Google Apps vs Office 365 (2013 Edition)

[Jollity]

Now we have a chance to use the Office 2013 version of Office 365, what are people's thoughts on how it compares to Google Apps? What are the pros and cons of each?


I have been managing a Live@Edu, now Office 365, domain and my general experience has been okay but not great. I am now involved in another school's decision to go to one or the other.

[CyberNerd]

In a nutshell, Theres nothing Office 365 does that GAPPS doesn't do - but theres plenty that GAPPS does that you don't get in Office365.

[elsiegee40]

In a nutshell, Theres nothing Office 365 does that GAPPS doesn't do - but theres plenty that GAPPS does that you don't get in Office365.

For example?

[CyberNerd]

For example?

More Google applications - Google Apps Help
http://support.google.com/a/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=20012&parent=&ctx=topic
https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/?pli=1

[Jollity]

My biggest concern about Office 365, as we currently have, is the lack of easy web storage/synchronisation - since Skydrive was removed when we were upgraded to Office 365. However I admit I have not had a chance to get sharepoint into use, so maybe this could have been rectified. I am delighted to hear that SkyDrive Pro is in the new edition, and that sounds as if it might be even easier to work with than google drive, with the Office 2013 integration.

From my experience of using Gmail at home, I found Google Apps a lot slicker to use - feeling designed for the web rather than made to look like Outlook desktop. I also thought not being able to overlay different calendars was a real limitation of the Office 365 calendar. However from the brief look I have had so far Office 365 2013 is feeling a lot better designed, and at last I can overlay calendars.

[Jollity]

More Google applications - Google Apps Help
Other Google Apps services - Google Apps Helphttps://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/?pli=1

Range of applications seems a good pro for Google Apps. Can you give us some examples of some you have found useful?

I would be concerned with some apps about whether they could be made safe for us to use - I should have mentioned it is a primary school I am looking at migrating.

[CyberNerd]

Picasa, Drive sync, Plus (in trial), video, groups, gantter, sliderocket, sites, blogger, appengine are a few.
You wouldn't be able to use plus in a primary.

[Edu-IT]

Does Google Apps integrate nicely without Outlook for things like Calendaring? (General question...)

I've heard people say it doesn't work as well with Outlook as 365, but, not entirely sure if they're just biased?

Edit: Seems they may be right.
http://support.google.com/a/users/bi...&answer=156466

Edit: Pretty good breakdown here of what does work with Outlook and what doesn't, assuming you use Outlook at the moment.
http://www.google.com/support/enterp...sync_chart.pdf

[Jollity]

I am not sure if it is relevant or not that Google dropped support for using Google Apps Sync with the free version of Google Apps. This does not affect the education or business version at the moment, but I wonder if it indicates an ultimate intention to drop it entirely - probably not, it is probably about pushing businesses to pay.

[Michael]

I also thought not being able to overlay different calendars was a real limitation of the Office 365 calendar. However from the brief look I have had so far Office 365 2013 is feeling a lot better designed, and at last I can overlay calendars.

Thanks for this. This is one feature I get asked about a lot