Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both give you professional email on your own domain, the core productivity apps, generous cloud storage, video meetings and chat — all for a per-user monthly fee. You won't go wrong with either. But they have different philosophies, and matching that philosophy to your business is what makes day-to-day work feel effortless rather than fiddly.
The applications
Microsoft 365 is built around the apps most businesses already know — Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint — and crucially gives you the full desktop versions installed locally, alongside web and mobile. For heavy Excel users (and finance, accounting and many corporate teams live in Excel), nothing matches the depth of desktop Office: complex spreadsheets, macros, pivot tables and add-ins all just work.
Google Workspace is browser-first by design. Docs, Sheets and Slides are fast, clean and built from the ground up for real-time collaboration. Two people editing the same document simultaneously has been Google's home turf for years (Microsoft has caught up, but Google still feels the more natural). If your team lives online and your documents aren't doing anything exotic, Workspace is a pleasure to use. Where it bites is at the edges — very large or formula-heavy spreadsheets, and perfect fidelity when exchanging files with the Office-using world outside your business.
Microsoft 365 uses Exchange Online with Outlook — the corporate email standard, with rich calendar and contact management and excellent integration with the rest of Office. Google Workspace uses Gmail's business edition, which most people find quick and intuitive thanks to powerful search and labels. Both are reliable and run on your own domain. This often comes down to what your team is already comfortable with.
Storage
Microsoft pairs OneDrive (personal files) with SharePoint (shared team sites), typically starting around 1 TB per user. Google Workspace uses Google Drive with pooled storage that scales by plan tier — often beginning around 30 GB per user on the entry plan and rising to 2 TB or more on higher tiers. Both handle file sync, sharing and permissions well; the SharePoint model gives more structured control, while Drive is simpler to pick up.
Collaboration: Teams vs Meet
Microsoft Teams has become the hub of the Microsoft experience — chat, video calls, file sharing and app integration in one place. It's powerful and now expected in most corporate settings, though it can feel heavy for very small teams. Google Meet and Chat are lighter and refreshingly simple: Meet is easy to join from a calendar invite with no fuss. If video meetings are a core part of your day and you want deep integration, Teams leads. If you want something that just works without a learning curve, Meet is hard to fault.
Security and compliance
Both suites offer enterprise-grade security: multi-factor authentication, encryption, mobile-device management and admin controls. Microsoft 365 generally goes further on the compliance and governance front — data-loss prevention, retention policies, eDiscovery, advanced threat protection and detailed audit logs — which matters for healthcare, finance and any business with regulatory obligations under Australian privacy law. Google Workspace has strong, capable security too, and its admin console is clean and approachable. For businesses with serious compliance requirements, Microsoft's deeper tooling is often the deciding factor.
Pricing
Both are sold per user per month (cheaper if you commit annually). Speaking generally, entry business plans for either suite sit in the rough vicinity of $10–$15 per user/month, standard/business plans around $18–$25, and premium tiers (with advanced security and device management) higher again. Microsoft also offers a low-cost "Basic" tier with web-and-mobile apps only (no installed desktop Office), which suits lighter users.
Treat these as indicative AUD ballparks — pricing changes and depends on the exact plan and commitment. The headline rate is rarely the real difference; the value is in which tier gives your team the apps, storage and security it actually needs without paying for features it won't touch.
Which suits which business?
- Lean toward Microsoft 365 if your team relies on heavy Excel or Word work, you have compliance obligations (healthcare, finance, legal), you exchange a lot of Office files with clients, or you want Teams as your collaboration hub.
- Lean toward Google Workspace if your team is browser-native, prizes simplicity and real-time collaboration, your documents are straightforward, and you want minimal administration overhead.
Migration considerations
Switching suites — or moving off an old on-premises mail server — is very doable, but it's a project, not a flick of a switch. Plan for: migrating email, calendars and contacts without losing history; moving files and re-establishing permissions; reconnecting any line-of-business apps that hook into email or documents; retraining staff on new tools; and getting domain, DNS and security settings right so nothing breaks mid-cutover. Done properly, a migration is invisible to your customers and barely felt by your team. Done hastily, it's the stuff of horror stories.
Our take
Commit-IT sets up, secures and supports both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and we'll genuinely recommend whichever fits how you work — we don't have a dog in the fight. That said, in practice most Sydney small and medium businesses land on Microsoft 365. The combination of familiar desktop apps, Teams, deep security and compliance tooling, and the fact that so many clients and suppliers are already in the Microsoft world tends to tip the balance — especially for our healthcare, finance and professional-services clients.
If you're weighing up the two, or planning a move, we're happy to look at how your team works and point you to the right fit — no obligation.