An honest comparison from a shop that sets up both. Which one fits which kind of business, what each one really costs, and where each one falls short.
For most businesses in our region, Microsoft 365 is the better fit. Almost everyone already uses Word, Excel, and Outlook; most clients you'll send files to expect Microsoft formats; and the Business Premium plan includes serious security tools that Workspace doesn't match without paying for the much pricier Enterprise plans.
Google Workspace is the better fit when you're a tech-forward team that genuinely lives in the browser, your collaboration is real-time and document-heavy, and you have no specific need for the Microsoft desktop apps.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: ~$16.50 CAD per user per month. Full desktop Word/Excel/Outlook/PowerPoint, 1TB OneDrive per user, Teams, SharePoint, email. About $165/month total for 10 users.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: ~$28 CAD per user per month. Everything above plus Intune device management, Defender for endpoint security, conditional access, and information protection. About $280/month for 10 users. This is the one we recommend.
Google Workspace Business Standard: ~$18 CAD per user per month. Gmail, Drive, Docs/Sheets/Slides, Meet, Calendar, 2TB storage per user. About $180/month for 10 users.
Google Workspace Business Plus: ~$28 CAD per user per month. Everything above plus eDiscovery, retention, and basic device management. About $280/month for 10 users.
Pricing is roughly the same. The difference is what you get for the money — and how it fits with the world your business operates in.
Desktop apps. Word, Excel, and Outlook on the desktop are still the standard for serious document work. Google Docs and Sheets are great for collaboration, but they're not where you draft a 30-page report, a complex spreadsheet model, or anything you'll send to a government, bank, or accountant.
Compatibility with the outside world. Almost every business you'll exchange files with is on Microsoft formats. Google Workspace handles them, but conversions occasionally break formatting on complex documents.
Security at the Business Premium tier. Intune, Defender, and Conditional Access — bundled into a $28/user/month plan — are a serious step up from anything in Google Workspace Business Plus. For businesses handling sensitive data, this is a real difference.
Familiarity. Almost every employee has used Outlook and Word. Training is minimal. Switching a 50-year-old veteran to Gmail and Google Docs is a non-zero amount of friction.
Real-time collaboration. Google's collaborative editing has always been a step ahead. If three people need to be editing the same document simultaneously every day, Workspace makes that smoother than M365.
Simplicity. Google Workspace has fewer products, fewer settings, and fewer ways to mess up the configuration. Microsoft 365 is a sprawling ecosystem; Workspace is a tighter package.
Mobile. Workspace's mobile apps are generally faster and more usable than the M365 ones, though M365 mobile has improved substantially.
You're already on it. If your team is already using Gmail addresses and Google Drive and it's working, the cost and disruption of switching to M365 is rarely justified by the upgrade.
If you handle First Nations data, healthcare information, financial records, or anything regulated — Microsoft 365 Business Premium's security tools and compliance reporting are a meaningful advantage. We've never set up an organization in those categories on Google Workspace.
If you're a creative agency, a software developer, or a startup-style operation — Workspace often fits better. Lighter, faster, cheaper to administer.
If you're using a third-party line-of-business app (a CRM, an accounting system, a property management system), check what it integrates with. Many older Canadian business apps integrate with Microsoft 365 / Exchange far better than they do with Google Workspace.
Neither system backs up your data the way you think. Both platforms have limited retention windows, and once data is deleted past those windows, it's gone. A separate third-party backup is recommended for either platform — see our backup services page.
For a typical 10-person business in Northwestern Ontario — restaurant, retailer, contractor, professional services, nonprofit, band office — Microsoft 365 Business Premium is our default recommendation. About $280/month, includes desktop Office, business email, Teams, OneDrive, and serious security. Add a third-party M365 backup for another $30-$50/month and you've got most of what a small business needs.
If you're already on Workspace and happy, stay. There's no reason to switch just because we'd have picked differently from scratch.
Tell us your team size, what you have now, and what's not working. We'll recommend honestly and quote the migration flat rate.