Businesses need a productivity suite to create, share, and edit documents as well as send emails and create presentations. You have likely already used Microsoft applications, G Suite apps, or both. While the two suites offer similar tools on a surface level, they operate very differently.
Businesses who invest in a business productivity suite need to select the right option in order to optimize productivity. Both Microsoft 365 and G Suite offer document editing, sharing, and storage features as well as additional benefits. Keep reading for a comparison of both services to help make your decision.
Features of Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office products are the standard in business. Outlook for Business is a popular mailing app which provides your business with a professional email address, and Microsoft consistently delivers in terms of emails service. In order to compete with providers like Google, Microsoft has added several new apps to their productivity suite in recent years.
Current Office 365 subscribers can access 1TB of cloud storage through the OneDrive Cloud Storage app. Files will sync across mobile, desktop, and web apps, so they can easily be access and shared from anywhere.
Microsoft offers a variety of additional apps including the following:
• Word – a word processing app
• Excel – creates spreadsheets and analyze data
• PowerPoint – create presentations
• OneNote – a note-taking app
• Skype – VOIP and video communications
• Publisher – desktop publishing
• Access – database creation and management
There are also a variety of web apps you can access with a subscription, including:
• People – manage your contacts
• Calendar – part of Outlook to view your calendar
• Tasks – part of Outlook that manages tasks
• Sway – presentations with a rolling narrative
• Flow – workflow system
• Forms – online form creator
Features of G Suite
G Suite used to be called Google Apps, but Google rebranded the suite in 2016. Gmail is one of the most popular email clients with 1.5 billion users. Also, Google Calendar is preferred by many businesses because it offers a way for employees to share meetings, events, and tasks.
Subscribers can access 30GB of storage on the basic plan and unlimited storage for users with the business or enterprise plan. All files are stored through Google Drive, making sharing online and offline a breeze.
G Suite offers additional productivity apps, including:
• Docs – a word processing app
• Sheets – creates spreadsheets and analyze data
• Forms – creates surveys and forms
• Slides – creates presentations
• Sites – creates websites
• App Maker – builds custom apps
• Keep – manages notes and ideas
• Jamboard – collaborative environment for teams
• Google Cloud Search – find anything across G Suite
Pricing and Plans Comparison
In terms of price, Microsoft 365 and G Suite offer similar basic plans. G Suite starts at $5 per user per month for a Basic plan, and Microsoft 365 starts at $6 per user per month for the Business Essentials plan. From there, G Suite quickly becomes more expensive reaching $29 per user per month for the Enterprise. Microsoft’s Business Premium plan starts at $15 per user per month.
Microsoft 365 offers more storage for their plans, and email storage is separate with 50 additional GB. Google seems to be stingier with their storage for basic plans, and email storage is included with the 30GB.
Which Productivity Suite is the Best?
While Microsoft is the long-standing favorite, G Suite is quickly gaining in popularity. Both options offer discounts for small businesses, but Microsoft 365 seems to be more competitive in terms of price. G Suite offers the benefit of cloud-based apps, designed to work on the cloud while Microsoft 365 is just recently adding cloud-based apps.
The best app for your business will depend on your unique needs. If your company will thrive with cloud-based apps and an extremely collaborative environment, G Suite may be your best bet. On the other hand, if you’re team needs very detailed and extensive productivity tools, Microsoft 365 offers the most robust features and could be the better choice for your business.
