Checked by Hanny Ramzy on 7 November 2026. We used AI to help write it. We then checked it against our own Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 guides and our price list.
Choose Microsoft 365 if your company works in desktop Excel, Word and Outlook every day, or needs Microsoft device security for company laptops. Choose Google Workspace if your staff edit files together in real time, hold many video meetings, and want AI in every plan at one price per user.
Both are complete office suites. Each gives email on your own domain, a calendar, video meetings, cloud storage and an AI assistant. Office Niaga sells both, so we have no reason to push one. The right choice depends on how your people work today.
The quick decision table
Find the row that sounds most like your company. The right column shows the suite that usually fits better:
| Your situation | Usually the better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Finance or engineering staff live in desktop Excel | Microsoft 365 | Business Standard and Premium include the desktop apps on up to five PCs or Macs per user |
| Staff edit the same file at the same time | Google Workspace | Docs, Sheets and Slides let people edit together in real time |
| You want AI help in email on the cheapest plan | Google Workspace | Gemini in Gmail is on every Business plan, including Business Starter |
| You manage company laptops and need malware protection | Microsoft 365 | Business Premium adds Intune, Defender for Business and Defender for Office 365 |
| You need large shared storage | Either | Workspace pools 2 TB per user on Business Standard. Microsoft gives 1 TB of OneDrive per user |
| Your meetings are mostly in Malay | Check first | Gemini meeting notes do not support Malay yet |
| Most staff only send email | Neither suite | Our Office Niaga Mail costs less |
Office files and Excel-heavy work
Start with this question if your team keeps its work in Excel files. For many companies, it decides the choice.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Business Premium let each user install Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five phones. Business Basic gives the web and mobile apps only. If your work depends on desktop Excel, start with Microsoft 365.
Google Workspace includes Docs, Sheets and Slides on every plan. They work well for shared documents, trackers and reports that many people edit. Gemini in Sheets works only on Google Sheets files, so you must save an Excel file as a Google Sheet first.
Email, meetings and collaboration
Both suites give professional email on your own domain. Microsoft lists a 100 GB mailbox on each business plan. Google pools storage for each user across Gmail and Drive: 30 GB on Business Starter, 2 TB on Business Standard and 5 TB on Business Plus.
For meetings, Google Meet is in every Workspace plan. Business Starter allows 100 participants, Business Standard allows 150 with recording, and Business Plus allows 500. Microsoft includes Teams on its business plans, and also sells “(no Teams)” versions. Read the plan name on a quotation carefully.
Gmail also works with Outlook. A team can move to Google Workspace and some staff can keep Outlook on their desk.
AI: Gemini or Copilot
Both suites have a free AI chat and a deeper AI feature. The plan you buy decides what you get:
- Google Workspace. Gemini in Gmail, the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook work on every Business plan. Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive, and Meet notes, need Business Standard or higher.
- Microsoft 365. Copilot Chat is included at no extra cost on Business Basic, Standard and Premium. Microsoft 365 Apps for business does not include it. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on lets Copilot work across your email, files, meetings and chats.
On work accounts, both Google and Microsoft say that they do not use your prompts and files to train their AI models. Both assistants see only what each user can already open. Gemini in Docs supports Malay today, but Gmail Help me write and Meet notes do not yet.
Our guides go deeper: Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Meet and does anyone use Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Admin, security and data location
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is strong on device security. It adds Microsoft Intune for laptops and phones, Defender for Business against malware and ransomware, and Defender for Office 365 for email. It also includes an upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
Google Workspace Business Plus adds Google Vault to keep, archive and search data. It also adds advanced endpoint management, eDiscovery and Secure LDAP. Google Workspace Enterprise adds data loss prevention for larger or regulated organisations.
Data location matters for government agencies and GLCs. Microsoft lists Malaysia, with a data centre region in Kuala Lumpur, as a local region for Microsoft 365. The written commitment to keep Copilot data at rest in Malaysia needs the Advanced Data Residency or Multi-Geo add-on.
Microsoft designed its business plans for up to 300 users. For a larger company, both vendors have enterprise plans.
Cost and billing in Ringgit
Google Workspace prices are Google’s list price in Ringgit, per user, per year:
- Business Starter: RM350.40 (RM175.20 in the first year, for the first 20 users)
- Business Standard: RM700.80 (RM420.48 in the first year, for the first 20 users)
- Business Plus: RM1,100.40
- Enterprise: on request
A one-off RM100 setup fee and 8% SST apply at checkout. We issue a Malaysian SST tax invoice and a MyInvois e-invoice, and you can pay by card, FPX, DuitNow QR, e-wallet, BNPL or purchase order. See all plans in Google Workspace pricing in Malaysia.
We do not publish Microsoft 365 prices on this site yet. Ask us for a Microsoft 365 quote and we will put both suites side by side for your headcount.
One more cost rule applies to Google Workspace. An upgrade moves every user. You can mix plans only when each plan has 20 or more seats. Read can you mix Google Workspace plans?
Migration
A change of suite takes planning. We move email, calendars and contacts for you, and your domain stays yours, so every address stays the same. Our migration page explains how we move a team to Google Workspace.
Before any move, follow these steps:
- Make a list of the Excel and Word files that your team uses every day.
- Find out which staff need desktop apps and which staff need only email.
- Check your data residency rules with your data protection officer.
- Test the new suite with a small group before everyone moves.
If your plan names confuse you, read Office 365 vs Microsoft 365 first.
How we checked this guide
Every Microsoft fact comes from our earlier guides, which we checked against Microsoft’s own pages in September 2026. Every Google fact comes from our Gemini guide and our price list. We did not include Microsoft 365 prices. We used AI to help write this guide, and Hanny Ramzy checked it on 7 November 2026.
Still not sure?
WhatsApp our team on +60 16-916 3324 and tell us how your team works. We sell both, so we will tell you plainly which one fits. You can also try our Google Workspace price calculator.
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Hanny Ramzy runs Office Niaga at Web Impian Sdn. Bhd. (SSM 920163-H) in Kota Bharu, Malaysia, helping businesses and agencies move to Google Workspace and business email with Ringgit billing and local support.