Google Workspace and Gmail vs. Office 365 and Outlook: Key differences explained

While various productivity suites exist for personal and business use, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) dominate the market. They’re widely adopted and similar at first glance, as they serve the same purpose—ensuring streamlined collaboration.

There are still considerable differences between these platforms, which you’ll find outlined in this Google Workspace and Gmail vs. Office 365 and Outlook comparison. You’ll learn how they differ according to the most significant factors so that you can choose the most suitable option.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are cloud-based subscription services that provide productivity and collaboration tools and apps. Both offer stripped-down plans suitable for personal use and more robust paid tiers for business users.

There aren’t many limitations with either option when it comes to creating a cohesive workflow as both offer dedicated tools for the most important activities. Refer to the following table for more details:

Regardless of these similarities, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 show notable differences in the following five aspects:

1. User interface (UI)

2. Features and capabilities

3. Collaboration

4. Pricing

5. Workflow automation

An office suite’s UI and ease of use can make or break your productivity, so it’s among the first considerations when choosing a provider. While Microsoft’s tools have the advantage of being longer-standing and thus more familiar, Google Workspace is typically considered more eye-pleasing and user-friendly.

You can notice this by opening the browser versions of Gmail and Outlook side by side. Gmail will greet you with a clean, minimalistic interface, while Outlook has a more outdated and cluttered look. 

Explore further: Discover top alternatives for Outlook in our in-depth guide.

This is because Microsoft tends to focus on function over form, so you’ll see that more features are accessible right from the Inbox on Outlook. This naturally creates clutter, which might bother beginners or light users.

Google’s document editing tools also feature offline syncing, which is not available with Microsoft 365. This may not be a significant issue because you’ll have an internet connection most of the time while working, but you might run into setbacks when traveling abroad and don’t have access to Wi-Fi or data.

A similar difference affects auto-saving. It’s enabled by default on Google’s tools, so all your changes are saved in real time when you’re online. With Microsoft 365, you must first save a file to OneDrive to enable auto-saving, which is an unnecessary inconvenience.

What Microsoft 365 lacks in user interface and design, it makes up in feature variety and overall functionality of its apps. Compare any two platforms from Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, and you’ll see that Microsoft is more suitable for power users.

Take Google Docs vs. MS Word as an example. As you use Word, you’ll notice it has more:

• Templates

• Styles

• Charts and other visual elements

The same goes for PowerPoint and Excel, making Microsoft 365 better for complex reports and other demanding tasks. 

Gmail is also more limiting than Outlook, allowing for 2,000 daily emails compared to Outlook’s 10,000. This may not be an issue for most users—particularly individuals—but large companies might not have sufficient bandwidth with Gmail.

Email search is also more comprehensive in Outlook, as it supports filters unavailable in Gmail, most notably:

• Read status

• CC sensitivity

• Flagged

Google built its productivity suite around collaboration from the get-go. By contrast, Microsoft’s tools were initially developed as desktop applications and later evolved into a set of collaborative platforms. As a result, Google’s solution feels more intuitive and streamlined when working in a cloud environment.

The main argument in favor of Google Workspace is live multiuser editing. If you want real-time collaboration with Microsoft 365, you need to use SharePoint or OneDrive on top of the document editing tools, while Google Workspace enables it by default.

Regarding document sharing, there aren’t significant differences between these two platforms. Both let you share documents right from the main screen, and you can set three different permissions:

1. Read-only

2. Suggesting

3. Editing

Interoperability is another major advantage of Google Workspace. It lets you edit files created both by the native app and Microsoft’s equivalent. There might be some compatibility issues, though, especially with complex files full of elements that Google’s editing tools don’t support. 

Google Workspace has a far more straightforward pricing structure than Microsoft 365. Besides the free plan, you can choose between three tiers:

Microsoft 365 offers six different versions, each with its own pricing structure:

1. Home

2. Business

3. Enterprise

4. Government

5. Non-profit

6. Education

For the sake of simplicity and fair comparison, we’ll use the Business version as the closest equivalent to Google’s plans. In this case, you have three options:

Unlike Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 doesn’t offer a free plan, which puts it at a significant disadvantage. You do get a one-month free trial to test the platform and see if it’s worth investing in. 

The lowest business tiers of both options come at the same price, but Microsoft offers better value for money. You get 50 GB of dedicated email storage alongside 1 TB of file storage, while Google offers 30 GB of combined storage. You can’t expand the storage of your Google Workspace plan unless you opt for the Enterprise tier.

On the flip side, Google gives you access to all of its tools regardless of the plan, which isn’t the case with Microsoft. The Business Basic plan only offers online and mobile apps, so you don’t get installable versions unless you choose a higher plan. Still, this is only a problem if you need desktop versions specifically, which aren’t available with Google’s option in the first place.

Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer tools to automate email tasks, though setting them up and keeping them running smoothly can be time-consuming. 

For example, Gmail filters are helpful for basic sorting and organization, but they can quickly become cumbersome for complex workflows. Outlook’s rules and Microsoft Power Automate also demand more manual effort to keep them effective, plus they have a steep learning curve. 

In terms of AI assistance, Gmail offers features like Smart Compose and Gemini, while Microsoft 365 has Copilot. These features help generate email responses and summaries, but they often provide inaccurate responses or get stuck when processing long threads.

With email being a core aspect of our daily workflow, having efficient systems to filter, prioritize, and respond to messages is crucial. This is where advanced automation features come in to offer easier and more efficient ways to tackle productivity bottlenecks, such as repetitive email triage. 

Automating common email tasks like labeling, sorting, and even composing allows you to free up your time and mental resources by: 

• Reducing manual inbox management

• Minimizing your cognitive workload

• Proactively decluttering your inbox

• Simplifying and prioritizing crucial communications

Thankfully, many modern productivity-focused email services now incorporate AI automation to help users better manage their inboxes and reclaim their time and focus. If you’re looking for an email solution that prioritizes these capabilities to enhance your inbox management and workflow productivity, Notion Mail is worth checking out.

Notion Mail is an AI-first email client designed to help you manage your Gmail inbox without unnecessary productivity speed bumps. It offers a smooth email experience by automating organization, assisting with email composition, and offering personalized inbox views that fit your needs. 

Whether you’re focused on project management and client communication or just looking for a more organized email experience, Notion Mail is built to enhance your focus and productivity. 

Compared to traditional clients, Notion Mail truly shines in the area of AI email automation. Here’s how its most prominent automation features help boost your productivity:

Other features that can make email less tedious include:

• Customizable inbox views for personalized workflows

• Intelligent scheduling directly in the email to eliminate the needless back-and-forth

• Keyboard shortcuts for swift email action

• Productivity-first tools like email snippets, emojis, slash commands, and more

It’s important to note that Notion Mail is designed to provide a superior experience for Gmail users, so you’ll need to connect your Gmail or Google account to use it. 

Notion Mail is available for free with many integrated AI features. However, you can still purchase the Notion AI add-on to get more advanced productivity features for email. To get started and access all the advanced automation offers, sign up with a Google or Gmail account. 

Bonus read: Need more help troubleshooting Gmail or finding an alternative email solution? These comparison guides and email organization tutorials will help:

• Apple Mail vs. Outlook

• Best Proton Mail alternatives

• Gmail vs. Apple Mail

• Fastmail vs. Gmail

• Best Gmail apps for Mac

• Gmail account not receiving emails

• How to remove a Gmail account from a phone

• How to delete all promotions in Gmail

• How to delete a Yahoo account