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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Google Workspace Essentials

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AGoogle now offers Google Workspace Essentials (formerly G Suite Essentials), providing a solution for users of Outlook or Office whose teams want to use Google Meet and Google Apps without needing to involve a personal gmail account. Google Workspace Essentails includes Google Slides, Sheets, and Docs, as well as Google Meet, Google Drive, Forms, Sites, and Keep, in a bundle minus a gmail account. Basic Essentials supports (via Meet) meetings with up to 150 participants, and Google Drive with…

    $8

    per month per user

    Microsoft Viva Engage

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Viva Engage, formerly Yammer, is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups.

    $24

    per year per user

    Pricing
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft Viva Employee Communications and Communities
    $24
    per year per user
    Microsoft Viva Suite
    $144
    per year per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Microsoft Viva Engage is also available in some Microsoft 365 packages.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Considered Both Products
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    86%
    Would buy again
    19 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    17 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    79%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    13 Answers
    Features
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Google Workspace Essentials and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Google Workspace Essentials
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    8.7
    46 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Task Management00 Ratings9.128 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings8.815 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings8.423 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.723 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings8.843 Ratings
    Search00 Ratings8.343 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings8.926 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Google Workspace Essentials and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Google Workspace Essentials
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    8.6
    49 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Chat00 Ratings9.444 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings8.349 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings9.748 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings9.638 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings9.338 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings7.314 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings6.713 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings8.632 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Google Workspace Essentials and Microsoft Viva Engage
    Feature
    Google Workspace Essentials
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Viva Engage
    9.1
    42 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Versioning00 Ratings9.728 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings9.436 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings9.434 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings9.135 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings8.433 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Small Businesses
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft 365 Business Premium
    Score9 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (20 ratings)
    8.9
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (5 ratings)
    8.9
    (9 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Google Workspace EssentialsMicrosoft Viva Engage
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Google
    Well-suited for: Fast-paced drafting ideas, docs, charts, sheets, etc. Love it for client calls as well. Google Meet runs in a web browser; you don't need to download any special software. Shared Drives are great for sharing information; the ability to add a Google Notebook to them is the icing on the cake. It is less appropriate when Wi-Fi or the internet is spotty, or when you need heavy-duty Excel macro data crunching.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Yammer is great when you have a company culture that encourages friendly collaboration and communication. It can be a great supplement (but certainly not a substitute) for bonding and sharing ideas and thoughts. Certain channels can be really successful, too, like a channel where people can post dog pictures or something fun like that!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Google
    • Google Docs & Google Slides are essential to our company as we are remote. Multiple people can work on the documents at one time.
    • Easy to share and store files in Google Drive.
    • Google Calendar is amazing, it integrates seamlessly with other Google products and it's our company's primary calendar tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Providing a platform for social news in the company where "bottom up" topics can percolate freely across department
    • Social networking across the company where folks can divide their work into topics instead of teams
    • Basic collaboration within a group including document sharing with ability to pin documents to a team
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Google
    • Record option to be there in Google meet
    • ability to share documents outside google accounts need to be looked at
    • Improvement in conversion to MS office based documents and converting those documents to googles format needs a little work.
    • Will be good to have a pdf to word converter and vice versa
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Although the social enterprise network works very well, there is room for some slight improvement - such as the ability to attract users. By being part of the Microsoft Office Suite, it is offered as an "add-on" and many overlook it and see it as unnecessary at first. It would be smart for Microsoft to sell it as its own product so it could gather more popularity as a "social network".
    • Giving an option to filter results could be better as well as giving an option to turn off the "recent activity" bar on the home page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Google
    Now that our department has used G Suite Essentials for close to 2 years, I can't imagine not using it. It has proven to be a very practical tool for sharing files / folders on a shared drive. It also makes it easy to modify and update content. It is user friendly and the interface is simple.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft is dedicated to continual improvement on Yammer. They realize the value that Yammer brings to the table with their clients. In the short time that we have had Yammer implemented, we are just now beginning to see the strong impact it has on becoming more effective and efficient around collaboration.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Google
    It is so easy to use, very intuitive and the site looks nice. There is no hint of the old DOS days in the look and functionality. Let's be real, Google Workspace Essentials is attractive and easy on the eyes and even offers a dark mode if you want to rest your eyes a bit or are in a mood for such
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Overall easy to use and intuitive, although limited in the possibility to personalize layout and look & feel of a site. Some functionalities are not easy to use, like document editing, but some others are quick and effective (posts and tagging above all). Performance and responsiveness of the Yammer site is typically acceptable, in my experience.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Very available
    Read full review
    Performance
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It's a simple product but it does provide value.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We have never had to use the support for Yammer. The tool works well and we have not come across any bugs. User Interface is simple and easy to use, similar to other forum type products, thereby removing the need for any extensive training. Team members are invited in and immediately are able to start using the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The training that Microsoft provides is very generic training for Yammer. I like the fact the training is short and easy to understand
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We organically implemented the product
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Google
    Google Workspace Essentials is more robust than Dropbox with the other features that are available. Google Workspace Essentials is very comparable to Microsoft 365, and we ultimately went with Google because at the time, it was free/priced better than MS, and now we have lots of legacy files already stored on Google servers, so a switch would be too time-consuming. We went with Google Workspace Essentials over OpenOffice because of the email features of using Google.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Our team briefly used Salesforce.com's Chatter product before switching over to Yammer in 2012. While Chatter is essentially the same product as Yammer, it left much to be desired. Chatter's design was (and remains) clunky and difficult to navigate. Yammer is a simple, easy-to-use product that offers similar functionality as Salesforce's Chatter.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Google
    • Our fundraising and development efforts nearly doubled 2020-2022, largely in part to the organizational tools within Google Workspace Essentials.
    • We've opened up the capacity to work more closely with contractors in a more collaborative nature because of GWE's capabilities.
    • It was integral to our brand overhaul.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • My company is pleased with the positive impact Yammer has created departmentally and on an individual basis with work flow efficiency.
    • Adversely, most old and new employees are more familiar with SharePoint, causing the company to pay for training for all current and incoming employees.
    • As Yammer becomes more widely used, the need for training may diminish, which is where we will see our return on investment, as the product clearly provides a more effective form of file sharing and communication between employees and their department.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots