G Suite vs Office 365: A closer look (Part 1)
Last week, we’ve made a general comparison G Suite vs Office 365. Today, as promised, we’re going to revisit the head-to-head battle with a closer look at both services. We’re going to split this into two parts. The first part will focus on email, collaboration, storage, messaging, mobile and hardware.
Let’s start off with email. This is probably the first thing you look at when you compare G Suite and Office 365. Gmail is a robust, fast and very easy to use email client, thanks to its powerful search functionality which we come to expect from Google but it lacks one important feature that a lot of users are crying out for which is email sorting and grouping. Microsoft Exchange provides users with that feature and even integrates calendar into its email client.
Collaboration
This is where Microsoft has the edge in terms of features and functionality available on its Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications. You can do a lot more on these compared to the basic features on Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. But, if you’re looking to do a lot of collaboration work, you can’t go wrong with G Suite. Since everything is done in the cloud, the document is easily shared with anyone and changes made to it are seen almost instantly.
Storage
Microsoft offers 1TB of cloud storage for all of its plans while Google offers unlimited storage as long as you have five or more users. For small businesses with less than five employees, Google only offers 30GB of storage which is combined with your email inbox.
Messaging
In terms of messaging, Google uses Hangouts Meet to connect users while Microsoft utilises Skype for Business. Due to its basic features, Hangouts Meet is considered by some a consumer product rather than a business one. It doesn’t support file sharing or document previewing unlike Skype. On the other hand, Skype for Business supports up to 250 users in a meeting while Hangouts Meet is limited to 30. It is safe to say Hangouts Meet would suit a startup perfectly while Skype for Business is catered for a bigger business or enterprise.
Mobile
Mobility is a very important feature that both sides managed to tackle quite well. Both Google and Microsoft have all of their apps on Android and iOS. Employees working on-the-go will be glad to know that they are covered when it comes to maintaining their productivity while they are moving around. Experience wise, it is what you expect from a mobile app. You’ll get less functionality compared to the full desktop apps but it is just enough to get things done. You can reply emails and get meeting reminders from Gmail or Outlook as well as get involved in the decision making through Hangouts Meet or Skype for Business, all on your smartphone.
Hardware
Hardware is an area where Google has been slowly building its products to compliment its G Suite ecosystem. The most notable hardware by Google is the Jamboard. It is basically the coolest whiteboard you could buy for your office. With its massive 55-inch 4K touchscreen display, you can write and draw till your heart’s content. Your colleagues could help out as well with its collaboration feature built-in. Over at the Microsoft camp, the hardware department has been quiet especially when it comes to business hardware (most probably due to the focus on Surface). Nevertheless, they’ve churned out quite a number of quality business accessories like keyboards, mice, webcams and headsets.
Join us next week when we continue with the second part as we take a closer look at G Suite vs Office 365.
