Microsoft Office 365 vs Google Workspace (G Suite): Which productivity suite is best for your business?
Microsoft and Google are engaged in a pitched battle to win over your business with suites of cloud-based productivity software and services. Here’s a look at the many different editions of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, along with what you can expect to pay for each one.
Deciding between Office 365 vs G suite can be daunting since both have a lot in common.
So, when choosing between the two it all depends on your specific business needs. This guide provides Office 365 vs G suite comparison for businesses to ease your decision. We will explore the features, applications, pricing, security and compliance of both Office 365 and g suite. The home, and education versions are not included in this guide.
What is G Suite?
G Suite, formerly Google Apps, is a collection of Google products to streamline business operations. Google offers these apps and services to businesses, institutions, and nonprofits on a monthly subscription via different price plans. While it’s true that these products are free for everyone but there is some difference between G Suite and free google apps. The Google Productivity suite adds enterprise-level, advanced features in the Google workspace including shared calendars, optional unlimited storage (Google drive), advanced admin controls, data migration tools. Furthermore, it also comes with mobile device management, remote wipe, and custom email addresses for your domain.
WHAT’S IN GOOGLE WORKSPACE?
All G Suite plans include:
- Gmail for Business
- Meet (video and voice conferencing)
- Chat (secure messaging)
- Shared calendars
- Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
- Keep (shared notes)
- Forms (survey builder)
- Sites (website builder)
- Currents (the replacement for Google+ for Google Workspace)
- At least 30GB of cloud file storage (Google Drive)
- Security and administrative controls
Google Workspace Business Premium and Enterprise plans significantly increase cloud storage (at least 5 TB per user) and add eDiscovery and email options as well as the ability to limit user access by geographic regions, among other features.
What is Microsoft Office 365?
All Microsoft 365 plans include either a set of cloud-based features or the right to download and install Office desktop apps on up to 15 devices per user (five Windows PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five smartphones), or both. The collection of desktop apps includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote; Access and Publisher are available on Windows PCs only, and Microsoft recently announced plans to include a “lightweight” version of Visio with Microsoft 365 business plans. Business and Enterprise plans include 1TB or more of storage per user in OneDrive for Business and access to the web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Cloud-based services include the following:
- Exchange Online email hosting with a maximum inbox size of 50 or 100GB
- Web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- A minimum of 1TB of OneDrive for Business file storage per user
- SharePoint Online team sites
- HD video conferencing
- Online meetings (Skype Meeting Broadcast or Microsoft Teams live events)
- Secure messaging and collaboration (Microsoft Teams)
- Security and administrative controls
G Suite vs Office 365 – Key Differences
Needless to mention, Microsoft has dominated the productivity software market for years! However, the onset of cloud services has changed the landscape of tech industry providing a level playing field for competitors.
Office 365 vs G Suite feature list has many similar functionalities such as business email addresses, secure chat and messaging, security and admin controls, video and audio calls. The following table summarizes the key difference between Office 365 and g suite.
|
FEATURES & APPS |
MICROSOFT 365 |
G SUITE |
|---|---|---|
|
Word Processing |
Word |
Docs |
|
Spreadsheets |
Excel |
Sheets |
|
Presentations |
PowerPoint |
Slides |
|
Emails |
Outlook |
Gmail |
|
Note-Taking |
OneNote |
Keep |
|
Surveys |
Forms |
Forms |
|
Team Intranet |
SharePoint |
Google Sites |
|
Internal Communication/Social Networking |
Yammer |
Currents |
|
Video Conferencing |
Teams |
Google Meet |
|
Video Sharing |
Stream |
– |
|
Messaging |
Teams |
Chat |
|
Archive Data |
– |
Vault |
|
Cloud Storage |
One Drive |
Drive |
|
Calendars |
Outlook Calendar |
Google Calendar |
|
Desktop Version |
Yes |
– |
|
Web Version |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Mobile Version |
Yes |
Yes |
Microsoft 365 vs G Suite Comparison: Features & Apps Included in Price Plans
Microsoft has recently revised subscription plans of Office 365, which is now offered in Microsoft 365. So, rather than paying for just Office 365 you get a bundle of services that includes Office 365, operating system and security tools. The following table provides a comparison of different subscription plans offered in Microsoft 365 and G Suite.
Google Workspace plans at a glance
| Plan | Price per user/month | At a glance |
| Google Workspace Business Starter | $6 | Aimed at very small businesses, this plan includes Gmail with a custom domain along with the web-based Google productivity apps. Cloud storage is limited to 30GB per user, shared across Drive and Gmail. Video meetings are limited to 100 participants. Billing is monthly, and you can add and remove licenses at any time. |
| Google Workspace Business Standard | $12 | This plan adds enhanced security and administration controls. Personal storage space is 2TB per user; voice and video meetings can have up to 150 participants and recordings can be saved to Google Drive. Team Drives allow groups of employees to share documents. |
| Google Workspace Business Premium | $18 | This plan adds archiving and eDiscovery features to email and increases personal storage space to 5TB per user. The limit on participants in meetings goes up to 250. Team Drives allow groups of employees to share documents. |
| Google Workspace Enterprise | $25 | For the significant per-user price increase, you get enhanced security features such as S/MIME encryption and support for hardware-based security keys as well as unlimited personal storage. In addition, organizations can lock down shared files and scan email and images to detect leaks of confidential or sensitive data. This tier also includes AppSheet, which allows users to build apps without code. |
Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans at a glance
| Plan | Price per user/month (1) | At a glance |
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | $5 | If you’re looking for an alternative to Google Workspace Business Starter, you’ve found it (for a dollar a month less, even!). You get business email, 1TB of OneDrive for Business storage, and web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, without desktop apps. SharePoint and Microsoft Teams support are included. |
| Microsoft 365 Apps | $8.25 | This plan is for smaller organizations that use Microsoft Office but don’t need Microsoft’s business email. It includes the full Click-to-Run collection of desktop programs plus a minimum of 1TB of OneDrive for Business storage per user, but it does not include SharePoint or Microsoft Teams support. |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | $12.50 | Consider this a combination of the two previous Business plans, with all the cloud features, plus the latest Office desktop programs. This edition also includes small-biz tools like Outlook Customer Manager and Microsoft Invoicing. All three Business plans are limited to 300 users per organization. |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | $20 | This plan includes all the desktop apps and cloud services in the Business Standard plan, with the addition of Microsoft Intune management and deployment tools and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection for security and information access control. |
| Office 365 E1 | $10 | The entry-level Enterprise plan offers all the common cloud services, with a 50GB mailbox and 1TB of OneDrive for Business storage per user. It includes mobile and web apps but does not include desktop apps. |
| Office 365 E3 | $20 | This plan includes everything from the E1 offering, with the addition of Office desktop programs. Maximum mailbox size increases to 100GB per user, and OneDrive storage is unlimited. Administrators also get eDiscovery features. |
| Office 365 Enterprise E5 | $35 | At the top of the line, this plan includes all E3 features and adds advanced security features such as eDiscovery, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and Office 365 Cloud App Security. It also supports unified communications plans that integrate with conventional phone systems. |
(1) Monthly prices shown in this table require an annual commitment; month-to-month prices are higher.
Office 365 vs G Suite: Security Features at a glance!
In the Office 365 vs g suite, you can expect the highest standards of security with both these productivity powerhouses! Both Office 365 and G Suite are neck and neck when it comes to security infrastructures. Google takes malware threats seriously! Google has a massive network of data centers with complete monitoring of its hardware. On the other hand, Microsoft follows highest security standards and international compliances.
How Secure is G Suite?
G Suite is designed with strict privacy and security standards offering full data encryption:
- Data Loss Protection
- Malware Protections
- Spam Detection
- Brand phishing defense
- Phishing Prevention
Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance
Microsoft 365 is designed keeping Cloud security in mind. Office 365 has a lot of security features including:
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Mobile device management (ATP)
- Advanced Threat Protection
- Encrypted Email
- Azure Identity Protection (AIP)
- Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
- Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
