Google Office vs Microsoft Online: Deciding on the best one for you

With almost everything moved to ‘online’ it’s not surprising that our favourite productivity tools are there as well. Of course, that now means that we have a choice between programs. It’s time to answer that “age old question” (from 2006 🤣) Google Office vs MS Office.

For me comparing Google Office to the full Microsoft Office (inc desktop apps) – Microsoft will win out, simply because it’s got more features.

To be fair, let’s focus on comparing online to online, so that’s Google Suite to Microsoft Office Online.

Price

Let’s start with the rather ‘large elephant in the room’…

Everyone knows that Google Docs is free, which is one of the reasons that it’s so popular.

Microsoft 365 is a paid subscription – making it the more expensive to the two.

However, when you create a free Microsoft Account, it comes with storage space in OneDrive and the Office Online Suite, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote as well as email with Outlook on the Web.

That means that in terms of price – Microsoft Online matches Google Office.

Applications

So we’ve got free versions of the office suite from Microsoft and Google.

There’s got to be a big difference between the programs that’s available in the suites?

Let’s take a look:

Program Type	Google	Microsoft
Storage	Drive	OneDrive
Word Processor	Docs	Word Online
Spreadsheet	Sheets	Excel Online
Presentation	Slides	PowerPoint Online
Electronic Notes	Keep	OneNote Online
Meeting	Meet	MS Teams
Form	Forms	Forms
Whiteboard	Jamboard	Whiteboard
Email/Calendar/Contacts	Gmail Calendar Contacts	Outlook Online

So far they are evenly matched.

However, when you look at the list in Google’s suite, there’s a lot more applications, as you take a closer look, they aren’t specific to having a Google Account.

For example:

Search – that’s referring to the search that we all know and use everyday
Maps – again this is Google Maps that everyone can use
YouTube – one of the most popular video sites

Based on the table – there isn’t really a difference between the number or type of programs that you can use between Google and Microsoft.

If you want a deeper comparison between the applications of M365 and Google take a look here: Matching Microsoft and Google Applications

Interface

This is one place that Google and Microsoft are completely different.

Google Workspace

Here, Google is using the classic option of menus that expand down with all of the available commands. With the key or most popular on the toolbar for quick access.

Google uses the 'classic' menus and toolbars for the commands. google vs ms office — Google Docs – Menus and Toolbar

Microsoft Office Online

Sticking with their decision back in 2007, Microsoft’s Office Online uses a version of the Ribbon interface.

The Ribbon splits out the options from a drop-down list, and includes most of them as icons on screen.

Microsoft is using the Ribbon tabs and icons, with a new simplified view. office online vs google — Word Online – Simplified Ribbon

Matching it’s desktop counterpart, the ‘new’ simplified ribbon is the standard view, which displays less options on screen, sticking to the ‘most popular ones’. The three dots at the end of the line includes the extra commands.

Note: You can switch it back to the classic ribbon to see all of the available commands. This is my preference 😃.

What do you prefer?

At the end of the day, it’s up to you what you prefer.

Which one are you most comfortable using?

Menu or Ribbon – which means that you can quickly and easily find the options that you need.

Navigating between Applications

Once you’re in the productivity (or office) suite, how easy is it to move between the applications?

Google

Looking at the pages, it seems to change, depending on where you are.

Drive – You can easily create or open files from any of the program (Docs, Sheets, Slides etc).

With a File Open – I can’t see an easy way to go from a Docs files straight to Sheets for example.

From the Program Home Screen – however, if you are on the main or home screen of one of the apps (e.g. Docs), then you can click on the menu option (the lines in the top left corner) to quickly and easily move to another program, including Drive.

So, it feels a bit ‘hit and miss’, depending on what part of the suite you are looking at/working in.

Microsoft

Across every web page in the Office Online or Microsoft Portal is the App Launcher.

It’s the 9 dots icon, in the top left corner, and let’s you move between the available programs.

To see more, take a look at the video on my YouTube Channel: How to quickly launch Office apps using the App Launcher

Your Preference

As with the navigation, it does depend on what you are used to working with.

I find the App Launcher in Microsoft gives me the ability to open and move between the different programs quickly and easily. Whereas, with Google, I need to be in the right location (Drive or the Program Home Screen) to have the same option available.

Next Steps

Overall, when you compare Google office vs Microsoft office, there isn’t really that much difference between them.

The biggest difference (across all the apps) is the navigation Ribbon or Menus – and that’s personal preference plus what you’re used to.

For me – I didn’t like the ribbon when it came out, but as of writing, that’s now 16 years (😲) ago. I’ve become used to using it. However, me being me, I’ve found it a bit slower, but easy enough to go back to a menu format.

Perhaps looking at each of the main productivity programs in turn will help…

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Google Office vs Microsoft Online: Deciding on the best one for you

Price

Applications