“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan
In today’s swiftly changing digital environment, traditional workplace is being replaced by agile and on-the-go accessible workplace. Powered by digital technologies, sharing and collaborating are the new success factors, yielding high results.
Working together is the new norm and this leads to better work mindset that more and more organizations are adopting these days, instead of letting workers struggle with their tasks alone.
Instant messaging and quick communication mechanisms are the needs of the day. This has led to a rise in the number of business communication tools, giving organizations many choices, not only in terms of professional emails and instant messaging, but also how securely they collaborate with their remote workers, how cost-efficiently they conduct meetings and a lot more.
For most businesses, global is the new office location.
E-mail is a commodity – a myth or a reality
Email is the core of effective business communication, an effective gateway to collaboration and the method through which business relationships are nurtured, both internally and externally.
According to a recent report by Statista, e-mail users worldwide amounted to 3.9 billion users in 2020, which is set to grow to 4.4 billion users in 2024. Below image shows the increase in the number of e-mail users worldwide from 2017 to 2024.
With cloud gaining momentum, multiple cloud email services have come up and have made it easy to access mails anywhere, anytime on the go.
According to Matthew Cain, Research VP at Gartner “The faulty assumption that e-mail is a commodity can lead to a lack of due diligence when assessing cloud-based e-mail services. Understanding the complex nature of e-mail systems will lead to more informed decisions about e-mail provisioning models”.
No one size fit for all. This holds true for business communication as well.
So, it is necessary to first understand all the needs which a single solution can fulfill for a business, like instant messaging, meetings, intra-net, secure cloud-based storage, web-based applications to share and edit documents on the go, calendars, planners, and also the type of email hosting that will suit an organization best.
So, organizations before choosing any communication or email exchange solution, should conduct an investigation of both advantages and disadvantages that will help them choose the best email platform for their business.
The purpose of this article is to extend a helping hand for the same.
Microsoft 365 Vs Google Workspace Vs Zoho Workplace – comparing business communication solutions
There are a variety of cloud-based communication solutions available in the market, but with the emergence of diversified workplace culture, the need for team-based and collaborative, digitally connected work environments become crucial to efficiency and growth of the business.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365, previously known as Microsoft Office 365, is designed to help you achieve more via innovative Office apps and Microsoft’s intelligent cloud services, backed with world-class security.
Microsoft 365 for business comes with innovative communication and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams that allows your teams to chat, call, and host online meetings. It also includes OneDrive cloud storage with advanced security options to help you store and collaborate with ease.
With Microsoft 365, you can:
Be productive anywhere: With tools for real-time calls, chats, and meetings, you can get work done from anywhere you are. Microsoft 365 offers the following productivity and collaboration tools:
- Microsoft Teams – Allows quick and seamless file sharing, calling, hosting online meetings, etc.
- OneDrive Storage – Get 1 (one) TB of OneDrive storage built on cloud, allowing you to access your documents on-the-go.
- Powerful Office apps – Get access to smart and powerful Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint within Microsoft 365.
- Outlook and Exchange – Get smart email and calendaring capabilities with Outlook and Exchange.
Secure your business: Powered by Microsoft’s global security standards, you can safeguard your business data with built-in security features for remote work. Microsoft 365 protects your business data by:
- Defending against cyberthreats – Protect your business against phishing, malware, ransomware, spam, and other cybersecurity threats.
- Providing data protection – It allows you to guard your business information against cybercriminals, accidental deletion, and unauthorized access.
- Remote work security – Protect your company’s data even when it is accessed from your employee’s personal devices.
- Setting up identity and access management – Quickly and easily set up and manage different users and devices. Focus less on management and more on innovation.
A single cost-effective solution: Microsoft 365 acts as a single cost-effective solution with streamlined collaboration tools, IT setup, and optimized costs.
With Microsoft 365, enterprises can introduce digital workplace strategies to improve collaboration and communication and to enable employees to work together effectively, irrespective of location or device. It is responsive to the key trends in the digital workplace: remote work from anywhere with shrinking budgets, bring your own device and enables “do more with less” mentality.
For new features of Microsoft 365, read: https://www.znetlive.com/blog/office-365-icebreaking-features-you-might-not-have-tried-till-now/
With Microsoft 365, enterprises can introduce digital workplace strategies to improve collaboration and communication and to enable employees to work together effectively, irrespective of location or device.
Office 365 is responsive to the key trends in the digital workplace: remote work from anywhere with shrinking budgets, bring your own device and enables “do more with less” mentality.
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)
Google Workspace has been designed to help people transform the way they work via smart business productivity and collaboration tools.
It offers everything you need to get anything done in one place.
It comes loaded with all the productivity apps you already are familiar with – Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and many more. It is one of the best email and productivity solutions in the market that allows its users to create, communicate, and collaborate swiftly and seamlessly.
Google Workspace offers a deeply integrated user experience. It is designed to help teams collaborate more effectively. It also allows businesses to power new digital customer experience and gives more freedom and flexibility to connect to the frontline workers.
Google Workspace includes several tools for enhancing collaboration, teamwork, storage, and security.
- Make faster decisions: With smart and interactive tools like Calendars and Gmail, you can quickly set-up schedules, send meeting invites, connect to a live video conference from any camera-supported device.
- Real-time collaboration: Google Workspace comes with all apps that were available in G-Suite – Doc, Slides, Spreadsheets, etc. Your team can work on a single document at the same time from wherever they are located.
- Cloud storage: It allows you to store all your important work-files and documents virtually at one place with secure access from your phone, tablet, or computer. You can quickly invite others to edit and review the documents, no email attachments required. All file updates are automatically saved in Drive.
- Secure Access: With security features like two-step verification and single-sign-on, you can rest assured of the safety of your data. It allows you to archive email messages and chats and control how long they are stored.
Zoho Workplace
Zoho Workplace is designed to meet the demands of the evolving workspaces. It is built to unify and centralize your team’s workspace. It presents simple file storage and tools for streamlining your team’s communication.
It offers productivity-enhancing apps and features. Some of the apps include Email, File Management, Spreadsheet, Chat, Presentation, Social Intranet, Online Training, Online Meeting, etc.
The Zoho Workplace offers a comprehensive suite of apps that can help you and your team organize work more efficiently and collaborate more easily.
- Office Productivity tools: It allows you to take your office suite wherever you go – whether at home or while travelling. You can access and work on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets on-the-go.
- Team collaboration: With tools like Workdrive, ShowTime, Meeting, you can host meetings, conferences, and webinars. The files and documents can be stored in the cloud, thus making them readily and easily available.
- Unified Communication: The Zoho Workplace provides several business communication tools like Mail, Cliq, and Connect. The Mail app is more than just a simple mailbox. It allows you to tag your colleagues to share emails with them. There are built-in applications for Calendars, Notes, Contacts, and Bookmarks.
- Continuity and convenience: The Zoho Workplace is built on the premise of making routines automated using AI (artificial intelligence). It allows you to get more done with less. Backed with cloud technology, it also supports remote working models.
Google Workspace Vs Microsoft 365 Vs Zoho Workplace – features comparison
| Google Workspace | Microsoft 365 | Zoho Workplace | |
| Available Plans (for business) |
• Business Starter • Business Standard • Business Plus Enterprise |
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic • Microsoft 365 Business Standard • Microsoft 365 Business Premium • Microsoft 365 Apps |
• Standard Plan • Professional • Mail Only Plan |
| Pricing | ₹125 – ₹1260 per month per user (Enterprise Plan’s Pricing Not Available) |
₹95 – ₹1230 per month, per user** | ₹99 – ₹399 per user, per month |
| Cloud Storage | 30 GB – Unlimited | Starts from 50 GB (1.5 TB Email Storage) | 50GB – 100GB |
| Business Email | Gmail | Outlook | Zoho Mail |
| Word Processor | Google Docs | Microsoft Word | Zoho Writer |
| Storage | Google Drive | OneDrive | WorkDrive |
| Spreadsheet | Google Sheets | Microsoft Excel | Zoho Sheet |
| Video conferencing | Google Meet | Microsoft Teams | Zoho Meeting |
| Team Intranet | Currents | SharePoint | Zoho Workdrive |
| Presentations | Google Slides | PowerPoint | Zoho Show |
| Calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Administrative Tools | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browser Versions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile App Versions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop versions | No | Yes | No |
| Advanced Features | • Intranet Building Tools • Email Archiving • E-discovery tools • Advanced Reporting • Data Loss Prevention tools |
• Advanced Virus Protection • Mailbox rights management • Personal and organizational analytics • Cloud-based phone call hosting services |
• SAML-based single sign-on (SSO) • Exclusive security policy for teams • Guest Chat • Zoho Connect – Social Media style Intranet |
| Phone Support | Available 24/7 | Available 24/7 | NA |
| Free Trial | 14-days Free Trial | 1-month Free Trial for all plans | 15-days Free Trial for Professional Plan |
* NA represents Not Available.
** ZNetLive’s offer pricing
Which is best – Google Workspace Vs Microsoft 365 Vs Zoho Workplace?
All the three productivity solutions we discussed are great for small, medium, and large-sized enterprises. Which one to choose highly depends on your requirement.
For example, if you are a team of 10-50 people, Google Workspace and Zoho Workplace might be more suitable considering the budget and features. Here again, if your team needs a high level of collaboration and you work on critical data, a more comprehensive and feature-rich solution like Microsoft 365 will work better.
Microsoft 365 also offers home, enterprise, and education plans.
ZNetLive offers both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace plans. We hope our comparison will help you make an informed decision.
Need help? Talk to one of the cloud experts now to know which solution is best suited for your business.
Do let us know your feedback or queries in the comments section.
This blog was last updated on September 2022.
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