Office 365 vs. G Suite for Businesses

Trying to decide which office suite is best for you can be a challenge. 15 years ago, your options were Microsoft Office or nothing. Today, businesses can choose from a range of options including FreeOffice, LibreOffice, WPS Office, iWork and Apache Open Office.

Most of these are clones of classic Office. All of them are outstripped by the advantages you get from Office 365. It remains the most popular productivity suite for documents, spreadsheets, presentations and email. But G Suite sits comfortably at number 2.

G Suite is more than an Office clone

Unlike the Office clones, G Suite provides a productivity suite that suits today’s workplace. Like Office 365, G Suite is app based, providing flexibility and scalability that is essential to growing businesses. G Suite is also backed up by Gmail and Google Drive, two extremely popular tools.

So, which one is better?

Office 365 vs. G Suite: A side-by-side comparison

Office 365

From £3.80 per user/month

Productivity Tools

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• OneNote
• Access

Communication

• Outlook
• Teams
• Planner
• SharePoint
• Exchange

Access & Storage

• OneDrive
• 1TB of storage as standard

Security

• Access control & permissions
• Create automated password policies
• Meets key global and industry-specific standards

G Suite

From $6 per user/month

Productivity Tools

• Docs
• Sheets
• Forms
• Slides
• Sites
• Keep
• Jamboard

Communication

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Currents
• Hangouts Chat & Meet

Access & Storage

• Google Drive
• 30GB of storage as standard

Security

• Access control & permissions
• 2-step verification as standard
• Meets key global and industry-specific standards

Price comparison between Office 365 and G Suite

No matter how big your business, price is one of the biggest deciding factors when choosing business software.

Google’s G Suite pricing

Google takes a simple approach. G Suite offers 3 pricing options

• Basic $6 per user/month
• Business $12 per user/month
• Enterprise $25 per user/month

You can also try any level of G Suite for free for 14 days.

Prices are based on number of users per month. The Business package offers unlimited storage (up from a 30GB cap) and access to app development tools. These tools allow you to build internal business processes from the ground up. You also gain access to auditing tools.

At the Enterprise level, you get access to data loss and prevention tools, as well as hosting options.

Microsoft Office 365 pricing

Microsoft Office 365 also offers three pricing options:

• Business Essentials £3.80 per user/month
• Business £7.90 per user/month
• Business Premium £9.40 per user/month

For enterprise-level businesses, Microsoft offers 4 more packages:

• Office 365 ProPlus £11.50 per user/month
• Office 365 E1 £6.00 per user/month
• Office 365 E3 £17.60 per user/month
• Office 365 E5 £30.80 per user/month

Businesses Essentials gives you the bare bones. But, they’re good bones. You get online access to the Office 365 suite, a 50GB inbox and 1TB of file storage. You also get the Skype and Teams apps. For £3.80 per user per month, that’s a lot of functionality.

Business level lets you download the Office suite to your desktop and allows you to use the Office suite on tablets and phones. The Business Premium package gives you access to a CRM, invoicing tools and tracking technologies.

The Enterprise level options offer expanded email, storage and security options. There isn’t much between them beyond scaling and support. Microsoft also offers a range of enterprise packages offering different sizes of mailboxes and storage.

Office 365 vs. G Suite: Which is better for…

…startups?

Microsoft’s Business Essentials provide a great deal of functionality for just £3.80. That being said, Gmail, Drive and Google Docs are all free. You don’t get the full functionality or business emails, but if you want zero business suite overheads, Google is tough to beat.

As your business grows, it’s easy to expand into the tiered payment options. You can get 30 GB of storage, business email addresses, video and voice conferencing, shared calendars and Docs, Sheets and Slides for $6 per user per month

.…small businesses?

For small businesses, G Suite and Microsoft Office are pretty interchangeable. Google gives you a few more toys, while Microsoft offers more storage at the lowest tier.

The question will come down to your business roots. If you use Office at home or hire staff that are used to it, go for Office. If you’re a growing smaller business with younger staff, G Suite might be a better fit. For businesses of up to 30 employees or so, it’s a personal choice.

…medium-sized businesses?

For larger businesses, Microsoft Office 365 is better than G Suite. The Enterprise package is much better suited to traditional business models and offers better management tools. It has better security features than G Suite. It also integrates organically with Microsoft applications like Crystal Dynamics.

The verdict

Choosing the best productivity suite will depend on a variety of factors. It isn’t just a question of features and pricing. You also need to think about the structure of your business, your culture and your people.

Effective IT enhances all these elements, rather than dictating them. We can help you understand what your business needs from your IT, offering impartial, expert advice.