Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace.
Two brilliant business platforms. We work with both every day, and we help you pick the one that actually fits your business - not the one someone at a conference talked us into.
Google Workspace is the neat, cloud-first choice - fantastic for teams who already live in the browser, want a straightforward setup and don't need Word or Excel on the desktop. Microsoft 365 is the deeper business platform - it earns its keep as soon as you need real desktop apps, richer intranet features (SharePoint), tighter device control and the compliance framework larger clients tend to ask about. Both scale to hundreds of users. Both give you a custom domain, professional email, video meetings, cloud storage and enterprise-grade security. The right one depends on how your team actually works.
- Both include a custom-domain professional email address (@yourcompany.co.uk)
- Both scale from a single user up to hundreds of seats
- Both include cloud file storage, video calling and modern collaboration tools
- Both meet the security bar the vast majority of UK businesses need
Three honest starting points.
In a hurry? These three summaries cover roughly 90% of the businesses we set up. If one sounds like you, jump to the section that matters most below - or just talk to us.
Start with Google Workspace
You're a small team, mostly browser-based, with no strong attachment to Word or Excel on the desktop. You want fast setup, a familiar Gmail-style interface and a predictable low monthly cost per user. Google keeps it simple and you get on with the work.
Explore Google Workspace →Start with Microsoft 365
You have at least a few people who genuinely use Excel, Word or PowerPoint at depth - macros, tracked changes, big spreadsheets. You also want a proper company intranet (SharePoint), Teams as your everyday comms hub and tighter control of laptops and phones as you scale.
Explore Microsoft 365 →Not sure? That's the most common answer
Most businesses have a mix of both preferences - and both platforms can support hundreds of users, so switching later isn't the disaster people fear. We'll walk through your actual workflow and recommend the path with the fewest surprises.
Book a 20-minute chat →Business email that matches your domain
In plain EnglishBoth give your team proper business email addresses (like jane@yourbusiness.co.uk instead of a Gmail or Hotmail one). Both come with solid built-in spam filters that catch most junk before you see it - though for higher-risk businesses we usually add an extra layer on top (something like Hornetsecurity) that catches more sophisticated phishing and trains your team with realistic simulations. Both work exactly the same on a laptop, tablet or phone. This is where the two platforms are closest to each other - the choice really just comes down to which one feels more familiar to your team.
Gmail
The interface almost every UK office worker already knows from personal email, dressed up with business features underneath.
- Familiar Gmail experience - almost zero training needed
- Excellent web-based search and smart labels/filters
- Great mobile app - genuinely the best on iOS/Android
- AI features (Gemini) draft replies, summarise threads
- Native shared inboxes via Google Groups
Teams who prefer to run everything in the browser and want their email interface to feel like the one they already use at home.
Outlook
A more powerful desktop-native mail client with best-in-class calendar, tasks and integration with the wider Microsoft world.
- Powerful desktop app (Windows and Mac) with rich rules engine
- Calendar is arguably the strongest scheduling tool anywhere
- Native @mentions and integration with Teams / SharePoint
- Shared mailboxes and delegate access baked in
- Copilot drafts and summarises threads across the mailbox
Businesses where the calendar is the centre of the working day - lots of meetings, delegated scheduling, and users who like a dedicated desktop app.
Both do the fundamentals brilliantly. The choice comes down to whether your team prefers browser-first Gmail or the more powerful desktop-first Outlook.
Documents, spreadsheets and presentations
In plain EnglishThis is where the two are most different. Google's tools live entirely in your web browser - think of them as online-only versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft's tools work in the browser too, but they ALSO give you the proper Word and Excel programs you can install on your computer - the ones people who build complicated spreadsheets or long documents genuinely need. If nobody on your team does that kind of work, Google is lovely. As soon as someone does, Microsoft becomes the sensible choice.
Docs, Sheets, Slides
Clean, fast, browser-based apps designed from day one for real-time collaboration - no file to email around.
- Real-time collaboration is best-in-class - many editors, zero conflicts
- Auto-saves everything, everywhere. No lost work
- Runs equally well on any device with a browser
- Smart Fill in Sheets and Gemini across Docs/Slides help draft content
- Fantastic version history with named revisions
Teams whose everyday work is contained inside a browser - drafting proposals together, keeping shared trackers, building slide decks collaboratively.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint
The industry-standard business apps, on the desktop AND the web. If you have anyone who lives in Excel at depth, this is why M365 wins for you.
- Full desktop apps on Windows and Mac (needs Business Standard+)
- Excel Power Query, pivot tables and macros - unmatched depth
- Word with full track changes, styles and referencing
- Web versions too, for lighter collaboration
- Copilot inside every app - the deepest AI integration on either platform
Businesses where at least one person genuinely uses Excel or Word at depth - macros, complex spreadsheets, long-form structured documents.
If nobody on your team needs real desktop Excel or Word, Google's browser apps are lovely to use. As soon as you have one power user, Microsoft becomes the pragmatic choice.
Where your files actually live
In plain EnglishBoth give every person their own online storage space where their files live safely - like a personal Dropbox that comes with the package. Save a file on your laptop and it's on your phone in seconds. Share a document with a colleague in one click. Day-to-day they feel very similar - the differences are technical and only really matter when you start sharing lots of files with people outside your company.
Google Drive
The single, unified place your Google files live. Simple, fast, and the sharing UX is famously slick.
- Sharing is one click - a link with clear permission settings
- Drive for Desktop mirrors folders to your PC/Mac
- Shared Drives keep team files together and away from personal folders
- Search is genuinely brilliant across every doc
- Storage ranges from 30GB to 5TB per user by plan
Teams who share externally often, work across organisations, or want the least-friction sharing experience possible.
OneDrive
Your personal Microsoft cloud drive, tightly integrated with Windows Explorer and every M365 app.
- Windows File Explorer integration is deeper than Google's
- Files On-Demand - see everything, download only what you open
- Personal Vault for sensitive documents (extra sign-in)
- Version history + ransomware detection built in
- 1TB per user across most business plans
Windows-heavy environments where files need to feel like they live in the Explorer sidebar, not a separate app.
Very close for daily use. Google edges ahead on external sharing UX; Microsoft edges ahead on Windows integration and ransomware recovery.
Where the whole business shares knowledge
In plain EnglishEvery business ends up needing a shared 'company hub' - one place where the whole team goes for HR policies, staff handbooks, project folders, client documents and everything else that needs a home. It's usually called an intranet. Google's version does this simply and does it well. Microsoft's version is called SharePoint and it's a much bigger, more powerful tool - imagine the difference between a well-organised filing cabinet and a whole library building. Bigger businesses often need the library.
Shared Drives + Google Sites
Google's answer is simple by design - a shared drive per team plus lightweight intranet pages via Google Sites.
- Shared Drives organise team files with team-level permissions
- Google Sites builds tidy internal wikis and portals with no code
- Everything integrates cleanly with Docs/Sheets/Meet
- Straightforward permission model - less to get wrong
- Excellent for teams under about 100 people who don't need deep intranet features
Businesses that want a functional intranet without becoming intranet specialists. It just works and stays out of your way.
SharePoint
SharePoint is a full-blown enterprise content platform. It's the reason many larger businesses stay on Microsoft - nothing else in the market matches it.
- Rich intranet pages, news feeds, hub sites, navigation
- Deep permissions - inherited, unique, external, retention
- Document libraries with metadata, workflows, approvals
- Powerful search across the whole tenant
- The intranet backbone of most compliance-heavy sectors (NHS, finance, legal)
Regulated industries and businesses that need document approval flows, retention policies, deep compliance controls or a genuinely rich intranet.
For simple internal knowledge sharing, Google is calmer to run. For deep intranet, compliance workflows or approval chains, SharePoint has no real Google equivalent.
Video calls, chat and everyday collaboration
In plain EnglishBoth include video calls (like Zoom), instant messaging (like WhatsApp, but for work) and the calendar you use to book meetings. Google keeps these as separate apps you open when you need them. Microsoft rolls them all into one big app called Teams - messages, calls, files and meetings all in one place. It really just comes down to whether your team prefers 'one app that does everything' or 'separate apps for separate jobs'.
Google Meet + Chat
Google keeps meetings and chat lightweight, browser-first and separated from email - a deliberate choice, not a limitation.
- Google Meet joins from a browser link - no downloads
- Excellent low-bandwidth performance and mobile experience
- Live captions and translations across dozens of languages
- Chat spaces for team conversation, files and tasks
- Meet recording, transcripts and Gemini summaries on higher tiers
Teams that want a clean, distraction-free meeting tool that just works from any browser - especially external calls with clients.
Microsoft Teams
Teams is a full collaboration hub - calls, chat, files, apps, phones, whiteboards - all in one persistent workspace.
- Persistent team channels for ongoing conversations
- Deep integration with Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner
- Teams Phone can replace your traditional phone system
- Excellent whiteboard, breakout rooms, background effects
- Third-party app ecosystem is huge
Businesses where a lot of daily work happens in one persistent app - internal chat, meetings, shared files and even phone calls all in one place.
Meet is calmer and simpler for external calls. Teams is a bigger, deeper platform that pays back the extra learning curve if you commit to it as your comms hub.
Security, device management and admin control
In plain EnglishBoth take security seriously by default - protecting logins with a second check on your phone, stopping fake emails, keeping your data locked away, and giving admin the tools to add or remove staff safely. The differences only really matter once you're bigger, or if you work with sensitive information like NHS or financial data where the rules get stricter. For most small businesses, either one is a huge upgrade on whatever you have today.
Google Admin + Endpoint Management
Clean, modern admin console with the security fundamentals well covered on every plan.
- MFA, 2SV enforcement and phishing-resistant keys supported
- Simple Endpoint Management for phones and laptops
- Vault for retention and eDiscovery on higher tiers
- Chrome Enterprise integration is best-in-class
- Security Center dashboard on Business Plus and Enterprise
Businesses that want strong security defaults without lots of admin overhead - and Chromebook fleets are a natural fit.
Microsoft 365 + Intune
A deeper, more configurable security stack that scales into regulated and enterprise territory.
- Intune device management (Business Premium and above)
- Defender for Business - endpoint protection built in
- Sensitivity labels and DLP across Office, email and Teams
- Purview for compliance, retention and audit
- Best-in-class integration with Windows and Azure AD (Entra)
Regulated sectors (NHS, finance, legal) and businesses with a Windows-heavy fleet that want unified device + identity + threat management.
For most SMEs both are more than secure enough. Businesses in regulated industries or with 50+ Windows devices lean toward Microsoft for the depth of Intune and Defender.
Prices below are Microsoft and Google's own list prices as we last checked - both platforms adjust them periodically, and we can quote net pricing based on your seat count and commitment when you get in touch. The takeaway: Google is a touch cheaper at entry level; Microsoft costs more at higher tiers because you're paying for desktop apps, Intune and richer compliance.
- Google Workspace Business Starter - ~£5/user - custom email + cloud apps only
- Google Workspace Business Standard - ~£10/user - adds 2TB storage + Meet recording
- Google Workspace Business Plus - ~£16/user - adds 5TB storage + Vault + eDiscovery
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic - ~£4.90/user - custom email + web-only Office apps
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard - ~£10.30/user - adds full desktop Word/Excel/PowerPoint
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium - ~£17.60/user - adds Intune, Defender, deeper security
Side-by-side at a glance
The quick summary if you just want the headline for each feature. Both platforms are strong on everything below - the labels highlight where each pulls slightly ahead.
Common questions we get asked
Can I switch from one to the other later?
Yes - and we do these migrations regularly. Both platforms support proper migration tools that move mailboxes, contacts, calendars and file storage across. It's not free of effort, but it's not the disaster people imagine either. The bigger risks are in-flight documents and shared links; we plan around those.
Do both give me proper @mycompany.co.uk email addresses?
Yes. Both fully support your own domain, professional signatures, shared mailboxes and email aliases. This is a standard feature, not an upgrade.
What if half my team wants Google and the other half wants Microsoft?
We hear this a lot. In practice, running both in parallel is usually more painful than it's worth - fragmented admin, licensing waste and split intranet. We'll help you agree a single platform for the whole business, then make sure both preferences are represented in how we set it up.
Which one is better for AI?
Both are investing heavily. Microsoft Copilot is arguably deeper today because it lives inside Word, Excel and Outlook where a lot of daily work happens. Gemini in Google Workspace is excellent for drafting, summarising and building content - and cheaper on some tiers. If AI is a decision driver for you, we'll show you both live and let you compare.
Do you charge extra to set this up?
Setup is scoped based on your seat count, migration complexity and how much data needs to move. We'll always quote clearly before starting - no per-hour surprises.
Which one is more secure?
Both meet the security standards the vast majority of UK businesses need out of the box. Where they diverge is at the deeper end - Microsoft's Intune + Defender + Purview stack goes further than Google's equivalents for regulated industries and larger fleets. For a typical small business, either is a huge upgrade on what you probably have today.
You're partners with both - won't you just push whichever pays you more?
Fair question. Our margins are similar across both, and we've walked away from partner incentives that would have compromised the advice. What we actually optimise for is fewer support tickets and happier renewals - which means recommending the platform that fits your business, not the one with the flashier commission.
Not sure yet? That's what we're here for.
A 20-minute call is enough for us to understand how your team works today, whether you have Excel power users or already live in Chrome, and which platform will cause the fewest surprises over the next three years. No pressure, no pitch decks.