When you are in the process of choosing a cloud productivity platform, the comparison between Office 365 v Google Workspace is one that many businesses must seriously consider. Of course, both platforms offer powerful tools for communication, document creation, storage, and collaboration, but the right choice really depends on how your team works, what your technical requirements are, and your long term business goals.
This guide is designed to help businesses, particularly those seeking IT support, understand the key differences between Office 365 and Google Workspace. These differences are not just in terms of features, but in the context of working with a reliable IT support provider. Not only will we walk you through 5 core considerations before you make your decision, but will also talk about whether there are any migration considerations to make.
Whether you are just starting out to choose your first productivity platform or you’re an established firm looking to make an understanding, these areas will help you to make an informed strategic decision.
1. Experience and familiarity with the platform.
One of the very first things that you have to consider when comparing both Office 365 and Google Workspace is which platform your team is most familiar with.
Office 365
For many businesses, especially those with experienced staff or legacy systems, Office 365 will feel more like home. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook have long been the standard in many industries, and employees are often trained in them from school age. This level of familiarity leads to faster onboarding, fewer training needs, and more confidence in day-to-day tasks.
A big advantage for Office 365 is it retains the advantage of powerful desktop apps which allow users to work offline with full functionality. If your team has data heavy roles such as finance, law or operations, tools like Excel still set that standard.
Google Workspace
In contrast to Office 365, Google Workspaces tools like Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail are cloud native and they are built for real time collaboration. They are simpler to use, faster, and ideal for teams that value agility and don’t require the depth of Office’s more advanced features.
What else to consider here?
All of this being said, your internal team’s experience is only part of that equation because you have to also consider your IT support providers’ platform knowledge. You need to look for a provider that has experience with migrations, hybrid environments, and ongoing management across both Microsoft and Google platforms. Finding a provider with platform specific certifications such as a Microsoft Solutions Partner or Google Cloud Partner is a very strong indicator of capability.
The right IT support provider will also assess how your teams currently work and recommend a platform that improves, rather than disrupts your workflow. They can help you to weigh up integration needs and decide if one suite is more compatible with your broader tech stack.
When it comes down to it, familiarity drives user satisfaction, reduces any resistance to change, and ensures a smoother transition. An experienced IT partner will happily walk you through this decision with clear advice tailored to your business structure, technical goals, and capability of your team.
2. Response times and reliability of support.
When you’re making this decision, you have to go beyond the tools themselves. You have to consider the level of support that you’ll receive when things go wrong, whether that support is with a lost e-mail, a permissions issue, or a sync error before a critical meeting. What matters most here is how quickly and effectively the issue will be resolved.
Dedicated response is critical.
Both Microsoft and Google can offer Technical Support, but enterprise level access can be slow, bureaucratic, and impersonal, especially if you’re a smaller organisation. This is why it’s so important to have a dedicated, responsive IT support provider by your side. Your provider should act as your first line of defence, offering immediate help, translating technical jargon into understandable advice, and escalating only when absolutely necessary.
Strong IT support is so much more than just fixing problems, because the best providers will monitor your systems proactively, ensuring that all updates are applied, vulnerabilities are patched, and users are supported long before they notice something is wrong. Support should be your business enabler, not just a fire extinguisher you have to lean on.
Damage caused by downtime.
In a remote or hybrid work environment, downtime can be especially damaging because a 30 minute e-mail outage could mean missed client opportunities or disrupted workflows. This can occur across multiple departments, which is why reliability should be non-negotiable. The right IT partner will go beyond ticket based support. They get to know your people, they understand your priorities, and they’ll provide support that feels personal and fast no matter what platform you choose to use.
You need an IT partner that keeps your business moving even when the unexpected happens because in the long run, responsive, proactive support will save you time, money and stress, which makes your choice of productivity platform more valuable and sustainable.
3. The range of services beyond just e-mail and documents.
Most businesses start by comparing Office 365 v Google Workspace with e-mail and Office applications in mind. But in reality, these platforms offer so much more than that. If you only focus on Outlook v Gmail or Word v Docs, you’re risking overlooking a much broader suite of productivity, automation, and collaborative tools.
Microsoft 365.
With Microsoft 365, you get Microsoft Teams included for internal communication and collaboration. You get SharePoint for document management and Internet creation, OneDrive for cloud storage, and Power BI for data analytics. The Power Platform, which includes Power Apps and Power Automate, allows businesses to build custom apps and automate their workflows without heavy development costs.
Google Workspace.
Google Workspace offers its own impressive ecosystem, Google Chat and Google Meets for communication, Google Drive for cloud storage, and Google Sites for building simple internal portals or project hubs. Google’s tools are natively cloud based and prioritise real time collaboration with automatic saving, easy sharing and seamless integration across the suite.
How your IT provider can help
Your IT support provider should help you to take full advantage of these services and not just implement them for you, but tailor them to your processes. They should also be able to offer advice on which features best suit your industry and your working style. Support providers can also assist you with setting up shared calendars and booking systems, automating approvals and alerts through Teams or Gmail, integrating third party CRMs, project management or HR tools, and providing training on all of the above.
The right IT partner will help you to unlock the true ROI of your productivity suite by making sure you’re using more than just the basics. You need someone who actively suggests new ways to work smarter, not someone who waits for you to ask.
4. Industry specific requirements and compliance.
When we look to compare Office 365 v Google Workspace, it’s critical to think beyond features and consider how well each platform supports your industry’s compliance and operational requirements.
If your business is in finance, healthcare, legal, education and government sectors, this is especially important where data privacy is a big concern.
Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 offers an enterprise grade compliance framework. This means there are built in tools that make a strong fit for regulated industries.
Features such as data loss prevention, sensitivity labels, eDiscovery, multi factor authentication and Microsoft Defender allows organisations to apply fine grained controls to data access and communications.
With Microsoft, you also get compliance with major standards including ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA and Cyber Essentials. Administrators have deep control over where their data is stored and how it’s handled, which is a key factor for companies that need to demonstrate compliance to auditors or clients.
Google Workspace.
Google Workspace also meets many regulatory requirements and has robust security credentials. You gain encryption in transit and at rest, powerful admin controls and detailed audit logs.
Tools like Google Vault provide archiving and data retention features, and its integration with Google Cloud Platform offers advanced controls for organisations with more technical resources.
That said, Microsoft’s compliance tools tend to be more mature and granular, which makes them better suited for companies with strict or complex needs.
What your IT support provider can do
Your IT support provider plays a critical role here because they should be able to understand your industry regulations and then configure the platform to meet your compliance obligations.
From there, they can monitor data access and storage, provide training on secure handling of data, and offer documentation and reporting for any future audits. A good provider will also keep you updated on new features or policy changes that affect your compliance posture. This includes changes to data, residency rules, or security best practices.
Compliance is so much more than just ticking boxes because it’s about protecting your clients, your reputation, and your bottom line. Whether you choose Google or Microsoft, your IT partner should ensure that your platform is compliant, secure, and configured correctly from day one.
5. Scalability and long term support.
When weighing Office 365, v Google Workspace, you have to consider how each platform supports your growth and your evolving IT needs. Whether you plan to double your team in the next year or you want to open new branches, adopt new technologies like AI, your productivity suite has to scale with you.
Office 365.
Microsoft 365 is built to support organisations of all sizes, whether you’re a small team or a multinational enterprise. It works to integrate deeply with existing Windows infrastructure and supports hybrid developments, which is ideal if you have a mix of on premise and cloud environments.
As you grow you can easily add users, automate your licensing, adapt management and gain visibility across your organisation using admin tools like the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and Azure AD.
Google Workspace.
Equally scalable, Google Workspace takes a simpler Cloudfirst approach. Adding users, adjusting storage, or rolling out new tools can be done quickly from an intuitive admin dashboard.
Its flexibility and ease of use make it a popular choice for startups, creative teams, and tech forward companies looking to move fast without IT overheads.
What your IT support provider can do:
Scalability isn’t just about user numbers, but about long term adaptability. Can your platform support remote work? Can it integrate with your future CRM or finance system? Will your provider grow with you?
Your IT support provider should be able to offer scalable support packages that evolve with your needs with on boarding and off boarding processes for staff turnover. There should be growth focused planning for licensing, training and security and strategic guidance on future proofing your tech.
For example, if you’re moving from a shared workspace to multiple offices, your IT providers should proactively advise on network infrastructure, identity access, and device management. They should be able to do this all while keeping your productivity platform running smoothly.
The best IT support companies don’t just react to growth, but they help drive it. They’ll work with you as a strategic partner, providing quarterly reviews, roadmaps and technology audits to ensure your platform is aligned with your business goals.
What about switching between the two?
If you are currently looking to switch between Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace, migration is often one of the most important and underestimated parts of the decision making process.
You don’t just choose the best platform on paper, but choose something that gets you there smoothly with as little disruption to your business as possible. Whether you’re moving emails, calendars, contacts, shared files, or entire collaboration spaces, planning is critical.
You need to have the right strategy and the right support. Otherwise migration can lead to data loss, extended downtime, misconfigured settings, and unhappy staff and clients.
E-mail and calendar migration.
This is usually the centrepiece of any migration from one platform to the next. Most businesses have thousands, if not millions of stored emails, folders and calendar entries that have to be preserved.
Luckily, both Microsoft and Google provide tools to help migrate mailboxes, but they often require technical expertise. For example, migrating from Gmail to Outlook means exporting and importing user data while ensuring calendar invitations, colour categories and rules are mapped correctly.
Calendars and scheduling tools must also be carefully transitioned because it’s easy to overlook recurring meetings, room bookings, or shared calendars used across departments. And yet these things are critical to daily operations.
Storage and shared drives.
Another critical component is your file storage. If you’re moving from Google Drive to OneDrive or SharePoint or vice versa, folder structures and sharing permissions can behave differently.
During migration, it’s essential to preserve access levels, ownership and file metadata, which is why the right IT support company is necessary. Shared drives must be recreated with appropriate permissions, naming conventions, and team ownership. When this hasn’t been planned correctly, users may find themselves locked out of their files, or worse, with access to things they shouldn’t be seeing.
Staff training and adoption.
Even with the seamless technical migration, user adoption is where many projects falter. Staff may be resistant to new systems, or frustrated by interface changes, or even unsure about how to use new tools.
Your migration plan has to include training sessions, onboarding guides, and support during the first few weeks. These don’t have to be overly technical, even the short rule specific tutorials can build confidence.
How an IT support provider will help
A good IT support provider will oversee this entire process from initial scoping to post migration support. They’ll conduct a full audit of your current setup, plan and schedule the migration to minimise disruption, set up your accounts, permissions and security policies and more. They will also be your safety net to help troubleshoot your issues and offer hands-on support as your team settles into the switch.
Migration is not just a tech task, but a process that when handled properly, sets your business up for the long term productivity and success that you may be looking for.
Making the right choice and the right partner.
Ultimately, the choice between Office 365 v Google Workspace is not just about the features we’ve listed through this guide, it’s about the fit.
The fit should be for your people, your industry, your goals and your growth. Both of these platforms are spectacular and offer powerful tools and secure environments, but what matters most is which solution aligns better with your current and your future needs.
Equally important is who you choose to support and manage that solution. The right IT support provider will make a difference between a smooth, productive digital environment and a frustrating, underused system.
At Techwise Support, we help businesses to make smart, strategic technology decisions. We’ve supported countless companies through migrations, expansions, and digital transformations across both Office 365 and Google Workspace. We’re not just here to fix problems, we’re here to help you to unlock the full value of your technology.