While Microsoft offers one of the most robust online workspaces on the market, you should explore a few alternatives before deciding if it’s worth committing to. Zoho is among the most notable ones, as it has evolved quite a bit over the last decade and provides a comparable email platform for business communications.
This Zoho Workplace and Zoho Mail vs. Office 365 and Outlook comparison outlines both options and explains key differences so that you can decide if either suits your workflow.
Microsoft 365 vs. Zoho Workplace: Similarities and differences
Zoho Workplace and Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) share a few general features. Both are predominantly cloud-based and require monthly or annual subscriptions. Each platform has a suite of apps that let you perform the most common business activities, most notably:
Emailing
Document editing and sharing
Scheduling
Video conferencing
Microsoft and Zoho’s solutions are also suitable for personal use, as you can opt for entry-level tiers that don’t include advanced features typically reserved for businesses and large teams.
The above similarities don’t mean that Microsoft 365 and Zoho Workplace are equally suitable for all users. To help you decide which option is better for you, this comparison will focus on the following factors:
Flexibility and ease of use
Emailing experience
Document editing apps
Pricing
Productivity enhancement
Flexibility and ease of use
When you first open Microsoft 365 and Zoho Workplace, you’ll notice that the latter has a more streamlined feel due to excellent integration between different tools. Microsoft 365 feels like a bundled collection of platforms, while Zoho gives off the impression of a centralized workspace. It’s reminiscent of collaboration platforms like Slack, except it has more extensive features of a full-fledged productivity suite.
If convenience and fluidity are your priorities, Zoho Workplace might be a better option. This isn’t to say that Microsoft 365 is overly complex, but it does involve a steeper learning curve. Microsoft’s focus has always been on feature variety, so it’s a better option for advanced users.
Both Zoho Workplace and Microsoft 365 offer excellent cross-platform support, with desktop apps for Windows and macOS, web apps, and mobile apps. This adds more flexibility to your workflow.
Emailing experience
Microsoft 365 offers Outlook as the native email client, while Zoho Workplace comes with Zoho Mail. Both platforms are available independently, in which case you can use them for free. The main difference is that you can upgrade Zoho Mail as a standalone platform, while Outlook’s paid version is only a part of Microsoft 365 plans.
Outlook and Zoho mail are practically identical when it comes to the user interface. They feature a similar design with connected apps on the far left, email categories next to them, mail management features above the inbox, and split-square email viewing.
Overall, the design of both apps feels quite cluttered, with Zoho Mail having a slightly cleaner look due to fewer accent colors. There are far cleaner and more eye-pleasing options out there, but this isn’t a major issue unless you prioritize aesthetics.
Zoho Mail and Outlook are equipped with all the necessary email management features you’d expect from your email provider, such as:
Advanced email search
Spam detection
The comprehensive organization through folders and labels
A notable advantage of Zoho’s solution is the attachment limit, up to 1 GB, compared to Outlook’s 150 MB with a similarly priced plan. Another standout feature is the attachment viewer, which lets you preview the attachment without having to download it.
Document editing apps
Most people are familiar with Microsoft’s Office suite, which encompasses three powerhouse editing apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Zoho’s equivalents to these three platforms are:
Writer (word processor)
Sheet (spreadsheet editor)
Show (presentation maker)
Even though Microsoft’s solutions are far more widely adopted, Zoho’s tools are quite impressive and offer some innovative features that can speed up document editing.
For example, Zoho Writer features Zia, an AI writing assistant that can perform several useful functions, most notably:
Grammar checks and suggestions
Readability assessment
Writing quality monitoring
With Microsoft Word, you’d need third-party tools like Grammarly to unlock such functionalities, so having them built into the document editor is quite an advantage.
The main downside of Zoho’s editing apps is that they work in a closed environment. While you can download a Word or Excel doc and send it via email to anyone, there’s no such option with Zoho’s apps—unless you connect a Document API. You can only share documents through links, and the recipient must have a Zoho account to edit or comment on them.
With this in mind, internal collaboration might be smoother with Zoho Workplace, but file sharing outside your workspace is more challenging.
Pricing
Zoho Workplace has a straightforward pricing structure—there are three plans to choose from, as shown in the following table:
Plan | Cost (with annual billing) |
Mail Only | $1/user per month |
Standard | $3/user per month |
Professional | $6/user per month |
It’s more affordable than the Microsoft 365 Business plans, considering that Microsoft’s lowest-priced tier costs the same as Zoho’s most expensive option. You can also choose from three plans depending on the features you need:
Plan | Cost (with annual billing) |
Business Basic | $6/user per month |
Business Standard | $12.50/user per month |
Business Premium | $22/user per month |
If you don’t need the entire Microsoft 365 suite, you can opt for Microsoft 365 Apps for business, starting at $8.25/user per month with annual billing. You’d get desktop versions of the Office suite and Outlook, which are otherwise available with the Business Standard or higher.
Microsoft 365 offers various pricing categories beyond Business, including:
Personal
Enterprise
Education
Government
This makes the pricing structure more complicated but provides more flexibility for businesses and organizations of different types.
If you compare Zoho’s Business Professional to Microsoft’s Business Basic (due to the same price), you’ll notice that the latter is more generous. You get 50 GB of dedicated email storage alongside 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage. Zoho’s plan does offer more email space (100 GB), but you only get 100 GB for WorkDrive, which may not be enough in the long run.
Keep reading: Discover popular alternatives to Zoho Mail in our in-depth comparison guide.
Productivity enhancement
Zoho Workplace and Microsoft 365 are both feature-rich productivity suites packed with tools that can help you boost your workflow. Zoho Mail’s Zia AI integration, for instance, streamlines email composition and offers quick summarization. The tool also features email scheduling, customizable filters, integrated tools within your inbox, and workflow rules to help you automate your emailing.
Microsoft 365 offers Copilot AI for advanced email assistance and deep task integration with Microsoft To Do. It seamlessly integrates with the Outlook calendar and various Microsoft applications. Microsoft 365 also offers powerful automation through Power Automate, an advanced way to streamline repetitive tasks across the full suite of tools, including Outlook Mail.
One advantage of productivity-first workspaces over traditional productivity email providers is that they give you full control over your work environment. This allows you to customize your workflow according to the way you work, the tools you use, and the projects you work on. It also enables you to seamlessly connect your email with other work apps for maximum efficiency.
As robust as these platforms seem, there’s a catch. Their advanced productivity features are only accessible through paid subscriptions, so you’ll need to upgrade to higher-tier plans to fully enjoy their capabilities.
If you need a free email provider that puts you in complete control of your workflow from the moment you sign up, a solution like Notion Mail exceeds typical productivity platforms.
Unleash your productivity with Notion Mail
Notion Mail is an AI-native email client built to put your productivity at the fore, maximizing its AI capabilities to create a streamlined and efficient email experience. It integrates seamlessly with Notion Calendar and the entire Notion ecosystem, turning your inbox into a command center for your projects and workflows. You can manage your correspondence and tasks in one central environment, eliminating the communication barriers you’ll typically find in other traditional email platforms.
Notion Mail helps you do more through email using key features like:
AI-powered summarization: Quickly grasp the context of long email threads using AI-generated summaries.
Quick replies: Respond to emails faster with intuitive, AI-suggested quick replies.
AI autopilot: Minimize manual tasks and let AI automatically sort and prioritize important messages in specific labels to keep your inbox clean and focused.
Snippets: Create reusable email templates you can add with a single click to save time on repetitive typing and ensure consistent communication.
Customizable views: Organize your inbox into individual views to match your specific workflow, prioritize essential messages, and minimize distractions.
/Schedule command: Use the convenient slash command or insert a scheduling button directly into your emails to reduce the need for back-and-forth.
Create, share, and collaborate in a streamlined environment
Notion Mail offers robust cross-platform support—you can use it on browsers, iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows devices. This ensures your workflow is easily accessible whether you’re working from the office or remotely.
Beyond Notion Mail’s key features, an upgrade to Notion’s core app can also give you access to other essential features that streamline your workflow, including Notion docs, projects, and wikis.
Thanks to the modern, user-friendly interface, these features are designed to let you perform your daily tasks effortlessly. The minimalistic design reduces the risk of distractions.
Get started with Notion Mail’s efficient workspace
If you’re ready to get a head start on your productivity, you can set up your Notion Mail account by signing up with your Gmail or Google account. When you sign up for Notion Mail, you can access most of its core features for free, including AI quick replies and summaries. However, if you need deeper AI assistance, you can get the Notion AI add-on.
Bonus read: Need more help choosing an email service or managing your email? Check out our detailed comparisons and guides below:
