WHICH IS BETTER
G SUITE
or OFFICE 365
Which is commonly used?
Every business needs email, communications, and productivity tools. 85% of businesses use Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s G Suite solutions to address these needs. But which is better: Office 365 or G Suite? The best solution depends on your existing technology and ease of adoption, your employees’ experiences and preferences, and cost to obtain the capabilities you need.
G SUITE
Google’s approach to building G Suite mirrored their cloud-native overall mantra. This means that G Suite, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google sheets, are used via your web-browser. A browser interface makes little difference for some of your employees, while others may prefer it.
Some of your employees will hate it though. This is a key distinction between Office 365 and G Suite since G Suite is all browser-based and Office 365 still has the option to use locally installed versions of Office Suite.
OFFICE 365
Microsoft built Office 365 as an evolution of Microsoft’s Exchange email and the Office Suite that your employees are already familiar with. Office 365 placed these services in Microsoft’s reliable cloud, added capabilities, made them subscription-based, and surrounded them with other productivity tools like Teams and SharePoint.
The ability to use the Office Suite applications installed on your computer is a key point, as it’s a familiar experience for most professionals. The familiarity leads many to conclude they’re more productive working in the locally installed Office Suite. Also, using the applications locally leads to a faster, more streamlined experience, and for that reason, most business users still use the local Office Suite apps when feasible.
Cost of Office 365 vs. G Suite
Office 365 and G Suite packages do not compare precisely, service by service, making a perfect comparison unfeasible. The packages do have enough overlap to draw pricing conclusions though.
Office 365 plans cost more than a comparable G Suite plan. But before you close the book on cost, you should know the difference in pricing is due to Office 365’s inclusion of Office Suite. Microsoft adds $8/month for packages that include the latest Office Suite downloads for your devices.
If you need Office Suite installed on your devices, G Suite’s lower subscription cost gets negated. Your G Suite licenses will cost less, but you’ll have to purchase Office Suite outright or subscribe to Office 365. If you purchase the Office Suite, you’ll have to upgrade Office versions every few years. If you don’t want to support multiple versions of Office in your environment or periodically purchase newer versions, Office 365 subscriptions provide you downloads of the latest Office Suite versions.
The total cost of buying and operating Office Suite wipes out the G Suite subscription savings. If you get a G Suite package, but also add Office 365 for your Office Suite needs, you will spend more than consolidating it all on Office 365.
Google Workspace vs Office 365 Deciding Factors
