When we talk about leading tech developers and their platforms, we often don’t pay much attention to their market shares. But rest assured, those operating within these companies are laser focused on this statistic. Every company has a specific market share each year, and beyond net profit, looking closely at the percentage of the market they have as customers is a solid way to evaluate their success. Today I’ll compare Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 Market share as a way to explore the current and historical popularity of two of the most popular office suites used in business and home settings around the globe.
Let’s begin by ironing out some details.
What is Market Share and Why Does it Matter?
Market share refers to the percentage of consumers using a product from the company’s specific, desired market within an industry. It has a big impact on the competitiveness and performance of a business.
When comparing the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) to Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) in terms of their market share, we’re looking at the share of businesses using each product, respectively.
Knowing the market share of a company can offer some security for the financial status of a business. It also gives an idea of the size and competitiveness of a business, compared to its competitors, and the popularity of the products or services it offers.
G Suite (now known as Google Workspace) and Office 365 are the two leading companies that provide software and technology to help businesses and make office work easier.
Here, we will be going into depth about the two companies so that we can decipher whether Workspace or Microsoft 365 has a higher market share, and what to expect from each office productivity suite moving forward.
Now let’s get into it.
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 Market Share Rivalry
Since both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer such similar services, it is no surprise that the two are competing for the top spot in the US market.
Microsoft has been a well-established household name since its early launch. Its vast offering of current products and services only establish its reputation further. This familiarity has always given the company a competitive edge.
In more recent years, G Suite (now Google Workspace) has continued to grow and compete with Office 365 across multiple platforms and tools.
Since Google has the younger product without the track record and user familiarity that Microsoft has, Google’s marketing angle tends to be one of user-friendliness, and cloud-based performance. They offer apps that were developed to function in the cloud, whereas Microsoft’s older desktop apps have been re-hewn to fit the needs of modern businesses (sort of a square peg in a round hole argument).
Recent rivalries between Microsoft and Google include Meet vs Teams, Docs vs Word, Gmail vs Outlook, and more.
Lately, Google Workspace has also gained more attention with their use of artificial intelligence to boost productivity.
With the race to the top, recent market share statistics from previous years will show us the growth between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Market Share Comparison in Recent Years
According to Gartner’s 2019 market research, Microsoft had 87.5% of the email and authoring market share in 2018. Google has 10.4% of the market share. Google Workspace grew 15.6% in 2018, while Microsoft enjoyed only 8% growth.
Microsoft made almost $16 billion in 2018 while Google made $1.9 billion in office suite sales. In 2018, the market was worth $18.2 billion. Google is accumulating an additional 1% of the market share every year, slowly peeling off users from Microsoft’s office suite domination.
| Company | 2017 Revenue | 2018 Revenue | 2017 Market Share | 2018 Market Share | 2017 Growth | 2018 Growth |
| Microsoft | $14.7B | $15.9B | 88.2% | 87.5% | 10.4% | 8% |
| $1.6B | $1.9B | 9.8% | 10.4% | 21.9% | 15.6% |
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 Market Share Globally
Over the years, G Suite (Workspace) and Office 365 (Microsoft 365) continue to dominate the global market for office productivity suite sales.
Millions of companies worldwide use Microsoft 365 as their platform, with the U.S. alone having 600,000 companies using it.
Workspace is constantly experiencing growth in paid business accounts globally. It increased from two million users in 2015 to five million users in 2019.
Like every product, some regions and countries go against the grain. For example in Japan, Google’s Workspace has 63.9% market share while Microsoft 365 has a 35.54% market share.
Now let’s take a closer look at the overall business of Google and Microsoft and their share of different tech markets.
Google Workspace Overview
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is a popular productivity tool that was launched by Google in 2006 and rebranded to Workspace in 2020.
Ever since its inception, G Suite has been a prominent contender among other platforms such as Office and Microsoft 365. Google Workspace offers a variety of different tools such as Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, and more, all bundled at different pricing plans.
There are 3 different pricing plans to choose from, which charge per user per month, and range from personal to professional use.
With a Google Workspace subscription you can access all of Google’s apps and tools at different levels depending on the chosen plan.
What is Google Workspace’s Market Share?
As of August 2020, G Suite has successfully achieved a 59.80% market share. It has current websites of 3,390,799 as well as 28,980 websites added.
With these statistics, I have no doubt that this is on the top among their competitors and continues to grow at a steady pace.
Recent Achievements
Before its launch in 2006, Google offered simple services such as search engine support and its email hosting platform, Gmail.
Since then, Google has come out with many useful online cloud-based productivity tools that allow users to connect and enjoy their services from any device.
With this growing popularity, the launch of G Suite took off at a steady pace as more and more users purchased subscriptions for both personal and professional use.
Here are some recent statistics about Google Workspace:
- Gained over 2 billion active users
- Increase in business clients from 5 million to 6 million paying businesses in the span of just over a year
- Prominent enterprises such as Whirlpool, Colgate, and Verizon cite using G Suite as their main productivity platform for the workplace
- Use of artificial intelligence pushes Google services ahead
- They gain 1% of the office share market annually
Microsoft 365 Overview
Office 365, recently rebranded to Microsoft 365, is a subscription service for productivity tools that first launched in 2011 (some might say it was in response to the success of Google’s subscription model). Since launch, the company has pushed users toward these subscriptions vs one-time purchases.
Similarly to Workspace, users can choose from different pricing plans to accommodate all their office needs.
Some of their tools include Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams, and more.
Microsoft 365 offers Windows 10 included under their pricing plans. With Office, you can access all their apps online, or download offline versions depending on the pricing plan.
Microsoft offers 4 different pricing plans to choose from for business use and 3 for personal use, giving users a lot of options.
What is Microsoft 365’s Market Share?
As of August 2020, Microsoft 365 has 40.06% market share and has 2,271,590 current websites.
It also has the second largest market share next to Workspace. It has held a consistent position over the years, which is being a second most used platform for office work.
Recent Achievements
Microsoft has always been a leading contender in the global market when it comes to producing tech and software for its users. In recent years, we have seen some great changes, such as the brand change from Office 365 to Microsoft 365.
Here are some more recent developments:
- Rebranding to Microsoft 365 to offer more security features
- Launch of search engine services, “Project Cortex”
- More than 1 billion devices using Windows 10 globally
- Microsoft continues to hold roughly 90% of the office suite market
- 200 million active users on a monthly basis
Final Thoughts
Overall, both platforms hold a top spot when it comes to competing both globally and internationally for top cloud services. With the current status quo, and the rapid jump from day-to-day office to working from home, the need for businesses to invest in productivity subscriptions has increased greatly and will only continue to from here.
With that being said, the market shares of each company allow us to better track company growth and dissect the reason behind it.
Currently, Google Workspace trails Microsoft significantly in terms of market share for it’s office suite product, but it holds the number one spot for market shares in the US market in terms of websites running on its platform, which amounts to 59.77% of the US market share.
Meanwhile, Microsoft 365 largely has the office productivity suite market cornered with over 80% of the total market, trailing Google with 40.10% of the website market.
All in all, both Google and Microsoft continue to innovate and offer high quality services for individuals and businesses. There is no doubt that the race to the top will inspire more innovation in the years to come, which is a great thing for consumers.