Outlook vs Gmail: Which Email Platform is the very best for Your Budget plan?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are the dominant productivity suites on the planet of software as a service (SaaS), both offering a wide variety of applications that modern-day business require.
In this post, we will take a look at email through Microsoft Outlook and Google's Gmail for Business. Independently, the pair are the leading e-mail applications in organization by market share and are pillars of M365 and Workspace, respectively.
Email might appear basic on the surface area, but the differences in between Outlook and Gmail show that things are more complicated than sending and receiving mail.
The functions of each are different, starting with how they are accessed, and ending with the security and privacy supplied.
Rates
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are priced monthly, per user, and have various tiers of pricing. As it pertains to the mail accounts themselves, the distinction in tiers usually just affects storage space.
Utilizing Microsoft's Business Basic strategy ($ 5/month/user when billed yearly), each user gets 50 GB of e-mail storage area, which is independent of the additional 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.
Keep in mind, one of the most basic level of M365 does not consist of any of Microsoft's desktop applications, including Outlook. Users purchasing this strategy will need to more than happy with the Outlook web app.
On the other hand, Google's Business Basic plan ($ 6), provides simply 30 GB of storage in general, integrating email storage and drive storage together.
That's right, 60% of the mailbox storage provided for Microsoft represent 100% of your total storage on Google's most affordable strategy.
That discrepancy is likely an attempt by Google to upsell users to their premium plans, with their Standard plan ($ 12) leaping to 2 TB of drive storage, and the Plus plan ($ 18) going to 5 TB.
Microsoft supplies 2-5 TB of drive storage with their enterprise offerings, however mailbox storage can essentially be unlimited through unrestricted archiving starting with the E3 strategy ($ 32).
A grid showing the prices and storage abilities of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Scoring round 1 here, let's call it a draw. At the most affordable level, the two platforms are similar, and Gmail's web app might be worth the additional dollar each month.
As you go up strategies, the Outlook desktop app might swing your choice, as we will go over later. Remember, Microsoft's prices is based on a yearly commitment, while Google does not provide yearly discount rates as of this post.
This post is merely covering the two suites through the scope of their email applications, and these rates cover numerous other functions. If price is your main factor, consider each suite in total prior to deciding.
Alleviate of Use
The biggest distinction in between the two suites total is Microsoft's desktop apps, which are much more feature-packed relative to Google's web apps.
While the functions are not as different in between the e-mail applications, the complete Gmail experience is only accessible through a web internet browser.
With Outlook's desktop app, users get the full Exchange server experience, with the included benefit of having the ability to check out and prepare emails while offline.
For example, if you are on an aircraft, responding to e-mails and working on files you prepare to send later on might be the best usage of your time.
With Outlook, you don't need to await the web to continue working, just to provide your work.
Gmail's interface can't be reached without internet connection unless you initially jump through some hoops.
At the time of this writing, you will need to utilize Google's Chrome web browser, have Gmail bookmarked, and sync your e-mail by means of their offline feature, the dependability of which has actually been arguable throughout the years.
Both have mobile applications, so that issue can be worked around, but reacting to a bevy of work emails on a mobile device can be a battle.
The complete suite of Microsoft Office desktop applications will be a much larger advantage for Microsoft in comparing other apps, however we'll still provide Outlook a minor, but considerable, benefit over Gmail due to reduce of use.
Searchability
As you would expect, the company known for its search engine enables you to discover emails you need more reliably.
Gmail's advantage starts with its categorization utilizing labels. Multiple labels can be used to each email or thread, and subcategories can be developed within labels to produce more of a filing system.
If numerous labels have actually been used to a single e-mail or term, those messages will appear under each label. Labels permit you to auto-filter incoming emails based on hand-chosen criteria.
In Outlook, arranging is restricted to folders, forcing users to classify each email/thread into a particular location.
When it comes to the actual search function, both enable users to search using keywords, along with folders/labels, senders, and date got.
Gmail not just has deeper advanced-search functions, by all accounts, however it is also flat-out more accurate.
This is the first strong win for Gmail, as Outlook's searchability and classification are not as robust.
Security
Microsoft is the leader in this category, and it is not particularly close. Their superior standing is not just huge, however it appears on 2 different fronts.
Google has actually come under fire just recently concerning its handling of individual information, with reports that the business scans user emails. More especially, Google apparently tracks your location, your activity, and even your voice for the function remote access to a network of targeted ads.
Microsoft is much more transparent about their privacy policy and the information they collect.
If your service transmits sensitive or personal information regularly, it most likely goes without stating that you would feel more comfy utilizing Microsoft and Outlook. Even if you aren't sending and receiving personal information, it would take a lot of other advantages to exceed such evident personal privacy concerns.
For managers, Outlook uses even more internal security in the form of permissions. While Outlook's folder company does not present the same searchability as Gmail's labels, it does provide users the ability to permit and prohibit specific actions within folders.
These actions include everything from reading, editing, erasing, and sending out messages to seeing your calendar's particular conferences or spare time.
Functionally, this permits managers to hand over tasks to their subordinates without giving them major access to more crucial information. It likewise stops dissatisfied staff members from potentially taking or erasing info deemed sensitive.
You can entrust account access to others in Gmail, which is essentially like handing over the secrets to your car. You can't designate levels of access, hide personal messages, or even see messages sent by your delegate in your place.
Among, if not the most important category is a runaway win for Outlook. With thorough options and a privacy policy that is much more transparent, Microsoft 365's email platform stands alone.
Calendar
Technically, Google Calendar is not a part of Gmail, though all it requires 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 look at Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, we'll compare Outlook's calendar to Google Calendar here.
Gmail users regreted the platform's combination with other services or customers who utilized Outlook.
Some problems included that updates to standing meetings made from Outlook accounts would not update in Google Calendar, and the inability to push updated details to participants.
Additionally, Google Calendar will automatically attempt to turn all of your video meetings into a Google Meet call. Its default setting will automatically post a Google Meet link into your calendar entry, and that function needs to be disabled by an administrator.
Otherwise, both platforms have included combinations with the other, and by all accounts, they work flawlessly. For all intents and functions, this function is a draw.
Verdict
Like the majority of things, this decision mostly comes down to individual choice. A lot of the distinctions in between Outlook and Gmail have actually advantages based on how your business runs, along with your budget plan.
Eventually, the openness and security of Outlook make it the more powerful offering. If you find yourself arranging through thousands of e-mails a day, nevertheless, Gmail may be the right choice for you.