Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace for small business: an honest comparison

Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace is the question we get from almost every new business we talk to, and from a fair number of existing ones who are wondering if the grass is greener. The short answer: on price, it is close to a wash. On what you get for the money, and on what your team already knows, it is not.

We support both platforms and run migrations in both directions, so we have no reason to push you one way. Below is how the two compare as of October 2026, with prices taken from each vendor’s own pages, worked monthly costs at 10 and 25 users, and a straight verdict for four common kinds of business.

The plans and the prices, side by side

Both vendors cap their business plans at 300 users. Above that you are into Microsoft’s Enterprise plans or Google’s Enterprise editions, which are a different conversation.

Prices below are US list, per user per month, on an annual commitment. Microsoft’s come from its business plan comparison page and Google’s from its Business edition pricing update. What you pay through a reseller or CSP partner can differ a little.

Look at the price columns again. $7, $14, $22 on both sides, and $16.80 and $26.40 month-to-month on both sides. The two vendors have priced themselves into a mirror image. Microsoft got there with its July 2026 increase, which we broke down in the Microsoft 365 price increase 2026 post.

So the question is never really which is cheaper. It is which box has the things you would otherwise have to buy separately.

Monthly vs annual commitment

Both vendors charge a premium of roughly 20% for month-to-month. Microsoft lists Business Standard at $14.00 paid yearly or $16.80 on a monthly subscription. Google lists Business Starter at $7 on an Annual/Fixed-Term Plan or $8.40 on its Flexible Plan, and the same ratio holds up the line.

Run month-to-month for the first few months of a new tenant or migration, while headcount settles, then commit annually. A 25-person company on Premium pays $1,320 a year extra for staying flexible forever.

AI is bundled differently

Google now includes Gemini in its Business plans, though Business Starter only gets it in Gmail and Vids. Microsoft includes Copilot Chat in every business plan, but the full Microsoft 365 Copilot that works inside your Word documents and Teams meetings is a paid upgrade: Business Standard with Copilot lists at $23.50 and Business Premium with Copilot at $32.00, both annual. If AI inside the apps matters to you, Google gives you more of it for the base price today.

Where the two actually differ

Desktop apps

This is the biggest practical difference and the one owners underrate. Google Workspace has no desktop Office. Docs, Sheets and Slides run in a browser, and they handle Word and Excel files well enough for light use. They do not handle a 40-tab Excel model with Power Query, pivot tables off external data, and a few VBA macros. Neither does Excel for the web, which is why Microsoft 365 Business Basic is the wrong plan for an accounting team.

If even three people in your office need desktop Excel, you either run Microsoft 365 or you pay Google plus Microsoft 365 Apps for business ($10.00 a user annual) for those three. That hybrid works, but it means two vendors, two bills and two places files can live.

For the Microsoft side, installing the desktop apps is a five-minute job per machine; our guide on how to install Microsoft 365 on a new PC covers it.

Security and device management

At $22 a user, Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Intune Plan 1 for managing laptops and phones, Microsoft Defender for Business for endpoint protection, Defender for Office 365 for email, Entra ID conditional access, and Purview data loss prevention. That is most of a small business security stack in one license.

At the same $22, Google Workspace Business Plus includes advanced endpoint management (including Windows device management), Vault, and stronger data protection controls. It does not include antivirus or endpoint detection for your Windows PCs. A Google shop running Windows laptops still needs a separate endpoint security product, priced per device, and someone to run it. Price that in before you call the two plans equal.

On Business Standard ($14) on either side, device management is basic. You can enforce a passcode and wipe a lost phone. You are not managing a fleet of laptops from it.

Archiving and eDiscovery: Purview vs Vault

If you might ever get a litigation hold letter or a regulator asking for mail from 2023, this matters.

On Google, retention, legal hold and eDiscovery come from Vault, and per Google’s Vault licensing page Vault is included in Business Plus and the Enterprise editions. Business Starter and Business Standard do not include it.

On Microsoft, retention and search come through Purview. Litigation hold on a mailbox requires an Exchange Online Plan 2 license or Exchange Online Archiving on top of Plan 1. Business Premium includes archiving (the 1.5 TB archive in the table above); Basic and Standard do not, so on those plans you buy the add-on per user or you move up.

Vault is simpler to learn. Purview goes deeper, which helps when you have to produce a defensible export for opposing counsel.

HIPAA business associate agreements

Both vendors will sign a BAA, which is the starting point for using a platform with patient data.

Microsoft makes its BAA available by default through the Online Services Data Protection Addendum to customers who are covered entities or business associates, according to Microsoft’s HIPAA compliance page. Google requires a super administrator to review and accept the BAA in the Admin console under Account settings, Legal and compliance, and says plainly that customers without one must not put PHI in Workspace. See Google’s HIPAA page.

A signed BAA does not make you compliant. It covers the vendor’s side. Your side is MFA, device control, audit logs, access reviews and retention, which is why the plan tier matters more than the vendor for a medical practice.

Worked monthly costs at 10 and 25 users

Assumptions: US list prices, annual commitment, every user on the same plan, no add-ons unless stated. Taxes and reseller pricing not included.

Month-to-month on the Premium or Business Plus rows: $264 for 10 users, $660 for 25.

The line that changes the math is the one that is not in either table. The Google Business Plus row does not include endpoint protection for your PCs. The Microsoft Business Premium row does. If you are comparing a $22 Google plan against a $22 Microsoft plan and you run Windows laptops, add your endpoint security cost to the Google side before deciding.

Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace by business type

The 10-person professional office that lives in Word and Excel

Accountants, insurance brokers, property managers, engineering firms. Clients send .docx and .xlsx, your templates are Word templates, and somebody has a spreadsheet that runs the business.

Verdict: Microsoft 365 Business Standard at minimum, Business Premium if you can stretch. Moving this office to Google means retraining people on Sheets and then watching them export back to Excel anyway. You are paying for a migration to end up running two suites.

The law or finance firm with compliance requirements

Retention rules, legal holds, client confidentiality obligations, a cyber insurance questionnaire that asks about MFA and endpoint detection.

Verdict: Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Archiving, litigation hold, conditional access, Intune and Defender all land in one license, and most practice management and document management software for law and finance assumes Outlook and Word. Google Business Plus with Vault can satisfy retention, but you will be bolting endpoint security on separately and fighting your practice software’s Outlook plugin.

The creative or startup team that works in Docs

Agencies, studios, early-stage companies. Everybody works in Docs and Sheets at the same time, files are shared by link, half the team is on Macs, and nobody has opened desktop Word in a year.

Verdict: stay on Google Workspace Business Standard. Do not let anyone talk you into a Microsoft migration because it is what “real companies” use. Real-time collaboration in Docs is still smoother, the 2 TB pooled storage is generous, and Gemini is included. Move up to Business Plus when you need Vault or start managing a real fleet of company laptops.

The healthcare practice

A medical, dental or therapy practice with an EHR, patient email, scanned documents and front-desk PCs.

Verdict: either works, but only at the right tier. On Microsoft that means Business Premium, for Intune, Defender and archiving. On Google that means Business Plus for Vault and advanced endpoint management, plus separate endpoint protection. Check what your EHR integrates with first; that often decides it. Our healthcare IT page covers the rest of the HIPAA picture.

Pick Microsoft 365 if

• More than a couple of people need desktop Excel, Word mail merge or Outlook-dependent software.
• You want security, device management and archiving in one license from one vendor.
• Your clients, lenders or insurers send and expect Office files with tracked changes.
• You use Teams for phones or meetings, or plan to.

Pick Google Workspace if

• Your team already collaborates in Docs and Sheets and nobody is asking for desktop Office.
• You are mostly on Macs and Chromebooks with light endpoint needs.
• Storage is a concern: 2 TB pooled per user on Business Standard beats 1 TB on Microsoft’s equivalent.
• You want AI in the apps without a paid add-on.

What switching actually costs

The license price is the smallest part of a switch. Here is what the real bill is made of, in the order it usually surprises people.

Migration effort. Mail, calendars and contacts move cleanly with the right tools in either direction. Files are the slow part. Google Drive and Shared Drives map to OneDrive and SharePoint (or the reverse), sharing permissions have to be rebuilt, and link-shared files lose their links. For a 25-user office, plan on weeks, not a weekend. Our Microsoft 365 migration guide walks through the phases.

File formats. Native Google Docs, Sheets and Slides convert to Office formats on the way out, and simple documents survive fine. Sheets that use Apps Script, QUERY, IMPORTRANGE or GOOGLEFINANCE break. Going the other way, Excel files with VBA macros, Power Query or external data connections do not run in Sheets. Inventory the spreadsheets that run the business before you move anything.

Retraining. People lose a week of speed in any suite change. Power users hurt most, usually the office manager and the bookkeeper. Budget time for them specifically.

Mobile device re-enrolment. Every phone and laptop gets re-pointed. Company devices enrolled in Google endpoint management have to be enrolled in Intune instead (or the reverse), which for some company-owned devices means a reset. Personal phones need the old account removed and the new one added. Expect every user to need a few minutes of help.

Everything that signs in with the old account. “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Microsoft” on your CRM, accounting software, scanners that email PDFs, and calendar booking links. Each one has to be found and re-pointed. Missing one is how a copier stops scanning to email the Monday after cutover.

Overlap. You pay for both platforms for at least a month. Do not cancel the old one until the last file is verified.

Our cloud services team runs these moves in both directions. Most of the time, though, the honest answer is to stay where you are and fix the plan tier. If the current platform is working, have a concrete reason before you pay for a switch.

Prices and plan details in this article were verified against Microsoft’s and Google’s own pricing, licensing and compliance pages as of October 2026. They are US list prices; check your own invoice or admin console for what applies to you.

If you are weighing Microsoft 365 against Google Workspace, or wondering whether a switch is worth it, get in touch and we will look at your plans, your files and your devices and give you a straight answer, including “stay put” if that is the right one.