Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: What’s the best office suite for business?

Once upon a time, Microsoft Office ruled the business world. By the late ’90s and early 2000s, Microsoft’s office suite had brushed aside rivals such as WordPerfect Office and Lotus SmartSuite, and there was no competition on the horizon.

Then in 2006 Google came along with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a collaborative online word processing and spreadsheet duo that was combined with other business services to form the Google Apps suite, later rebranded as G Suite and now as Google Workspace. Although Google’s productivity suite didn’t immediately take the business world by storm, over time it has gained both in features and in popularity, boasting 10 million paying customers, according to the company’s figures from 2023.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has shifted its emphasis away from its traditionally licensed Office software to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), a subscription-based version that’s treated like a service, with frequent updates and new features. Microsoft 365 is what we’ve focused on in this story.

Nowadays, choosing an office suite for your business isn’t as simple as it once was. We’re here to help.

In this article:

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: The basics

Pricing: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions compared

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: App by app

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: AI tools

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Other apps and extras

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Security and management tools

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: Service and support

Can Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace work together?

Who should use Google Workspace

Who should use Microsoft 365

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: The basics

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have much in common. Both are subscription-based, charging businesses per-person fees every month, in varying tiers, depending on the capabilities their customers are looking for. Although Google Workspace is web-based, it has the capability to work offline as well. And while Microsoft 365 is based on installed desktop software, it also provides (less powerful) web-based versions of its applications.

Both suites work well with a range of devices. Because it’s web-based, Google Workspace works in most browsers on any operating system, and Google also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS. Microsoft provides Office client apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and its web-based apps work across browsers.

The suites also offer the same basic core applications. Each has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, calendar, and contacts programs, along with videoconferencing, messaging, and note-taking software. Each has cloud storage associated with it. Both offer powerful generative AI tools.

But those individual applications are quite different from one suite to the other, as are the management tools for taking care of them in a business environment. And both suites offer scads of additional tools as well. So it can be exceedingly difficult to decide which suite is better for your business.

That’s where this piece comes in. We offer a detailed look at every aspect of the office suites, from an application-by-application comparison to how well each suite handles collaboration, how well their apps integrate, their AI capabilities, pricing, support, and more. Our focus here is on how the suites work for businesses, rather than individual use.

Pricing: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions compared

“Follow the money” is the hallowed refrain of investigators everywhere, and when you’re starting to decide which office suite is better for you, it’s a good place to start as well. Individuals can use several of the online apps from both suites — including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides as well as Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerPoint Online — for free, but businesses should look to the paid Workspace and Microsoft 365 subscriptions for necessary security and management features.

Check out the following tables, first for Google Workspace, and then for Microsoft 365, to compare plans and pricing.

Google Workspace pricing options for business

Google Workspace comes in five main commercial versions: Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus. There are also three Essentials packages that don’t include Gmail.

The most basic plan, Essentials Starter, is a free plan for up to 100 users, but it includes no support and only basic admin tools. Starting at $6 per user per month, the Business plans are for companies with up to 300 users, and the Enterprise plans have no limit on the number of users. (You’ll have to contact Google for enterprise plan pricing.)

You’ll find details about what’s included in each plan in the tables below, but in general, stepping up to a more expensive plan gets you more storage and more sophisticated security and management tools. Higher-level plans may also unlock additional features and capabilities in the Workspace apps.

For instance, with a Business Starter plan you can have up to 100 participants in a Meet video meeting. That steps up to 150 participants with the Business Standard plan, which also adds advanced features like noise cancellation, content moderation, and breakout rooms. With a Business Plus or Enterprise Standard plan you can have 500 participants in a Meet meeting, and the Enterprise Plus plan supports up to 1,000 participants. Be sure to read the fine print so you know you’re getting the right plan for your needs.

Google Workspace small business plans

 Google Workspace Business StarterGoogle Workspace Business StandardGoogle Workspace Business PlusGoogle Workspace Essentials StarterPrice*$6/user/mo.$12/user/mo.$18/user/mo.FreeUser limit300300300100GmailYesYesYesNoCore apps: Docs, Sheets, SlidesYesYesYesYesMobile apps** for Docs, Sheets, Slides, GmailYesYesYesYesGoogle Drive storage30GB per user2TB per user; shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google services5TB per user; shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google services15GB per userAdditional apps and servicesCalendar, Meet, Chat, Forms, Sites, Tasks, Keep, Jamboard, AppSheet Core, Groups for Business, standalone Gemini appSame as Business Starter with advanced features and capabilities such as appointment booking pages, email layouts, mail mergeSame as Business Standard with higher participant limit in Meet and additional featuresCalendar, Meet, Chat, Forms, Tasks, Keep, JamboardSecurity and management toolsStandard tools including group policy controls, 2-step verification, and endpoint managementEverything in Business Basic plus more powerful tools including data regions and Google Workspace Migrate ToolEverything in Business Standard plus more powerful tools including secure LDAP, advanced endpoint management, and Google Vault for retaining, archiving and searching dataNo support and only basic admin tools including usage and activity reportsAdd-ons***Gemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, moreGemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, moreGemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, more  * Paid annually ** Mobile apps available for Android and iOS *** Require additional subscriptions

Google Workspace enterprise plans

 Google Workspace Enterprise StandardGoogle Workspace Enterprise PlusGoogle Workspace Enterprise EssentialsGoogle Workspace Enterprise Essentials PlusPriceContact Google SalesContact Google SalesContact Google SalesContact Google SalesUser limitNo limitNo limitNo limitNo limitGmailYesYesNoNoCore apps: Docs, Sheets, SlidesYesYesYesYesMobile apps* for Docs, Sheets, Slides, GmailYesYesYesYesGoogle Drive storage5TB per user**; shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google services5TB per user**;  shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google and third-party services1TB per user; shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google services5TB per user; shared drives for teams; search across all company content in Google servicesAdditional apps and servicesCalendar, Meet, Chat, Forms, Sites, Tasks, Keep, Jamboard, AppSheet Core, Groups for Business, standalone Gemini appSame as Enterprise Standard with higher participant limit in Meet plus additional featuresCalendar, Meet, Chat, Forms, Sites, Tasks, Keep, Jamboard, Groups for Business, standalone Gemini appSame as Enterprise Essentials plus AppSheet CoreSecurity and management toolsEnhanced support and tools including group policy controls, 2-step verification, enterprise endpoint management, secure LDAP, Google Vault, data-loss prevention, context-aware access, Google Workspace Migrate ToolEverything in Enterprise Standard plus more powerful tools including client-side encryption, advanced data regions, S/MIME encryption, and advanced security reportingEnhanced support and tools including group policy controls, 2-step verification, enterprise endpoint management, and Google VaultEverything in Enterprise Essentials plus more powerful tools including advanced data regions, secure LDAP, data-loss prevention, context-aware access, and advanced security reportingAdd-ons***Gemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, Chrome Enterprise Premium, AI Security, moreGemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, Chrome Enterprise Premium, AI Security, Assured Controls, moreGemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, moreGemini for Google Workspace, Google Voice, AppSheet Enterprise Plus, Chrome Enterprise Premium, AI Security, more * Mobile apps available for Android and iOS** Contact Google for more storage*** Require additional subscriptions

For more detailed information, check out Google’s page comparing popular plans and its in-depth features list for all plans. Also note that some features available in higher-level Google Workspace plans are available for purchase as standalone services. Additionally, Google offers specialized versions of Workspace Enterprise for healthcare and life sciences, retail, manufacturing, government, professional services, and technology organizations, and there are a range of free and paid Workspace versions for nonprofits and educational institutions. There’s even a Workspace Individual plan meant for one-person businesses.

Microsoft 365 pricing options for business

Microsoft 365 business subscriptions are more complicated and range from $6 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Business Basic, the entry-level version for small businesses, to $55 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E5, the most feature-packed version for enterprises.

All small-business plans are labeled “Microsoft 365,” but at the enterprise level there are both “Microsoft 365” and “Office 365” plans. The major difference between the two is that Microsoft 365 plans include Windows, while Office 365 plans don’t. But it’s also worth noting that some newer Microsoft 365 apps, including Loop, Clipchamp, and Lists, are not available with Office 365 plans.

The tables below outline what you get with each version. The plans in the first table are for small businesses with up to 300 employees; the ones in the second table are meant for larger organizations.

Microsoft 365 small business plans

 Microsoft 365 Business BasicMicrosoft 365 Business StandardMicrosoft 365 Business PremiumMicrosoft 365 Apps for BusinessPrice*$6/user/mo.$12.50/user/mo.$22/user/mo.$8.25/user/mo.User limit300300300300Core apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutlookYesYesYesYesDesktop / mobile apps** for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutlookNo / YesYes / YesYes / YesYes / YesWindows includedNoNoNoNoExchange email hosting, custom domains, shared calendarsYesYesYesNoOneDrive storage1TB per user1TB per user1TB per user1TB per userAdditional apps and servicesTeams, OneNote, SharePoint, Clipchamp, Forms, Lists, Planner, To Do, Stream, Delve, Bookings, VisioSame as Business Basic plus Access***, Publisher***, LoopSame as Business StandardOneNote, Access***, Publisher***Security and management toolsBasic management and security tools including anti-phishing, anti-spam, and anti-malware protectionEverything in Business Basic plus advanced email protectionEverything in Business Standard plus Entra ID identity and access management, Intune endpoint management, Defender for Business advanced threat protection, and Purview data protectionBasic management and security tools including anti-phishing, anti-spam, and anti-malware protectionAdd-ons****Copilot for Microsoft 365, Teams Premium, Teams Phone, Viva Suite, Power Platform, Clipchamp, Defender for Business, IntuneCopilot for Microsoft 365, Teams Premium, Teams Phone, Viva Suite, Power Platform, Clipchamp, Defender for Business, IntuneCopilot for Microsoft 365, Teams Premium, Viva Suite, Entra SuiteCopilot for Microsoft 365, Teams Essentials * Paid annually ** Desktop apps available for Windows and macOS; mobile apps available for Android and iOS *** Windows app only; support for Publisher ends in 2026 **** Require additional subscriptions

Microsoft 365 and Office 365 enterprise plans

 Microsoft 365 E3Microsoft 365 E5Office 365 E1Office 365 E3Office 365 E5Microsoft 365 Apps for EnterprisePrice*$33.75 user/mo.$54.75 user/mo.$7.75 user/mo.$20.75 user/mo.$35.75 user/mo.$12 user/mo.User limitNo limitNo limitNo limitNo limitNo limitNo limitCore apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutlookYesYesYesYesYesYesDesktop / mobile apps** for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutlookYes / YesYes / YesNo / YesYes / YesYes / YesYes / YesWindows includedYesYesNoNoNoNoExchange email hosting, custom domains, shared calendarsYesYesYesYesYesNoOneDrive storage5TB per user; more on request (if < 5 users, 1TB per user)5TB per user; more on request (if < 5 users, 1TB per user)1TB per user5TB per user; more on request (if < 5 users, 1TB per user)5TB per user; more on request (if < 5 users, 1TB per user)1TB per userAdditional apps and servicesOneNote, SharePoint, Access***, Publisher***, Loop, Clipchamp, Forms, Lists, Planner, To-Do, Stream, Delve, Bookings, Visio, Sway, Power Apps, Power Automate, Viva Engage, Viva InsightsSame as M365 E3 plus Power BI ProSharePoint, Forms, Planner, To-Do, Stream, Delve, Bookings, Sway, Power Apps, Power Automate, Viva Engage, Viva Insights, VisioSame as O365 E1 plus OneNote, Access***, Publisher***Same as O365 E3 plus Power BI ProOneNote, Access***, Publisher***, Forms, Delve, SwaySecurity and management toolsAdvanced tools including Intune, Defender for Endpoint, group policy support, SSO with Entra ID, Windows Hello for Business, advanced threat analytics, eDiscovery and auditingEverything in M365 E3 plus advanced Defender threat protection, advanced Purview information protection, insider risk mgmtStandard tools including user provisioning, mobile device mgmt, M365 groups, MFA, SSO with Entra IDEverything in O365 E1 plus group policy support, shared computer activations, information protection, basic eDiscovery and auditingEverything in O365 E3 plus advanced Purview compliance features, advanced message encryption, O365 Cloud App Security, Defender for M365Standard tools including SSO with Entra ID, group policy supportAdd-ons****Teams Enterprise, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Power BI Pro, Viva Suite, Entra Suite, many security, compliance, and Power Platform add-onsTeams Enterprise, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Viva Suite, Entra Suite, many security, compliance, and Power Platform add-onsTeams Enterprise, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Clipchamp, Power BI Pro, Viva Suite, Entra Suite, many security, compliance, and Power Platform add-onsTeams Enterprise, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Clipchamp, Power BI Pro, Viva Suite, Entra Suite, many security, compliance, and Power Platform add-onsTeams Enterprise, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Clipchamp, Viva Suite, Entra Suite, many security, compliance, and Power Platform add-onsCopilot for Microsoft 365, various security and compliance add-ons * Paid annually ** Desktop apps available for Windows and macOS; mobile apps available for Android and iOS *** Windows app only; support for Publisher ends in 2026 **** Require additional subscriptions

Find out more about Microsoft 365 small business plans, as well as the Microsoft 365 enterprise plans and Office 365 enterprise plans. Microsoft also offers an array of Microsoft 365 plans for organizations that employ frontline workers, as well as educational, government, and nonprofit institutions.

As noted in the tables above, many Microsoft 365 apps and services are available on an à la carte basis. Some companies prefer to pay for a lower-level plan and then pay for one or two of these items as add-ons rather than paying for a higher-level comprehensive plan.

Note: If you really want to dig into the fine print, Microsoft publishes incredibly detailed PDFs showing what you get with the enterprise and small-business plans and what add-ons are available for each.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: App by app

Every business has different needs, and yours may place greater value on certain apps than others. For some companies, word processing and email might be the most important apps in an office suite, while others might need a powerful spreadsheet program above everything else.

To help, we’ve compared the major office apps in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 so you can zero in on the apps that are most important to your business and let their strengths and weaknesses guide your overall decision. We also compare each suite’s AI tools.

Document editing: Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

Deciding on whether your business would be better off with Google Docs or Microsoft Word is fairly straightforward. Which is more important to your users: easy-to-use collaboration or the greatest range of document creation and editing features? For collaboration, Google Docs is better. For as fully featured a word processor as you’ll find anywhere, you’ll want Word.

By saying Word has superior features, I don’t mean a bunch of tools that your business may never use. I mean great capabilities that make your workflow easier and more productive.

For example, if you’re creating a report, brochure, resume, or almost any other kind of document, Word offers an excellent set of pre-built templates so you can get writing fast, knowing that your document will have a solid, useful design. Word has more than 200 different business templates alone, while Google Docs has less than 60 total templates of all kinds, including personal, business, and educational ones. (Microsoft claims Word has thousands of templates, but we couldn’t count them all.) Word also offers more chart types and styles for embedding into documents.

Microsoft Word has more powerful features than Google Docs, including many pre-built templates for creating a new document.Preston Gralla / IDG

But Google Docs outshines Word when it comes to live collaboration. Collaborating is seamless and has been built into the app from the ground up, while in Word it’s more difficult to use, not as comprehensive, and feels tacked-on rather than an integral part of the program. Collaborating in Word has gotten more seamless over time, but it still hasn’t caught up to Docs.

When it comes to document sharing and live collaboration, Google Docs outshines Microsoft Word by a wide margin.
Preston Gralla / IDG

For non-live collaboration — editing and marking up documents for review by others — Word has always been the gold standard, but Google Docs has come a long way and now is nearly as good as Word. Word’s editing tools have slightly finer-grained controls, but apart from that, they’re about even.

Spreadsheets: Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel

Do users in your company mostly work alone on spreadsheets, or do they frequently collaborate with others? The answer to that will determine whether Excel or Google Sheets is better for your business.

For those who primarily work by themselves, Excel is the clear winner. As with Word, its wide selection of templates offers an embarrassment of riches. For example, there are more than 90 templates just for different types of budgets. Whether it’s a business budget or a special-purpose budget, such as for a marketing event, you’ll likely find one that fits your needs and that can be easily edited. By contrast, Google Sheets has only three different budget templates, and two of them are different versions of an annual budget.

Excel also offers far more chart types than Google Sheets — 19 in all — including popular ones such as column, line, pie, bar, and area; more complex ones such as radar, surface, and histogram; and some that are known mainly to data professionals, like box & whisker. And many chart types have multiple subtypes — for example, among the bar charts you’ll find clustered bar, stacked bar, and so on, and each of those has two variations. Google Sheets has only seven main types of charts and a handful of individual charts that can’t be categorized. It’s also simpler to create charts with Excel than it is in Google Sheets.

Excel has far more sophisticated features than Google Sheets, including many more chart types.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Google Sheets far outpaces Excel in real-time collaboration, though. As with Docs, collaboration is baked directly into Sheets. Not only does it have more powerful tools, but they’re naturally integrated and easy to access. The same holds true for editing and commenting on spreadsheets. As with Word, Excel has improved its collaboration over time but still hasn’t caught up to Sheets.

Google Sheets’ collaboration tools are powerful and easy to use.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Presentations: Google Slides vs. Microsoft PowerPoint

As with word processing and spreadsheet apps, whether Google Slides or PowerPoint is best for your business comes down to a single point: Do you prize collaboration or powerful features in a presentation program? If collaboration is king in your company, Google Slides is better. For every other reason, PowerPoint is.

For example, PowerPoint’s QuickStarter feature makes quick work of starting a presentation. Choose the topic of your presentation, and QuickStarter walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates, and themes.

PowerPoint has numerous features Google Slides can’t match, including QuickStarter, which walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates, and themes.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Similarly, with PowerPoint, it’s easier to add graphics, transitions, animations, and multimedia. It has more chart and table types as well. And it offers sophisticated options when it comes to giving the presentation itself, with innovative capabilities such as Rehearse Timings, which times how long you take on each individual slide as you rehearse a presentation. That way, you won’t get bogged down on any individual slide, and you can practice giving each slide its just due. Google Slides has nothing like it.

However, Google Slides rules when it comes to collaboration, which far outstrips the capabilities built into PowerPoint. And because Slides offers fewer capabilities than PowerPoint, it’s slightly easier to create slides in it, because it doesn’t pack as many features into the interface.

Slides isn’t as powerful as PowerPoint, but its interface is less cluttered and confusing.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Email: Gmail vs. Microsoft Outlook

If you prize simplicity, you’ll favor Gmail over Outlook. Gmail has a much cleaner and less cluttered interface than Outlook’s, offering the best balance between ease of use and powerful features. However, Outlook has made some headway towards being more straightforward to use with a new simplified Ribbon you can turn on.

Gmail offers a streamlined interface and intuitive ways to accomplish your most important email tasks.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Whether it’s creating, responding to, or managing email, Gmail offers an intuitive interface with easy-to-use tools for getting your work done fast. My favorites include an AI-driven option that suggests words and phrases as you type, a “nudge” feature for surfacing forgotten messages, and a handy snooze button for delaying incoming messages. Its ability to automatically handle messages by filtering to specific folders is a snap to use as well.

When it comes to power features, however, Outlook rules. For example, Outlook offers a number of tools including Quick Steps and customizations that automate mail handing in sophisticated ways that aren’t possible in Gmail. And because the contacts and calendar functions are part of Outlook itself, they’re well integrated with email. Gmail relies on the separate Google Contacts and Calendar apps, which can be a bit more cumbersome to navigate.

In addition, Outlook has a left-hand pane that links directly to all the Microsoft 365 apps, and it lets you link to a Gmail account so you can read and manage all your mail accounts directly inside Outlook. Gmail has no equivalent.

Outlook is well known for its confusing interface that bristles with too many features and options. However, the latest version has been simplified, and although Gmail is still far easier and more straightforward to use, you won’t find yourself as easily lost in Outlook as you were in the past.

Outlook isn’t as simple to use as Gmail, but its newest look is cleaner than in the past.
Preston Gralla / IDG

If your users want every bell and whistle possible, Outlook provides them all. For getting things done quickly, Gmail is a better choice.

Collaboration: Google Meet, Chat, and Spaces vs. Microsoft Teams

As I’ve noted multiple times in this article, when it comes to collaborating on documents, Google Workspace is far superior to Microsoft 365 — it’s baked right into the interface, rather than feeling like an afterthought as it does in the Office apps. Everything is in front of you to invite people to collaborate, set their collaboration rights, and chat with them while you do the work together. There’s a deeper learning curve for using collaboration in Office, and even when you learn how to do it, it’s not nearly as seamless as in the Google apps.

Working together on individual documents is only one part of the equation, though. When it comes to more complex, enterprise-wide collaboration features, Microsoft 365 includes tools that beat anything Google Workspace offers. Microsoft Teams, for example, combines group chat, online meetings, videoconferencing, customized workspaces, calendars, and shared team file repositories in a way that’s more sophisticated and useful than anything Google has. And Teams has deep ties to the rest of the Office platform, offering effortless integration with Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, and more.

Teams is a group-chat platform that integrates closely with the rest of Microsoft 365 — but nowadays it’s not included with enterprise-level plans.Howard Wen

Teams used to be included with all M365 business and enterprise plans, but after facing antitrust scrutiny in the European Union, Microsoft unbundled Teams from its M365 enterprise plans, first in the EU and then globally. Enterprise customers must now buy Teams under a separate license, although it’s still included with M365 small-business plans.

For its part, Workspace offers Google Meet for videoconferencing and Google Chat for messaging. There’s also Spaces, a workflow integration and collaboration tool that’s available as part of Google Chat and integrated with Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Tasks. Spaces lets you create shared workspaces where you can chat, share files, and assign tasks.

These tools are useful and straightforward, although not quite as powerful as Microsoft 365’s offerings.

Creating a new shared workspace in Spaces.
Preston Gralla / IDG

Storage and file sharing: Google Drive vs. Microsoft OneDrive for Business and SharePoint

Both suites come with substantial amounts of storage, aside from the cheapest Google Workspace versions, Essentials Starter and Business Starter, which offer only 15GB and 30GB per person, respectively. The Enterprise Essentials plan includes 1TB per user, Business Standard includes 2TB per person, and Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus include 5TB per person. Enterprise Standard and Plus customers can request more storage from Google.

Microsoft 365’s small business and lower-tier enterprise plans include 1TB of storage per user, while its E3 and E5 plans include 5TB of storage per user. Customers with E3 and E5 plans can request additional storage from Microsoft. (Subscriptions with fewer than five users get only 1TB of storage, which can’t be expanded.)

There’s little to differentiate Google Workspace’s and Microsoft 365’s storage-and-shared-documents features from one another. Both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive for Business integrate directly with their own office suites, and both allow you to access the files on any device. In Workspace, the files live in the cloud by default rather than on the devices themselves, although you can also store them locally. In Microsoft 365 they typically live on each device and also in the cloud, and it all syncs together, although you have the option of keeping specific files and folders cloud-only.

If you’re worried about offline access for the cloud-first Google Workspace, it offers management tools that allow administrators to set whether users can access their documents and use Docs, Sheets, and Slides when their computers aren’t connected to the internet. The tools allow admins to install a policy on each computer allowing that access, or else let each user decide whether to allow offline access.

OneDrive has a nice feature called OneDrive Files on Demand that lets users decide, on a file-by-file and folder-by-folder basis, which files to store on individual devices and which to leave in the cloud, although the files and folders in the cloud are still available for download when you want them on a device.

Almost all Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans also include a free version of Microsoft’s SharePoint service, called SharePoint Online. SharePoint Online adds substantial features to storage and sharing. It manages and organizes documents, workflows, and other shared information, typically via a series of mini-sites.

SharePoint Online is delivered as a service and is hosted by Microsoft, so businesses do not need to purchase and manage their own servers and infrastructure for it. However, they may need admins to handle a number of SharePoint Online tasks, such as content management and portal design.

There’s also a for-pay version of SharePoint, called SharePoint Server, that is available under a separate license and isn’t included as part of Microsoft 365. With SharePoint Server, your business hosts and manages the physical and software infrastructure required for SharePoint. That means performing tasks such as racking servers; applying security patches and feature updates; and monitoring uptime, reliability, and security. With SharePoint Online, those tasks are handled by Microsoft.

Google doesn’t offer a true equivalent to SharePoint Online in Google Workspace. Subscribers to the Business, Education, and Enterprise plans can use a feature called Shared Drives, which are Google Drive folders that can be accessed and managed by more than one person. They can be used as handy repositories for members of a team to store and share documents, images, and other files, but Shared Drives are not integrated intranet sites like those offered by SharePoint.

One final note: Google’s search tools for finding documents in Google Drive are far better than Microsoft’s search tools in OneDrive, and its Cloud Search function extends Google’s search power across all of a company’s content. That being said, it’s generally easier to browse OneDrive using File Explorer than it is to browse Google Drive on the web.

Google Workspace vs. Microsoft 365: AI tools

Suites like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are tremendous productivity boosters; it’s almost unimaginable for any business not to use them or something like them. Many people believe the same thing will eventually be said of AI — both traditional AI and newer generative AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Gemini for Google Workspace.

Both suites have included built-in AI features for years. Microsoft 365’s Power Automate (previously called Microsoft Flow) uses AI to help people build workflows using natural language prompts. Microsoft Power BI is a data visualization app connects to Excel and other data sources. And Microsoft Editor works in Word and Outlook for text prediction and spelling and grammar checking.

Built-in AI tools in Google Workspace include Smart Compose for creating documents and Smart Reply for responding to comments. Workspace also has Smart Cleanup, which identifies errors in Sheet and corrects them, and Smart Fill, which automates adding data to Sheets.  

But most of the buzz is around more recently released genAI tools, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Gemini for Google Workspace. GenAI can be particularly effective when combined with the productivity suites, and adding new genAI features is clearly a top priority for both companies. There are those who believe that genAI tools have already become a must-have addition to office suites.

The full versions of these tools don’t come as a core part of either Microsoft 365 or Google Workplace. M365 Copilot costs an extra $30 per user per month for any size business, while Gemini has two tiers, $20 per user per month for Gemini Business, and $30 per month for the more powerful Gemini Enterprise. (Prices are slightly higher for Gemini if you pay month by month rather than on an annual basis.)

Microsoft 365 Copilot has been available longer and is better known than Gemini for Google Workspace. It integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.

In Word, it can create documents based on your prompts, or by being given an existing document and asked to create a new one from that — for example, creating a new sales pitch based on an existing marketing document. In PowerPoint, it works similarly and can create presentations based on prompts or existing documents. It has considerably less power in Excel, but it does an excellent job of mining Excel documents for actional information.

Copilot in Word created this sales pitch based on an existing marketing document.
IDG

In Outlook it can write emails based on prompts or documents, as well as answer emails and summarize email threads. In Teams, it can summarize primary discussion points of meetings and suggest action items, among other capabilities.

It also can provide a big-picture view of projects and then let you drill down to get more granular information — for example, finding a specific spreadsheet with revenue projections for the next five years for new lines of business. (For more information about Copilot in the core Microsoft 365 apps, see “Copilot for Microsoft 365 deep dive: Productivity at a steep price.”)

Microsoft recently announced even more Microsoft 365 Copilot features, including a new app called Copilot Pages that’s designed for ongoing AI collaboration. Unlike the typical ephemeral genAI output, this shared canvas provides a persistent environment where users can interact with the AI and each other, with everything saved to be built on in the future.

Until recently, Gemini for Google Workspace offered fewer features than M365 Copilot, but now its capabilities are quite similar. Gemini can write new documents and emails based on prompts. In Docs, Sheets, and Slides it can summarize, analyze, and generate new content from scratch or based on your existing files and emails.

loading='lazy' width='400px'>Refining text that Gemini generated in Google Docs.IDG

In Gmail, Gemini can summarize email threads, find info from previous emails, and suggest reply options. In Slides it can create images, remove backgrounds from images, and generate new slides. In