Outlook vs. Gmail | Which is better for business

Updated On - March 10, 2023 by Nasir Khan | Reading Time: 3 minutes

Numerous services compete to be the best business email and calendaring apps, but Microsoft Outlook and Google Gmail stand head and shoulders above the rest. Both Microsoft’s Outlook and Google’s Gmail, which debuted in 1997 and 2004, respectively, have dominated the business email industry. How can you decide which of these two highly regarded services is best for your company?

To assist you in deciding, we compared Outlook and Gmail for business use.

Outlook versus Gmail

Gartner reports that 13% of publicly traded organizations use either Outlook or Gmail for official business correspondence. If not, then what about the rest? The other 87% of email users either rely on a combination of Outlook and Gmail or else make use of an on-premise, hybrid, hosted, or private cloud email solution.

Companies can rejoice in the Outlook vs. Gmail competition because it means that both Microsoft and Google will devote significant resources to making their respective products more appealing to consumers.

Cost

Both individual and business customers can use Outlook and Gmail without cost. However, things change when merely emailing isn’t sufficient. In order to create a fair comparison of Outlook vs. Gmail for businesses, we need to look at the pricing of Microsoft Office 365 and Google’s G Suite.

Office 365 Business Essentials, the most basic membership package, costs $5 per user per month and provides access to business email and other services across desktop, laptop, and mobile devices. This package does not include Microsoft Office software. Office 365 Business is the next tier up and costs $8.25 per user per month for access to all of the Office apps and cloud file storage and sharing across Windows, macOS, and mobile devices. Not even corporate email is covered.

Finally, for $12.50 per user per month, Office 365 Business Premium combines everything you’d get with the first two subscription levels into one convenient package: access to business email, Office apps, and other business services across PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

G Suite has the same per-user monthly cost as Office 365, at $5. In addition to basic features like business Gmail email, video and phone conferencing, encrypted team messaging, shared calendars, Google Docs, and a certain amount of cloud storage, the cheapest package is named Basic. The Business plan, which costs $10 per user per month, is recommended for businesses that need limitless storage and archiving. In addition, an Enterprise package available for $25/month per user provides access to even more powerful features and settings.

Storage

Microsoft’s storage options are extremely generous, including email hosting with a 50 GB mailbox and a bespoke email domain name and file storage and sharing with 1 TB of OneDrive space. For that reason, Google has recently revised its two most expensive G Suite subscriptions to include unlimited cloud storage (or 1 TB per user if fewer than 5 users). When comparing Outlook vs. Gmail for professional use, this section ends in a draw.

Security

The security of business email is a major worry; therefore, let’s compare and contrast two popular services: Gmail and Outlook. Good news: both Google and Microsoft now offer two-factor authentication.

Google’s Authenticator app uses the Time-based One-time Password Algorithm and the HMAC-based One-time Password Algorithm to create two-step verification services. Microsoft Authenticator is a program that adds a layer of protection to your existing PIN or fingerprint authentication. Both programs are quite effective at preventing email accounts from being compromised.

Both Google and Microsoft utilize sophisticated spam filters that successfully block unwanted messages like spam and phishing emails and identify files that could be harmful. It is well-known that Microsoft’s spam filter occasionally fails, leading to the simultaneous banning of legitimate and spam emails. The inconvenience is minor compared to the benefits of not worrying.

When comparing Outlook with Gmail, the privacy policies of the former appear more transparent and considerate. Why? Because advertising is how Google generates money, and email analysis helps it target ads more precisely, which is why.

Features

In addition to email, both Outlook and Gmail include online storage and an office suite. The bundled Office software in Outlook is very familiar to the vast majority of computer users. Since their inception, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have set the standard for office productivity software.

But that didn’t stop Google from trying, and so the Google Docs online office suite was born. It has a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation program called Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Google’s office suite will satisfy the vast majority of customers, but hardcore users will likely insist on sticking with Microsoft Office.

Who wins?

The outcome of this Outlook vs. Gmail comparison is very clear: both are excellent web services that can aid businesses of any size in becoming market leaders. Most businesses use a combination of Gmail and Outlook since the decision comes down to individual tastes.

No matter which email service you end up using after reading our Outlook vs. Gmail comparison, you can use this automated Email Backup tool to backup Cloud emails, webmail emails, Cpanel emails, and personal emails.