Outlook vs Gmail: Which Email Platform is the Best for Your Budget plan?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are the dominant productivity suites worldwide of software application as a service (SaaS), both providing a wide variety of applications that modern companies need.
While the functions of a number of these applications are comparable, Microsoft and Google's proprietary offerings each have their own quirks, for better or worse.
In this post, we will take a look at email through Microsoft Outlook and Google's Gmail for Business. Separately, the set are the leading e-mail applications in organization by market share and are pillars of M365 and Workspace, respectively.
Email might seem basic on the surface area, but the distinctions in between Outlook and Gmail reveal that things are more complex than sending and receiving mail.
The operations of each are various, beginning with how they are accessed, and ending with the security and privacy supplied.
Rates
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are priced per month, per user, and have various tiers of rates. As it pertains to the mail accounts themselves, the difference in tiers normally just impacts storage space.
Utilizing Microsoft's Business Basic strategy ($ 5/month/user when billed annually), each user gets 50 GB of e-mail storage area, which is independent of the extra 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.
Remember, the most fundamental level of M365 does not consist of any of Microsoft's desktop applications, including Outlook. Users purchasing this strategy will have to enjoy with the Outlook web app.
Google's Business Basic plan ($ 6), offers just 30 GB of storage overall, combining email storage and drive storage together.
That inconsistency is likely an attempt by Google to upsell users to their premium strategies, with their Standard strategy ($ 12) leaping to 2 TB of drive storage, and the Plus strategy ($ 18) going to 5 TB.
Microsoft provides 2-5 TB of drive storage with their business offerings, but mail box storage can basically be endless through unlimited archiving beginning 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 could be worth the additional dollar per month.
As you go up strategies, the Outlook desktop app could swing your decision, as we will discuss later on. Bear in mind, Microsoft's prices is based on an annual commitment, while Google does not offer yearly discount rates as of this post.
This post is simply covering the two suites through the scope of their email applications, and these costs cover many other features. If rate is your primary aspect, consider each suite in total before making a decision.
Relieve of Use
The most significant distinction in between the 2 suites general 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 accessible through a web internet browser.
With Outlook's desktop app, users get the complete Exchange server experience, with the added advantage of being able to read and draft emails while offline.
If you are on a plane, replying to e-mails and working on documents you plan to send later may be the finest use of your time.
With Outlook, you do not need to await the web to continue working, just to deliver your work.
Gmail's user interface can't be reached without internet connection unless you first jump through some hoops.
At the time of this writing, you will need to use Google's Chrome internet browser, have Gmail bookmarked, and sync your email through their offline feature, the dependability of which has been arguable 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 full 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 small, however considerable, advantage over Gmail due to reduce of usage.
Searchability
As you would expect, the company understood for its search engine enables you to discover emails you require more reliably.
Gmail's benefit begins with its categorization using labels. Numerous labels can be applied to each e-mail or thread, and subcategories can be created within labels to produce more of a filing system.
If several labels have been applied to a single e-mail or term, those messages will appear under each label. In addition, labels permit you to auto-filter incoming emails based upon hand-chosen requirements.
In Outlook, sorting is limited to folders, forcing users to classify each email/thread into a singular location.
When it comes to the actual search function, both allow users to search utilizing keywords, along with folders/labels, senders, and date got.
Gmail not just has deeper advanced-search functions, by all accounts, but it is also flat-out more accurate.
This is the first solid 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 particularly close. Their exceptional standing is not simply huge, but it appears on two different fronts.
Google has actually come under fire recently concerning its handling of personal data, with reports that the company scans user e-mails. More significantly, Google apparently tracks your location, your activity, and even your voice for the function of targeted ads.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is much more transparent about their privacy policy and the data they gather.
If your organization sends delicate or personal information frequently, it probably goes without saying that you would feel more comfy using Microsoft and Outlook. Even if you aren't sending out and getting personal data, it would take a great deal of other benefits to surpass such apparent personal privacy concerns.
For supervisors, Outlook provides a lot more internal security in the kind of approvals. While Outlook's folder company does not provide the same searchability as Gmail's labels, it does give users the capability to enable and prohibit certain actions within folders.
Outlook gives users 10 varying roles to pick from, as well as a custom-made role where the manager can hand-select specific actions one by one.
These actions consist of everything from reading, modifying, erasing, and sending out messages to seeing your calendar's specific conferences or leisure time.
Functionally, this permits supervisors on site it support services to hand over jobs to their subordinates without giving them major access to more important info. It also stops unhappy workers from possibly stealing or deleting details deemed sensitive.
You can hand over account access to others in Gmail, which is basically like handing over the keys to your vehicle. You can't designate levels of gain access to, hide personal messages, and even see messages sent out by your delegate in your place.
Among, if not the most essential classification is a runaway win for Outlook. With extensive alternatives and a personal 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 few clicks through Gmail's menu.
For the sake of taking a broader look at Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, we'll compare Outlook's calendar to Google Calendar here.
Gmail users regreted the platform's integration with other businesses or customers who utilized Outlook.
Some problems consisted of that updates to standing conferences made from Outlook accounts would not update in Google Calendar, and the inability to press updated details to participants.
In Addition, Google Calendar will instantly attempt to turn all of your video conferences into a Google Meet call. Its default setting will instantly publish a Google Meet link into your calendar entry, and that function requires to be disabled by an administrator.
Otherwise, both platforms have actually added integrations with the other, and by all accounts, they work seamlessly. For all intents and purposes, this function is a draw.
Decision
Like many things, this choice largely comes down to personal preference. Many of the distinctions between Outlook and Gmail have actually benefits based upon how your business runs, as well as your spending plan.
Eventually, the transparency and security of Outlook make it the more powerful offering. If you discover yourself arranging through thousands of e-mails a day, however, Gmail might be the right choice for you.