Office 365 vs. GSuite – Which Makes Sense for Fast-Growth Companies

There are all kinds of productivity applications on the market today. Two of the best ones have been built by Google and Microsoft. Both Google’s GSuite and Microsoft Office 365 offer communications tools and file storage along with office tools. But comparing Office 365 vs. GSuite applications shows some real differences between the two models. For the fast-growing company, which will work best?

Office 365 vs. GSuite: Feature Comparison

Looking at Office 365 vs. GSuite yields some quick differences that are easy to spot. While both offer cloud-driven services, only Microsoft offers desktop deployments. The first question for any fast-growth company is whether this matters. While Microsoft can handle hybrid solutions, GSuite resides in the cloud. Cloud scalability is likely very important to companies that are expanding quickly.

But many organizations are not comfortable with putting all their corporate eggs in one basket – so a hybrid model, where services are divided between an in-house application and the cloud, are important. If this is the case, Microsoft wins in this area. In fact, Office 365 plans currently also provide the desktop version with the cloud model. This is a huge benefit for growing companies; the more options, the better. Office 365 can be used offline on a desktop or online.

In a direct feature comparison of Office 365 vs. GSuite, here is how things shape up:

In terms of offerings, Office 365 and GSuite are neck and neck. But an obvious difference is that Google products are free for individual use. But for business applications, both Google and Microsoft have a user agreement for their products. Pricing for these services break out in the following ways:

• Google pricing starts at $5/month/user and ranges up to $25/month/user.
• Microsoft Office 365 pricing starts at $5.00/month/user and goes up to $12.50.

Looking at pricing for Office 365 vs. GSuite show that there are there are differences between the small, midsize, and enterprise-level plans for both companies. However, the biggest difference may be in the file storage size. The GSuite entry-level plan has a fairly restricted file storage limit at 30 GB. The good news here is that documents created within the Google suite of applications do not count toward this file storage limit. However, emails are counted toward this limit.

For the entry-plan, Microsoft wins; there is 1 TB of storage compared to Google.

Another problem with Google is the email functions. Gmail doesn’t allow users to group email, which can be unwieldy in a business setting. The truth is that Outlook, like Word and Excel, has cornered the market around that function. There are far more Outlook applications in use today than Gmail, and Microsoft’s office productivity suite has owned market share for decades. One important red flag for Google is that their email products simply do not play well with the Outlook calendar.

One thing to note, when comparing pricing for Office 365 vs. GSuite, is that Microsoft has a more complicated structure. However, there are many more options for building a suite of services for companies that are growing quickly; that scalability and flexibility is a big plus.

Office 365 vs. GSuite: Functionality

Microsoft’s increasingly strong Office 365 performance is coming partly at the expense of Google Apps.
CIO

The GSuite is a great umbrella of low cost, simple services for the small business. But no one beats the Microsoft Office 365 suite for the sheer number of functions within each application. There is no question that Microsoft Excel kills Google Sheets for high-level number crunching and data visualization. Google Docs simply cannot add the layers of graphics and desktop publishing features found in Word. Also, PowerPoint is the most-used presentation software on the planet; most of us have been using it for decades.

This shouldn’t preclude the growing company from considering the Google suite of services. In fact, you can open Microsoft Office docs from Google Docs or save files from the GSuite to a Microsoft format.

However, when comparing Office 365 vs. Gsuite, it is important to consider the functions and goals of most growing companies. One is to track all customer touchpoints in a customer relationship management platform. That’s why Microsoft offers Dynamics, a CRM designed to handle sales, customer service, marketing, or any other service that requires customer contact. CIO says that Microsoft is even beating out Salesforce, the “Cadillac CRM” in growth numbers lately.

Many companies in aggressive growth mode will look at enterprise resource planning (ERP) software as a more sophisticated way to track productivity and profitability. Microsoft has an ERP solution that offers companies advanced analytics and tracking on a familiar Microsoft dashboard.

Speaking of familiarity, the Microsoft suite of features all have a similar look and feel, along with easy interoperability that makes adoption faster. For growing companies, this may be important, because it could save in training time as well as ease-of-use. CIO says:

The simplicity of Gmail and Google Docs clearly appeals to some users, but
as one of the most widely used applications in the world, the Office software
is familiar to many.

Office 365 vs. GSuite – Final Word for Fast Growth Companies

A comparison of the two platforms should always be undertaken before signing off on any user agreement. For small companies, GSuite may have enough features to help them expand without feeling the constraints posed by a limited number of features. But when purchasing an office productivity suite, consider the learning curve for staff that may be more accustomed to the “standard” Microsoft products.

Perhaps more importantly, consider not where your company is now – but where you want to be in five years. Would the additions of expanded cloud storage, or the analytical power of an ERP platform help your organization take things to the next level? Would Google inhibit your goals and require a mid-stream switch from the GSuite to a more robust set of interoperable applications?

It’s for these reasons that Red River recommends Microsoft Office 365 as the suite of productivity applications geared toward businesses seeking growth. Contact Red River today to find out more.

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