Here is a detailed description of Office 365 and G suite. The article will discuss their pricing, functionality, and when you should choose either of them.
G Suite and Office 365 are the two main productivity apps for businesses today. G Suite, which was previously known as Google Apps, and Office 365 both have cloud access. With demand for both being so high, they are always working to introduce new and competitive features. While it can be a tough choice between the two, there are some unique differences. In this article, we will check the different aspects of the two. That may help you to make the choice between either of them depending on your business’ needs.
1. Word Processing.
For word processing, Google Docs offers minimalist features. In Office 365, Microsoft Word is a heavy-duty application for creation of complex word documents.
However, the features offered by Microsoft can seem unnecessary sometimes. In fact, they only serve to make it seem bloated in some instances. Google is great in terms of real time editing. In Google Docs, users can suggest edits or make changes, which will be sent to all users in real time. Microsoft Word does not have the same level of capabilities.
If you need convenience, Google Docs should definitely be your first choice. The documents can be accessed from any device as long as it has an internet connection. However, Microsoft Word can be a great option if you require making significant manipulations.
2. Plans.
The Plans Available from Google.
G Suite has only two simple choices from which to choose from. These are G Suite Basic and G Suite business.
- G Suite Basic.
This plan only costs $5 a month per user. You will get a unique business email address, Video and voice call on Google Hangout, an online Calendar, and 30GB of space to share and sync files. You will also get access to online spreadsheets, slides, and text documents. Additionally, you will have security and administrative controls and 24/7 email and phone support.
- G Suite Business.
G Suite Business costs just $10 per month per user. It includes all the features of G Suite Basic plus 1 TB of space per user for up to five users. Additionally, you will get advanced administrative controls in Google Drive, audit reports for Drive content, and access to Google Vault that covers chats, emails, files, and documents. You will also be able to search and export files to different formats, archive emails that are sent by your company, create a unique message retention policy, and place litigation holds on inboxes.
An awesome bonus of G Suite business is that any documents you create using Google apps do not count towards the storage restriction.
Plans Offered by Microsoft.
Office 365 has many complicated options for those who wish to use its platform. Here are some of the plans that you will have:
Office 365 Business Plans.
Under Office 365 Business Plans, you will have these options:
- Business Essentials: Requires an annual commitment of $5 per user per month. Without the annual commitment, the cost is $6 per month per user.
- Business: With an annual commitment, the cost is $8.25 per user per month. With an annual commitment, the cost is $10 per month per user.
- Business Premium: This comes with an annual commitment of $12.0 per user per month. Without the commitment, the cost is $15 per user per month.
Office 365 Enterprise Plans.
This is another great category of Office 365 Plans. All of the plans in this category require an annual commitment. They are:
- ProPlus: $12 per user per month.
- E1: $8 per user per month.
- E3: $20 per user per month.
- E5: $35 per user per month.
While all the plans are different, you should note some things. If you use the Microsoft Office suite often, do not use Office 365 Business Essentials of Enterprise E1. These options only provide the applications on the clouds, and they cannot be accessed offline. Additionally, if having an email with at least 50GB per user is important to you, do not use Office 365 Business or Office 365 ProPlus.
3. The Email Options.
Both G Suite and Office 365 come with email options. If you want to make use of email storage, you will need to purchase the Office 365 Business Essentials plan that costs $5 per month per user. You will receive 50GB of space and the 1TB that comes with this plan. This is more than what you will get with G Suite Basic, which costs $5 per month and has just 30GB of space.
If you need more than 1TB of data, Google comes on top as long as your team has more than five people. If you use Office 365 Enterprise E5, you will get unlimited storage for $20 a month. However, you will have to make a yearly commitment.
In the email option, you will have to choose between Outlook and Gmail. This will mainly come down to personal preference. Outlook is better for sorting and grouping while Gmail is compatible with more third party apps.
4. The Applications.
Apps are the main reason most people choose Office 365. Except for the Business Essentials and enterprise E1 plans, you will get a desktop version of the app in addition to the version in the cloud.
While Google Sheets allows users to use simple language in calculations, Excel definitely has more advanced features. This applies to all other apps in G Suite. Microsoft definitely has more functionality in their apps.
However, you should note that G Suite allows you to open Microsoft Office files in its environment. Besides that, you can save G Suite files as Microsoft Office versions. However, when converting G Suite files to Microsoft Office, the formatting may not always be accurate.
If you would prefer that your team work on the Cloud for collaboration purposes, you will be glad to note that most people say G Suite is better. The main reason for this is that G Suite was designed for collaboration from its inception.
As a result, some actually prefer to buy the whole suite of offline Microsoft Office applications and use G Suite for cloud-based collaboration purposes.
Verdict.
Both Office 365 and G Suite are quite great options. However, in terms of collaboration and ease of use, G Suite comes out on top. However, for detailed processing, Microsoft should be your number one choice.
