Question

Office 365 vs Google Apps - price aside which is the best for a small biz

Answer 1

From what i have read and experienced in my day to day use of GA, my best bet would be Google. Not because I love and use Google everyday but for me, it works. It offers a suite of services that are easy to use anywhere, anytime. My biggest feature I admire is online document collaboration. You can chat(text or do a hangout) and work on a document in real time. Plus it's spam filter works. And it works well on any device out there. You also get the tried and tested 99.999999% up time from them.

With M$365, some features/services don't work well without their software running on your desktop. Which means you need to spend more to make it work well for you in the long run. Will not run well on most devices and yes the cost factor comes in well when you deal with M$. And you have to wait for their updates cycle to get new releases/versions whereas with GA, they seamlessly update your platform without any much administration.

M$ has a "comom" UI for most users out there hence it will appeal to them but GA is very cost effective. It was free for 10 people till last week. The $50 per user per year still beats M$ anytime no matter how you run the pricing structure for your business. (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx)

my 2c

Answer 2

Unfortunately its now a price issue as both have pros and cons. I'd personally prefer Google Apps mostly because of their Exchange, from my sys admin days (exchange 2003), always needed 3rd party anti-spam to perform decently and if this is hosted exchange, well I don't know.

One plus I see for Google Plus is the chat which talks to regular Google Talk outside the organisation. Gmail is widely used so this is great. Instant messaging on 365, well, who still uses Hotmail in these parts.

The web-based viewing and editing of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files that Office 365 offers is kinda not that big an issue for me as Dropbox ensures i have all my files everywhere and can edit them.

The 247 support for both is probably not that much useful for someone buying from Zimbabwe unless they have local support, which I doubt is the case.

Glad to know what they others think.

Comments

I have administered and used Google Apps for Biz for 3 domains. It has served me very well. The ease with which you can setup(register, set MX records, verify) is one of the reasons I liked it. It is "hacker friendly".

I have only used 365 as an ordinary user(for a university) and I cant really say much about it as I used it only for email.

The one issue I had was how it renders on the phone. I have a low-end Android smartphone (Ideos U8150). I was easily able to sync it with a Samsung Tablet though (Android Gingerbread) and it seems to work.

Answer 3

I just want to point out that microsoft are offering a free version that is roughly equivalent to the mail only parts of google apps - TechZim blogged about it very recently: http://www.techzim.co.zw/2012/12/hey-microsoft-does-have-free-email-on-custom-domains/

Comments

I've used this and I must say their new updated integration is great hands down.. outlook connector > skydrive > calendar > contacts > office docs > mobile apps all for free. what more could you want. I'm so happy I offering free DNS service for anyone wanting .co.zw for a limited number