Office 365 vs. G Suite: Which Software Suite is Right for Your Business?

Both Microsoft and Google offer productivity software suites that compete heavily with each other.

In this article, we present a comparison of Office 365 (Microsoft) and G Suite (Google) as well as an overview of their different editions, to help you choose the one that best suits your SMB.

Indeed, both offer easy-to-use productivity software for small and medium-sized businesses, as they do not require a full-time IT department and are easy to learn and use.

Office 365 vs G Suite: What are their common features?

Of course, since both software are classic productivity suites, they include common features. Each offers a shared email and calendar service, as well as business communication tools (messaging, online meeting software, etc.). In addition, they include a suite of applications including word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation layout. Both also offer personal online storage space that can be shared with other users for collaborative work.

Collaborative work tools

Office 365 and G Suite also offer tools for communicating and working together within a company. In particular, they offer an online shared document editor that allows you to edit and modify simultaneously.

Among these tools, you will also find communication and video conferencing tools: G Suite offers Google Hangouts (messages, video conferencing), while Office 365 offers Teams (messages, video conferencing) or alternatives such as Streams.

What are the differences between Office 365 and G Suite?

Although these two software suites look similar, they offer two relatively different approaches. In order to choose which of the two software programs will be best suited to your business, you must first know which one will be most compatible with your existing hardware.

While Office 365 offers a suite of desktop applications that you can migrate online via a backend server (OneDrive), Google offers a solution implemented directly in the web browser. All of their software (Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides) can be used directly online and are compatible with Google Chrome.

G Suite is therefore the ideal suite if you frequently work together on documents.

Subscription and price differences

In terms of subscriptions, Office 365 offers a more comprehensive offering, with a greater number of different subscriptions, all specific and specific to their primary target customers. Additionally, Office 365 includes the desktop application suite that is not present for G Suite. However, Office 365 subscriptions are more expensive than equivalents offered by G Suite.

The prices shown are those for an annual subscription reported per month and per user.

G Suite

Google offers three G Suite subscriptions:

G Suite Basic

• CA$7.80 per user per month
• Offer including a personalized domain name on Gmail and all Google productivity apps online
• 30 GB cloud storage per user
• Effective only for very small businesses

G Suite Business

• CA$15.60 per user per month
• 1TB cloud storage per user
• Unlimited storage space per user for businesses with more than 5 subscribers
• Developed for small and medium-sized businesses

G Suite Enterprise

• CA$34 per user per month
• Enhanced data security with encryption
• Option to lock internally shared files
• Developed for all types of businesses

See on the Google website

Office 365

As for the offers offered by Windows, they are distinguished as follows: three subscriptions intended for small businesses and four subscriptions for large businesses.

Subscriptions for small businesses

Business Essentials

• CA$6.40 per user per month
• 1TB OneDrive storage
• Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Business

• CAD $11.00 per user per month
• No Microsoft business email boxes
• A minimum of 1TB of OneDrive storage
• Complete collection of Click-to-Run desktop tools

Business Premium

• CA$16.00 per user per month
• All cloud features
• All Office desktop programs
• Additional tools (Outlook Customer Manager, Microsoft Invoicing, etc.)

See on the Microsoft website

Subscriptions for large companies

Office 365 ProPlus

• CA$16.00 per user per month
• Companies with more than 300 positions
• Unlimited OneDrive for Business storage

Office 365 Enterprise E1

• CA$10.20 per user per month
• Includes all the basic offerings, but not the Office suite software
• 50 GB mail storage
• 1TB OneDrive storage

Office 365 Enterprise E3

• CA$26.60 per user per month
• Office Suite added
• Same features as the E1 offer
• 100 GB mailbox
• Unlimited OneDrive storage

Office 365 Enterprise E5

• CA$46.60 per user per month
• Same features as the E3 offering
• Enhanced security (Office 365 Cloud App Security)

See on the Microsoft website

In conclusion, whether you're a fan of Google or Microsoft, both offer a wide range of offerings and tools. Your choice will therefore depend on your professional needs, your specific use of each tool, as well as compatibility with your hardware.

Nexxo can help you set up Office 365 or G Suite

Still have questions after reading this article? Contact us  now. We'll be happy to help you choose the right solutions for your business. Nexxo has been working with various Quebec companies for several years to manage their technology tools.

About Nexxo

Nexxo Solutions informatique is a company specializing in providing IT and technology services to Quebec businesses. Its mission is to offer Quebec companies IT services tailored to their needs. Acting as an external IT department, it handles all of a company's IT tasks, allowing it to focus on its business activities. It achieves this by collaborating closely with its clients and putting their interests at the center of its concerns.