Almost every company that contacts us has one of three setups: email on cPanel hosting next to the website, Google Workspace, or Microsoft 365. This article does not compare feature lists. It looks at the differences you feel in daily work, and says when it makes sense to move from one to another.
A note on the name: Office 365 has been called Microsoft 365 since 2020. We use the new name in the text and kept the old one in the title because most people still search for it.
The three options in short
Microsoft 365 is a suite where email runs on Exchange Online, alongside Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. The applications work on the desktop and in the browser.
Google Workspace is Gmail on your own domain, with Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar and Meet. Everything runs in the browser, and real-time collaboration on the same document is the main strength.
cPanel email comes with most shared hosting packages that host the website. You get addresses on your domain, webmail (usually Roundcube) and IMAP/SMTP for Outlook or Thunderbird. There is no calendar, no documents and no video calls.
What differs in practice
1. Whether the email arrives
With cPanel email you share the server IP address with other hosting customers. If one of them sends spam, your domain ends up on a blocklist too, and you find out when a client says they received nothing. You set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC yourself, and mailbox size limits are often small.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace send from infrastructure whose reputation is protected, the spam and phishing filters are serious, and DKIM is enabled with a single DNS record.
2. Security
With cPanel email the password is the only lock. Two-factor authentication usually does not exist, and webmail is often on old versions. When an employee leaves, someone with hosting access has to remember to close the account.
Both platforms have 2FA, sign-in logs, remote session termination and an admin console where an account is closed in one click and the mailbox handed to a colleague.
3. Collaboration
Microsoft 365 has Teams and shared calendars and mailboxes through Exchange, and documents are edited in the desktop applications everyone knows. Google Workspace is better when several people work on the same document at the same time in the browser. cPanel email offers none of this.
4. Price
Prices change and depend on the plan, so we do not list them here. Roughly: the basic plans of both platforms cost a few euros per user per month, and cPanel email is usually included in the hosting price. The difference per user is small. The difference is in what you get for the money, and what one lost email or one still-active account of a former employee costs you.
5. Who looks after it
Both platforms have an admin console and a clear procedure for new and departing staff, licences and devices. With cPanel email that is usually the person who built the website, who is often no longer around.
Which solution is right for you
cPanel email makes sense for one to three people who use only email and do not exchange sensitive data. If you stay on it, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, use long passwords and back up the mailbox.
Google Workspace is the right choice if the team works mostly in the browser, shares documents and uses mixed devices: Mac, Windows, Chromebook, Android.
Microsoft 365 is the right choice if you use Windows and desktop Office, need Exchange with shared calendars and mailboxes, Teams for meetings, or a link to Active Directory or Entra ID.
If you have five or more people on cPanel email, it is time to move. The three most common reasons companies contact us: lost or undelivered email, a domain on a blocklist, and a former employee who still has access.
What the move looks like
We migrate email history, contacts and calendars from the existing system, whether that is cPanel, on-premises Exchange or another host. Before the migration we test on a small number of accounts, and we do the switch outside business hours so the interruption is as short as possible. After that we set up 2FA, security policies and accounts, and you can run the administration yourself or leave it to us.
Details are on the Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace page. If you are not sure which platform suits you, get in touch for a free consultation: we look at what you have and propose a plan based on the number of users and how you work.