Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the two leading productivity suites for small businesses, but they excel in different areas. Google Workspace stands out for its intuitive interface and real-time collaboration, while Microsoft 365 offers more advanced desktop apps, security, and administrative controls for growing organizations.
I compared both platforms based on pricing, productivity apps, collaboration, storage, security, ease of use, and overall value to help determine which solution best fits different business needs.
| Platform | Best for... | Starting price, billed annually* |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Cloud-based collaboration and remote teams | $7/user/month |
| Microsoft 365 | Advanced productivity, desktop apps, and security | $6/user/month |
- Google Workspace vs Office 365 comparison chart
- Pricing: Microsoft 365
- Productivity suite: It’s a tie
- Business email: Microsoft 365
- Team collaboration: Google Workspace
- AI tools: Google Workspace
- Security: Microsoft 365
- Ease of use: Google Workspace
- Customer Support: It’s a tie
- My expert opinion on Microsoft Office 365 vs Google Workspace
- Best alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Google Workspace vs Office 365 comparison chart
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Fit Small Business Score | 4.62/5Pricing: 3.63/5 General Features: 4.63/5 Advanced Features: 4/5 Security: 4.5/5 Expert Score: 4.69/5 | 4.41/5Pricing: 4.13/5 General Features: 4.13/5 Advanced Features: 3.5/5 Security: 5/5 Expert Score: 3.75/5 |
| Cost per month (billed annually) | $7/user to $22/user | $6/user to $22/user |
| Cloud storage | 30GB to 5TB pooled storage per user | 1TB per user |
| Business email with custom domain | ✓ | ✓ |
| Productivity apps | Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Meet, Drive, Chat, eSignature, AppSheet | Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Exchange, ClipChamp, Loop |
| Video meeting participants | Up to 500 | Up to 300 |
| Real-time team collaboration | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI tools | Gemini, NotebookLM, Vids | Copilot, Designer |
| Security features | 2-step verification, phishing and malware protection, encryption, endpoint management, admin controls | Spam and malware protection, encryption, multifactor authentication, device management, identity and access controls, threat protection |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are two of the leading business email providers for small businesses, offering everything you need to manage professional email, collaborate with your team, and stay productive from anywhere. Both include custom business email, cloud storage, productivity apps, video conferencing, and AI-powered tools, making either an excellent choice.
The right platform ultimately depends on how your team works. Choose Microsoft 365 if you need advanced desktop applications, stronger security and administrative controls, or deeper integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. Choose Google Workspace if you prioritize an intuitive interface, seamless cloud-based collaboration, and real-time co-editing across documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
| Google Workspace pros & cons | Microsoft 365 pros & cons |
|---|---|
Pros:
Cons:
| Pros:
Cons:
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To compare Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, I evaluated both suites across the factors that matter most to small businesses: pricing, productivity, collaboration, advanced business features, security, and overall value. Beyond comparing feature lists, I considered how each solution performs in everyday business scenarios, from managing email and documents to supporting remote collaboration and protecting company data.
I used the following criteria to score each provider:
- Pricing (30%): I compared subscription costs, billing flexibility, storage allowances, free trials, and the overall value each plan delivers for small businesses.
- Productivity and collaboration (20%): I evaluated essential business tools, including custom business email, cloud storage, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, video meetings, and real-time document collaboration.
- Advanced business features (20%): I assessed premium capabilities such as AI assistants, workflow automation, webinar hosting, advanced storage options, website building, and other tools that support growing businesses.
- Security and administration (10%): I reviewed security measures such as multi-factor authentication, spam and malware protection, encryption, admin controls, compliance features, and threat detection.
- Expert score (20%): My final score combines hands-on experience with each platform and an assessment of usability, feature depth, scalability, and overall value for small businesses.
Pricing: Microsoft 365
Google Workspace’s pricing starts at $7 a month per user, while Microsoft 365’s starts at $6, both on annual billing. Both also have mid and high-tier plans, with the highest costing $22 a month. However, Microsoft 365 has a longer free trial period of one month compared to Google Workspace’s 14 days.
| Business Starter | Business Standard | Business Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per month (per user, annual subscription) | $7 | $14 | $22 |
| Pooled storage per user | 30GB | 2TB | 5TB |
| Business email with custom domain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video meeting participants | 100 | 150 | 500 |
| Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Calendar, Chat, Sites, Forms, AppSheet | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gemini AI Workspace assistant | Limited access | Full access | Full access |
| NotebookLM AI research assistant | Basic access | Full access | Full access |
| AppSheet app builder | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Security and management control | Standard | Standard | Enhanced |
Winner:
Microsoft 365. While both have identical pricing structures, it’s clear that Microsoft 365 has the more inexpensive overall cost, with its cheaper starting plan and longer free trial period.
Productivity suite: It’s a tie
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Document (Docs vs Word) | Browser-based writing, real-time collaboration, and easy sharing | Advanced formatting, layouts, and offline document editing |
| Spreadsheet (Sheets vs Excel) | Collaborative spreadsheets and everyday data tracking | Advanced formulas, data analysis, macros, and large datasets |
| Presentation (Slides vs PowerPoint) | Collaborative presentations with seamless sharing | Advanced design, animations, and presentation features |
| Calendar | Simple scheduling, shared calendars, and easy team collaboration | More advanced scheduling, delegation, and Microsoft ecosystem integration |
| Appointment scheduling | Google Calendar appointment scheduling | Microsoft Bookings |
| Forms | Google Forms | Microsoft Forms |
| AI video creation/editing | Google Vids | Microsoft Clipchamp |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 provide a complete productivity suite for small businesses, including email, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, cloud storage, forms, and team collaboration. For most businesses, either platform will cover everyday productivity needs.
The biggest differences lie in their specialized capabilities. Microsoft 365 stands out with powerful desktop applications, webinar hosting, and more advanced security and compliance features, making it a better choice for organizations with complex workflows. Google Workspace shines with its intuitive, cloud-first experience and unique tools like AppSheet for no-code app development, Google Vids for AI-assisted video creation, and built-in eSignatures.
That’s why I consider this category a tie. If your team depends on advanced desktop apps, webinars, or enterprise-grade security, Microsoft 365 is the stronger option. If you prioritize real-time collaboration, ease of use, and browser-based productivity, Google Workspace is the better fit.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365’s core productivity suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive tools you may already be familiar with, along with Teams (video calls), ClipChamp (video editing), Exchange (calendar booking), and SharePoint (team sites).
Higher plans have a video editing tool and a virtual co-working space. However, its biggest standout features are its task planner and booking calendar, which are big productivity boosters.
Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint also have templates for various content types, like resumes, invoices, project trackers, and presentations.
Microsoft Word has templates for various documents, like invoices and resumes. (Source: Microsoft) 
Excel also has templates for things like project trackers. (Source: Microsoft) 
PowerPoint comes with various template designs. (Source: Microsoft)
Google Workspace
Google Workspace has similar core productivity tools, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet. It also has content templates—which are notably better designed than Microsoft 365’s. Another aspect that distinguishes Google Workspace is its online documents, which save in real time and allow team collaboration.
Google Workspace also has AppSheet, a custom app builder that creates custom apps to integrate into your account, say if you want to automate calendar invites or track customer deliveries. It also has eSignature for Docs and PDFs, although unlike Microsoft, it doesn’t have separate tools for appointment booking and task planning — they’re built into Google Calendar.
Google Docs also has templates for newsletters, invoices, and other content types, although notably more modern and well-designed. (Source: Google) 
Google Sheets also comes with spreadsheet templates. (Source: Google) 
Google Slides is also included for presentations. (Source: Google)
Winner:
It’s a tie. As mentioned, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have pretty much identical core productivity tools and only differ in the advanced ones. The better option for your business will ultimately come down to what you need most.
Business email: Microsoft 365
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Custom email domain | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email limits | 2,000 emails/day2,000 recipients/message500 external recipients/message | 10,000 recipients/dayUp to 1,000 recipients/message |
| Attachment limits | Send: 25MBReceive: 50MB | Up to 150MB |
| Security | Multifactor authentication, spam filtering, confidential mode | Multifactor authentication, encryption, Defender, advanced admin controls |
| Unique features | Mail merge, Smart Compose, labels, Confidential mode | Outlook rules, shared mailboxes, Loop, Bookings |
| Calendar and scheduling | Google Calendar, Tasks, Appointment Scheduling | Outlook Calendar, To Do, Microsoft Bookings |
| Email handling rules | Basic | Advanced |
| Custom email signature | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scheduled emails | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email aliases | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Of course, I can’t leave out Google Workspace vs Office 365’s business email platforms. Both give you an email address with a custom domain (i.e., “@yourbusiness.com”) and have handy features like scheduled emails and email aliases. I go into more detail about their tools in my Outlook vs Gmail comparison, but their biggest differences are in their emailing tools.
Microsoft 365 (via Outlook) simply has more advanced email tools, with multi-layer email automation that let you set specific conditions for when to send emails or do certain tasks. For example, if an upcoming event is happening soon, you can automate an email in Outlook to remind certain groups of people. Or when you receive an email from a specific recipient, you can set it to automatically save to your OneDrive.
Meanwhile, while Google Workspace also has automation, it only has the basic ones like sending canned responses or forwarding them to certain recipients.
Winner:
Microsoft 365 (via Outlook). Outlook simply has more powerful emailing capabilities and will be the better choice for any business that does a lot of cold emailing, client billing, and events planning (especially webinars). Learn more about Outlook in our
.
Team collaboration: Google Workspace
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time collaboration | Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive | Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and SharePoint |
| Sharing permissions | View, comment, suggest, and edit | View, comment, edit, and review |
| Team communication | Google Chat and in-file comments | Microsoft Teams and in-file comments |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Both Google and Microsoft offer real-time team collaboration, although Microsoft only offers theirs on paid plans — and only on its web apps. Real-time collaboration isn’t available on the desktop versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which can be tricky if everyone isn’t connected to the internet.
On the other hand, Google Workspace’s tools are all cloud-based, so collaboration and syncing are much simpler. Even if you’re offline, you can turn on offline sync, and your offline changes will automatically sync to your document when you come back online. Google Workspace also has more collaboration options (view, comment, suggest, and edit).
The Fit Small Business team, which has members distributed across the globe, also uses Google Workspace to publish content and keep our publishing workflows moving efficiently.
Winner:
Google Workspace. Google Workspace is the clear winner in this category. Even if both platforms offer real-time collaboration, Google Workspace is much easier to collaborate on. Designed for online coordination, Google Workspace apps are ingrained with features that emphasize real-time collaboration, such as built-in chats and email-to-document revisions. These make it ideal for remote teams.
AI tools: Google Workspace
| | |
|---|---|---|
| AI assistant | Gemini for Workspace | Copilot Chat; Microsoft 365 Copilot (add-on) |
| AI research | NotebookLM | Copilot Chat |
| AI content creation | Google Vids | Microsoft Designer |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 introduced AI toolsets in 2023. Both have AI productivity assistants (Gemini for Google and Copilot for Microsoft), which can both do tasks like summarize emails, suggest replies, and list action items. Copilot can also generate whole presentation decks from prompts.
Microsoft Copilot literally acts as your AI copilot, summarizing emails and listing next steps. (Source: Microsoft) 
Google’s equivalent is Gemini, which can do similar tasks. (Source: Google)
However, Google Workspace also has NotebookLM, an AI assistant specifically for research and writing. It works like a smarter, AI-powered notebook where you can upload sources, save tidbits of information, and use AI to create mind maps. I foresee it being very helpful for researchers and writers, or even if you’re planning topics for a blog.
Google’s NotebookLM gives you an AI-powered research platform, available on Business Standard plans and up. (Source: Google)
Security: Microsoft 365
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Threat protection | Phishing, spam, and malware protection | Phishing, spam, malware, and ransomware protection |
| Authentication | 2-step verification, passkeys | MFA and passwordless sign-in |
| Encryption | Encryption in transit and at rest | Encryption in transit and at rest |
| Device management | Endpoint management | Intune device management* |
| Advanced security | Security Center* | Microsoft Defender for Business* |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both address security concerns but have different strengths depending on the structure of the businesses they serve. Both platforms have their own range of threat detection mechanisms, user data protection, and privacy features.
However, as a primarily online platform, Google Workspace focuses on securing its cloud infrastructure, while Microsoft 365 uses a broader security framework with data encryption and industry compliance.
Microsoft, meanwhile, offers multifactor (not just two-factor) protocols and compliance features, making it suitable for organizations with precise security requirements. The platform’s data loss prevention and security analytics are available in higher-priced plans, making it a good choice for larger businesses or businesses operating in industries governed by strict security compliance.
Winner: Microsoft 365.
While either platform provides robust security for any business, Microsoft takes it up a notch with data encryption, multifactor authentication, and ransomware detection on all plans.
Ease of use: Google Workspace
When it comes to Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace’s ease of use, Google Workspace has always been the frontrunner. All Google Workspace’s apps have clean, simple-to-navigate interfaces with clearly labeled and organized buttons. Setting up a Gmail for business is also easy — it’s a simple matter of answering a few questions.
Gmail has a clean, easy-to-navigate interface. (Source: Google) 
The same goes for Google Workspace apps. (Source: Google)
Meanwhile, setting up a business email on Microsoft 365 can often get confusing and overwhelming because of the dozens more tools and functionalities and will likely have a longer learning curve. While It has made some notable UX improvements through the years, it’s still nowhere near Google Workspace’s levels.
Microsoft Outlook, meanwhile, has a slightly more crowded interface. (Source: Microsoft) 
While its Office interfaces have improved, they’re still not as easy to navigate as Google’s. (Source: Microsoft)
Winner: Google Workspace
. Of course, this also comes down to your level of familiarity with Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace. But if you’re a complete beginner to business email, Google Workspace will be the easier one to set up and navigate.
Customer Support: It’s a tie
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Admin support | Phone, email, and chat* | Phone and online support |
| Help center | Workspace Help Center | Microsoft 365 Help & Learning |
| Community | Workspace Admin Community | Microsoft Community |
| Service status | Workspace Status Dashboard | Microsoft 365 Service Health |
| Visit Google Workspace | Visit Microsoft 365 |
Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 provide excellent support for business customers, including administrator support, extensive documentation, active user communities, and real-time service status dashboards. Google Workspace offers phone, email, and chat support through the Admin console, while Microsoft 365 provides phone and online support through the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Winner: It’s a tie.
Both platforms offer reliable customer support backed by comprehensive self-service resources. Google Workspace stands out for its straightforward support experience, while Microsoft 365 is well suited for organizations managing more complex IT environments.
My expert opinion on Microsoft Office 365 vs Google Workspace
Comparing Google Workspace vs Office 365 is less a matter of comparing their individual features than evaluating their platforms as a whole and the services they can provide your business and support its growth. Both platforms offer the productivity essentials as well as ample security.
It’s their differences that really count toward making a decision. Microsoft 365 has more advanced email capabilities, but also has a more advanced, sometimes difficult-to-navigate interface. Meanwhile, Google Workspace has the best real-time team collaboration and a simpler interface.
So here’s my overall verdict: If you’re a small team, independent creator, or newbie to business email, Google Workspace will be the easier platform to set up and navigate. It’s also the better choice if you and your team are always on the go because its cloud-based platform is built for mobility and easy team collaboration.
Meanwhile, if you have a larger, more established team and want a productivity platform with more than just the basics, like automated emails and task workflows, Microsoft 365 will suit you better. It’s also the better option if you want to host webinars as part of your lead generation process.
Best alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
Even if Google and Microsoft are the giants of the business email and productivity world, they’re not the only two options. I’ve come across worthy alternatives with similar email platforms and productivity tools that can support your business just as adequately.
For instance, Zoho Mail gives you a 100% free productivity platform provided you have your own domain. Meanwhile, Proton Mail, a Swiss-based email platform, puts a premium on security.
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Free productivity suite as long as you have your own domain; also has plans from $1 | Ultra-secure business email and productivity platform with end-to-end encryption and HIPAA and GDPR compliance | All-in-one business email and website builder platform — ideal if you don’t have a website yet |
| Visit Zoho Mail | Visit Proton Mail | Visit IONOS |
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Google Workspace is better than Office in terms of real-time remote collaboration, platform ease of use, and AI tools. One of Google Workspace’s best features is its 100% cloud-based platform, which means all your projects are automatically saved to the cloud and easily shared with teammates. Another is its user-friendly platform interface that’s super easy to navigate even if you’re a beginner. Google Workspace also comes with an AI assistant and research tool.
The biggest disadvantage of using Google Workspace is its basic email tools. For instance, unlike Microsoft 365, you can only set basic email automations like auto-replies and email tagging and not custom ones like prompting reminders or calendar events based on certain emails. Another slight disadvantage is security. Because it’s an entirely cloud-based platform, it’s also more susceptible to cyber threats or data breaches than platforms with offline versions.
There is no way to “replace” Microsoft Office with Google. If you’re subscribed to a Microsoft business email account and want to switch to Google, you’ll need to migrate your domain and email records. First, discontinue your Microsoft 365 subscription and then create a new Google Workspace account with your domain (or purchase a new domain if you don’t own one). Then, transfer your email records in your settings from Microsoft to Google.
Bottom Line
Choosing between Google Workspace and Office 365 comes down to a matter of priority and personal preference. The best way to make a decision is by zeroing in on what matters to your business most. If what matters is easy team collaboration (especially if you have a remote workforce) and an easy platform to set up, it’s Google Workspace. If what matters is more advanced email capabilities and enterprise security, then it’s Microsoft 365.
