TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Google Classroom vs. Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Classroom

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AN/A

    $0

    per month

    Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Office 2016 is the familiar suite of Office products including applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for use on a single PC or Mac. The 2016 is no longer available for sale from Microsoft, and support is at an end since 2020.N/A
    Pricing
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    Education Fundamentals
    $0
    per license/per month
    Google Workspace for Education Standard
    $3
    per student/per year
    Teaching and Learning Upgrade
    $4
    per license/per month
    Google Workspace for Education Plus
    $5
    per student/per year
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsEducation Fundamentals Version - 30-day free trial for qualifying institutions.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    The only similar products I have used would be Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides. These are similar, but Microsoft Office products have more functionality.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    37 Answers
    93%
    Would buy again
    50 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    52 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    19 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    40 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    41 Answers
    Features
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Google Classroom and Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Feature
    Google Classroom
    7.4
    60 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring8.752 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library7.639 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal6.538 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning content8.141 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly7.757 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications7.144 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments7.158 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management6.934 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration7.346 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics6.842 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social learning8.751 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gamification3.98 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.812 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Teachable
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Microsoft 365 Business Premium
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (80 ratings)
    7.5
    (64 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.1
    (11 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.9
    (14 ratings)
    8.0
    (45 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google ClassroomMicrosoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Google Classroom allows teachers to post for daily lessons and assignments. It also allows teachers to be able to communicate with students easily outside of class. Students are able to stay connected and know where to find all information and resources easily in a streamlined manner for all of their classes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I'd recommend [Microsoft] Office2016 for any business that has more than a couple of users, as the software is very scalable from just a small business to a large enterprise corporation. I don't know of any case where it might not be appropriate, as even home users and students use the software suite as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for.
    • Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails.
    • Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Data manipulation. Excel takes the raw data we receive and allows us to digest it in ways that are useful to our business processes.
    • Communication. Outlook serves as our primary means of communication and setting up appointments.
    • Documentation. Word is the default standard when it comes to using a word processor and we are no different in this regard. Nearly every user has to use the application on a regular basis in order to accomplish their work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • The content management of the Classroom is not that good. The sub-section for notes, syllabus, or discussion is missing.
    • It doesn't have parental control feature.
    • It converts the excel output into a normal file. All the formulas and pivots got changed into plain text.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Office 2016 professional edition can be priced for a single user license, it would be nice to see a drop in the pricing.
    • Office 2016 home edition is a better price but does not include outlook 2016, so it is not a good fit for the workplace environments.
    • Office 2016 can run slowly on older systems, so you need to make sure you have a machine that is 4 years old or less for it to run smoothly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    We believe that office 2016 offers the best value when it comes to features included out of the box. The software is used in its entirety by our organization and is easily supported by our staff of IT technicians. Users find this software to be easy to learn and easy to use with minimal learning curve.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    Simple design and seamless integration with Google tools and drive, but missing some key features. However, since it is limited in overall functions and ability to truly personalize / customize, it is quite user friendly and easy to set up and get going, other than sending out the code to your course or dropping students in via their gmail account. Users of Google Forms and sites will find the layout similar in design.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    It's fairly easy to use, but the automatic formatting or capturing of formatting when pasting is wonky - especially when there are outlines or other bullets/numbered lists. Fixing and sizing up tables can be annoying, and there are sometimes formatting issues that we just absolutely cannot fix for some reason
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Google
    Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    I am an MS feedback hub participant and they certainly don't pay enough attention to several bugs several people raise it in the portal. For the enterprise, it seems to me based on my prior experience that yes, they have a dedicated team to support operations. For mid to small companies or single users, it has been a struggle. So, you are pretty much with MS Blogs and others.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    I haven't tested or evaluated another digital classroom website or application. I feel like Google Classroom is convenient for many reasons such as compatibility to Google docs, slides, etc. I also love the ability to link to YouTube and other sites. I don't know if there would be a site that is easier to maneuver.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    We use Microsoft Office 2016 because at the time it was the best tool for us, but now with full attention to cloud products, we may be thinking of migrating our solution to a cloud service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Google
    It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • Students are able to continue learning in a remote environment
    • Parents have a single, consistent organization structure to make it easy to track assignments and progress for multiple children
    • Much better solution than the quickly assembled Zoom-and-gloom of the previous spring when school abruptly went remote with no planning
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Microsoft Office 2016 saves me a lot of time daily. I have functions and macros set up that calculate and show me a lot of things just from a couple of my inputs. This would take full days sometimes if not for that.
    • Apart from time, it saves me money, I manage data in Excel, I don't have to buy software specifically for that.
    • Sooner or later my company will have to switch to new edition, which will hurt revenues because of a subscription model.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots