Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 comparison: which environment should you choose?

The sibling rivalry between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 reminds us a little of the 1990s, when Apple’s Mac was battling Microsoft’s PC through competing ad campaigns. 😃

Back then, the Mac positioned itself as the “cool” solution to adopt, while the PC seemed old and outdated.

Today, the tool playing the role of the Mac is Google Workspace, formerly G Suite: the cool, intuitive, well-designed tool… And opposite it, the heavyweight would be Microsoft!

But Microsoft’s collaborative environment actually has many advantages and remains even more attractive within large companies.

So, which one should you choose? To help you make a decision based on solid, performance-oriented criteria, here is our comparison!

Google Workspace appeals to small businesses and startups

For this exercise, we are joined by Timothée Jaumel, IT Manager at rzilient, who previously worked for companies including the scale-up Swile.

For Timothée, the situation is clear: “90% of startups and scale-ups use the Google environment. Quite simply because it is easier to configure when setting it up. In a previous company I worked for, we used Google until we reached around one hundred employees, and it worked very well.”

We also often see rzilient clients grow to a certain level with Google Workspace, then ask us for Microsoft licenses to support their next phase of growth.

It seems to be a difficult pattern to avoid, almost deterministic! 😯

From there, the switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 usually happens, or not. Some companies actually remain in a hybrid setup for a while, which is not ideal.

Let’s go through the advantages and disadvantages of each solution!

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Microsoft 365 generally wins when it comes to features

Some departments within our client companies genuinely need Microsoft 365.

Here are two examples:

• accounting and finance departments,
• sales teams, especially when dealing with complex calls for tender.

These teams rely on Excel’s advanced features and cannot afford to lose formulas or data. Google Sheets is simply not as powerful or advanced as Excel!

Data and file management

SharePoint is also worth mentioning, as it is easier to use than Google Drive, especially when it comes to security permissions.

In Google Drive, some features simply do not exist at the time of writing, such as sharing folders with external users, which makes things much more complicated. 😔

In SharePoint, you can easily configure access rights across the entire file and folder structure with a high level of precision: one person can access a specific folder, while another cannot.

Email management

When it comes to email, Microsoft goes further on certain features, such as email reminders in Outlook, which are more powerful.

Microsoft also allows managers to access mailbox history easily through the admin interface. On the Google side, you need to change the mailbox password and log directly into the account to make the modification, which, according to Timothée, is “super annoying and wastes a lot of time!”

However, it seems important to choose either one tool or the other, because when it comes to email, mixing both is not manageable. For mailing lists, for example, you absolutely need to choose one single tool.

While you can give users the choice between Google Sheets and Excel, this is not realistic for emails.

Note: Slack has reduced the gap between Google and Microsoft for startups.

But ultimately, things are not that simple. Let’s be clear: for many people today, email means Gmail, and therefore Google Workspace. And by combining Gmail with the independent Slack app, you can achieve a very high level of collaboration.

You therefore need to take into account the profile of the employees you plan to hire, as well as your company’s long-term goals.

Have your teams mostly worked in large companies in the past, meaning they will be used to Microsoft? Or have they mainly worked in startups, in which case they will be familiar with Google?

This criterion can help you make an effective decision.

Some versions of Office 365 include Skype, but that is not enough to match the level of collaboration enabled by Google’s suite of tools. Skype is also now barely used in companies.

That said, overall, Google is less powerful when it comes to email. It has clearly understood its limitations and is developing a fast-evolving strategy to try to widen the gap with Microsoft.

Microsoft Teams or Google Meet?

Teams is the more complete tool. It allows you to do more, but it is also more expensive.

And managing everything with Google Meet is complicated. So, if budget is not a constraint, our choice would lean more toward Teams.

However, Slack makes it possible to continue using Google Meet while complementing its features, especially through communication channels, and therefore to move away from Teams.

The potential issue: this creates fragmented costs.

Document creation

For teams that do not necessarily need the most advanced features in their text editor, whether Google Docs or Microsoft Word, their spreadsheet tool, whether Google Sheets or Excel, or their presentation solution, whether Google Slides or PowerPoint, Google is clearly the winner.

With its real-time collaboration capabilities, Google Workspace scores points over Microsoft. This is really where Google stands out!

However, for companies that need to process larger volumes of data, or work with advanced Excel formulas or macros, Microsoft Excel comes out on top.

Excel is far more powerful than Google Sheets and offers an enormous depth of features.

Other criteria to consider when choosing between Workspace and Microsoft 365

Let’s now look at other important criteria to consider when deciding between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

The technical development environment

With Google Cloud Platform, or GCP, you can do a certain number of things. The problem is that, over time, you may need to move to Microsoft to gain better performance.

The risk is then to let the migration drag on, making it harder with every passing day.

This migration to the Microsoft environment then requires time and advanced expertise, which means financial investment. It becomes complicated to fund and carry out.

User experience: Google’s stronghold

When it comes to user experience, our expert Timothée is clear: people generally prefer Google.

Google Workspace tools are also widely used in people’s personal lives, Gmail being the obvious example, which makes adoption of this environment easier.

No difference for managing Macs and PCs

According to our expert, whether your company prefers Mac or PC has no impact on the choice between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

For example, the Microsoft Office suite works very well on Mac.

Cloud or offline?

Google Workspace does not work, or does not work well, if your computer is not connected to the Internet.

It is possible to work offline and synchronize your data once you reconnect, but it is not ideal.

Microsoft applications, on the other hand, run smoothly on a PC without an Internet connection, allowing you to work for hours on a high-speed train or from a poorly connected country house while working remotely.

Here, it all depends on your teams’ working habits.

Pricing

Google and Microsoft both use a pricing system based on the number of users.

Google offers 3 tiers:

• Basic,
• Business,
• Enterprise.

The structure is clear and easy to understand.

On the Microsoft side, pricing is much more complex and makes comparisons difficult.

In most cases, for very small businesses, SMEs and startups, Google is cheaper than Microsoft.

For large accounts, however, the pricing situation is generally more favorable to Microsoft.

For our IT Manager Timothée:

“It depends on the features, but Google is generally more affordable because, for example, the Office suite can quickly become expensive. It is also because Microsoft is ‘hard’ software, while Google is 100% web-based. This pricing criterion explains why SMEs and startups most often start with Google.”

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Speak with one of our experts to make your decision easier!

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Conclusion: Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

If we had to help you decide using just one criterion, here is rzilient’s advice: if your company does not yet have a dedicated IT department, choose the Google Workspace environment.

But as soon as you reach 50 to 100 employees and recruit a skilled IT team, the Microsoft 365 environment is still the best solution today.

Also think about whether you want to obtain advanced certifications, or even take your company public. Having your information system built on Microsoft represents an important source of credibility for your IT.

Google is still lagging behind on certain points, especially security.

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Google or Microsoft, the rzilient platform manages both! Request a demo today.