G Suite vs. Office 365
Which cloud-based software tools are right for your business?
When it comes to office suites, Microsoft Office is the standard—it’s been providing businesses with great software to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more for over twenty years. However, as software has become increasingly web-based, Google has burst onto the scene with G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps), which offers a reasonable alternative to Office.
Both G Suite and Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based competitor to G Suite, provide businesses with the applications they need to get work done.
But which one is best for your business? Check out our table to figure out which one is right for you.
| Pros to Both | Cons to Both |
|---|---|
| Both are made by trusted, widely used companies | Can get expensive |
| Cloud-based for easy file sharing and collaboration | Cannot pick and choose specific products that you want, so you may be paying for unused products |
| 99.9% guaranteed uptime | |
| Data is safe and secure |
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| IN SUMMARY | G Suite provides businesses with a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s not as elegant or complex, but is sufficient for users who only need to do basic work with the software. | Microsoft Office is still the standard for productivity suites. It is more expensive and all the features may not be used by most small businesses, but for those that need the capabilities it’s the best option. |
| PROS | Plans are cheaper and don’t have a maximum user count, so if your business grows you don’t have to change plans | Microsoft Office has been the standard for a long time—almost everyone in the business world is familiar with it and knows how to use it. |
| CONS | The products that come with G Suite, like the word processor and spreadsheet, can do considerably less than their Microsoft Office counterparts and could be frustrating for users who are accustomed to Office. Because G Suite operates exclusively in the cloud, any downtime could affect productivity. | There are a lot of features that come with the Office software—to the point that it could be overwhelming and/or result in many unused features. Many people (especially younger ones) use G Suite for personal use and are more familiar with it. |
| BEST FOR | Businesses that only need the basic applications and don’t want to pay more for unused features. Better for smaller companies that only need to do basic work with it, and growing companies that don’t want to worry about a max number of users | Businesses that need and are willing to pay more for the features and familiarity of Microsoft Office, generally larger enterprises or companies that need the advanced features of Excel in particular. |
| PRIVACY | Google scans your mail and files to collect data and give you relevant ads | Microsoft does not scan emails or documents for anything other than to protect against malware |
| SECURITY COMPLIANCE | FISMA (for use in government), HIPAA (for use in healthcare—not by default but available), ISO 27001 and SSAE 16 (both third-party audits) | FISMA, HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27001, EU’s Data Protection Directive (regulates processing of personal data) |
| COMPATIBILITY WITH THE OTHER | Microsoft files can be uploaded to Google Drive, but since a lot of features found in Office aren’t available in G Suite, formatting is often not preserved well. G Suite Sync allows you to use Outlook for your Google mail, calendar, and contacts. | Google drive files can be downloaded as PDFs or in the format of whatever word processor you have on your machine, so if you want to edit them in Office it’s easy to do so. |
| MOBILE/TABLET APPS | Drive, Docs, and Sheets apps for iOS and Android | Microsoft Office Mobile for Android and iOS |
| HOW MUCH? | $5 - $10 user/month | Small/midsize business plans range from $60 to $150 user/year |
| PAYMENT PLANS | Flexible: you pay monthly for the service that you used during the previous month. | Monthly: pay month by month Annual: sign up for a year subscription and chose to pay monthly or whole annual cost at once at a discounted rate |
| FREE TRIAL? | 14 day free trial for all plans | 30 day free trial for higher two plans |
| OFFLINE USAGE | Docs, Sheets, and Slides can be enabled for offline use in chrome and there is an add-on for chrome to enable offline Gmail usage | Offline editing is supported for all Office Web Apps, and the higher two plans of Office 365 include the desktop versions that can always be accessed offline |
| FILE STORAGE | Google Drive—30 GB per user | OneDrive—1 TB per user |
| ADDING USERS | Users can be added at any time | Users can be added at any time as long as you don’t exceed the user limit for your plan |
| WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU CANCEL? | Data is deleted upon cancelation. You are only billed for the user accounts you use each month. | Once you cancel, your administrator will have access to any data for 90 days. If you’re on a monthly payment plan, then you’re done paying. On an annual payment plan, you’ve already paid for the year and will not receive a refund. |
| SUPPORT | 24/7 phone and email | Web and 24/7 phone |
| OPTIONS | G Suite Basic: business email, video and voice calls, online calendars, 30GB of storage, online text documents, spreadsheets, and slides, project sites, security and admin controls G Suite Business: archiving, email retention in case of employee departure, protection from data loss, administrator-restricted search, control over data retention, legal holds, web-based data management G Suite Enterprise: third-party archiving and integration tools, access control with security key enforcement, Gmail log analysis in BigQuery | Office 365 Business Essentials: business email, custom email domain address, web and mobile version of Outlook Office 365 Business: business email, file storage and sharing, video conferencing, website, online calendars, data security and spam filtering, online and mobile versions of Microsoft Office (up to 300 users) Office 365 Business Premium: Full desktop versions of Microsoft Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user, plus Office for tablets Office 365 Midsize Business: directory integration (and up to 300 users) |
| TWO-STEP VERIFICATION? | Yes | Yes |
| DOES MAC VS PC MATTER? | Nope! Since the only thing you’re downloading to your computer is Google Drive to sync files, it doesn’t matter if you use a Mac or a PC. | Yes, if you have a plan that includes desktop software—some applications, such as Access and Publisher, are only available on PCs and others, like Skype and OneNote, need to be downloaded separately. For full info, go to Microsoft’s website. |
| HOME/PERSONAL VERSIONS | Every Google account comes with access to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. | Microsoft accounts have free access to OneDrive and Office Web Apps. In addition, there is Office 365 Home, a subscription based plan that includes desktop applications for up to 5 PCs or Macs and 5 tablets, and Office 365 University, a four year subscription that includes desktop applications for 2 devices. |
G Suite Review
G Suite is Google’s approach to the office suite, relatively simple and inexpensive, getting the job done without all the bells and whistles. It’s totally online—all the applications are web based and your files are all stored in the cloud. Everything is saved automatically as you work, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally losing all of your changes. Since everything is stored in the cloud, you can access your files from work, your laptop, your phone, someone else’ computer, or anywhere you have internet access.
What Products Are Included?
G Suite for Business includes the following products, all online:
- Gmail (email)
- Hangouts (video chatting/instant messaging)
- Calendar
- Drive (cloud storage)
- Docs (word processor)
- Sheets (spreadsheets)
- Slides (presentations)
- Sites (website building)
- Admin (administrative tools)
Pricing
With G Suite, you pay monthly for each account used. You have three options: G Suite Basic, G Suite Business or G Suite Enterprise, with the difference between them being $5 per user/month.
The Bottom Line
G Suite is great for small businesses that need its products to do basic work but don’t need a full desktop version of the software. There’s no user limit, so you don’t have to worry about having to change plans if your business is growing. It’s not particularly polished or feature rich, which is fine for many small business but if you’re looking to do extensive, complicated work (especially with spreadsheets) then this may not be the right choice for you.
Office 365 Review
With over a billion users around the world, it’s hard to find someone in the business world who isn’t familiar with Microsoft Office. While the standard Office desktop software is nothing new, Microsoft has recently come out with Office 365, an online version of its Office applications that make file sharing and collaboration a breeze. With Office 365, you also have the option of adding on the full desktop version of Microsoft Office, which has more features and allows for even more customization.
What Products Are Included?
All Office 365 editions come with Office Web Apps, which include online versions of the following:
- Word (word processor)
- Excel (spreadsheets)
- PowerPoint (presentations)
- Outlook (email)
- OneNote (note taking)
- Publisher (publishing)
- Access (database)
- Skype for Business (video conferencing/instant messaging)
- OneDrive (cloud storage)
More expensive plans include the full desktop versions of these products that each user can download to up to five machines each.
Pricing
There are a lot of different options for Office 365, but the main ones for smaller businesses are Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business, and Office 365 Business Premium. They are $5, $8.25, and $12.50 per user/month, respectively, and the main difference between the three of them is that the higher two plans come with desktop versions of the applications.
The Bottom Line
Office 365 provides users with a familiar and comfortable cloud-based office suite experience. For many businesses, it’s probably not worth the high price—you’re paying for the extensive advanced features that it offers, but a lot of businesses just need the basics and won’t get any use out of them. If you need to be using large spreadsheets or other complex files, though, it’s by far the best choice out there.
Other Options
- Free, open source, downloadable office suite
- Compatible with Microsoft file formats
- Word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications
- Comes for free with newer Macs, available for download on the App Store for
$19.99 each, or available for free at www.icloud.com with an iCloud account
- Online office suite
- Free version including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation
applications and file sharing - Paid plans at $5 & $8 per user/month
