[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Office showdown: Microsoft Office 365 vs. Google Apps here

[SElope]

Thank you for an excelent and factual comparative study. Google has a good head-start, and they are not tied up to the classic PC-installed version, so I guess they will able to maintain their lead.

[bullywug]

This is a very poor quality review for anyone in a business environment. There is no instance where a business would benefit from using Google Apps and here's why. In business we do not live in a bubble. We must regularly communicated with other business owners, banks, creditors, government agencies, etc. None, not one, of these will accept documents in Google Docs format but they all accept Word and Excel.
It's not that I'm opposed to an alternative to Microsoft Office, but at this time, it would be a foolish person who would try to use Google Docs. I should know, because I tested it for several months, having to copy my documents from Google to Word every time because no one would take them. See, I'm not comparing functionality or performance, I'm comparing usefulness to a SMB customer and Google is just not ready for prime time. Good for mommies, daddies and pre-school age children. If you try to turn a crap Google doc into your college professor you'll leave with a lump on your head and a failure in the class as would have my high school teachers.
This is a very poorly written article, the type that is common among PC World. Please consider your audience before making statements regarding usability that are simply false. Go work for the NY Times. I hear they're looking for lousy reporters who don't like to take notes or think about what they're writing.

[tonybradley]

This is confusing and misleading.

In the third paragraph it refers to both Office 365 for Small Business, and Office 365 Small Business Premium--which is expected to launch next week. But, the rest of the article compares Google Apps against Office Web Apps, or the old / current Office 365 for Small Business--including the cost comparison, which will ostensibly be outdated and obsolete next week.

The article doesn't provide the pricing for Office 365 Small Business Premium, and it doesn't mention that Office 365 Small Business Premium includes the full Office 2013 Pro suite installed locally on up to five machines, or the ability to stream the full desktop software virtually to any compatible PC via Office On Demand.

[IanRayvzuo]

This was a very light comparison of Excel Web App to Google Sheets.

Yes, Excel Web App wins importing Excel files.

No mention that Excel Web App does not yet freeze panes and cannot create pivot tables.

I take it the reviewer and/or reviewer's company are lightweight spreadsheet users. This is fine, but it would be worth mentioning before making a comparison.

[sumx]

This is it. I'm done. I was an avid reader of PCMagazine, and I stopped going to their website or buying their magazines because they basically turned into a "Apple sponsored website", when windows 8 arrived or windows phone 8 arrived, they where like "APPLE SO GOOD and oh yeah wicrosoft launched something but we don't really care". I Switched to PCWorld.

Now PCWorld has a Anti-Microsoft campaign up and running. I mean cm on, Where's power point comparison? exchange servers? lync? word business tools? excel data analysis plugins? access compatibility? OneNote vs NOTHING because google doesn't have a note-taking app (and you have to use other thing like evernote). I feel like this article was written by a home-user of excel and not a heavy-spreadsheet-business user. Office 365 has a million things more than shown on this article.

Every week they have an average of 2 articles aggains Microsoft... (why windows 8 sucks, why you shouldn't buy office, why android is better than everything), but hey, I don't see articles like "W3C says WebKit based browsers are destroying the web" or "Why Blackberry 10 isn't right for you" or "Android vs Blackberry 10 comparison (giving an 11/10 to android).....

I hate this kind of sites, they are all-in for one company-tech.

[tonybradley]

Quote

This is it. I'm done. I was an avid reader of PCMagazine, and I stopped going to their website or buying their magazines because they basically turned into a "Apple sponsored website", when windows 8 arrived or windows phone 8 arrived, they where like "APPLE SO GOOD and oh yeah wicrosoft launched something but we don't really care". I Switched to PCWorld. Now PCWorld has a Anti-Microsoft campaign up and running. I mean cm on, Where's power point comparison? exchange servers? lync? word business tools? excel data analysis plugins? access compatibility? OneNote vs NOTHING because google doesn't have a note-taking app (and you have to use other thing like evernote). I feel like this article was written by a home-user of excel and not a heavy-spreadsheet-business user. Office 365 has a million things more than shown on this article. Every week they have an average of 2 articles aggains Microsoft... (why windows 8 sucks, why you shouldn't buy office, why android is better than everything), but hey, I don't see articles like "W3C says WebKit based browsers are destroying the web" or "Why Blackberry 10 isn't right for you" or "Android vs Blackberry 10 comparison (giving an 11/10 to android)..... I hate this kind of sites, they are all-in for one company-tech.

You can't really paint the whole site / publication with one brush. There are a number of authors writing for PCWorld with unique and varying opinions.

For example, I personally disagree with most of this article. I have written a number of posts in favor of Office 365. That said, I am not always going to be a Microsoft cheerleader in every case. Each product, service, or event has to stand on its own, so I might be pro-Microsoft (or Apple or any other vendor), and anti-Microsoft (or Apple or any other vendor) in the same week, or even the same day depending on the scenario.

[troop1028]

I've been looking for a full time job for over a year now, not in one interview was I asked do I know Google anything. They ask, are you comfortable using a PC and can you use MS word and excel? I suppose each has it's place, but all the bubble heads need to wake up and realize there is an entirely different world of business out there, that is not all bits and bubbles.

[bawsor]

Clearly, the writer, Maria Korolov, is not qualified to write an article comparing Office 365 and Google Apps.

Her background as a journalist who travel to India, Afghanistan, and Russia, indicates that she is a free-lancer who does not work in the corporate world.

Her conclusion that Google Apps is superior to Office 365 is from a journalist's perspective and not from an enterprise and finance perspective.

Her usage of Excel spreadsheet is most likely restricted to simple arithmetical expression.

This simple, biased, and superficial analysis of Office 365 reflects poorly on PCWorld.

[bawsor]

Quote

I've been looking for a full time job for over a year now, not in one interview was I asked do I know Google anything. They ask, are you comfortable using a PC and can you use MS word and excel? I suppose each has it's place, but all the bubble heads need to wake up and realize there is an entirely different world of business out there, that is not all bits and bubbles.

Even if you apply to Google, Inc., you will required to know MS Office and not Google Apps.

You have to understand this biased article was written by a free-lance journalist who most likely never worked in the corporate world -- but who no problem expressing her know-it-all opinion.

[bawsor]

Quote

I've been looking for a full time job for over a year now, not in one interview was I asked do I know Google anything. They ask, are you comfortable using a PC and can you use MS word and excel? I suppose each has it's place, but all the bubble heads need to wake up and realize there is an entirely different world of business out there, that is not all bits and bubbles. Even if you apply to Google, Inc., you will required to know MS Office and not Google Apps. You have to understand this biased article was written by a free-lance journalist who most likely never worked in the corporate world -- but who has no problem expressing her know-it-all opinion.

[duckdive]

As a career IT professional and manager, I find this review to be unbiased and factual. Nobody will argue that MS Office is the dominant choice or that a desktop application suite that has been around for 20 years has more features. The posters on here that criticize the comparison are missing the point that Office has competition from Google Apps, and that warrants a look.
The head to head comparison is accurate according to my experience. We switched to Google Apps for Business mainly for email. The hosted email infrastructure (a requirement set by our executives) and cost savings alone have given us an ROI. We still use installed desktop versions of Office as well. In order to use the MS Plan E3, we would be paying 4X more per year.
As I see it, this phase of cloud application growth (1-3 years) is a transition period where the general population gets accustomed to the cloud applications, all cloud vendors make the solutions more feature rich and robust (in order to compete with desktop apps), and customers realize that managing/installing/patching desktop apps add even more expense. In time, the hybrid (installed desktop app with cloud app) will give way to most people using cloud most of the time, with power users (particularly Excel as the reviewer pointed out) & data connected/rich systems sticking with installed desktop apps on the network.
Thank you for the review.
BTW, to people stuck in Office, you can email directly from Google Apps (Gmail) as a .docx, .xlsx or .pdf. So there really shouldn't be much of a problem communicating with others.

[duckdive]

When you are in a Google Doc, go to File, Email Attachment, then choose Send as (.docx, .xlsx, .pdf or whatever).
It is pretty simple.

[elsapcw]

Thank you for the comments!

The purpose of this story is to compare how the two suites' core online tools serve the needs of a small business, from the perspective of a small businessperson who works primarily online.

I apologize for the story's initial errors about pricing. We've made updates to reflect the pricing of Office 365 Small Business Premium, being released Feb. 27.

Information currently on Microsoft's website shows the pricing for older packages of Office 365:
http://www.microsoft...-software_en-us

[MleB]

Interesting comparison, but convincing other businesses I communicate with to accept anything but .doc and .xls files is a slog I don't wish to participate in, any more than the hope they might switch to .pages format and make Apple's offerings worthwhile.

Perhaps as a standalone WP for personal use (or very close collaborative projects) , Google Docs / Drive has some merit and its usability cross-platform attractive, but saving to a proprietary file system (beyond, you know, PDF) makes the product about as relevant as Microsoft Works.

Then again, if Microsoft thinks I'm actually going to invest in a yearly subscription to an online service, then they really have lost a grasp on reality.

[rwoodward]

Comparing Google Apps to Office 365 is like comparing a Rav4 to a Semi. They're both designed to carry a load, but in scope and scale they're for two different worlds.

[jerseyguy]

I would prefer to use Google Apps. I have moved to google docs last year and I am happy with it.
It gives me flexibility to use it anywhere and I like that.
Microsoft is running out of innovative technologies

[bawsor]

Quote

I would prefer to use Google Apps. I have moved to google docs last year and I am happy with it. It gives me flexibility to use it anywhere and I like that. Microsoft is running out of innovative technologies

What is so "innovative" about Google Docs??

Google Apps is just a "dumbed down" version of Office 365.

As I mentioned, the state of Texas just picked Office 365 over Google Apps.

So did the State of California, the City of Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Minnesota -- all these major cities picked Office 365 over Google Apps.

The only major city to use Google Apps -- Los Angeles -- is currently asking for a REFUND from Google for non-performance of contractual obligations. How EMBARRASSING is that???

http://betanews.com/...or-google-apps/

[IanRayvzuo]

Quote

What is so "innovative" about Google Docs?? Google Apps is just a "dumbed down" version of Office 365.

"bawsor"/"jctmpt," you keep posting the same thing on talkincloud, smallbiztrends, ZDNet... why?

I don't think you are doing your favorite office suite any good hiding behind anonymous monikers and spamming out with all caps emphasis and such.

[berock212]

Quote

This is it. I'm done. I was an avid reader of PCMagazine, and I stopped going to their website or buying their magazines because they basically turned into a "Apple sponsored website", when windows 8 arrived or windows phone 8 arrived, they where like "APPLE SO GOOD and oh yeah wicrosoft launched something but we don't really care". I Switched to PCWorld. Now PCWorld has a Anti-Microsoft campaign up and running. I mean cm on, Where's power point comparison? exchange servers? lync? word business tools? excel data analysis plugins? access compatibility? OneNote vs NOTHING because google doesn't have a note-taking app (and you have to use other thing like evernote). I feel like this article was written by a home-user of excel and not a heavy-spreadsheet-business user. Office 365 has a million things more than shown on this article. Every week they have an average of 2 articles aggains Microsoft... (why windows 8 sucks, why you shouldn't buy office, why android is better than everything), but hey, I don't see articles like "W3C says WebKit based browsers are destroying the web" or "Why Blackberry 10 isn't right for you" or "Android vs Blackberry 10 comparison (giving an 11/10 to android)..... I hate this kind of sites, they are all-in for one company-tech.

If you think that PC world is bias towards Apple try going to cnet. Get over yourself, Apple is a large player in the pc universe and pc worlds articles are for the most point unbias. Also PC world post's a lot of articles that are positive about Microsoft and some that are negative, just because they post one article promoting a company doesn't mean PC world is bias. PC world insn't all in for one company they are pretty even against all company's. PC world isn't bias so get over yourself, your acting like a idiot.