Google Slides vs. Microsoft PowerLevel
As with phrase processing and spreadsheet apps, whether or not Google Slides or PowerLevel is greatest for what you are promoting comes right down to a single level: Do you prize collaboration or highly effective options in a presentation program? If collaboration is king in your organization, Google Slides is best. For each different motive, PowerLevel is.
For instance, PowerLevel’s FastStarter function makes fast work of beginning a presentation. Choose the subject of your presentation, and FastStarter walks you thru creating an overview, starter slides, templates, and themes. Although Google Slides does supply an Explore instrument that means layouts in addition to photos and different content material associated to your slideshow subject, it’s on no account equal to FastStarter.
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PowerLevel has quite a few options Google Slides can’t match, together with FastStarter, which walks you thru creating an overview, starter slides, templates, and themes. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Similarly, with PowerLevel, it’s simpler so as to add graphics, transitions, animations, and multimedia. It has extra chart and desk varieties as effectively. And it presents subtle choices in terms of giving the presentation itself, with modern capabilities similar to Rehearse Timings, which instances how lengthy you tackle every particular person slide as you rehearse a presentation. That manner, you gained’t get slowed down on any particular person slide, and you’ll follow giving every slide its simply due. Google Slides has nothing prefer it.
However, Google Slides guidelines in terms of collaboration, with far outstrips the kludgy and awkward capabilities constructed into PowerLevel. And as a result of Slides presents fewer capabilities than Excel, it’s barely simpler to create slides in it, as a result of it doesn’t pack as many options into the interface.
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Slides isn’t as highly effective as PowerLevel, however its interface is much less cluttered and complicated. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
For a extra in-depth comparability, see “PowerPoint vs. Google Slides: Which works better for business?”
