Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for a small business?

If your business still uses a free Gmail or Yahoo address, or a mix of personal accounts, moving to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace is one of the best upgrades you can make. Both are good. The right one depends mostly on how your team already works.

What both give you

• E-mail on your own domain ([email protected])
• Shared calendars and contacts
• File storage and sharing in the cloud
• Video meetings
• Accounts you control: when someone leaves, their e-mail and files stay with the business
• Two-step sign-in and other security settings for the whole team

Choose Microsoft 365 if

• Your team lives in Word, Excel and Outlook, or swaps those files with customers and suppliers
• You want the full desktop versions of the Office apps (included in many of its plans)
• Your accountant or industry software expects Microsoft files

Choose Google Workspace if

• Your team already likes Gmail and works mostly in a web browser
• You want simple sharing and editing the same document together
• Your team uses Chromebooks or Android phones

Things to check before you buy

• Which plan includes what you need (desktop apps, storage, archiving): plans and prices change, so compare on Microsoft's and Google's own pages
• Who will be the administrator, and a second person who can manage it too
• What happens to your old e-mail: it can usually be moved across

Moving over

Moving involves pointing your domain's e-mail records to the new service, creating everyone's accounts, and copying old mail, contacts and calendars across, ideally over a weekend so nobody misses a message.

We help small businesses choose, set it up, move the old mail across and get everyone's phones and computers connected.

More tips

• How to spot a scam e-mail in 30 seconds
• Is your backup actually working?
• Wi-Fi keeps dropping? Try this first
• What to do if your e-mail or an account gets hacked
• All tips