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For many people using Gmail or any other web browser, email service is good enough but there might be more to consider for professionals who need to use emails all the time. Services like Outlook, although less popular, still promise to provide more than the more commonly used email services. Let’s compare the two head-to-head, Gmail vs Outlook for business, to see which of the two would be more worth it for your work environment. To compare the two we’ll be going over features, usability, and interface in the pros and cons of each program.
Uses Of Email In Business Environment
To help give context to what would be important for an avid user of emails, seeing how they create value for a business is a huge factor.
In an office environment, emails are used for the average worker to speak to their co-workers or managers without facing them directly. This makes it faster and less bothersome to the recipient as they aren’t physically interrupted.
Emails are also used to notify either your teams or the entire office about important information such as a meeting or changes in the workplace. To assist in this, there are also calendar features in most email services to help schedule these announced meetings or changes. Professionals also use emails to circulate surveys to get feedback from the workers and implement any necessary changes.
And finally, to make work more productive, attachments are commonly used to share files around quickly.
Beyond the office, emails are commonly used to update the average person about new products or changes to a company policy. This can be seen in the newsletter of companies that you follow or are subscribed to.
These newsletters typically try to get customers to engage in a sale that’s going on or to get their eyes on the shiny new product or service that’s been released. Because of this, they can range from being informative to annoying which is why sending newsletters and structuring them correctly should be considered.
In other cases, customers may pay for the newsletter itself as it contains information or a link to something that otherwise is impossible to obtain.
Having gone over the importance of emails in the business world it is made abundantly clear as to why a business would care about what email service they decide to use. So answering questions like. What is Outlook used for? Or how the pricing deals compare is important. But depending on the use, it may not be necessary for Gmail vs Outlook for business usage.
Gmail
Gmail is considered to be the most popular emailing service on the internet. If you’re already using Google Chrome, you might as well use their email service. Perhaps this is why many use this over Outlook. Gmail is also a free-to-use email service, however, when it comes to Gmail vs Outlook for business, there might be charges associated with using any of the two.
Pros
Interface
Accessible on browsers, the organization of features and sections are more immediately seen. Types of emails, storage in the drive, and recent activity all being immediately visible upon opening on the browser making it a great option for users to track their activity and resume from where they left off.
This is also true for the Android and IOS apps that are available for mobile devices, plus the format is quite similar so depending on which you use more often, switching over to the other is very easy.
Value For Money
This only really applies if you have a good amount of staff and are willing to payout for the more premium plans of either. Assuming you are willing to invest, Google’s offering beyond the email services such as more storage without any caps can prove to be beneficial for many organizations. If there are 5 users for the plan, this should cost the business a minimum of $12 a month depending on the storage capacity. With Microsoft’s similar plans costing around $12.50 a month, however, their offering is limited to 1TB only.
Security
Although both contenders in the Gmail vs Outlook for business battle offer the same amount of security, Gmail’s security is always active by default. Compared to Outlook express email, a user must turn on the encryption by themselves. Although this is not a technical task and can be done easily, many people are simply unaware of this and would continue to use the services without prior knowledge of turning on the encryption. This can lead to hackers stealing all your business’s confidential data before it is too late.
Customer Support
Both Google and Microsoft have a wide support network but Google has a 24/7 service. On the other hand, Microsoft customer support is not that active and can take a while before you connect with a representative.
There is also the fact that Google has links to community forums where your problems might’ve already been dealt with, that way you can go through your problem without even having to contact any support staff.
Extensions
For this category, the Gmail vs Outlook for business is not even a fight as Gmail provides significantly more supported extensions. Plus these are supported on the browser version of Gmail as well when compared to Outlook which only supports extensions on their application. There are a variety of extensions on Gmail that can benefit a business and these are not available on Outlook.
Cons
Features
This is the one category in the Gmail vs Outlook for business battle where Outlook dominates Gmail. Having significantly more features to make your workflow easier, Outlook takes the win on this. You could say that Gmail is more streamlined but that does come at the cost of user functionality.
Storage
As mentioned above, this is pretty much a non-issue if you are to go with any of the business subscriptions. For free use and the personal subscription, Google does fall behind though.
Organization
Though less straightforward, Gmail’s solution isn’t bad as you can still separate them and organize them just not as much as Outlook express email. It’s just that you need to get used to Gmail’s format.
Outlook
For a lot of people, Outlook may seem quite new in the Microsoft suite with it only being a thing really in 2012. So what is Outlook used for? Well, emails of course as this article suggests, but where does it belong in the business space considering the more established and recognizable email services?
For anybody using Microsoft 365, it would make sense to use it considering all the up-to-date features it has, Outlook does not fall behind much. Here are a few advantages of considering Outlook when it comes to Gmail vs Outlook for business.
Pros
Features
Gmail does have an edge with its interface but the reason behind this is that Outlook has a lot more features that are hidden behind a ribbon. Although this may make navigation of the application more unwieldy, it pays back by having notable tools to make work faster. This is through several customizable rules that can be set allowing you to set templates and save them. So depending on who you’re messaging, you can have an appropriate introduction and sign off immediately.
There is also the archive feature which keeps the marked emails but takes them out of the main inbox. For receiving emails, you can set several specifications to try and sort emails as they come in. And finally, there is the calendar and scheduling tool which unlike the Google version is built into Outlook itself rather than being an extension.
Storage
Both Gmail and Outlook express email use a separate drive application and both provide a 15GB storage space for free users. The offer from Outlook however with Microsoft 365 is at 50GB compared to Google’s 30GB with either of the basic plans.
Organization
Gmail’s offering in this case is still quite usable but Outlook provides a much more familiar system of folders and subfolders. Making workers accustomed to computer work, employees in a business immediately understand and come to grips with the systems Microsoft implements. This is a great advantage that Google is not able to provide. So if you’re wondering “what is Outlook used for”, the organizational aspects of it is something that a business might consider.
Cons
Interface
Using a ribbon, the features are hidden and not immediately seen. This can be a problem for new users or users who do not explore the features and functionalities of an application before using it. However, those who are tech-savvy should not face any problems in the interface department.
Value For Money
In larger organizations, the G Suite can easily reason out why it’s more reasonable, especially if the workers need a lot of cloud space. Although 50 cents a month won’t make a huge difference, the value of money in using Outlook is not up to par when compared with Gmail.
Security
The manual encryption feature can be a huge problem for an organization but if the staff is willing to do extra work to set up the program for use, then it shouldn’t be a concern.
Customer Support
Microsoft does not provide 24/7 customer support which can seem a bit odd for such a large company. However, they do offer regular customer service which should still be more than enough for a business even though it might be more time-consuming.
Extensions
In this category, you might ask what Outlook is used for? The lack of support for most extensions in Outlook is quite baffling seeing as to how they do provide support for some services like Grammarly.
When compared to Gmail, you might start to wonder what Microsoft was thinking. Gmail offers support for pretty much any extension which may also ensure productivity at the workplace, Microsoft does lack in this department.
Outlook Vs Gmail – Other Factors To Consider
Listed above are the more measurable differences between the two services when it comes to Gmail vs Outlook for business.
But in some cases, the difference is sort of negligible like with the security. This being one that can very easily be remedied and there are a few more things like this that might not really play into the Gmail vs Outlook for business but still sort of matter for personal use. Because of this, a number of these points can be very minor or are points we’ve gone over but don’t really matter for personal use.
Ads
The only real difference between the two services is where the ads are placed. Of course, ads do only appear for free users but it is still a factor to consider. Besides that, both services allow you to customize what ads you see to make it interesting or at the very least less intrusive. It may be something you want to consider in the Gmail vs Outlook for business argument.
Security
Honestly, the win for Gmail is by a very slim margin. Adjusting the security or turning it on in Outlook is not a huge hassle and can be done by anyone. When it comes to security, Gmail wins by a huge margin, not in Gmail vs Outlook for business but more in Outlook vs Gmail for day-to-day use.
This is because you’ll probably feel safer making a Gmail account rather than an Outlook one for your grandparents, or just anyone that’s less tech literate. This ensures that they can send and receive encrypted emails without having to do any extra work.
Search Functionality
This is another small thing that in the Gmail vs Outlook for business does weigh slightly in the favor of Gmail. The search functionality on Gmail allows for a slightly smarter search engine that can sort through all emails with a phrase. But when compared to how it’s easier to organize with Outlook, for us it sort of balances out with Outlook’s simpler search bar.
Customizability
Here, by customization, we mean aesthetic appeal. This part is not for Gmail vs Outlook for business but leans more towards Outlook vs Gmail for personal use. In this case, Gmail wins as you can set anything while Outlook only has a handful of presets.
Gmail Vs Outlook For Business- Gmail Is The Winner!
In the battle of Gmail vs Outlook for business, it is a clear win for Gmail. Naturally, though going through the pros and cons there may be things that you are willing to trade-off for a loss in another category.
Doing this especially for a business, it would be a great idea to discuss with other staff that will use this service. That way the people can get what they prefer.
As for personal use, consider the pros and cons, plus the more mundane differences. It should be clear which one to go for. In the end, it’s best to choose based on which service suits your business needs better but in our comparison of Gmail vs Outlook for business, Gmail takes the lead.
