Office 365 & Google Workspace

SimSof-IT have set up and managed many installations of O365 and G Suite ranging from SharePoint and OneDrive administration to Website and email management.

What do Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) do?

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are a suite of productivity tools that let you perform common business tasks ‘in the cloud’ by using a web browser.

These include:

• Sending emails
• Managing calendars
• Creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations
• Video conferencing
• File management
• Team collaboration.

Microsoft 365 also provides a comprehensive range of desktop applications — these are programs that you install on your computer, rather than using online.

Both products recently underwent a name change — Microsoft 365 was called Office 365, and Google Workspace was called G Suite.

Pros and cons of using Microsoft 365 & Google Workspace

Reasons to pick Microsoft 365 over Google Workspace

• Most Microsoft 365 plans come with desktop versions of the Microsoft Office applications. This makes the product a much better fit for any organisation with clients that expect it be able to send, receive and edit MS Office files without difficulty. This is in our view by far the strongest argument for choosing 365.
• The free trial is more generous — you can use Microsoft 365 for one month for free. Whereas Google Workspace offers a shorter, 14-day trial.
• The 365 apps are generally more feature-rich than the Google Workspace equivalents.
• The file storage and email storage quotas on the 365 entry level plan are much more generous than those provided by the Google Workspace entry level plan. And the inbox archive functionality ultimately provides unlimited storage space across all plans (albeit with a bit of configuration involved).
• Outlook provides you with an easy means to sort and group mail — Gmail doesn’t (unless you use a client like Outlook or Thunderbird to access it).
• The video conferencing participant limits are considerably higher than the Google Workspace equivalents, especially where cheaper plans are concerned.
• More advanced phone call management options are available with Microsoft 365.
• More advanced functionality regarding virus protection and rights management is available with Microsoft 365 (for a price, though).
• Microsoft 365 may provide a more natural fit for businesses that are exclusively Windows-based. More apps — notably Access and Publisher — are available on the Windows-based version. You get performance monitoring tools too.
• You can try Microsoft 365 for free here, or read more about our Microsoft 365 setup and migration services.

Reasons to pick Google Workspace over Microsoft 365

• Technically, Google Workspace allows you to create both Google Workspace and MS Office documents. Microsoft 365 will only let you create the latter. But remember that you can really only create simple MS documents with Google Workspace. It can be hard to preserve formatting accurately when using Workspace to edit existing ones.
• File storage: ‘Business Starter’ plan aside, the Google plans provide more generous file storage limits than their Microsoft 365 equivalents.
• Google Workspace is very scalable — there are no limits on the number of users regardless of what plan you’re on. By contrast, the cheaper Microsoft 365 ‘Business’ plans cap the number of your users at 300.
• Google Workspace was built as collaboration-focused solution from the ground up. With Microsoft 365, collaboration features were integrated into an existing desktop-based product that has a history of being used in ‘local’ context. As such the Google Workspace collaboration features are arguably a bit stronger.
• eDiscovery, site building tools, email archiving and legal holds on inboxes (amongst other advanced features) are available for a lower cost with Google Workspace.
• The Google Workspace interfaces are clean and intuitive and, so long as a good internet connection is being used. They load fast – certainly faster than Microsoft Office desktop equivalents.
• Google Workspace is a good solution for businesses that use multiple devices and operating systems.
• The fact that everything is cloud-based in Google Workspace may encourage users to use the cloud more, with all the collaboration-related benefits this brings.
• Google’s Drive Stream works with more Windows and Mac operating systems than Microsoft’s equivalent One Drive Files on Demand product.

At SimSof-IT

We offer Tech Support in St Albans, Harpenden, Watford and the surrounding areas. Contact Andrew on 01582 787205 to discuss our range of services. Full details are on our website SimSof-IT. Stay up to date with IT or Tech issues by following us on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.