Gartner: Many Companies Quit Microsoft 365 for Google Workspace Out of Spite, but Don’t Save Money

Companies that leave Microsoft 365 for Google Workspace often do it out of frustration, not to save money, and the numbers back up that warning. Domenico Scriva, a senior principal analyst at Gartner, told the firm’s IT Symposium in Australia on Sept. 15 that spite is one of the main reasons organizations switch, and that the move is unlikely to save them much, The Register reported.

The $2 gap

Google Workspace licenses cost less than Microsoft’s E5 bundle, which Scriva called the most popular M365 license. But Google’s suite doesn’t cover telephony, security, business intelligence or an operating system license. Once buyers add those, Scriva estimates they’ll pay about $2 a month more per user than for Microsoft’s suite. That holds even though Google bundles Gemini with Workspace and Microsoft charges extra for Copilot.

There are exceptions. Scriva said Workspace can be more cost-effective for fleets of Apple Macs or Chromebooks. Macs last longer than PCs, and Chromebooks cost less up front but need replacing more often.

A two-year project

Those figures don’t include the cost and complexity of migrating. Scriva pointed to dependencies built into each ecosystem and to user training, which organizations often overlook. He said some M365 customers threaten to migrate as a negotiating tactic at renewal. That doesn’t work if they wait too long, because Microsoft knows the move can’t happen quickly. His advice is to start planning almost as soon as you sign a three-year M365 deal, because a migration takes at least two years. Organizations that do move should have a specific outcome in mind beyond swapping one suite for another.

Sovereignty, not savings, drives some exits

Some public-sector moves away from Microsoft have little to do with price. Switzerland’s federal government has started a pilot that gives 3,000 of its roughly 54,000 computers the German-made open-source openDesk suite, running alongside M365, by the end of 2027, TechRadar reported. The goal is digital sovereignty, meaning less dependence on US tech giants whose home-country laws could give American authorities access to government data. TechRadar noted that France and Germany have similar programs.

AI could change the math

Scriva said productivity suites have barely changed in 30 years, which makes it hard right now to find an outcome that justifies a move. He expects AI to change that. The current wave of AI helps people create content. A coming third wave, he predicted, will replace individual apps like word processors and presentation tools with an AI interface where users describe what they want done. Until then, the numbers suggest a switch made out of irritation is unlikely to pay off.