Outlook vs Gmail: Which Email Platform is the very best for Your Budget plan?
While the functions of many of these applications are similar, Microsoft and Google's exclusive offerings each have their own peculiarities, for much better or even worse.
In this post, we will look at e-mail through Microsoft Outlook and Google's Gmail for Business. Independently, the pair are the leading e-mail applications in business by market share and are pillars of M365 and Workspace, respectively.
Email may appear basic on the surface, but the differences between Outlook and Gmail show that things are more complex than sending and getting mail.
The operations of each are different, starting with how they are accessed, and ending with the security and privacy offered.
Prices
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are priced monthly, per user, and have various tiers of rates. As it refers 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 yearly), each user gets 50 GB of email storage space, which is independent of the extra 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive.
Google's Business Basic plan ($ 6), provides simply 30 GB of storage in general, combining email storage and drive storage together.
That's right, 60% of the mailbox storage offered Microsoft accounts for 100% of your total storage on Google's least expensive plan.
That discrepancy is likely an attempt by Google to upsell users to their premium plans, with their Standard strategy ($ 12) jumping to 2 TB of drive storage, and the Plus strategy ($ 18) going to 5 TB.
Microsoft offers 2-5 TB of drive storage with their enterprise offerings, but mailbox storage can essentially be unlimited through endless archiving beginning with the E3 plan ($ 32).
A grid revealing the rates and storage abilities of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace
Scoring round 1 here, let's call it a draw. At the least expensive level, the two platforms are similar, and Gmail's web app might be worth the extra dollar per month.
As you move up strategies, the Outlook desktop app might swing your decision, as we will go over later on. Keep in mind, Microsoft's pricing is based upon a yearly commitment, while Google does not use annual discounts since this post.
This post is simply covering the 2 suites through the scope of their e-mail applications, and these prices cover lots of other features. If price is your main factor, think about each suite in overall before making a decision.
Relieve of Use
The most significant distinction in between the 2 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 between the email applications, the complete Gmail experience is just accessible through a web browser.
With Outlook's desktop app, users get the full Exchange server experience, with the included advantage of being able to read and prepare emails while offline.
If you are on a plane, responding to emails and working on documents you prepare to send later on might be the best use of your time.
With Outlook, you don't require to wait on the web to continue working, only to provide your work.
Gmail's user interface can't be reached without internet connectivity unless you first leap through some hoops.
At the time of this writing, you will require to utilize Google's Chrome web browser, have Gmail bookmarked, and sync your e-mail via their offline function, the dependability of which has been debatable throughout the years.
Both have mobile applications, so that concern can be worked around, but responding 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 bigger benefit for Microsoft in comparing other apps, however we'll still offer Outlook a minor, however significant, benefit over Gmail due to relieve of usage.
Searchability
As you would expect, the company understood for its online search engine permits you to discover e-mails you need more reliably.
Gmail's benefit starts with its classification utilizing labels. Multiple 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 actually been applied to a single e-mail or term, those messages will appear under each label. Labels permit you to auto-filter inbound e-mails based on hand-chosen requirements.
In Outlook, sorting is restricted to folders, forcing users to categorize each email/thread into a singular place.
As for the real search function, both permit users to search using keywords, in addition to folders/labels, senders, and date received.
Gmail not just has deeper advanced-search functions, by all accounts, but it is likewise flat-out more accurate.
This is the very first solid win for Gmail, as Outlook's searchability and categorization are not as robust.
Security
Microsoft is the leader in this category, and it is not especially close. Their exceptional standing is not simply huge, but it is apparent on two different fronts.
Google has come under fire recently concerning its handling of personal data, with reports that the business scans user e-mails. More significantly, Google reportedly tracks your area, your activity, and even your voice for the function of targeted advertisements.
Microsoft is much more transparent about their personal privacy policy and the data they collect.
If your organization sends delicate or personal information regularly, it most likely goes without saying that you would feel more comfy using Microsoft and Outlook. Even if you aren't sending out and receiving personal information, it would take a lot of other benefits to outweigh such evident personal privacy concerns.
For managers, Outlook offers much more internal security in the type of authorizations. While Outlook's folder company does not provide the same searchability as Gmail's labels, it does offer users the ability to enable and prohibit specific it managed services actions within folders.
Outlook gives users 10 differing roles to select from, in addition to a custom-made function where the manager can hand-select particular actions one by one.
These actions include everything from reading, modifying, erasing, and sending out messages to seeing your calendar's specific meetings or leisure time.
Functionally, this allows managers to delegate jobs to their subordinates without giving them full-blown access to more important info. It likewise stops dissatisfied workers from potentially taking or deleting information deemed sensitive.
You can delegate account access to others in Gmail, which is basically like turning over the secrets to your car. You can't assign levels of gain access to, conceal personal messages, or even see messages sent by your delegate in your place.
One of, if not the most crucial classification is a runaway win for Outlook. With thorough 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 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 companies or clients who used Outlook.
Some problems included that updates to standing conferences made from Outlook accounts would not upgrade in Google Calendar, and the failure to push upgraded information to individuals.
Additionally, Google Calendar will immediately try to turn all of your video meetings into a Google Meet call. Its default setting will immediately post 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 flawlessly. For all intents and functions, this function is a draw.
Decision
Like most things, this decision mainly comes down to individual preference. A number of the differences between Outlook and Gmail have actually benefits based upon how your company operates, 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, however, Gmail might be the right option for you.