Google for Work...

In Summary	Google Apps provides businesses with a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s not as elegant or complex, but is sufficient for users who only need to do basic work with the software.	Microsoft Office is still the standard for productivity suites. It is more expensive and all the features may not be used by most small businesses, but for those that need the capabilities it’s the best option.
Pros	Plans are cheaper and don’t have a maximum user count, so if your business grows you don’t have to change plans	Microsoft Office has been the standard for a long time—almost everyone in the business world is familiar with it and knows how to use it.
Cons	The products that come with Google Apps, like the word processor and spreadsheet, can do considerably less than their Microsoft Office counterparts and could be frustrating for users who are accustomed to Office. Because Google Apps operates exclusively in the cloud, any downtime could affect productivity.	There are a lot of features that come with the Office software—to the point that it could be overwhelming and/or result in many unused features. Many people (especially younger ones) use Google Apps for personal use and are more familiar with it.
Best for	Businesses that only need the basic applications and don’t want to pay more for unused features. Better for smaller companies that only need to do basic work with it, and growing companies that don’t want to worry about a max number of users	Businesses that need and are willing to pay more for the features and familiarity of Microsoft Office, generally larger enterprises or companies that need the advanced features of Excel in particular.
Privacy	Google scans your mail and files to collect data and give you relevant ads	Microsoft does not scan emails or documents for anything other than to protect against malware
Security compliance	FISMA (for use in government), HIPAA (for use in healthcare—not by default but available), ISO 27001 and SSAE 16 (both third-party audits)	FISMA, HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27001, EU’s Data Protection Directive (regulates processing of personal data)
Compatibility with the other	Microsoft files can be uploaded to Google Drive, but since a lot of features found in Office aren’t available in Google Apps, formatting is often not preserved well. Google Apps Sync allows you to use Outlook for your Google mail, calendar, and contacts.	Google drive files can be downloaded as PDFs or in the format of whatever word processor you have on your machine, so if you want to edit them in Office it’s easy to do so.
Mobile/tablet apps	Drive, Docs, and Sheets apps for iOS and Android	Microsoft Office Mobile for Android and iOS
How much?	$50 user/year (or $5 user/month) or $120 user/year to add Vault	Small/midsize business plans range from $60 to $180 user/year
Payment plans	Flexible: you pay monthly for the service that you used during the previous month. Annual: you still pay monthly, but you are committing to the entire year and receive a discounted rate.	Monthly: pay 1/12 of the total plan cost each month Annual: pay whole annual cost at once at a discounted rate
Free trial?	30 day free trial for lower plan	30 day free trial for higher two plans
Offline usage	Docs, Sheets, and Slides can be enabled for offline use in chrome and there is an add-on for chrome to enable offline Gmail usage	Offline editing is supported for all Office Web Apps, and the higher two plans of Office 365 include the desktop versions that can always be accessed offline
File storage	Google Drive—30 GB per user	OneDrive—25 GB per user
Adding users	Users can be added at any time	Users can be added at any time as long as you don’t exceed the user limit for your plan
What happens if you cancel?	Data is deleted upon cancelation. If you’re on the flexible plan, you only pay for up until you cancel. On the annual plan, you are responsible for the cost of the entire year and will be billed the remaining amount.	Once you cancel, your administrator will have access to any data for 90 days. If you’re on a monthly payment plan, then you’re done paying. On an annual payment plan, you’ve already paid for the year and will not receive a refund.
Support	24/7 phone and email	Web and 24/7 phone
Options	Google Apps for Business: business email, video and voice calls, online calendars, 30GB of storage, online text documents, spreadsheets, and slides, project sites, security and admin controls Google Apps for Business with Vault: archiving, email retention in case of employee departure, protection from data loss, administrator-restricted search, control over data retention, legal holds, web-based data management	Office 365 Small Business: business email, file storage and sharing, video conferencing, website, online calendars, data security and spam filtering, online and mobile versions of Microsoft Office (up to 25 users) Office 365 Small Business Premium: Full desktop versions of Microsoft Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs per user, plus Office for tablets Office 365 Midsize Business: directory integration (and up to 300 users)
Two-step verification?	Yes	Yes
Does mac vs pc matter?	Nope! Since the only thing you’re downloading to your computer is Google Drive to sync files, it doesn’t matter if you use a Mac or a PC.	Yes, if you have a plan that includes desktop software—some applications, such as Access and Publisher, are only available on PCs and others, like Lync and OneNote, need to be downloaded separately. For full info, go to Microsoft’s website.
Home/personal versions	Every Google account comes with access to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.	Microsoft accounts have free access to OneDrive and Office Web Apps. In addition, there is Office 365 Home, a subscription based plan that includes desktop applications for up to 5 PCs or Macs and 5 tablets, and Office 365 University, a four year subscription that includes desktop applications for 2 devices.

Google Apps Review

Google Apps is Google’s approach to the office suite, relatively simple and inexpensive, getting the job done without all the bells and whistles. It’s totally online—all the applications are web based and your files are all stored in the cloud. Everything is saved automatically as you work, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally losing all of your changes. Since everything is stored in the cloud, you can access your files from work, your laptop, your phone, someone else’ computer, or anywhere you have internet access.

What Products Are Included?

Google Apps for Business includes the following products, all online:

• Gmail (email)
• Hangouts (video chatting/instant messaging)
• Calendar
• Drive (cloud storage)
• Docs (word processor)
• Sheets (spreadsheets)
• Slides (presentations)
• Sites (website building)
• Admin (administrative tools)

Google Apps for Business with Vault also includes Vault, for archiving.

Pricing

With Google Apps, you pay monthly, either for the services used during the month or 1/12 of your annual cost, depending on your payment plan. You have two options: Google Apps for Business and Google Apps for Business with Vault, the difference between them being $5 per user/month and of course access to Vault, which gives companies the ability to archive and search emails and chats.