Google Workspace vs. Office 365: Which is better for students?

Students' top choice Office 365 Education Great collaboration tools Google Workspace Education Fundamentals. You can get an Office 365 Education free subscription with your school email address. This subscription gives you access to Word Excel PowerPoint and OneDrvie. Students and teachers can collaborate through OneNote, Teams, and you can keep track of emails and deadlines using Outlook. Access to eight Office programs for free at Microsoft ProsReal-time collaboration with teams through the use of TeamsCompatible with multiple devicesAdministrators may see saved files. Google Workspace allows for real-time collaboration across all Google apps including Docs and Sheets. Meetings can be held virtually through Meets. You can also sync your Gmail account and Google Calendar app to receive reminders about due dates and the time for scheduled meetings. Google Drive offers a lot of online storage. Google Pros: Free Access to Google Docs Sheets and SlidesCollaboration toolsGmail Cons School Partnership is required to access school emailIt is difficult to use collaborative features.Before you decide on Google Workspace vs. Office 365: First, check if you have access to the services as a student at your school. Many schools and school districts have an education partnership with Microsoft or Google. Some of these services are available to students. To be compatible with the same apps, it would be smart for you to download the school's preferred program to your device.If you would like an account that is separate from your school's or if your school does not offer free access to students, we recommend Office 365 Education. You can still get an account for a student even if they don't have a contract. You only need a valid school email account. Office 365 Education allows you to access all Office programs and Teams. It's a collaboration tool that comes with lots of cloud storage.Compare the twoGoogle Workspace for Education Fundamentals - Office 365 Student $0 $0 No school license needed N Y Includes programs Word, Excel and PowerPoint.Here are some facts about Office 365 EducationAn Office 365 Education subscription gives you access to eight Office programs including Outlook, Word Excel, PowerPoint, and Excel. Access to 12 Microsoft services like OneDrive and SharePoint are also available. Office 365 is hosted in the cloud so it doesn’t take up much space on your computer. You can access all of its programs and saved projects anywhere, anytime. Log in to your online portal to access everything, from OneNote to Publisher.You can pin apps to Android phones and tablets to get quick access. Additionally, you can also download Office programs to your computer or laptop to work offline. To keep your subscription active, however, you'll need to log in to your online account frequently.Microsoft Teams, a live chat program, is included with your Office 365 Education subscription. It allows you to talk in real time with teachers and students, as well as people from your study group. You can make channels that are specific to a class or project. Or you can use Slack for more privacy. You can also call your colleagues or host a conference with up 50 people from within Teams. The Teams Hub viewing window allows you to share documents and allow everyone to have direct access. This means that everyone can edit, add and collaborate on the project simultaneously. All copies of the files, even those stored in OneDrive, will be automatically updated as soon as they are modified.One thing to note about Office 365 Education. If you have access through your school, administrators, teachers, collaborators and other staff can see personal information and files that you have saved. Administrators can set the rules for OneDrive so that files cannot be deleted or data is not saved. Microsoft will connect your Education account to your school account if it becomes available. We do not recommend that you use this program for your personal use. To keep your personal files and documents confidential, you can purchase an Office 365 Personal account. This account is separate from your school account. The subscription costs approximately $70 per annum.Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals: All About ItGoogle Workspace was formerly known as G Suite. Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals includes a number of collaboration tools, including Meets and Classroom. Each tool allows for instant communication and collaborative project creation with multiple people. To help everyone get on the right page, Meets allows you to chat or hold video conference calls. Google Meets also records meetings and saves them in your Drive so that they can be referred to later or shared with others. This is only a temporary benefit and will not be available for accounts that are free until January 2022. To continue using this feature, you will need to have access or purchase the two most prestigious Google education programs.Google Workspace users also have the option to use Classroom as a collaboration tool. Each teacher can manage Classroom to assign homework, send reminders, gather and grade finished projects, and share virtual handouts and study materials. To foster collaboration, educators can assign groups of projects to Classroom and create study group.Google Workspace allows you to share files stored in Drive with other people and allows them access the files and make edits in real-time. You can do this by sharing a link. It allows you to see which files are being edited by others. It's not intuitive and there is a delay. Multiple edits can cause confusion. Google tracks changes and will not make them permanent without consent.Google Workspace's Office programs like Docs and Sheets work in a similar way to Microsoft Office programs. Most features and tools are located in the same places and the program uses many of the same shortcuts. Workspace allows you to view, edit, and open Office documents, spreadsheets and slideshows. However, to do this, you will need to convert them to a Google format. This can change the formatting and fonts of your projects, and may require some additional work from you. We also noticed that certain tools and functions are not available in Workspace. It's difficult to achieve the same results in Workspace because some macro functions from Excel are not available in Google Sheets.Google Workspace Education Fundamentals has one major drawback: Students can't create an account until their school has a subscription. Teachers can't sign-up or use the tools until they have a partnership with Google.Google Workspace offers four education programs. One is free for schools, their teachers, and students. Teachers can integrate this program at school to create individual Classrooms and give access to Workspace for their students with a school email address. This will allow them to foster collaboration and learning. To access Google Drive and other office programs, students are allowed to create a Google One account. Personal accounts can't be used to access Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals.Compatibility with Office 365 and Google WorkspaceBoth Office 365 as well as Google Workspace can be accessed from any device. This includes Macs. Logging into your account via a web browser will give you access to all of your programs, files, apps, and settings. You can download apps to Office 365 or Workspace to view and edit files. However, each program requires its own app. You can access any file saved with compatible programs by installing the Google Drive and OneDrive apps. This app allows you to share and edit files.Chromebooks can be used to access Workspace and other Google cloud programs. If you're a 365 user, however, you can log in to your online account from Chromebook and access its programs using an internet browser. This is just as you would do with a laptop or computer.Google Workspace and Office 365 both offer offline access to programs. Workspace users can indicate that they would like to access a particular file offline from within a Google app. The file will be updated in the cloud program once the device is connected to the internet.You can use Office 365 offline by downloading the Office programs to a compatible laptop running Windows. When you sign up for Office 365, you have the option to install Office programs locally. However, you can also download them anytime during your active subscription. To keep your online Office 365 subscription active and to sync offline changes, you must log in to the cloud-based program at minimum once per 30 days. Microsoft will remind you to do so, so you don’t have to remember.Let's wrap it all.You can choose between Office 365 Education or Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals by first finding out which one you use at school. Asking a teacher or talking to someone from student services is all that's required. You will be able to communicate with your teachers in the same program and access the same collaboration tools.It is up to you to decide if you do not need to use a particular program to work with your classmates or teacher. One program can be used over another, or you can mix and match the programs. Both Office 365 and Google Workspace are cloud-based so you don't have to worry about hard drive space.Office 365 Education is our favorite program and we love Google. This is because the program is free to download as long as your child or you are a student with a verified school email address. Even if your school does not have a Microsoft contract, students can still access the program for free.Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals can only be accessed by schools that have contracted with Google to use their education program. You can still use Workspace if your school does not have it. However, you can still access an individual Google One account to finish homework assignments. However, you won't be able to use the collaboration tools offered by Google Workspace Education Fundamentals.Our choice Office 365 Education: Free tools to help schools succeed Students receive a free 365 Office Education account that gives them access to Microsoft apps and Office programs, as well as OneDrive and Teams. Microsoft - FreeGoogle Workspace for Education Fundamentals - Real-time Collaboration Google Workspace is free