Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365
Both are mature and both are reliable. The decision comes down to three things: whether your work genuinely depends on Excel, whether your devices are already managed by Microsoft, and whether anyone here administers this for a living.
We are an authorized Google Workspace reseller, so read this page knowing where we sit. We have still put the section on where Microsoft 365 is better first, because putting a business on the wrong platform costs us more than it saves — they leave within two years, and they are right to.
The short answer
- functionsExcel-dependent?Microsoft 365. Not a close call.
- desktop_windowsWindows domain, managed devices?Microsoft 365, usually.
- devicesMixed Mac, Windows and phones?Google Workspace, usually.
- admin_panel_settingsNobody administering it full time?Google Workspace. The simpler console wins.
Six things Microsoft 365 does better
Starting here is deliberate. If any of these describe a core part of how your business works, stop reading and stay where you are — or come to us about Microsoft 365, which we also set up and support.
Serious spreadsheet work
This is the big one and it is not close. If your business runs on Excel with macros, VBA, Power Query or models of any real size, Sheets is not an equivalent. It is capable and it is genuinely better for shared, simultaneous editing — but a finance team that lives in Excel will feel every limitation, and telling them otherwise wastes everyone's time.
Long and complex documents
Word handles hundred-page documents with styles, cross-references, tracked changes across many reviewers and rigid formatting requirements better than Docs does. Legal, tender and publishing work often depends on exactly that.
An existing Windows estate
If your devices are domain-joined, managed through Group Policy, and your identity already lives in Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365 fits into that without a fight. Moving to Google means either running two identity systems or migrating one — a real project, not a footnote.
Line-of-business apps that expect Outlook
Plenty of industry software integrates with Outlook and Exchange and nothing else. Where that application is central to how you operate, it decides the question on its own.
Replacing your phone system
Teams Phone can genuinely replace a PBX. Google Meet does not attempt this. If unifying telephony with your collaboration tool is a goal, Microsoft is the shorter path.
Free shared mailboxes
Microsoft gives you shared mailboxes without a licence. Google has no unlicensed equivalent, so organisations with many shared addresses can find Google costs more than a headline price comparison suggested.
Six things Google Workspace does better
Two of these — collaboration and administrative simplicity — account for most of the businesses that move and stay moved. The rest are the reasons they say they are glad they did.
Real-time collaboration
The one advantage that is not marketing. Several people editing the same document simultaneously, with comments and suggestions that work the way people actually review things, is meaningfully better in Google and has been for years. Microsoft has closed much of the gap in the browser; it has not closed it on the desktop.
Administration you can actually hold in your head
The Google admin console is one console. Microsoft 365 administration is spread across several portals with overlapping settings, and it takes a specialist to be confident in it. For an organisation without dedicated IT, that difference compounds every month.
Finding things
Search across mail and files is noticeably better in Google. This sounds minor and is the feature people mention most often, unprompted, a year after moving.
Working the same everywhere
Browser-first means a Mac, a Windows laptop, a Chromebook and a phone all behave alike. Mixed-device organisations spend less time on per-platform problems.
Licensing you can explain
Fewer editions, fewer add-ons, fewer traps. Microsoft's SKU matrix is genuinely difficult to reason about, and businesses routinely pay for entitlements they never use because working out what they already have is harder than buying more.
Version history that is trustworthy
Every change, by whom, restorable, with no thought required. It is the quiet reason people stop emailing attachments named v3_final_FINAL.
Six things people argue about that do not matter
A good deal of comparison content is built on differences that stopped being real some years ago. These are close enough that they should not move your decision either way.
Email reliability and spam filtering
Both are excellent. Anyone claiming a decisive edge here is selling something.
Video meetings for ordinary use
Teams has more features; Meet needs no install and is simpler for external guests. For a normal meeting, neither will change your life.
Mobile apps
Both good. Both fine. Not a deciding factor.
Baseline security
At comparable tiers, both give you multi-factor authentication, conditional access, device management and audit logs. The difference is how hard they are to configure, not what they can do.
Storage at comparable price points
Broadly similar, though the models differ — Google pools allowance across the organisation, which suits uneven usage.
Presentations
PowerPoint is ahead for polish and animation. Slides is ahead for collaboration. Most people are not doing either at a level where it matters.
Fifteen rows, and an honest verdict on each
Six go to Microsoft, four to Google, and five are a draw. We sell Google Workspace, and Microsoft still comes out ahead on more rows. That is not modesty — it is what the comparison actually shows.
| Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlook — powerful server-side rules | Gmail — better search, labels rather than folders | Even | |
| Spreadsheets | Excel — macros, Power Query, large models | Sheets — better shared editing | Microsoft |
| Word processing | Word — long, complex, heavily formatted documents | Docs — fast, collaborative, simpler | Microsoft |
| Real-time collaboration | Good in browser, weaker on desktop | Simultaneous editing done properly | |
| File storage | SharePoint and OneDrive — powerful, complex | Drive and Shared Drives — simpler | Even |
| Search | Adequate | Noticeably better across mail and files | |
| Video meetings | Teams — more features | Meet — no install, easier for guests | Even |
| Chat | Teams — capable, and complex | Chat and Spaces — simpler, less capable | Even |
| Telephony | Teams Phone can replace a PBX | Not attempted | Microsoft |
| Shared mailboxes | Free, no licence | Group, or a licensed account with delegation | Microsoft |
| Administration | Several portals, granular, specialist | One console, simpler | |
| Identity and devices | Entra ID, Group Policy, deep Windows fit | Good, but weaker in a Windows domain | Microsoft |
| Working offline | Full desktop applications | Browser-first, offline is workable not equal | Microsoft |
| Automation | Power Automate and Power Apps — broader | Apps Script and AppSheet — simpler to start | Even |
| Licensing clarity | Many SKUs and add-ons | Fewer editions, easier to reason about |
Why comparing the two prices misleads
At comparable tiers the headline figures are close enough that price should rarely decide this. What differs is the shape of the cost, and four things distort a side-by-side comparison in ways that catch people out in both directions.
Shared mailboxes are free on one side
A business with fifteen shared addresses is comparing fifteen free Microsoft objects against Google Groups, which are also free but behave differently, or licensed accounts, which are not. Count your people and your shared addresses separately before comparing anything.
Storage is measured differently
Google pools the allowance across the organisation, so heavy users draw on light users' headroom. Microsoft allocates per user with separate SharePoint capacity. Two arrangements can look identical on paper and behave quite differently in practice.
Add-ons sit outside the headline price
Archiving, advanced security, telephony and compliance features are frequently separate line items on the Microsoft side. Comparing base editions without checking what each one includes is how a decision gets made on the wrong numbers.
The switching cost is real and one-off
Migration, retraining and a period of paying for both are genuine costs that belong in any comparison. They do not recur, which means they matter far less over five years than over one — and businesses routinely weigh them as though they recur.
Current Google Workspace list prices for India, and what GST adds, are on our pricing page.
Five questions that settle it
Work down the list. Most organisations have their answer within the first three, and none of the questions are about features.
Does your business genuinely run on Excel?
Not “do you use spreadsheets” — does a core process depend on macros, Power Query or large models? If yes, Microsoft 365, and the rest of this page is academic.
Are your devices domain-joined and managed through Microsoft?
If your identity and device management already live in Entra ID and Group Policy, moving to Google means taking that on as a project. Sometimes worth it. Never free.
Does a client, parent company or regulator require one?
Then that is your answer, and the rest is a conversation with them rather than with us. This comes up more than people expect, particularly for development centres reporting to an overseas head office.
Is your team spread across Mac, Windows and phones?
Mixed-device organisations generally have an easier time on Google, because browser-first means everyone gets the same thing.
Do you have someone whose job includes administering this?
If not, the simpler console is worth more than any feature on either side. Administrative burden is the cost that never appears in a comparison and never stops being paid.
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 — common questions
helpWhich is better, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?
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Neither, as a general statement — they are both mature and both reliable, and the honest answer depends on three things. If your work depends on Excel with macros or on long, heavily formatted Word documents, Microsoft 365 is better. If your devices are already domain-joined and your identity lives in Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365 fits with less friction. Otherwise, and particularly for mixed-device teams without dedicated IT, Google Workspace tends to be simpler to run and better at collaboration. Anyone who answers this question without asking about your spreadsheets and your device estate is guessing.
helpYou sell Google Workspace. Why would you say Microsoft is better at anything?
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Because it is, at several things, and because recommending the wrong platform costs us more than it saves. A business we put on Google Workspace against its own requirements is a business that migrates away within two years, having concluded we do not know what we are doing. Tech Geum is an authorized Google Workspace reseller; we also set up and support Microsoft 365 for clients, and we implement Zoho. Read this page knowing where we sit, and weigh it accordingly.
helpIs Google Sheets a real replacement for Excel?
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For most people in most businesses, yes. For a finance team running macros, VBA, Power Query or large models, no — and it is worth being blunt about that rather than discovering it after migration. Sheets is genuinely better for spreadsheets several people edit at once, which is a large share of ordinary business use. It is not better at heavy single-user analytical work, and it does not pretend to be.
helpCan we run both?
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Yes, and more organisations do than admit it. A common arrangement is Google Workspace for mail, documents and collaboration, with Microsoft Office licences for the handful of people who genuinely need desktop Excel. It costs a little more than picking one and is considerably cheaper than forcing a finance team onto a tool that does not fit. We would rather set that up deliberately than watch it happen by accident.
helpWhich is cheaper?
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They are close enough at comparable tiers that price should rarely decide it, and a direct comparison misleads in both directions. Microsoft gives shared mailboxes free, which favours businesses with many shared addresses. Google pools storage across the organisation and has fewer add-ons outside the headline price, which favours businesses with uneven usage and no licensing specialist. Count your people, your shared addresses and the features you genuinely need before comparing any two numbers.
helpHow hard is it to switch from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace?
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Mail, contacts and calendars move predictably. What takes the work is anything Microsoft provides as a composite or unlicensed object — shared mailboxes, public folders, Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams — because Google has no matching object and each is redesigned rather than copied. There is also a period where you pay for both. We set all of this out on our Microsoft 365 migration page, including the PST archives on people's desktops that nobody remembers until it is too late.
helpWhat about Teams versus Google Chat?
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Teams is more capable and considerably more complex; Chat and Spaces are simpler and less capable. Which is better depends on whether your organisation will use the extra capability or just be confused by it. Worth knowing for migration planning: files shared in Teams do not live in Teams — they live in SharePoint, which is where the real migration work is.
helpDoes Google Workspace work with Outlook?
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On Windows, yes — Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook keeps Outlook working against a Google account, and Google was still updating it in early 2026. There is no Mac version. We generally suggest treating it as a transition aid for people who genuinely need one rather than the default for everybody, because a team that stays in Outlook never meets the collaboration features the licences are paying for.
Still not sure which way it falls?
Tell us what your team actually does with spreadsheets and how your devices are managed, and we will give you a straight answer — including when that answer is Microsoft 365. There is no charge for the conversation and no obligation attached to it.
Related pages
Microsoft 365 Migration
If you have decided to move — what maps across and what has no equivalent.
Google Workspace Pricing in India
List prices in INR, what GST adds, and what drives the final figure.
Google Workspace Business Email
Domain email, shared addresses, aliases and how to structure them.
Google Workspace Partner in Kerala
Who you would actually be buying from, and how licensing in INR works.