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Google vs. MicrosoftMany people think Google is the greatest thing since sliced bread, perhaps in part because Google has challenged Microsoft’s dominance in the technology sector.The reality is that while Google and Microsoft offer some competing products, their core businesses are different. Microsoft is increasingly an enterprise-focused company. Its main strength is its Windows operating system, which still dominates the desktop (though Linux and Mac OS are gaining ground). Google is consumer focused; its main strength is its large portfolio of search products, which also display ads.While it is true that Microsoft’s software has “phone home” features inside (that’s what you get for using proprietary software, folks) the reality is that Microsoft is not engaged in the kind of massive data collection that Google is doing. Google keeps entering new markets with products that have very fuzzy privacy policies.Microsoft has long been the target of privacy advocates, and as a consequence, they’ve cleaned up their act somewhat, because they’re a massive, mature company. They’re already had run-ins with the law and regulators. They were taken to federal court in a major antitrust case. The same cannot be said of Google.Randall Stross sums this up very nicely:Microsoft has seen this shift to cloud computing coming for a long time, but has been slow to adapt. The shift demands that Microsoft move in exactly the opposite direction from that which led it to dominance. Microsoft’s founding mission was to put “a computer on every desk and in every home,” in essence to decentralize computing, bringing it from the mainframe into our homes. Google is re-centralizing computing.Which leads to the question, in light of Google’s audacious information collecting, why were we ever scared of the Microsoft Evil Empire? At the apogee of Microsoft’s power, its ability to know what its customers were doing was nil. Our information was privately stored on our PCs. But if you discard Word and Excel for Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets, your files sit on Google’s computers. And if you avail yourself of Google’s array of other free services, so do your personal calendar, your e-mail, your online shopping history, personal photos, health records and stock portfolio.It’s a certainty more offerings will come. Google has made clear that it has no intention of excluding anything.As monopolistic as Microsoft was and is on the desktop with its Windows operating system, Google has become equally monopolistic on the Web, with its control over the online advertising and search business. Had Google and Yahoo been allowed to ink an advertising partnership, Google would have become an unquestioned monopoly. Thankfully, that deal was torched and scuttled in fall 2008.Still, Google remains too dominant, too powerful. It’s turned into the very thing it originally stood against. Google has become a bully and a snoop, managing to be both ignorant and defensive at the same time.Google has become the Internet’s Microsoft.And it is more dangerous than Microsoft because many of Google’s fans are people who should be its harshest critics. Take TechCrunch’s Duncan Riley, who wrote in 2007:I’ve long since subscribed to the “Google is my lord and savior” argument and gave up caring about privacy and other such things years ago.No giant for profit corporation is anyone’s “lord and savior”. Especially not a company that doesn’t know how to draw and respect boundaries. Everybody should care about their privacy and what companies like Google do with their data.GSuite vs Office 365Once upon a time, Microsoft Office ruled the business world. 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. 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.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, now boasting more than 5 million paying customers. Microsoft, meanwhile, has shifted its emphasis away from its traditional licensed Office software to Office 365, a subscription-based version that’s treated more like a service, with frequent updates and new features. Office 365 is what we’ve focused on in this story.Nowadays, choosing an office suite isn’t as simple as it once was. We’re here to help.TABLE OF CONTENTSG Suite vs. Office 365: What’s the best productivity suite?Pricing: G Suite and Office 365 subscriptions comparedG Suite vs. Office 365: App by appG Suite vs. Office 365: Security and management toolsG Suite vs. Office 365: Service and supportCan Office 365 and G Suite work together and with other enterprise software?Who should use G SuiteWho should use Office 365G Suite vs. Office 365: What’s the best productivity suite?G Suite and Office 365 have much in common. Both are subscription-based, charging businesses per-person fees every month, in varying tiers, depending on the capabilities their customers are looking for. Although G Suite is web-based, it has the capability to work offline as well. And while Office 365 is based on installed desktop software, it also provides (less powerful) web-based versions of its applications.Both suites work well with a range of devices. Because it’s web-based, G Suite works in most browsers on any operating system, and Google also offers apps for Android and iOS. Microsoft provides Office client apps for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, and its web-based apps work across browsers.[ Related: How AI is changing office suites ]The suites also offer the same basic core applications. Each has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, calendar and contacts programs, along with videoconferencing, messaging and note-taking software. Each has cloud storage associated with it. 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. And both suites offer scads of additional tools as well. So it can be exceedingly difficult to decide which suite is better for your business.That’s where this piece comes in. We offer a detailed look at every aspect of the office suites, from an application-by-application comparison to how well each suite handles collaboration, how well their apps integrate, their pricing and support and more. Our focus here is on how the suites work for businesses, rather than individual use.Pricing: G Suite and Office 365 subscriptions compared“Follow the money” is the hallowed refrain of investigators everywhere, and when you’re starting to decide which office suite is better for you, it’s a good place to start as well. Individuals can use several of the online apps from both suites — including Google Docs, Sheets and Slides as well as Microsoft Word Online, Excel Online and PowerPoint Online — for free, but businesses should look to the paid G Suite and Office 365 subscriptions for necessary security and management features. Check out the following charts, first for G Suite, and then for Office 365, to compare plans and pricing.G Suite pricing options for businessGoogle Suite comes in three versions: Basic, Business and Enterprise. Basic, at $6 per user per month, comes with the full suite of applications and 30GB of storage. (Nonprofits can use G Suite Basic free of charge.) At $12 per user per month, the Business plan includes all that, plus unlimited storage and archiving, enterprise search capabilities, additional administrative tools, and a low-code application environment. And Enterprise at $25 per user per month includes all of what the Business version offers, plus even more administrative controls.G Suite business plans1All mobile apps available for Android and iOSBasicBusinessEnterprisePrice$6/user/mo.$12/user/mo.$25/user/mo.Create documents, spreadsheets and presentationsYesYesYesMobile versions1of Docs, Sheets, Slides, GmailYesYesYesEmail, custom domains, shared calendars, videoconferencing, team messagingYesYesYesDrive file storage30GB per userUnlimited (1TB per person if < 5 users); search across all company content in G Suite and Google CloudUnlimited (1TB per person if < 5 users); search across all company content in G Suite and Google CloudAdditional business toolsForms, Sites, Keep, CurrentsForms, Sites, Keep, Currents, App MakerForms, Sites, Keep, Currents, App MakerSecurity and management toolsBasic tools including mobile device management, SSO and security alertsEverything in Basic plus more powerful tools including archive and retention policies and eDiscoveryEverything in Business plus more powerful tools including data loss prevention, hosted S/MIME for Gmail, and access control with security key enforcementFor more detailed information, check out Google’s page comparing pricing plans. And you can download an even more detailed comparison list here. Also note that some features available in higher-level G Suite plans are available for purchase as standalone services.Microsoft Office 365 pricing options for businessOffice 365 business subscriptions are more complicated and range from $5 per user per month for the most basic version, Office 365 Business Essentials, to $35 per user per month for Office 365 E5, the most feature-packed version for enterprises. The table below outlines what you get with each version. The three “Business” plans on the left are for small businesses with up to 300 employees; the four on the right are meant for larger organizations. (Scroll to see the rightmost columns.)Office 365 business plans1Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop apps available for Windows and Mac2All mobile apps available for Android and iOS3Publisher and Access desktop apps available for Windows onlyOffice 365 Business EssentialsOffice 365 BusinessOffice 365 Business PremiumOffice 365 ProPlusOffice 365 E1Office 365 E3Office 365 E5Pricing$5/user/mo.$8.25/user/mo.$12.50/user/mo.$12/user/mo.$8/user/mo.$20/user/mo.$35/user/mo.User limit300300300UnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedCreate documents, spreadsheets and presentationsYesYesYesYesYesYesYesDesktop1/ mobile2versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OutlookNo / YesYes / YesYes / YesYes / YesNo / YesYes / YesYes / YesExchange email hosting, custom domains, shared calendarsYesNoYesNoYesYesYesMicrosoft Teams, Skype for Business and SharePointYesNoYesTeams onlyYesYesYesOneDrive file storage1TB per user1TB per user1TB per user1TB per user1TB per userUnlimitedUnlimitedAdditional business toolsOneNote, Planner, Yammer, Delve, MyAnalytics (basic), moreAccess3, Publisher3, OneNote, moreAccess3, Publisher3, OneNote, Planner, Yammer, Delve, MyAnalytics (basic), moreAccess3, Publisher3, OneNoteOneNote, Planner, Yammer, Delve, MyAnalytics (basic), Power Automate, moreAccess3, Publisher3, OneNote, Planner, Yammer, Delve, MyAnalytics (basic), Power Automate, moreAccess3, Publisher3, OneNote, Planner, Yammer, Delve, MyAnalytics (full), Power Automate, Power BI, moreSecurity and management toolsBasic tools including mobile device management, threat management, archiving, and auditingBasic tools (omits Exchange Online Protection)Basic toolsEnterprise-level tools (omits Exchange Online Protection)Everything in Business Premium plus more powerful tools including retention policiesEverything in E1 plus more powerful tools including data loss prevention and required 2-factor authenticationEverything in E3 plus more powerful tools including advanced threat protection and eDiscoveryFind out more about Microsoft’s small business and enterprise plans for Office 365. Microsoft also offers an array of Office 365 plans for educational, government, nonprofit and other institutions, as well as Microsoft 365 plans, which combine Office 365, Windows 10, and security management features.In addition, many Office apps and services are available on an à la carte basis. Some companies prefer to pay for a lower-level plan and then pay for one or two of these items as add-ons rather than paying for a higher-level comprehensive plan.G Suite vs. Office 365: App by appEvery business has different needs, and yours may place greater value on certain apps than others. For some companies, word processing and email might be the most important apps in an office suite, while others might need a powerful spreadsheet program above everything else.To help, we’ve compared each major type of app in G Suite and Office 365 so you can zero in on the apps that are most important to your business and let their strengths and weaknesses guide your overall decision. We’ve included only the highlights below; if you want more details about each app, we’ve linked to Computerworld articles that offer in-depth comparisons.Word processing: Google Docs vs. Microsoft WordDeciding on whether your business would be better off with Google Docs or Microsoft Word is fairly straightforward: Which is more important to your users: easy-to-use collaboration or the greatest range of document creation and editing features? For collaboration, Google Docs is better. For as fully featured a word processor as you’ll find anywhere, you’ll want Word.By saying Word has superior features, I don’t mean a bunch of tools that your business may never use. I mean great capabilities that make your workflow easier and more productive. If you’re creating a report, brochure, resume, or almost any other kind of document, Word offers an excellent set of pre-built templates so you can get writing fast, knowing that your document will have a solid, useful design. For example, Word has nearly 50 different report templates, while Google Docs only has five. Word also offers more chart types and styles for embedding into documents.IDGMicrosoft Word has far more powerful features than Google Docs, including many pre-built templates from which to choose when creating a new document. (Click image to enlarge it.)But Google Docs outshines Word when it comes to live collaboration. Collaborating is seamless and has been built into it from the ground up, while in Word it’s more difficult to use, not as comprehensive and feels tacked-on rather than an integral part of the program.IDGWhen it comes to live collaboration, Google Docs outshines Microsoft Word by a wide margin. (Click image to enlarge it.)For non-live collaboration — editing and marking up documents for review by others — Word has always been the gold standard, but Google Docs has come a long way and now is nearly as good as Word. Word’s editing tools have slightly finer-grained controls, but apart from that, they’re about even.For a more in-depth comparison, head to “Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word: Which works better for business?”Spreadsheets: Google Sheets vs. Microsoft ExcelDo users in your company mostly work alone on spreadsheets, or do they frequently collaborate with others? The answer to that will determine whether Excel or Google Sheets is better for your business.For those who primarily work by themselves, Excel is the clear winner. As with Word, its wide selection of templates offers an embarrassment of riches. For example, there are more than 60 templates just for different types of budgets. Whether it’s a business budget or a special-purpose budget, such as for a marketing event, you’ll likely find one that fits your needs and that can be easily edited. By contrast, Google Sheets has only three different budget templates.Excel also offers far more chart types than Google Sheets — 17 in all — including popular ones such as column, line, pie, bar and area; more complex ones such as radar, surface and histogram; and some that are known mainly to data professionals, like box & whisker. And many chart types have multiple subtypes — for example, among the bar charts you'll find clustered bar, stacked bar, and son on, and each of those has two variations. Google Sheets has only seven main types of charts. It’s also simpler to create charts with Excel than it is in Google Sheets.IDGExcel has far more sophisticated features than Google Sheets, including many more chart types. (Click image to enlarge it.)Google Sheets far outpaces Excel in real-time collaboration, though. As with Docs, collaboration is baked directly into Sheets. Not only does it have more powerful tools, but they’re naturally integrated and easy to access. The same holds true for editing and commenting on spreadsheets.IDGGoogle Sheets' collaboration tools are powerful and easy to use. (Click image to enlarge it.)For a more in-depth comparison, see “Google Sheets vs. Microsoft Excel: Which works better for business?”Presentations: Google Slides vs. Microsoft PowerPointAs with word processing and spreadsheet apps, whether Google Slides or PowerPoint is best for your business comes down to a single point: Do you prize collaboration or powerful features in a presentation program? If collaboration is king in your company, Google Slides is better. For every other reason, PowerPoint is.For example, PowerPoint’s QuickStarter feature makes quick work of starting a presentation. Choose the topic of your presentation, and QuickStarter walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates and themes. Google Slides has no equivalent.IDGPowerPoint has numerous features Google Slides can’t match, including QuickStarter, which walks you through creating an outline, starter slides, templates and themes. (Click image to enlarge it.)Similarly, with PowerPoint, it’s easier to add graphics, transitions, animations and multimedia. It has more chart and table types as well. And it has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to giving the presentation itself, with innovative capabilities such as Rehearse Timings, which times how long you take on each individual slide as you rehearse a presentation. That way, you won’t get bogged down on any individual slide, and you can practice giving each slide its just due. Google Slides has nothing like it.However, Google Slides rules when it comes to collaboration, with far outstrips the kludgy and awkward capabilities built into PowerPoint. And because Slides offers fewer capabilities than Excel, it’s slightly easier to create slides in it, because it doesn’t pack as many features into the interface.IDGSlides isn’t as powerful as Excel, but its interface is less cluttered and confusing. (Click image to enlarge it.)For a more in-depth comparison, see “PowerPoint vs. Google Slides: Which works better for business?”Email: Gmail vs. Microsoft OutlookIf you prize simplicity, you’ll favor Gmail over Outlook. Gmail has a much cleaner and less cluttered interface than Outlook’s default one, offering the best balance between ease of use and powerful features. However, Outlook has made some headway towards being more straightforward to use with a new simplified Ribbon you can turn on.IDGGmail offers a streamlined interface and intuitive ways to accomplish your most important email tasks. (Click image to enlarge it.)Whether it’s creating, responding to or managing email, Gmail offers an intuitive interface with easy-to-use tools for getting your work done fast. Our favorites include an AI-driven option that suggests words and phrases as you type, a “nudge” feature for surfacing forgotten messages, and a handy snooze button for delaying incoming messages.When it comes to power features, however, Outlook rules. For example, Outlook’s Focused Inbox lets you see and respond to the most important emails first, and its Clean Up feature does a great job of simplifying long email threads so they’re easier to follow. And because the contacts and calendar functions are part of Outlook itself, they’re well integrated with email. Gmail relies on the separate Google Contacts and Calendar apps, which can be a bit more cumbersome to navigate.IDGEven with a new, simplified Ribbon, Outlook’s interface can be quite confusing to use. (Click image to enlarge it.)If your users want every bell and whistle possible, Outlook provides them all. For getting things done quickly, Gmail is a better choice.Gmail vs OutlookGmail vs. Outlook. You may not find as many loyalists in this debate as you would in an argument over Coke vs. Pepsi or Kirk vs. Picard, but I’ve met a fair share of professionals who proclaim one email solution is inherently superior to the other. If someone’s a fan of Google products, they tend to side with Gmail, while if they’re used to Microsoft products, you can count on them liking Outlook better.But are there any objective benefits that make one of these professional email solutions better than the other?I’ll tell you upfront that as someone who has used both in a work capacity for years, I’m partial to Gmail. I think it’s better designed, more flexible, and lets me use EmailAnalytics to understand how I’m emailing so I can improve in the future. But that’s not to say that Outlook is without its merits.The spoiler to this debate is that each solution has some advantages and disadvantages that make it impossible to declare a truly universal winner. That said, I’m willing to bet that after reading this article, you’ll come down squarely on one side or the other — Outlook or Gmail — based on your personal perspectives, work history, and professional needs.I’ll start with a high-level overview of the core differences between Outlook and Gmail, and move to a head-to-head faceoff of Outlook vs. Gmail in each of a dozen or so categories. It’s up to you to decide how you weigh the importance of those categories, and ultimately, which solution is better for you.Table of Contents [hide]Core Differences Between Outlook and GmailGmail vs. Outlook: Personal ConsiderationsCostStorageAdsSecurityOrganizationSearchContactsAdd-Ons and AppsCustomizabilityConsistencyChatGmail vs. Outlook for BusinessG Suite vs. Office 365CostsSetup and Ongoing ManagementTrackabilityIntuitiveness and Learning CurveConclusionCore Differences Between Outlook and GmailLet’s start with a simple overview of Gmail vs. Outlook. First, I need to point out that this isn’t exactly a one-to-one comparison. “Gmail” refers to an email service provided by Google, along with the platform created to access that service. You’ll hear people talk about “their Gmail” as a reference both to their email account and the apps they use to call it up. Gmail can also be accessed via a G Suite account; be sure to check out our detailed comparison of G Suite vs Gmail if you’re curious about the differences.Microsoft Outlook, by contrast, isn’t an email service specifically. Instead, it’s an application designed primarily to help people manage email, which also features a calendar and other features. Many people use it as part of Microsoft Office 365, a suite of products and services (mostly accessed via the cloud) that includes Microsoft’s Exchange Server, which is a dedicated email service. It also includes apps like Microsoft Word and Excel.What’s interesting here is that it’s technically possible to link your Gmail account to Outlook, thereby using Outlook’s interface with Gmail’s email service. In fact, you can use almost any account with Outlook—and still access it through its original dedicated app.But for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to assume that you, like the majority of email users, are either using Microsoft Outlook with Microsoft Exchange Server, or Gmail with its own desktop and mobile applications. With that in mind, there are three main categories of differences we’ll need to consider:1. Features. While at their core, Outlook and Gmail are both email service providers, they each offer a distinct set of secondary features. I’ll dig into the details in future sections, but suffice it to say, each solution attempts to offer more to the average professional than just a basic email server.2. Design. The design is also markedly different, with differences in terms of layout, organization, and user interaction. These differences between Outlook and Gmail tend to be more subjective than the others, so if you’re used to one solution, you’ll almost certainly prefer it over the other.3. Practicality. We can also consider variables related to the practicality of each solution, especially in a business environment. For example, costs and potential integrations have to be considered, and the learnability of each platform can affect how they affect productivity on a daily basis.For the rest of the article, I’ll be exploring specific differences in each of these areas, and how they should affect your choices. I’ll explore them in two main sections—personal and business considerations—but don’t be fooled into thinking these sections are exclusive. Business owners will still want to consider how each solution performs on an individual basis, and individuals should understand some of the business-related features of each platform.Gmail vs. Outlook: Personal ConsiderationsWe’ll start by looking at differences that matter to the average user.CostBoth email services are free to individual users, though there are some restrictions (which we’ll dig into next). However, if you want to use the Outlook app instead of the web-hosted version of your Microsoft account, you’ll need to get Office 365. For that, the annual fee is around $60 a year, but you’ll also get access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office programs.G Suite is Google’s version of this suite of software products, but you can access most of them (and most of their core features) for free (unless you’re a business). I’ll cover business costs in my section on business-specific considerations.Winner: GmailStorageAssuming you’ve gone with a free account, Gmail will give you 15 GB of storage. The caveat there is that your 15 GB is a shared storage limit across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos; in other words, if you’re storing 14 GB of photos, you may not have much room for email.Microsoft Outlook isn’t as clear about storage limits, but you’ll start with 5 GB of storage and will have the potential to increase that amount over time. Both solutions offer more storage for additional fees.Winner: GmailAdsIf you’re using free accounts, you’re going to be exposed to ads. In Gmail, your ads will appear at the top of your Inbox with the word “Ad” highlighted to make it clear that these aren’t emails. You also have the power to manage your ad preferences if you’re seeing ads that aren’t relevant to you.In Outlook, display ads will be on the right side of your inbox, and you’ll also have the opportunity to customize the ads you see. Both solutions are similar in terms of ad prevalence, so it comes down to personal preference.Winner: TieSecurityIs Outlook better than Gmail when it comes to security? Security is a tough category to evaluate. I don’t have direct access to the architecture of either product, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know what I was looking at. Accordingly, I can’t say for sure if one system of email storage is inherently more secure than the other, though breaches seem to be rare on both fronts.Instead, I can only look to the products and features related to security that each company offers. Both Outlook and Gmail provide two-step authentication options and built-in spam detection. Both products also have a feature that allows you to enable “trusted sender” or “verified” icons from trusted senders. Gmail also has a feature that lets you see when and how your account was last used—one of a few Gmail tricks and hacks that can improve your security.But for the most part, your email security depends on your own personal security measures. Comparing Microsoft Outlook vs. Gmail security, it’s a tie.Winner: TieOrganizationHere’s where things get interesting. Gmail and Outlook offer very different systems of organization, but your preference will probably depend on which system you’re used to.Outlook follows the typical Microsoft formula, so if you’re used to using conventional PCs, it will be very familiar to you. You can create a system of folders and subfolders which you can then use to sort your emails into different categories, such as by client, by project, or even by urgency. You can also flag important messages, or pin them to the top of a specific folder. By default, your inbox will be organized into single-message entries; when someone sends a new reply to an old conversation, it will appear as an entirely new message toward the top of your screen.Gmail does things a little differently. Instead of folders and subfolders, it employs a system of categories and labels. You can mark your emails as belonging to different categories and subcategories in the same way you might tag photos; in my experience, it’s just like the folder/subfolder system, except it’s more versatile.Instead of flags, Gmail uses a series of marks and stars that allow you to designate messages as important, not important, or belonging to a specific category. It also has a series of up to five tabs in your inbox view, which will automatically sort your emails into categories like “social,” which covers your social media notifications, and “promotions,” which stores all your newsletters and promotional emails.Finally, Gmail uses “thread view” by default, which collects all the messages in a given conversation into a single line item, which some Outlook users find confusing or annoying—but you can always toggle this feature off.There’s definitely room for subjective interpretation here, so if we’re only looking at the default options, I have to call it a tie.Winner: TieSearchYou might expect Google, the king of search, to have a better built-in search function in Gmail than Microsoft could conjure in Outlook. You’d be right.In some ways, Outlook’s search feature is simpler; there’s a straightforward bar where you can type your query, then search specific folders or for emails from specific contacts. There’s a separate search for your contacts.But in terms of practicality, Gmail’s search is far more robust. With a basic search, you can quickly turn up anything with a simple phrase. With an advanced search, you can sort through options based on variables like labels, tabs, categories, senders, recipients, subject lines, attachments, body content, date ranges, and message size.Winner: GmailContactsBoth services offer features that make it easy to manage your contacts. For example, both allow you to import a contact list from any other major service provider (including from each other’s service). You can also upload a CSV to add your contacts manually, which may be important if you take manual backups and lose the account.Gmail also offers contact integration with Google+, but let’s face it, not many people are using Google+ nowadays. Additionally, both service providers recommend contacts to include on your emails when you start typing, making it easier to recall the right addresses for the right people.Winner: TieAdd-Ons and AppsWhile Outlook does have some functionality that allows for integration with third-party apps, it’s hard to top Gmail’s openness to other add-ons. I’ve already written about 54 of my favorite apps, add-ons, and extensions for Gmail, so I won’t repeat myself here—but suffice it to say, you can embed almost any other functional app in Gmail, instantly and easily, to enhance your experience. Some function as Chrome extensions, improving your overall online experience, while others, like EmailAnalytics, are built right into Gmail so you can pull in data from your account and improve your productivity.The sky’s the limit with Gmail, so it gets the win here.Winner: GmailCustomizabilityIn Outlook, you can change the appearance of your app with pre-selected or custom themes. You can also make a few changes to how your inbox works, such as how things are placed. But it’s hard to compete with the sheer number of options you have within Gmail.Almost everything in Gmail is customizable, from the size, placement, and design of your overall Inbox to the features you use within it. You can toggle most features on or off, and even gain access to semi-hidden settings that can improve your overall experience or productivity (or both). On top of that, you can integrate with as many add-ons as your heart desires, making Gmail much better catered to individual users with specific tastes. The only downside with Gmail is its sheer popularity; the user name you want may be already taken.Winner: GmailConsistencyThe days of wondering if your email “got lost in cyberspace” are pretty much over. Every major email server is robust enough to provide a high degree of consistency in service. Every once in a while, you might find connectivity problems between your Outlook client and the email server, but this isn’t due to the email server, necessarily; it’s usually a syncing issue.You may also experience very brief periods where your client isn’t able to access your email server, and of course, internet connections will interfere with both providers in equal measure.Winner: TieChatIf you need to strike up a quick conversation rather than sending a long-winded email and starting an ongoing thread, both providers offer options for instant messages. With Gmail, there’s a built-in Chat function you can use at any time. Outlook accomplishes this by integrating with Skype, which is a little less convenient.Winner: Gmail (barely)Gmail vs. Outlook for BusinessNow, let’s consider some of the biggest considerations businesses need to keep in mind when deciding between Gmail or Outlook for business.G Suite vs. Office 365If you’re setting up work email for your business, you’ll need to get a G Suite or Office 365 account. Because they offer a similar suite of software products, you probably won’t need both, so is one superior to the other?G Suite offers Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Keep, Hangouts, and several other apps. Office 365 includes Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, Skype, and several other apps. In terms of functionality and sheer number of apps, they’re about equal.You may find that Office’s downloadable apps are more convenient than G Suite’s purely web-hosted apps. And while similar, chances are good that your employees will be more familiar with Office’s lineup of products than they are with G Suite’s.I encourage you to review our in-depth guide on G Suite vs. Office 365, so you can see a thorough comparison across many different factors; I’m just giving a brief overview here. They’re close to equal, but I give the slight edge to G Suite.Winner: G SuiteCostsSo what about costs? You’d think this is one category where there’s a clear winner, since both options have an objective dollar amount tied to them. But it’s more complicated than that.G Suite’s pricing is relatively simple. You can choose from Basic, Business, and Enterprise plans, and each tier has more storage and more features. The prices are $5, $10, and $29 per month, per user, respectively. The highest tiers here have unlimited storage.Office 365 has a similar tiered system, with Business Essentials, Business, and Business Premium costing $6, $10, and $15 per month, per user, respectively. However, if you make an annual commitment, the prices come down significantly. The maximum storage you can get is 1 TB of cloud storage and 50 GB of email storage.The prices are similar, but we’re also comparing apples and oranges here, so I’m going to call it a tie.Winner: TieSetup and Ongoing ManagementWhether you’re trusting your employees to create their own accounts or you’re having an IT person set them up professionally, you should know how easy it is to establish your solution and manage it on an ongoing basis.Neither solution should occupy your employees for too long. Both have gone through several evolutionary periods, and are about as easy to set up as any other app. Having gone through the setup process for both, I remember Gmail being a few minutes faster and slightly more intuitive, but the difference may be negligible to a diverse audience.Outlook offers optional desktop apps, rather than web-hosted apps, which can cost the setup process additional time. However, I don’t think the burden of time and troubleshooting is excessive for either option.Winner: TieTrackabilityIn terms of productivity tracking and employee monitoring, neither Outlook nor Gmail has a built-in solution. But there are add-ons that can help you in either app.In Outlook, the best solution is MyAnalytics, an app that lets you see how many emails you’re sending and how many hours you’re spending on email, in meetings, and on focused work. It’s not super robust, but can give you some high-level performance metrics.For Gmail, there’s EmailAnalytics. I’m biased here, but I truly believe EmailAnalytics is the most comprehensive and best tool for employee monitoring available. With it, you can keep tabs on not only how many emails your employees are sending and receiving, but how long it takes them to draft and reply to emails, and which contacts are taking up the most time. It’s the best snapshot you’ll get of your team’s productivity, and it’s easy to install and use.Winner: GmailIntuitiveness and Learning CurveThis is another subjective factor. To a user who’s totally unacquainted with modern email, both Gmail and Outlook are fairly intuitive and easy to master.The advantage of Outlook is that most people are already familiar with it. It was the go-to email solution for a long time, and accordingly, most modern professionals are complacent using it (and may be confused or intimidated by some of Gmail’s unique features). Accordingly, if all your employees are used to using Outlook, it may be hard to get them to switch.The advantage of Gmail is customizability. You can set it up to work almost any way you want it, which can make anyone’s email experience simple and intuitive. The problem is, it takes a while to find all the right settings and tinker around with them enough to find a way that works for you. In other words, it takes longer to get things just right.Winner: TieConclusionSo which is better between Outlook vs. Gmail? Again, the answer depends on your needs, though in general, I side with Gmail due to its sheer versatility. If you’re interested in switching from Outlook to Gmail, we have a super simple guide to help you through the process (just click that link). I highly encourage you to give it a try if you’ve been indoctrinated into using Outlook for the majority of your professional career.When it comes to storing our files over the cloud, so we have assorted options, but like always we want best, best, and best! And when it comes to choosing between some best ways like you need to select between Google Drive vs OneDrive, so here we need to consider several things. Both cloud storages are best in their own way, but it’s up to you what kind of cloud storage you would prefer.Google Drive vs OneDrive both have a lot of similarities and many differences too, it’s not necessary that one should always be superior to others, but the choice varies according to the requirements.If you want to choose one from Google Drive and OneDrive, you should try to use them both but another better option is that you can read about both of them and then make your decision based on your preferred choice. If you want to know more about both cloud storage, So here in this post, we are mentioning both methods and a deep comparison between both, so it will help you a lot to decide which kind of cloud storage suits to your needs.Cloud storage has gained a lot of momentum in the past two decades. Companies and People rely on cloud storage platforms to save their important data. Cloud Storage makes the data dynamic as well by making it available whenever and wherever needed. It also promotes transparency in who is using the data and for what purposes.The two most popular Cloud Storage platforms are Google Drive vs OneDrive. These two different cloud storage platforms are managed by 2 big tech giants, Google and Microsoft respectively. However, if we have to choose one for ourselves or our business, which would be the best Cloud Storage solution? In this Google Drive vs OneDrive comparison, we are going to compare both these platforms on various parameters.Pricing Plans:Both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive have multiple pricing plans depending upon the storage required. Microsoft OneDrive’s Free plan offers 5 GB of Cloud Storage and Google Drive’s free plan offers 15 GBs of free space.If you need storage space more than what is being offered in the free plans with both the Cloud Storage platforms.Google Drive Pricing:This Google Drive plans range from $1.99/month for 100 GBs to $299.99/month for 30 TBs. Google Drive offers 6 Different options to choose from according to your needs.Source: Google DriveOneDrive Pricing:OneDrive offers fewer number of options when compared with Google Drive. But OneDrive pricing is a bit more affordable than Google Drive.$1.99/month for 100 GB$6.99/month for 1 TB (1000 GBs)$9.99/month for 6 TB (6000 GBs)Google Drive offers 2 TB of Cloud storage for $9.99/month and Onedrive offers 6 TB of Cloud storage for the same price as Google Drive. So, if you are looking for Free Cloud Storage space, Google Drive offers 15 GB which is triple the space that Microsoft OneDrive offers for free. But if you are a business person and require more storage space, OneDrive definitely offers more Value for money than Google Drive.In plans $6.99/month and $9.99/month, OneDrive comes equipped with Microsoft Office 365 that also saves you money by offering free utility tools that every business owner requires.Therefore, in Pricing, OneDrive is the Clear winner.Source: Microsoft - Official Home PageData Security:With cloud storage, anyone with the authority can access confidential business and personal files from anywhere around the world. But this functionality can turn into a nightmare if the access falls into the wrong hands. All your confidential and sensitive data is at stake.Big Cloud Storage Platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox have been popular for such wrong reasons. Google’s Cloud Storage platform has reported Data leaks on different occasions; in 2012, 2014, and 2016 as well. In these attacks, data of more than 30 Million users has been compromised in total. Big numbers like these definitely raise questions on the company’sOn the other hand, Microsoft seems to be taking online cloud storage security pretty seriously because no big data breach in Microsoft’s Cloud Storage platform OneDrive has ever been reported. I would stop myself from saying that Microsoft was lucky because being a big name, it is the most obvious target for many hackers. But it still has managed to keep the files of its users safe and secure.File Sharing:The primary purpose of using a Cloud Storage platform to store data and files is anytime and anywhere access on any device. File Sharing through Cloud storage has become the absolute requirement for any business that works at more than one place.File Sharing system on both the platforms; Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive is the same. If you are on a mobile device, you just need to click on the file and share it with the desired Cloud Storage platform; on both the Google Drive app and Microsoft OneDrive app.If you want to share the file with a third person, the process for both the platforms is pretty simple and similar. You just have to select the file and click share. Enter the email address of the person you want to share the file with or you can share the link of the file on messages and WhatsApp as well.So, on this parameter, both the platforms are neck and neck in the quest of being the Best Cloud Storage platform available.Also Read: Best Cloud Security Solutions (Antivirus)Online Privacy:Online privacy is debatable on the online platforms. I may seem a bit biased towards Microsoft but it is the fact that Google has been caught getting its hand dirty in online data selling. Although the selling is just for the purpose of Advertisement and not to harm anybody with the information, but it still is a breach of security.After all, Online Cloud Storage was meant to be a personal space that was only accessible by the person in charge. According to terms and conditions and legal rights, Microsoft too is allowed to go through the content of users to search if there is any objectionable content. However, Microsoft doesn’t misuse this opportunity for some extra bucks.On the basis of the information, we can easily conclude Microsoft OneDrive to be the best Cloud storage platform among the two Google Drive vs OneDrive.Applications:In 2020, Cloud Storage is not expected to provide just cloud storage but more; more tools and more services. With Google Drive, you get the access to google utility tools such as Google Docs and with Microsoft OneDrive you get the access to your normal MS Excel and Word but online.Utility tools offered with both the platforms are capable but not equally capable. Utility tools with Microsoft OneDrive have been used by everybody for decades now all around the world. Microsoft utility tools like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint are much more powerful and user-friendly when compared with newly introduced Google docs and sheets.In Addition to that, Microsoft also offers Office 365 free with the monthly plans of $6.99 and $9.99. So, if you are inclined towards Microsoft One Drive on this point, I am with you.With all the above given factors considered, Microsoft OneDrive seems to be a more logical choice on every parameter. However, if you are looking for Free Cloud Storage, you might get a little more inclined towards Google Drive as it offers relatively more space, 15GBs instead of 5GBs in Microsoft OneDrive…Google vs BingKey Difference – Bing vs GoogleThe key difference between Google and Bing is that Bing is better when performing video searches while Google comes fully featured. Google has been the dominant force in the search engine world. Bing, on the other hand, lost its ground due to the competition provided by Google. But if we have a closer look at both the search engines, there is not much of a difference as many believe. Although Bing has many strengths, many people ignore many features of Bing which enable it to perform as like Google. Let’s take a closer look at both the powerful search engines to see what they offer.CONTENTS1. Overview and Key Difference2. What is Bing3. What is Google4. What is the difference between Bing and Google5. Side by Side Comparison – Bing vs Google6. SummaryWhat is Bing?Bing is the last name that was used by Microsoft’s search engine. Previously, it was known as Windows Live search and MSN search. The Bing brand came with the aim of presenting real world results than just finding text on a page and called itself a “decision engine.”Figure 02: Screenshot of Bing on Google ChromeWhat is Google?Google is easily the most used search engine in the world. Google search has been around since 1997 and has been seen improving with advanced features, smarter results, and integration with other Google products.Figure 01: Google interface on a smartphoneWhat is the difference between Bing and Google?Basic Layout and FeaturesBoth Google and Bing feel and look similar when it comes to basic search results. Other than the logo and the font on the top, the search results for both the search engines are similar.Video SearchBing: The video search that comes with Bing is significantly better than Google. This is a big difference between the two in comparison. Bing will give you a grid of large thumbnails where you can click and play without leaving Bing. For some videos, you can watch a preview as you hover over the video.Google: Google, on the other hand, will give you a vertical list of videos with small thumbnails.AutocompleteBing: In most cases, Bing gives more autocomplete answers when compared with Google. Bing usually gives eight while Google gives four. This feature is especially usefully when using the autocomplete feature to find alternative products and in finding wildcard suggestions.Google: Less autocomplete suggestions which usually is only four.Shopping SuggestionsBing: Bing is not ideal for shopping suggestions as Google performs this task in a better way.Google: Google shows shopping suggestions more often than Bing does. Google’s suggestions are generally much better too. So, if you are looking for a product which is available in certain stores, or to find the best price online, Google search is better than Bing.Search ResultsBoth Google and Bing will display search results that will generally be what you want. Both produce results that according to the keywords that were used in the search.Google: You will note that Google will perform better when specific questions, like a technical question, are directed. If the question is more specific, Google will find and organize the results in a better way.Bing: This is good at search results for general queries.Smart SearchesBing: Bing has adopted many of the smart search features that come with Google like unit conversions, movie show times, local weather, famous people, and related stuff. Many of these features yield the same results. Bing comes with a feature that predicts flight ticket prices when you are searching for flights.Google: Google has a few things that Bing does not provide like health info, movie and video game release dates.Image SearchGoogle: Google has an image search which is smooth to use.Bing: Image search of Bing is powered by some advanced options. One of these features is Layout, which lets you search for images in portrait and landscape modes. Bing also lets you remove search terms with just a click which is a great feature to have.Related Search ResultsBing: Bing puts its related search results to the right of the page.Google: Google puts is related search results to the bottom of the page.Advanced OperatorsBoth Bing and Google come with advanced operators that are comparable. Although the syntax may be different, both show a lot of overlap.Bing: Bing can perform two searches that are not available with Google. “Contains” will allow you to search for pages that contain certain files types. “Link information” that show shows the best-ranked pages linked from a site and “feed” which enables you to search for RSS feeds on a particular subject.Google: Google has more features and is better in doing advanced searches.Additional FeaturesBing: Bing lets you earn a point for each search you perform. You can redeem these points for gift cards at Starbucks, Amazon, and Gamestop and even use the collected point to donate to charity.Google: Google has a few extra features that have been built into its search. These include reverse search, instant search, voice search, and search being integrated with other Google services like Gmail, Google Now, and Google contacts. This is very useful when you are using a lot of products that are offered by Google.Bing vs GoogleBing is good for general queries.Google search results are better when questions are specific.Video SearchVideo search is comparatively better (grid).Video search is good (vertical list).AutocompleteAutocomplete has more options.Autocomplete has less options.Shopping SuggestionsShopping suggestions are good in general.Shopping suggestions are better in comparison.Smart SearchesSmart searches come with many features.Smart searches come fully featured.Image SearchThis comes with many features.This is smooth to use.Related Search ResultsThese are displayed at the bottom of the page.These are displayed at the right of the page.Additional FeaturesThis can perform searches on Contains and certain file types.This uses a point system.Summary – Bing vs GoogleGoogle is the better search engine when we compare both. It has been around for a long time, and is popular and innovating all the time. Both Bing and Google are very similar in features. Bing is better in some aspects like videos. Bing may be preferred for general results over Google occasionally. Google is able to dig deep into the internet to find what you are looking for. Although you may think Google search is the best out there, Bing is not far behind.I'd rather forgotten it existed.It was only last week when I was trying the new Microsoft Edge on my MacBook that I emitted a spontaneous chuckle when the browser immediately defaulted to Bing.A few days later, news emerged that Microsoft is going to force Office 365 Plus users to wallow in Bing's glories. Would people tolerate this? Would they come to see what they'd been missing by using Google? Or would they form a Binging Resistance?In any case, how could you decide which search engine is better? Is it just that most people use Google, which gives Google all the data it needs to constantly improve?Moreover, what makes a search engine better? More varied results? More up-to-date results? It's not as if there's always just one right answer to a search. And then there are all those ads that populate Google Search and look for all the world like search results. Or is it that the search results now all look like ads?In any case, I suspect most people think that by searching they're accessing some decisive truth. As Google's search liaison Danny Sullivan told CNBC a couple of years ago: "One of the big issues that we're pondering is how to explain that our role is to get you authoritative, good information, but that ultimately people have to process that information themselves."In the spirit of Senatorial objectivity, I decided to try a little test. It wasn't scientific. It was just for my personal, information-processing edification.I asked five seemingly relevant questions of both Bing and Google. Then I examined the results.1. Is Bing Better Than Google?Bing's results led to a Lifehacker analysis. It leaned toward Bing having certain superiorities, such as its apparent "ability to predict when a flight might increase in price." This analysis was from, oh, 2013. The second result was "5 Things Bing Does Better Than Google." Some bias here, perhaps?But when I asked Google the same question, the same outdated Lifehacker article came up first. Moreover, it was in a large box, beginning with this sentence: "Bing's video search is significantly better than Google's. This is the biggest difference between the two (and why Bing has a bit of a reputation as 'the porn search engine')." I'd missed out on that. Had you?The second result was a 2018 Wired story entitled: "I Ditched Google For Bing. Here's What I Found -- and What I Didn't." No bias there, it seemed. Indeed, it was only the ninth result that offered a favorably Googly Forbes 2016 headline: "Why Hasn't Bing Improved To Become Better Than Google?"2. Is Google Better Than Bing?Surely this would produce different results. Not on Bing. The very same Lifehacker article still dominated. In the next result, Bing offered me: "How and Why To Switch From Google To Bing." It was only the fourth result that offered: "10 Reasons Why Google Is Still Better Than Bing."Oddly, Google offered me the same first two results as for the previous question. It was only the third result that came from a 2015 Medium article: "Why Google Is Better Than Bing and It's Likely To Continue That Way." It was time for a more qualitative question.3. How Do You Judge Which Search Engine Is Better?Well, it seemed like an objectively qualitative question. Stunningly, Bing threw up a bunch of videos, none of which even attempted to answer the question. Sample: "lemonsworld Episode #46. How To Sneak Your V8 Miata Past The Lemons."Excuse me? How on earth could this have been even vaguely relevant? Oh, it was about engines, right? Bing, you need help.This is where Google's response was markedly different. Its first result: "17 Ways Search Engines Judge The Value of a Link." Useful, you might think, even if it doesn't exactly answer the question. What was less useful was that the article was from 2009. The next result? "How Google Judges Quality and What You Should Do About It." This was from 2015 and certainly didn't answer my question. I was becoming a touch confused. Was either of these search engines any good?What?4. Best Search Engine.I didn't even bother with the question mark. I wanted to see what both sites would declare. Bing instantly offered a large box with this headline: "View or Change Default Search Engine In the New Microsoft Edge." Really? Beyond that, Bing offered various lists of the world's search engines. The first of these was a Lifewire article entitled "The Best Search Engines of 2020." It placed Bing third behind Google and DuckDuckGo.How did Google's search engine answer this query? Well, with a large boxed list of the 10 Most Popular Search Engines In The World. This was from the famous SEO and Digital Marketing Services Since 2002 - Reliablesoft.net. It listed, gosh, Google at No. 1 and Bing second. Some might notice that "Best" and "Most Popular" often have little in common. Google isn't all ego, however. The next result was something entitled: "14 Great Search Engines You Can Use Instead of Google."I was beginning to find this whole search thing a little frustrating. My searches weren't all that hard, surely. Neither search engine seemed up to the task, however. So I asked one final question. This was a question that surely would polarize the results and offer definitive statements.5. Is Microsoft Better Than Google?Bing led with an article entitled: "Google vs. Microsoft." This came from Google Watchdog, which claims to have been "proudly resisting surveillance capitalism since 2009." A commendable, if hopeless, endeavor. The article didn't have a dateline but did offer quotes from more than a decade ago. It also offered this thought: "Google remains too dominant, too powerful. It's turned into the very thing it originally stood against. Google has become a bully and a snoop, managing to be both ignorant and defensive at the same time." It also claimed Microsoft had "cleaned up their act somewhat because they're a massive, mature company." Of course.How did Google answer this qualitative inquiry? It tossed up a large box answering this question: "Is Google Better Than Microsoft?" There was a quote -- from Quora -- that went like this: "Different, yes. Google is a large company (actually now a subsidiary of Alphabet) that owns, operates, and creates software-based services such as Google (the search engine), YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and more. Microsoft is very diverse in its business offerings. ... However, Microsoft isn't better than Google." Well, isn't that definitive?The next Google result? A The Premier Online Debate Website analysis which concluded that precisely 50% of people think Microsoft is better than Google, while the other 50% think the reverse.The Searching Conclusion.This was merely a tiny experiment to see what each engine might suggest and how much it might splutter. I can't say I was delighted by either, even though Google has always been my preferred option. I didn't think my questions were so very hard. It's clear that neither Google nor Bing wanted to be drawn too far on such an emotional issue -- though Microsoft's desperate need to tell you how to make Edge your default browser was touching.Google's Sullivan is right, though. Both companies might try to offer something authoritative, but you should always use your own judgment and realize the vast limitations and algorithmic biases of all search engines. If Bing works for you, be happy. If Google does, be happy too. In both cases, though, be wary. Can you cope with the responsibility?One thing I did notice was that in Bing searches, the entries under the News tab were far, far more dated than those in Google. Yes, of course, I searched my own name. Don't you?