Answers

Google Workspace or Microsoft 365: which should a small business use for email?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

Both can give a small business email at its own domain, plus online file storage, document tools and video meetings, and both sell business plans for up to 300 users. The choice usually comes down to what your team already works in: Word and Excel files point toward Microsoft 365, Gmail and Google Docs toward Google Workspace. Whichever you pick, check that the plan includes email, set it up in the business's name, and make sure a second person can get in if the main admin is locked out.

What each one includes

Read the plan name before you buy

Not every plan includes email. In Microsoft's plan table, the Microsoft 365 Apps column shows no Exchange Online, its email service, and the desktop client apps are marked for Business Standard and Business Premium, not Business Basic. As general advice, check which apps and mailboxes a plan covers before anyone signs up.

Microsoft also says shared mailboxes do not need their own user subscription. As general advice, that suits a role address such as office@ that several people read.

How owners usually choose

• Your team and your customers trade Word and Excel files, or someone already lives in Outlook: Microsoft 365 often means less retraining.
• You already use Gmail, Google Docs or Sheets, or work mostly in a browser and on phones: Google Workspace often fits.
• Your bookkeeper, scheduling tool or industry software works better with one of them: that can settle it.
• Either one usually handles everyday email for a small team well. Moving mail, files and calendars later usually takes work, so it is worth choosing once.

Keep the account in the business's name

Set the account up under the business, with the owner holding the top admin login, not whoever happened to set it up. Google's best practices say an organization should have more than one super administrator account, each managed by a separate person, so one can step in if another account is lost. Microsoft says to keep Global Administrators as few as possible, and to have at least a Privileged Authentication Administrator who can reset a locked-out Global Administrator's password.

The related answer on using your own domain for business email covers role addresses and staff who leave, and the related answer on why business emails go to spam covers delivery, which neither suite settles by itself.

Sources

1. Google Workspace Help, "Compare Business editions" (accessed 2026-10-24)
2. Google Workspace Help, "Security best practices for administrator accounts" (accessed 2026-10-24)
3. Microsoft Learn, "Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plan options" (accessed 2026-10-24)
4. Microsoft Learn, "Exchange Online service description" (accessed 2026-10-24)
5. Microsoft Learn, "OneDrive service description" (accessed 2026-10-24)
6. Microsoft Learn, "Microsoft Teams service description" (accessed 2026-10-24)
7. Microsoft Learn, "Activate and set up Microsoft 365 Business Basic" (accessed 2026-10-24)
8. Microsoft Learn, "About administrator roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center" (accessed 2026-10-24)

Related answers

• Should your business email use your own domain instead of a free address?
• Why are my business emails going to spam?
• Who should own your business's domain name?