Google Workspace or Microsoft Office. Which is the best option for your small, medium or large business? We recommend both and here is why.
First, we will get into Google Workspace and its features.
Google is a company that really shaped the internet and also recently led the way to cloud storage in the last decade. In today's current age of technology cloud documents are a must. Microsoft's cloud storage systems such as OneDrive and Office 365 have rapidly evolved. Unlike its competitor Google Workspace offers a wide range of solutions for developers and integrations with its wide range of open source API features. As privacy and safety of cloud storage continues to gain trust the demand for similar systems will grow. Google Workspace, like its competitor Office 365, is an all-in-one office work suite with storage and document editing tools. Google Workspace is primarily browser based but also has the ability to sync and read certain Microsoft formatted documents direct from the computer's hard drive to the browser.
Why is it good to also have Microsoft Office in your virtual working environment?
Microsoft Office, having its legacy software roots, compared to most modern document processing applications today explains why it stood the test of time. With Microsoft Office you will have the full original features that Google Workspace or other browser based and open source office applications lack. Every so often Google Workspace has widely evolved and added many formatting and features that it once didn't have, mimicking the Microsoft Office features.
Here is a comparison of the similar products that they have.
Microsoft Word -> Google Docs
Microsoft Excel -> Google Sheets
Microsoft PowerPoint -> Google Slides
Microsoft Outlook Online -> Gmail
Microsoft SharePoint -> Gmail Sites
Microsoft Teams -> Google Meet
And so on…
Features that are different on both Office Softwares
Email:
Regarding email features Outlook supports the Microsoft Exchange Server feature. But Gmail does not provide this stand alone email service. Gmail is a web and browser based email system.
Storage:
Regarding file storage, OneDrive by Office 365 has a default storage of 1TB vs Google Drive / Google Workspaces accounts have 30GB.
Documents:
Document creation with Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word has an endless amount of features with its offline version. It has the ability to create, edit and format documents with far more variations than Google Docs. If you are interested in making books creating special legal or formal document formats then Word is a master for most of this criteria. Google Docs is good for working as a team and sharing documents. It has a wide variety of settings but still lacks some special formatting and printing preferences although it has come a long way.
Pricing:
Microsoft 365 Business pricing ranges from $6 a month to $22 a month, all including 1TB and access to all the standard Office applications. The highest price plan also includes Azure and Intune.
Google Workspace ranges from $6 - $18, with the $18 plan having 5TB and endpoint management - a similar technology to Intune with MDM.
Photo from office.com
Photo from google.com/drive
Conclusion Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365? Not sure? Get both and you will find a use for them. The preference will also depend on your company’s IT manager. Microsoft is the legacy software for companies and home office users and preferred by more of the senior level admins. Google Workspace is always evolving and has many APIs you can use to integrate your applications with it.
Google Workspace offers a 13 days free trial.
Microsoft offers email, Onedrive, MS Word, MS Excel etc. (online only) for free with a 15GB free space. Head over to Outlook.com and create your free account to enjoy the benefits.
See you all in the next article.