And both suites offer scads of additional tools as well. But those individual applications are quite different from one suite to the other, as are the management tools for taking care of them in a business environment. Each has cloud storage associated with it. Each has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, calendar, and contacts programs, along with videoconferencing, messaging, and note-taking software. The suites also offer the same basic core applications. Microsoft provides Office client apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, and its web-based apps work across browsers. Because it’s web-based, Google Workspace works in most browsers on any operating system, and Google also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS.

And while Microsoft 365 is based on installed desktop software, it also provides (less powerful) web-based versions of its applications.īoth suites work well with a range of devices. Although Google Workspace is web-based, it has the capability to work offline as well. Both are subscription-based, charging businesses per-person fees every month, in varying tiers, depending on the capabilities their customers are looking for. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 have much in common. Nowadays, choosing an office suite isn’t as simple as it once was. Microsoft 365 is what we’ve focused on in this story. Microsoft, meanwhile, has shifted its emphasis away from its traditional licensed Office software to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), a subscription-based version that’s treated more like a service, with frequent updates and new features. Although Google’s productivity suite didn’t immediately take the business world by storm, over time it has gained both in features and in popularity, boasting 6 million paying customers, according to Google’s most recent public stats in March 2020. Then in 2006 Google came along with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a collaborative online word processing and spreadsheet duo that was combined with other business services to form the Google Apps suite, later rebranded as G Suite, and now as Google Workspace. By the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Microsoft’s office suite had brushed aside rivals such as WordPerfect Office and Lotus SmartSuite, and there was no competition on the horizon.

Once upon a time, Microsoft Office ruled the business world.

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