Outlook vs Gmail: Which Email Platform is the Best for Your Budget plan?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are the dominant performance suites in the world of software application as a service (SaaS), both offering a wide variety of applications that contemporary companies require.
In this post, we will look at e-mail through Microsoft Outlook and Google's Gmail for Business. Separately, the set are the leading email applications in service by market share and are pillars of M365 and Workspace, respectively.
Email might appear basic on the surface area, but the distinctions in between Outlook and Gmail show that things are more complicated than sending and receiving mail.
The workings of each are various, beginning with how they are accessed, and ending with the security and privacy provided.
Pricing
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are priced per month, per user, and have various tiers of prices. As it refers to the mail accounts themselves, the difference in tiers generally only impacts storage area.
Using Microsoft's Business Basic strategy ($ 5/month/user when billed every year), each user gets 50 GB of email storage space, which is independent of the extra 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.
Keep in mind, the most basic level of M365 does not include any of Microsoft's desktop applications, including Outlook. Users purchasing this plan will need to more than happy with the Outlook web app.
Google's Business Basic plan ($ 6), offers just 30 GB of storage in general, integrating e-mail storage and drive storage together.
That's right, 60% of the mailbox storage offered Microsoft represent 100% of your total storage on Google's least expensive plan.
That inconsistency is likely an effort by Google to upsell users to their premium strategies, with their Standard strategy ($ 12) jumping 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, however mailbox storage can essentially be endless through unlimited archiving starting with the E3 strategy ($ 32).
A grid showing the rates and storage abilities of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
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 extra dollar each month.
As you move up plans, the Outlook desktop app might swing your decision, as we will talk about later on. Bear in mind, Microsoft's rates is based upon a yearly dedication, while Google does not provide yearly discounts since this post.
This post is merely covering the 2 suites through the scope of their email applications, and these costs cover many other features. If rate is your primary aspect, think about each suite in overall before making a decision.
Alleviate of Use
The most significant distinction between the 2 suites general is Microsoft's desktop apps, which are even more feature-packed relative to Google's web apps.
While the functions are not as different in between the email applications, the full Gmail experience is only accessible through a web browser.
With Outlook's desktop app, users get the complete Exchange server experience, with the added advantage of being able to check out and draft emails while offline.
For example, if you are on an aircraft, responding to e-mails and working on files you plan to send later on may be the very best use of your time.
With Outlook, you don't require to wait on the internet to continue working, just to deliver your work.
Gmail's user 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 use Google's Chrome web browser, have Gmail bookmarked, and sync your email through their offline feature, the reliability of which has actually been arguable over the years.
Both have mobile applications, so that concern can be worked around, but responding to a bevy of work e-mails on a mobile phone can be a struggle.
The full suite of Microsoft Office desktop applications will be a much larger benefit for Microsoft in comparing other apps, but we'll still give Outlook a slight, however considerable, benefit over Gmail due to relieve of use.
Searchability
As you would anticipate, the company understood for its search engine permits you to discover e-mails you require more dependably.
Gmail's advantage starts with its classification utilizing labels. Numerous labels can be applied to each e-mail or thread, and subcategories can be produced within labels to produce more of a filing system.
If numerous labels have been used to a single email or term, those messages will appear under each label. Labels allow you to auto-filter inbound e-mails based on hand-chosen criteria.
In Outlook, sorting is limited to folders, forcing users to categorize each email/thread into a singular place.
When it comes to the actual search function, both allow users to search using keywords, as well as folders/labels, senders, and date received.
Gmail not only has much deeper advanced-search functions, by all accounts, but it is also flat-out more precise.
This is the very first strong win for Gmail, as Outlook's searchability and classification are not as robust.
Security
Microsoft is the leader in this classification, and it is not especially close. Their exceptional standing is not just vast, but it is apparent on 2 different fronts.
Google has actually come under fire recently regarding its handling of individual data, with reports that the business scans user e-mails. More significantly, Google supposedly tracks your location, your activity, and even your voice for the function of targeted ads.
On the other hand, Microsoft is much more transparent about their personal privacy policy and the data they collect.
If your company transmits delicate or individual data routinely, it probably goes without saying that you would feel more comfortable utilizing Microsoft and Outlook. Even if you aren't sending out and getting private data, it would take a lot of other advantages to exceed such evident privacy issues.
For managers, Outlook offers even more internal security in the form of consents. While Outlook's folder company does not present the same searchability as Gmail's labels, it does offer users the ability to allow and prohibit particular actions within folders.
Outlook offers users 10 varying functions to pick from, along with a custom-made function where the manager can hand-select specific actions one by one.
These actions consist of everything from reading, modifying, deleting, and sending messages to seeing your calendar's specific meetings or spare time.
Functionally, this allows supervisors to entrust jobs to their subordinates without providing full-scale access to more vital information. It also stops unhappy workers from potentially taking or deleting info considered delicate.
You can hand over account access to others in Gmail, which is basically like turning over the secrets to your automobile. You can't appoint levels of gain access to, conceal private messages, or perhaps see messages sent by your delegate in your place.
Among, if not the most essential category is a runaway win for Outlook. With comprehensive options and a personal privacy policy that is far more transparent, Microsoft 365's email platform stands alone.
Calendar
Technically, Google Calendar is not a part of Gmail, though all it requires to https://app.gumroad.com/adwordsionline18/p/leveraging-it-solutions-for-manufacturing-the-power-of-it-managed-services-86a42ffd-3512-463e-ad96-3659aeec5e8e sync the 2 is a Workspace account and a few clicks through Gmail's menu.
For the sake of taking a wider look at Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, we'll compare Outlook's calendar to Google Calendar here.
Gmail users lamented the platform's combination with other businesses or customers who used Outlook.
Some grievances included that updates to standing meetings made from Outlook accounts would not upgrade in Google Calendar, and the inability to press upgraded info to individuals.
In Addition, Google Calendar will instantly attempt to turn all of your video conferences into a Google Meet call. Its default setting will automatically post a Google Meet link into your calendar entry, which function requires to be disabled by an administrator.
Otherwise, both platforms have included integrations with the other, and by all accounts, they work flawlessly. For all intents and functions, this function is a draw.
Verdict
Like a lot of things, this decision largely comes down to individual choice. A number of the differences in between Outlook and Gmail have benefits based on how your business runs, in addition to your budget.
Ultimately, the transparency and security of Outlook make it the more powerful offering. If you find yourself sorting through countless e-mails a day, nevertheless, Gmail might be the right alternative for you.