Back in the day, it was all about Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, Word Perfect, Star Office and a host of other possibilities. Each of those titles did their best to offer something unique, all while attempting to ensure compatibility with the de-facto standard MS Office.

Then a cloud drifted over the landscape to change everything. That cloud brought into the picture Google Apps. This new contender changed the game. No longer were users tied to the standard local client model and could make use of a remote application suite with a powerhouse of a company behind it. Google Apps eventually evolved into a full-blown office suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, email and calendar.

That suite is now called Google Workspace, and as of October 2022, Google Workspaces has over eight million paying customers. As of January 2022, the platform has over three billion users globally, and it’s pretty clear that Google Workspace has taken over as the ruler of cloud-based productivity.

Of course, Microsoft wasn’t keen to sit idly by and watch Google dominate the cloud space. They migrated MS Office to the cloud and offered Office 365.

Microsoft officially changed the name of Office 365 to Microsoft 365 in 2020. As of February 2022, more than one million companies worldwide use Microsoft 365.

So now, companies and users have a choice: Google or Microsoft.

But how do these two compare to one another?

TechRepublic Premium’s side-by-side analysis compares Google Workspace’s and Microsoft 365’s tools, plans, features and more in an easy-to-understand checklist.