Exclusive: a true Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 comparison

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In the transition towards digitalisation and the cloud, an important step is certainly the choice of email system and file system: Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 is a necessary comparison. Choosing the right mail system is the basis for a business organization oriented towards increasing productivity and efficiency.

Companies must choose the best technology to adopt, therefore, the decision is often between the two most important players Google and Microsoft. They offer two productivity suites, called Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 respectively, which are apparently similar and at similar prices.

After years of using both technologies with our customers, we have a clear vision and precise data on which to base our comparison. Given that Utixo is a primary partner of both Microsoft and Google, in this article we want to give real and useful advice to our partners and customers.

We underline that this is an analysis that starts from company needs, Utixo's reference market. Consequently, for private individuals the considerations may be different.

The various comparisons that can easily be found are usually superficial. The considerations reported here are, however, very specific key points, which are not found in other analyses.

Comparison Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365

• Desktop APPS: Microsoft 365 allows you to install on your PC the same APPS used in the cloud, i.e. the same Office applications, which are now a de facto standard in the office automation field. Google Workspace, on the other hand, only works in cloud mode, through the use of a browser (cloud native).

• Choice of plans: Google does not allow you to have different accounts with different pricing plans such as Business Starter and Business Standard, all accounts must be at the same level. This means that if only one account needs more space or features of a superior profile, all the others will have to be updated, generating a higher cost. Instead, Microsoft allows you to manage the licensing of individual accounts.

• Integration with Windows: Microsoft 365 is closely integrated with the Windows operating system, many components are already pre-installed such as, for example, One Drive. This simplifies the management of the entire IT system and lowers costs (TCO). In the business environment this is a factor that makes the difference and the advantages are increasingly evident as the number of jobs grows.

• Additional features: Microsoft 365 allows you to extend the functionality in the security field, reaching complete endpoint management in the software distribution field. In this way it allows you to manage and automate software distribution and complete device management. On the contrary, Google Workspace has better management of the Android part and Chrome OS, its operating system.

• Management delegation: Google Workspace is not designed to allow your environment to be managed by an external provider, an outsourcer. Therefore, it does not have management delegation mechanisms, which, instead, Microsoft 365 implements. The latter, in fact, allows the delegation of the entire environment to a service provider, who will be able to optimize management. In this way, the supplier can operate on multiple customers in multi-tenant mode and take advantage of the various tools designed for this purpose.

• SSO (single sign-on): at the account and identity management level, Microsoft 365 allows total integration between the local IT environment and the cloud environment (Azure). This means that with just one account you can access any IT resource, starting from your own PC.

Conclusions and advice

Finally, from this Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 comparison, we can deduce that for a company that uses a purely Windows infrastructure, the use of Microsoft 365 is certainly a big benefit, both from a technical and economic point of view. Furthermore, there is a strong positive impact on the TCO of the infrastructure. The larger the company, the more visible the profit.

This competitive advantage is certainly due to Microsoft's possession of Windows Operating Systems, used in all companies, and its ability to integrate with them.

Thus, Microsoft uses the competitive advantage of its monopoly on both client and server operating systems, which Google cannot do.

Companies that do not base their IT on Microsoft, but that predominantly use MAC or Chrome OS, however, can consider Google Workspace as a valid solution. On the other hand, Google has greater penetration in the educational sector, where the dynamics are different. In part, however, this market share also comes from very aggressive pricing policies applied in the past.