Outlook vs Gmail: Which Email Platform is the Best for Your Budget plan?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are the dominant productivity suites in the world of software as a service (SaaS), both providing a vast array of applications that contemporary companies need.
While the functions of much of these applications are similar, Microsoft and Google's exclusive offerings each have their own peculiarities, for better or worse.
In this post, we will look at email through Microsoft Outlook and Google's Gmail for Business. Individually, the set are the leading email applications in organization by market share and are pillars of M365 and Workspace, respectively.
Email may appear easy on the surface, however the differences in between Outlook and Gmail show that things are more complicated than sending out and receiving mail.
The operations of each are various, beginning with how they are accessed, and ending with the security and personal privacy provided.
Pricing
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are priced each month, per user, and have different tiers of pricing. As it pertains to the mail accounts themselves, the difference in tiers normally only affects storage area.
Using Microsoft's Business Basic plan ($ 5/month/user when billed annually), each user gets 50 GB of email storage space, which is independent of the extra 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.
Bear in mind, the most basic level of M365 does not include any of Microsoft's desktop applications, including Outlook. Users buying this plan will have to more than happy with the Outlook web app.
Google's Business Basic plan ($ 6), offers just 30 GB of storage overall, integrating e-mail storage and drive storage together.
That's right, 60% of the mailbox storage attended to Microsoft represent 100% of your overall storage on Google's most inexpensive plan.
That disparity is likely an attempt by Google to upsell users to their premium plans, with their Standard plan ($ 12) jumping to 2 TB of drive storage, and the Plus plan ($ 18) going to 5 TB.
Microsoft offers 2-5 TB of drive storage with their enterprise offerings, but mailbox storage can essentially be endless through unlimited archiving starting with the E3 strategy ($ 32).
Scoring round 1 here, let's call it a draw. At the most inexpensive level, the two platforms are comparable, and Gmail's web app could be worth the additional dollar per month.
As you move up plans, the Outlook desktop app could swing your choice, as we will go over later. Remember, Microsoft's rates is based upon a yearly commitment, while Google does not offer yearly discount rates since this post.
This post is merely covering the 2 suites through the scope of their e-mail applications, and these costs cover numerous other functions. If price is your primary factor, think about each suite in overall before making a decision.
Ease of Use
The greatest distinction between the 2 suites total is Microsoft's desktop apps, which are much more feature-packed relative to Google's web apps.
While the features are not as various between the email applications, the complete Gmail experience is just available through a web internet browser.
With Outlook's desktop app, users get the full Exchange server experience, with the included advantage of having the ability to read and draft emails while offline.
If you are on a plane, replying to e-mails and working on documents you prepare to send later on might be the best use of your time.
With Outlook, you do not need to await the web to continue working, just to deliver your work.
Gmail's interface can't be reached without web connectivity unless you first jump through some hoops.
At the time of this writing, you will require to utilize Google's Chrome browser, have Gmail bookmarked, and sync your email by means of their offline feature, the reliability of which has been debatable for many years.
Both have mobile applications, so that concern can be worked around, but reacting to a bunch of work e-mails on a mobile device can be a struggle.
The complete suite of Microsoft Office desktop applications will be a much bigger benefit for Microsoft in comparing other apps, however we'll still offer Outlook a minor, but considerable, benefit over Gmail due to ease of use.
Searchability
As you would anticipate, the business known for its online search engine permits you to find emails you need more dependably.
Gmail's advantage begins with its categorization using labels. Multiple labels can be applied to each email or thread, and subcategories can be developed within labels to produce more of a filing system.
If multiple labels have actually been applied to a single e-mail or term, those messages will appear under each label. In addition, labels allow you to auto-filter incoming emails based on hand-chosen requirements.
In Outlook, sorting is restricted to folders, requiring users to categorize each email/thread into a particular location.
When it comes to the real search function, both enable users to browse using keywords, along with folders/labels, senders, and date got.
Gmail not just has much deeper advanced-search functions, by all accounts, but it is also flat-out more accurate.
This is the first strong win for Gmail, as Outlook's searchability and categorization are not as robust.
Security
Microsoft is the leader in this classification, and it is not especially close. Their remarkable standing is not simply vast, however it is apparent on 2 various fronts.
Google has actually come under fire recently regarding its handling of personal information, with reports that the company scans user emails. More significantly, Google reportedly tracks your place, your activity, and even your voice for the function of targeted advertisements.
Microsoft is much more transparent about their personal privacy policy and the information they gather.
If your service sends delicate or individual information regularly, it probably goes without stating that you would feel more comfy using Microsoft and Outlook. Even if you aren't sending out and getting private data, it would take a lot of other benefits to outweigh such evident personal privacy concerns.
For managers, Outlook uses a lot more internal security in the type of approvals. While Outlook's folder organization does not present the exact same searchability as Gmail's labels, it does offer users the ability to enable and prohibit certain actions within folders.
Outlook provides users 10 differing roles to select from, along with a customized role where the manager can hand-select specific actions one by one.
These actions include whatever from reading, modifying, erasing, and sending messages to seeing your calendar's particular conferences or free time.
Functionally, this enables supervisors to entrust jobs to their subordinates without giving them full-scale access to more crucial info. It also stops unhappy workers from potentially taking or deleting info deemed delicate.
You can entrust account access to others in Gmail, which is basically like turning over the secrets to your cars and truck. You can't designate levels of gain access to, hide personal messages, or even see messages sent by your delegate in your place.
Among, if not the most crucial category is a runaway win for Outlook. With comprehensive alternatives and a privacy policy that is much more transparent, Microsoft 365's e-mail platform stands alone.
Calendar
Technically, Google Calendar is not a part of Gmail, though all it takes to sync the 2 is a Workspace account and a couple of clicks through Gmail's menu.
For the sake of taking a more comprehensive take a look at Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, we'll compare Outlook's calendar to Google Calendar here.
At first, Gmail users regreted the platform's integration with other companies or customers who utilized Outlook.
Some grievances consisted of that updates to standing conferences made from Outlook accounts would not upgrade in Google Calendar, and the failure to push upgraded details to individuals.
Furthermore, Google Calendar will immediately attempt to turn all of your video meetings into a Google Meet call. Its default setting will instantly publish a Google Meet link into your calendar entry, which function needs to be disabled by an administrator.
Otherwise, both platforms have actually added combinations with the other, and by all accounts, they work perfectly. For all intents and purposes, this function it support is a draw.
Decision
Like a lot of things, this decision mostly comes down to individual choice. Much of the differences in between Outlook and Gmail have actually advantages based upon how your business runs, as well as your spending plan.
Ultimately, the openness and security of Outlook make it the stronger offering. If you discover yourself arranging through thousands of e-mails a day, nevertheless, Gmail may be the right alternative for you.