Outlook vs. Gmail

When it comes to an office productivity suite, it is often Microsoft Outlook or Gmail comes to mind. Why? Because although there may be many alternatives within the market, these two suites remain the best software tools for Businesses of all sizes.

Selecting an office suite can be a difficult decision. It ultimately depends on the need of your individual business- price, storage and ease of use. Both offer similar functionality- like word processing, file storage and spreadsheet applications- but also differ in many ways.

This blog will give an unbiased comparison overview to evaluate the capabilities, limitations and overall business impact.

Let’s have a quick look at the individual suites:

Outlook

Microsoft is the industry leading mail server. It’s the most robust and works with the most clients. It is also available from many suppliers and offers you the most control and flexibility
Exchange offers up to 1TB storage on mailbox and users can send up to 150 MB in size. It integrates with Outlook, even when using the web-based version. Works on both iPhone and Android.

Google Gmail

Gmail is the perfect web environment messaging platform. It’s ideal for business who know exactly what they want, or who are happy working entirely in a browser. Gmail is a part of Google Apps for Business suite. From a single Gmail account, the user can access all other Google products such as Google Drive, Docs, and sheets.

The Debate

Some may argue that the Google apps provide a better user experience in terms of online collaboration because they were purpose-built for the Web. However, Gmail’s inbox storage is smaller than that of Office 365 (30 GB) so that could be an issue for some companies, although the subscription-based Google Apps for Work offers unlimited storage. Also, most employees are more familiar with the Office suite of apps and many other business applications have integration points with Office.

In most cases, Office provides a lot more functionality compared to Gmail in terms of user experience, messaging, calendar and contact options.

If you need some expert assistance determining which is best for you, we provide both services at a discounted rate, so we can advice you on what we think would be best for your business.

Just contact Lucidica for a consultation!

 

Lucidica is the IT support team for London businesses