When speaking of business productivity suites, two of the most popular service providers available today are Google and Zoho. Zoho Workplace is a business productivity suite that can be used for managing emails, collaborating and communicating with groups, and handling documents. It comes with tools like Zoho Mail, sheet, cliq, show, and writer. Zoho promises to provide seamless integration and better efficiency in managing modern day workplaces.
Google Workspace, on the other hand, comes with an extensive set of cloud-based productivity tools. Some of the tools that your will find in workspace are Gmail, sheets, docs, meet, and drive. What makes Google Workspace a more superior competitor over Zoho is its real-time collaboration and robust security features that proves to be perfect choice for businesses seeking scalability and efficiency.
However, each comes with its own set of features and benefits. While Zoho has a unified platform, Google Workspace promises a more feature-rich environment for the business users. The Gmail from Workspace is a feature-rich emailing platform and provides users with greater flexibility and security compared to Zoho email. In fact, we have interviewed a lot of users who have nodded their votes towards Gmail as a more user-friendly and secured mailing platform.
Here is a comparison chart that highlights the key features of Zoho and Google Workspace to help you decide which is right for your business:
| Feature | Google Workspace | Zoho |
|---|---|---|
| Office Applications | Docs Sheets Slides Drive Meet Gmail Chat Currents Forms Sites App Script Cloud Search Admin Endpoint Vault Work Insights |
Zoho Writer Sheet Show (web apps) |
| Gmail | Zoho Mail | |
| Video Conferencing | Google Meet | Zoho Meeting |
| Chat | Google Chat | Zoho Cliq |
| File Storage | Google Drive, Shared Drives | Zoho WorkDrive |
| Collaboration | Real-time collaboration in Docs, Sheets, Slides | Real-time collaboration in Writer, Sheet, Show |
| Notes | Google Keep | Zoho Notebook |
| Security | Two-factor authentication Encryption at rest (for email) Encryption at rest and in transit (for file storage) TLS encryption |
Two-factor authentication Encryption at rest (for email) Encryption at rest and in transit (for file storage) TLS encryption |
| Privacy | Google has gained notoriety for privacy violations, and the company’s privacy policy is challenging to understand. |
NA |
| Technical Support | 24/7 email, chat and phone support Knowledge base Training certifications Support forums |
Knowledge base Self-service ticketing system |
| Storage | Business Starter — 30 GB cloud storage per user Business Standard — 2 TB cloud storage per user Business Plus — 5 TB cloud storage per user Enterprise — Unlimited cloud storage |
Forever Free — 5 GB per user Standard — 30 GB Mail storage per user; 5 GB WorkDrive storage per user Professional — 100 GB Mail storage per user; 100 GB WorkDrive storage per user |
Zoho Workplace or Google Workspace – both are suites filled with several applications to enhance the business work environment. Zoho Workplace comprises of Zoho Mail, Zoho Writer, Zoho Show, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Meeting. Google Workspace comprises of Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Meet.
Zoho comes with a clean and user-friendly interface with impressive controls that assures data privacy and security. However, if you are looking for a more comprehensive set of tools, then you will find Zoho’s interface to be limited. On the other hand, Google Workspace is a class apart compared to Zoho. It features almost all the productivity tools to manage different tasks, be it for writing documents, creating presentation, sending mails, managing video conferences, or doing something else. Google promises seamless integration with every third-party apps and also providers advanced search and filtering features. Although, it may take some additional time to explore such a vast set of tools, Google Workspace is presently reigning supreme with it’s excellent support and great set of features.
In summary, Google Workspace offers a more comprehensive and integrated suite of productivity tools, while Zoho Workplace provides a more focused and customizable set of applications. The choice between the two will depend on the specific needs and requirements of the organization.
With Google Workspace, you can try some of the most effective productivity tools like Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, and Google Photos. It also comes with Google Meet, the tool that offers seamless video conferencing option. Even I have found these features more effective compared to Zoho’s offerings. I have noticed some lags with the Zoho Connect video conferencing app but with Google Meet, the experience was smooth.
Gmail offers a more flexible storage option compared to Zoho. I have paid almost similar amount for each of these suites but noticed Zoho offering less storage option compared to Workspace. The fact is, Google Workspace offers different storage options according to the user’s business needs; this type of transparency and flexibility is missing in Zoho.
One thing I liked about Zoho is that it can sync well with Google Calendar. However, if compared to the integration capability of Google Workspace, then the later always will be a winner. As usual, Google Workspace smoothly integrates with calendar and other Workspace apps within the suite. Apart from this, I have found Google Workspace to be smoothly integrating with different external apps. This makes Google Workspace way ahead of Zoho in terms of flexibility and user-friendliness.
Compared to Zoho WorkDrive that offers generous storage plans, Google Drive comes with robust file sharing facility with seamless integration across the entire Google workspace. The Google Workspace cloud storage comes with flexible data management option to best fit the storage needs of users.
When it comes to security and privacy, both these suites offer 2FA and encryption options. However, Google has recently updated its privacy and security policies to ensure better user data protection. Additionally, Google also offers better data encryption at rest as well in transit for file storage compared to Zoho.
Zoho focuses on budget friendliness for its plans and caters to users of different types. On the other hand, Google Workspace follows tiered pricing structure to suit different business requirements perfectly. Considering the wide range of tools and features of Google Workspace, the plans can be customized to meet the budget and business requirements of clients.
Google Workspace comes with active technical support options comprising of live chat, phone, and email support. The support works 24/7 to address the queries of clients effortlessly. On the other hand, Zoho comes with a self-service ticketing system that fails to impress much due to a laid-back approach to resolve the queries of clients instantly. Although there is an extensive knowledgebase where you will find webinars, user guides, and FAQs, Zoho remains at a back seat when compared to the technical support provisions offered by Google Workspace.
Google Workspace is the productivity suite for today, tomorrow, and days to come with its excellent set of features and active customer support. Google Workspace even offers offline access to documents for accessing and editing that Zoho doesn’t offer. Before we end, Google Workspace with its superior level customization options and robust file management capabilities is a single reason for users to switch from Zoho into this flexible and a user-friendly platform.
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