What is the consensus on the best work email for a small business with less than 5 employees? Seems like I have read there is some compatibility issues when using Google Workspace to edit complex Microsoft documents.

Are there any other glaring issues with one program or the other that you have come across? Are there any other email services that I should consider using besides Workspace or Exchange?

I would cross post this on the nerdery. Likely to get more responses there.

Thank you! Appreciate the response.

What a coincidence! We are a startup with five people ourselves. This is top of mind as I'm constantly pushing our owner to make a switch.

We are currently using Google Workspace, Dropbox, Slack. So we have some duplication going on. Three of us mostly do not like Google with our dislike mostly being centered on Google Mail.

Google Mail:
It drives me nuts. I have to type parameters into the Search bar to filter my inbox to Unread email. They provide several auto filters that any normal email program would...EXCEPT for Unread. WTF?

Replying to an email is a nightmare. Instead of putting your reply at the top like every other email program in the world it starts your reply at the bottom or even in the middle of an email thread so if you scroll at all you lose where you started your reply and you have to scroll up and down and email thread to find where your draft reply is. Someone actually made a third party plug-in to fix this and make it work like it should but the plug-in broke and has never been fixed.

In addition, this also applies to Reply and Forward buttons. You have to scroll to the bottom of a thread to find those buttons so you can reply.

Forwarding an email will not allow you to edit the email subject.

Archive an email? No idea where it goes. Can't find it.

In summary, Google Mail is utter trash.

Google Calendar:
I like their calendar. It has some nifty features and works pretty well.

Things I don't like include the inability to change an appointment type after you've created it. Example: I block some time on my calendar that I later want to change to Out of Office and I have to delete the original appointment and redo it.

Google Sheets:
I have learned to appreciate it but at the end of the day it's inferior to Excel and does not have the capabilities that Excel does. If you are running complex spreadsheets with formulas beyond the basic stuff you are not going to like it. Also, Google Sheets can break your Excel sheets if you are going back and forth. I'm running some pretty complex spreadsheets that require some formulas that Sheets simply can't support. Thus, if you work in Excel and then save it up to Drive it will break the file when you open in Sheets which it does by default if you don't force the issue.

Google Slides:
Poor man's PowerPoint. If you do a lot of presentations (we do a lot of customer presentations) it simply doesn't have some of the efficiencies of PowerPoint. I work in both daily and PP is simply easier to work with. And like Sheets and Excel, some formatting won't hold if you are flipping back and forth.

Google Tasks:
Very basic task management that does not meet my needs. It's a step above the useless Apple Reminders.

Google Drive:
Works pretty well and I can't think of much different than OneDrive here. May actually like it better than OneDrive in a vacuum.

DropBox:
We shouldn't even have to use this, but the reason we do is because of my Google Sheets issue above. I was forced to add DropBox so our Excel files would not get broken by storing them on Drive and having someone open them with Sheets by default.

In summary, four of us want to switch to MS but our owner is a firm google guy for some damn reason. Plus, he keeps saying MS is way more expensive. I do not know the accuracy of that but I'm planning to do some research on that to find out.

There are pluses and minuses to both, but usually it's the people using it and implementing it that do not do a good job of explaining it to users. Then end users are just resistant to change anyway.

Personally I think google is superior for a number of reasons, but find someone knowledgeable to manage it and educate others on it.

The best platform is the one you use properly.

I appreciate all of the responses. It sounds like Google isn't as user friendly as I once believed.

CapCity12thMan said:

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There are pluses and minuses to both, but usually it's the people using it and implementing it that do not do a good job of explaining it to users. Then end users are just resistant to change anyway.

Personally I think google is superior for a number of reasons, but find someone knowledgeable to manage it and educate others on it.

The best platform is the one you use properly.

---

I will absolutely agree with you here in principle. I'm an avid user of both platforms since I use Google for work and I have a 365 sub for personal.

My issues with Google Mail are admittedly nitpicky but also feature gaps. They are a complete nuisance when you have to live in an ecosystem all day and have to constantly futz with it and lose productivity trying to make it work. Thus, I'm unable to use it properly.

Don't get me wrong; MS has some issues as well, but I simply don't have to mess with it nearly as much as Google and I don't have nagging issues like I've outlined destroying basic workflow all day.

I'll cease my ranting now! Good luck to OP on this decision!

Having and using both, if you are trying to unify and decrease spend I would pick MS365. Their tools have improved vastly over the last couple of years and pricing is competitive with that of Google. The biggest downside is the sharing of files from Google vs Microsoft, the web based experience is nice for Google but does not lend itself well if your customers also have Microsoft products. And sharing files and collecting files is way better And similar to Dropbox and doesn't require utilities like you need in Google drive.

I am honestly about to swap my Google workspace to Microsoft 365.

The one thing I know I will miss is how Google uses labels (ie folders) vs Microsoft. Sometimes I categorize my emails with multiple labels as they may have multiple relevance, which I will definitely miss. Categories just doesn't cut it

I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first. I can also change the subject of forwards and my reply goes on top…

I have custom priority setup in my personal gmail and work gmail, there are a few features that are way better executed on Google Workspace than Microsoft O365.

Buck Compton said:

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I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first.

---

Depends on the view you use. They have preset Inbox views. One of their preset views is "Unread First" which is probably what you are using. I'm using the "Default" view because it automatically sorts email that isn't directly work related or personal (think emails from industry groups you are in, subscriptions, etc) out of your Primary inbox. Works sort of like MS Focused and Other inboxes.

I get a lot of industry crap in my Inbox so the Default view works best for me. However, with the Default view there is no filter provided to simply click and just view Unread email. I have to go to the search bar and type in "label:unread category:primary" to filter just to Unread email in my Primary Inbox.

It's an either/or situation with these presets in many cases.

YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first.

---

Depends on the view you use. They have preset Inbox views. One of their preset views is "Unread First" which is probably what you are using. I'm using the "Default" view because it automatically sorts email that isn't directly work related or personal (think emails from industry groups you are in, subscriptions, etc) out of your Primary inbox. Works sort of like MS Focused and Other inboxes.

I get a lot of industry crap in my Inbox so the Default view works best for me. However, with the Default view there is no filter provided to simply click and just view Unread email. I have to go to the search bar and type in "label:unread category:primary" to filter just to Unread email in my Primary Inbox.

It's an either/or situation with these presets in many cases.

---

Gotcha. What about editing FW and RE? I can do that in personal emails and all my replies are up top too.

I don't use MS focused. I have routing rules in place that take care of all that based on who emails are from, subjects, if it's to a list or emails, etc... essentially just wrote my own filter. I guess gmail can't do that.

I 100% agree MS outlook is better for business/power users, but I was just dumbfounded at some of the stuff.

Buck Compton said:

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YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first.

---

Depends on the view you use. They have preset Inbox views. One of their preset views is "Unread First" which is probably what you are using. I'm using the "Default" view because it automatically sorts email that isn't directly work related or personal (think emails from industry groups you are in, subscriptions, etc) out of your Primary inbox. Works sort of like MS Focused and Other inboxes.

I get a lot of industry crap in my Inbox so the Default view works best for me. However, with the Default view there is no filter provided to simply click and just view Unread email. I have to go to the search bar and type in "label:unread category:primary" to filter just to Unread email in my Primary Inbox.

It's an either/or situation with these presets in many cases.

---

Gotcha. What about editing FW and RE? I can do that in personal emails and all my replies are up top too.

I don't use MS focused. I have routing rules in place that take care of all that based on who emails are from, subjects, if it's to a list or emails, etc... essentially just wrote my own filter. I guess gmail can't do that.

I 100% agree MS outlook is better for business/power users, but I was just dumbfounded at some of the stuff.

---

Editing FW and RE is infuriating to me. I like to be able to edit email subject lines when I forward email to refocus the topic, clarify, etc. I can't do that in Gmail. It's baffling and I don't know why that isn't available.

Replaying to emails is maddening as well because when you reply, it automatically dumps you to the bottom of the screen rather than keeping you at the top of the email. Why would anyone code it this way? Dumb. And the third-party plug-in I went and found to correct this doesn't work. I guess I need to see if someone else has fixed this and put a different plug-in out there.

I also have to do two clicks to Reply All. Just put the damn Reply All icon next to the Reply icon at the outset.

Outlook

it also gives you cheaper defenses for cyber and compliance tools

YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first.

---

Depends on the view you use. They have preset Inbox views. One of their preset views is "Unread First" which is probably what you are using. I'm using the "Default" view because it automatically sorts email that isn't directly work related or personal (think emails from industry groups you are in, subscriptions, etc) out of your Primary inbox. Works sort of like MS Focused and Other inboxes.

I get a lot of industry crap in my Inbox so the Default view works best for me. However, with the Default view there is no filter provided to simply click and just view Unread email. I have to go to the search bar and type in "label:unread category:primary" to filter just to Unread email in my Primary Inbox.

It's an either/or situation with these presets in many cases.

---

Gotcha. What about editing FW and RE? I can do that in personal emails and all my replies are up top too.

I don't use MS focused. I have routing rules in place that take care of all that based on who emails are from, subjects, if it's to a list or emails, etc... essentially just wrote my own filter. I guess gmail can't do that.

I 100% agree MS outlook is better for business/power users, but I was just dumbfounded at some of the stuff.

---

Editing FW and RE is infuriating to me. I like to be able to edit email subject lines when I forward email to refocus the topic, clarify, etc. I can't do that in Gmail. It's baffling and I don't know why that isn't available.

Replaying to emails is maddening as well because when you reply, it automatically dumps you to the bottom of the screen rather than keeping you at the top of the email. Why would anyone code it this way? Dumb. And the third-party plug-in I went and found to correct this doesn't work. I guess I need to see if someone else has fixed this and put a different plug-in out there.

I also have to do two clicks to Reply All. Just put the damn Reply All icon next to the Reply icon at the outset.

---

Reply All is two clicks, yes.

But I guess I wasn't clear. The rest of your complaints aren't true for my personal version of gmail, so I don't know why they would be true for the business version. I just went and forwarded a message and changed the subject on it. All my replies are at the top of the email, not the bottom, and it doesn't dump me to the bottom of the page, either.

I'm also not sure what you're talking about when you said you have to scroll to the bottom to click reply or forward. There's a button on the top of the email.

I recently switched from Google to Microsoft.

I liked GMail and Google Calendar over outlook but think other productivity apps (Word, Excel, PP, etc) are better in Microsoft.

Whatever you pick, just learn how to use it and you'll be fine. Both sets of apps are EXTREMELY capable if you know how to use them.

I suggest a system/rhythm of sharing tips. My wife's previous company used to do "work better Wednesday" where everyone would share tricks and shortcuts on the tech tools in a slack channel.

Buck Compton said:

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YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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YouBet said:

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Buck Compton said:

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I like MS for work email and have always used it. Not perfect but extremely functional. Not to mention Excel beats the brakes off of Sheets. Never used google in a work environment, though.

Are you really telling me google can't display unread emails in work instances? I use gmail for personal and I always have unread first.

---

Depends on the view you use. They have preset Inbox views. One of their preset views is "Unread First" which is probably what you are using. I'm using the "Default" view because it automatically sorts email that isn't directly work related or personal (think emails from industry groups you are in, subscriptions, etc) out of your Primary inbox. Works sort of like MS Focused and Other inboxes.

I get a lot of industry crap in my Inbox so the Default view works best for me. However, with the Default view there is no filter provided to simply click and just view Unread email. I have to go to the search bar and type in "label:unread category:primary" to filter just to Unread email in my Primary Inbox.

It's an either/or situation with these presets in many cases.

---

Gotcha. What about editing FW and RE? I can do that in personal emails and all my replies are up top too.

I don't use MS focused. I have routing rules in place that take care of all that based on who emails are from, subjects, if it's to a list or emails, etc... essentially just wrote my own filter. I guess gmail can't do that.

I 100% agree MS outlook is better for business/power users, but I was just dumbfounded at some of the stuff.

---

Editing FW and RE is infuriating to me. I like to be able to edit email subject lines when I forward email to refocus the topic, clarify, etc. I can't do that in Gmail. It's baffling and I don't know why that isn't available.

Replaying to emails is maddening as well because when you reply, it automatically dumps you to the bottom of the screen rather than keeping you at the top of the email. Why would anyone code it this way? Dumb. And the third-party plug-in I went and found to correct this doesn't work. I guess I need to see if someone else has fixed this and put a different plug-in out there.

I also have to do two clicks to Reply All. Just put the damn Reply All icon next to the Reply icon at the outset.

---

Reply All is two clicks, yes.

But I guess I wasn't clear. The rest of your complaints aren't true for my personal version of gmail, so I don't know why they would be true for the business version. I just went and forwarded a message and changed the subject on it. All my replies are at the top of the email, not the bottom, and it doesn't dump me to the bottom of the page, either.

I'm also not sure what you're talking about when you said you have to scroll to the bottom to click reply or forward. There's a button on the top of the email.

---

Don't know what to tell you. That's how it works for us.

You are correct on the scroll to bottom to click reply. I conflated that with the actual email reply box dumping to the bottom of the email thread.

Maybe this will help:

I have to type parameters into the Search bar to filter my inbox to Unread email
true, but if this is really that bothersome, once you do this once, create a bookmark, and then it is one click away next time. The fact you need to narrow all your unreads down amongst all your other emails is more a user behavior issue that doesn't use labels/fiters to their advantage.

if you scroll at all you lose where you started your reply
yes, this can be annoying, but once you click Reply there is an icon in the reply box called 'Pop out Reply' that allows you to make the reply box fixed and you can then scroll to your heart's desire while composing a reply.

You have to scroll to the bottom of a thread to find those buttons so you can reply.
This is not accurate there is a reply and an elipses button at the top right of an email to do this

Forwarding an email will not allow you to edit the email subject.
This is not accurate. You can change the subject of an email at anytime when forwarding or replying. The reason this is not front and center is because changing the subject of an email isn't really a best practice. If there is a different subject necessary, it should be a different email for proper context.


Archive an email? No idea where it goes. Can't find it.
You can find it in All Mail. I would again ask why are you archiving things you need to find later, or better yet - why archive at all?

I block some time on my calendar that I later want to change to Out of Office and I have to delete the original appointment and redo it.
How often do you need to do this, and why is this such a big deal for you? Just leave the appointment there if you have to or edit it to just say OOO.

Google Sheets
I am always curious what "complex sheets" means to different people. There are things that Excel doe that Sheets cannot and vice versa. If you are in the business of complex complex formulas and stuff, I guess you are stuck, but 9/10 times I hear this it is because they didn't try it in Sheets or just don't want to go look for it.

Google Slides
I would argue it has some better features of PP. I am not sure what an "efficiency" is in a presentation.

I was forced to add DropBox so our Excel files would not get broken by storing them on Drive and having someone open them with Sheets by default.
Stop opening in Sheets by default or use Drive for Desktop, and this should solve your problem.


I also have to do two clicks to Reply All. Just put the damn Reply All icon next to the Reply icon at the outset.
hit the letter 'a'.

Quote:

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MS outlook is better for business/power users

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define what an email "power user" is, and how is business email different than personal email

One of my biggest gripes with google tools is that most formatting changes that are 1 click in Microsoft are two clicks on Google because google hides the options in a drop down. This drives me nuts and slows down document formatting. This is especially annoying in slides and sheets. Generally I can work a bit faster and more efficiently in Microsoft software.

Sheets also lacks a lot of add ins that excel has. Excel has a lot of powerful paid add ins where sheets simply isn't an option.

We use google suite, but mostly just for HOSTING email and the google calendar. on our PCs, we all use outlook for email and of course use MS365 for all other office related applications.

Is there a better way to host email or shared Calendars? Google was nice when it was free, but since they started charging a couple years ago, I am open to ideas.

Microsoft


Google:






I don't see what you are talking about. They seem pretty in line with each other to me

Quote:

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Excel has a lot of powerful paid add ins

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To be fair you should compare baseline to baseline, because buying things to make Excel better does not inherently make Excel a better product. Again, there are apparently some statistics, analytics, scientific things that are apparently in Excel that Sheets does not have (this is what I hear), but for the larger population of spreadsheet users, I just don't get the gripe, especially when the things people gripe about are just false.

My stance is - they are both great products and either one will run your business just fine. I just think the hate towards google is more about lack of understanding. The sharing and collaboration components are what push this to the forefront for me. The suggesting/editing feature is great too (which MS did not have for some time), but enhanced with the sharing/collaboration capablities. There is a new Approvals feature that is very handy when doing revisions, or things you need people to sign off on.

Quote:

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desperately needed Microsoft

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why? what was lacking from google?

CapCity12thMan said:

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Quote:

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desperately needed Microsoft

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why? what was lacking from google?

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I'm not Malibu but I can say all "free" office software is based on Word and Excel. Sometimes you do need the real thing for advanced features/compatibility.

MS365 gets you native Poweshell support and some other enterprise features. MS Office also looks more professional to customers. Google is still heavily associated with free education accounts and you don't want to come off as amateurs, imo.

CapCity12thMan said:

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Quote:

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desperately needed Microsoft

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why? what was lacking from google?

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When you need more sophisticated data modeling and visualization tools, Excel and PowerBI are no longer nice to haves, and crush Google pretty badly. Theres also a herding effect where everyone else uses those MS Office programs and file compatibility isnt perfect and you send over word files that render crappy or send excel stuff that is filled with #REF errors in Excel but work fine in Google, and you just need something that plays nice with other businesses.

Quote:

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I have to type parameters into the Search bar to filter my inbox to Unread email

true, but if this is really that bothersome, once you do this once, create a bookmark, and then it is one click away next time. The fact you need to narrow all your unreads down amongst all your other emails is more a user behavior issue that doesn't use labels/fiters to their advantage.

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I shouldn't have to work that hard to see my Unread emails. That's the point. And I don't care about the user behavior point. At any one moment, I want to be able to see my Unread emails. It's a simple ask.

Quote:

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if you scroll at all you lose where you started your reply

yes, this can be annoying, but once you click Reply there is an icon in the reply box called 'Pop out Reply' that allows you to make the reply box fixed and you can then scroll to your heart's desire while composing a reply.

---

But it is annoying, and I don't have to worry about that in other email programs.

Quote:

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You have to scroll to the bottom of a thread to find those buttons so you can reply.

This is not accurate there is a reply and an elipses button at the top right of an email to do this

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Yes, I acknowledged this earlier. Was wrong here.


Noted on the Forwarding although I don't care if it isn't best practice. Sometimes I just need and want to forward something as is and changing the title is sufficient.

Quote:

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Archive an email? No idea where it goes. Can't find it.

You can find it in All Mail. I would again ask why are you archiving things you need to find later, or better yet - why archive at all?

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Actually, I archive nothing. This one is a complaint from my co-workers. I'll let them know.

Quote:

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I block some time on my calendar that I later want to change to Out of Office and I have to delete the original appointment and redo it.

How often do you need to do this, and why is this such a big deal for you? Just leave the appointment there if you have to or edit it to just say OOO.

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I do it often because many times I'm mobile and think of something or something gets scheduled while out and about. I block time on the Google Calendar app which does not have the same capabilities as the web version, as far as I can tell. Thus, I have to correct the appointment once I back at my desk. If there is a way to do that on mobile, I'm all ears. And logging into the website via mobile is not an acceptable answer here. It's a big deal because that's my workflow. Irrelevant how you feel about it.

Regarding apps (Sheets, Slides, etc), MS is superior, and this isn't even arguable. It's simply a fact of life, for now. Not that Google can't get there but they aren't yet.

Quote:

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I was forced to add DropBox so our Excel files would not get broken by storing them on Drive and having someone open them with Sheets by default.

Stop opening in Sheets by default or use Drive for Desktop, and this should solve your problem.

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Drive for Desktop doesn't solve the issue. I thought it would at one time and it doesn't. And I can't control everyone else from not opening stuff in Sheets by default. I have a range of technical savviness here and these are collaborative files. It's easier to just something that won't break my files like Google will.



The bottom line is that I've not had to figure out how to make basic **** work in MS or even back to my days of GroupWise like I do with Google mail. It's simply not as intuitive as other email programs and Google Workspace overall doesn't match up to Microsoft. And why would it? Microsoft Office has a 20+ year head start? It should be better.

CapCity12thMan said:

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Maybe this will help:

I have to type parameters into the Search bar to filter my inbox to Unread email
true, but if this is really that bothersome, once you do this once, create a bookmark, and then it is one click away next time. The fact you need to narrow all your unreads down amongst all your other emails is more a user behavior issue that doesn't use labels/fiters to their advantage.

if you scroll at all you lose where you started your reply
yes, this can be annoying, but once you click Reply there is an icon in the reply box called 'Pop out Reply' that allows you to make the reply box fixed and you can then scroll to your heart's desire while composing a reply.

You have to scroll to the bottom of a thread to find those buttons so you can reply.
This is not accurate there is a reply and an elipses button at the top right of an email to do this

Forwarding an email will not allow you to edit the email subject.
This is not accurate. You can change the subject of an email at anytime when forwarding or replying. The reason this is not front and center is because changing the subject of an email isn't really a best practice. If there is a different subject necessary, it should be a different email for proper context.


Archive an email? No idea where it goes. Can't find it.
You can find it in All Mail. I would again ask why are you archiving things you need to find later, or better yet - why archive at all?

I block some time on my calendar that I later want to change to Out of Office and I have to delete the original appointment and redo it.
How often do you need to do this, and why is this such a big deal for you? Just leave the appointment there if you have to or edit it to just say OOO.

Google Sheets
I am always curious what "complex sheets" means to different people. There are things that Excel doe that Sheets cannot and vice versa. If you are in the business of complex complex formulas and stuff, I guess you are stuck, but 9/10 times I hear this it is because they didn't try it in Sheets or just don't want to go look for it.

Google Slides
I would argue it has some better features of PP. I am not sure what an "efficiency" is in a presentation.

I was forced to add DropBox so our Excel files would not get broken by storing them on Drive and having someone open them with Sheets by default.
Stop opening in Sheets by default or use Drive for Desktop, and this should solve your problem.


I also have to do two clicks to Reply All. Just put the damn Reply All icon next to the Reply icon at the outset.
hit the letter 'a'.

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Was going to add the same things but you did it so cleanly.

I'm used to being efficient because I use Google Workspaces

For Microsoft, enterprise software is their main source of revenue.

For Google, it's an afterthought.