Both Google and Microsoft offer cutting-edge Office Suites that help organizations maximize their productivity. For decades, Microsoft had wiped the floor of the office app market with its MS Office Suite. Some of its softwares like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint have gone on to gain legendary status, so much so that a presentation is now referred to as a “ppt” in many workspaces.
In the mid-2000s, Google decided to challenge Goliath with its Google Apps Suite, or the G-Suite. Although there were initial hiccups, it has managed to catch up with Microsoft Office in terms of features and price. But is it better?
Aren’t They The Same Thing?
Well, conceptually, yes! Both Microsoft Office Suite (Now Microsoft 365) and G-Suite (Now Google Workspace) provide productivity tools that make day-to-day tasks efficient.
While Google Workspace is a browser-supported online platform with offline features, Microsoft 365 tilts more towards desktop installation and offline use with an added online access.
Both suites are subscription-based with varied pricing across different organizational strata.
Both of these also have these common functionalities:
- Shared calendar and business emailing and services
- Shared Cloud Storage with personalization
- Word editing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools, along with other productivity programs
- Tools for corporate communication like messaging, video conferences, or online meetings
Follow The Money
Here’s what Google charges you for its services to your business.
Microsoft has something similar on the table.
See the last option that Google offers to ‘enterprises’ for custom pricing? Microsoft 365 has an entirely different payment plan for the segment:
Value For Money
A side-by-side comparison made it clear that while Microsoft 365 was developed as a productivity suite for organizational excellence, Google Workspace is a more collaborative environment that makes co-working and sharing much more streamlined.
- All Year Round
Microsoft charges you for a year’s subscription of the cumulative at the above rate. Should you try to pay them monthly, you have to pay $2 more for each segment. And guess what, you can’t pay the ‘Enterprise’ plans monthly at all.
In this aspect, Google workspace gives you the flexibility to r take up contractual projects that may not last the whole year.
- Give Me Some Space!
With Google Workspace, the more you pay, the more storage you get. The Business Starter pack’s 30GB storage does lose out to Microsoft’s 1TB, but as you move up, the storage upgrades to 2TB, 5TB, and unlimited space with Business Standard, Business Plus, and Enterprise packs, respectively.
- This! Is! Sparta!
No Microsoft 365 Business plan will let you add more than 300 users.
- Where’s That Mail?
No Microsoft 365 Apps Plan offers a comprehensive emailing solution that you can primarily use.
Google Workspace Vs. Microsoft 365
It is indeed a tough call for businesses to choose between the two. Offering similar facilities, pricing, and ease of use, the choice may easily boil down to individual decisions. If going for individual excellence, Microsoft 365 is a feature-laden suite that can make the most complex tasks easy for you. But when it comes to working in a team, on a project, or connecting to other people for collaboration, Google Workspace takes the upper hand. Being an online platform, it is independent of the OS it runs on and keeps you linked to the various other processes in the organization simultaneously.
