Google Workspace Review: Our Can't-Live-Without Work Productivity Platform

The recent increase of remote and hybrid workers has shown that collaboration across teams is more important now than ever. Google Workspace makes connecting with team members across the globe easy and seamless. Gone are the days of sharing flash drives or losing final drafts after emailing various documents back and forth. Google Workspace allows users to connect and collaborate with document changes in real time that can be accessed from anywhere.

What is Google Workspace?

Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, is a comprehensive suite of cloud-based collaboration tools that allow for seamless integration among employees.

Google Workspace at a glance.

Pros

• Seamless integration between platforms and team members
• Google Workspace works on all operating systems
• No additional software is required; all you need is already right in your browser!
• Real-time updates on documents means everyone has the most recent version

Cons

• Offline features are only available within Chrome browser
• Each tool has a separate mobile app that must be downloaded to work from your mobile device

What does Google Workspace include?

All of Google Workspace's Business plans include access to Google's expansive suite of tools. Keep reading for details on some of the most commonly used features of Google Workspace.

Gmail

Gmail offers secure and customized business emails for employees and group mailing lists with your chosen domain. Machine learning makes daily tasks easier and safer; built-in security features block 99.9% of spam and phishing attempts and Smart Reply helps you create emails quicker with suggested phrases. Gmail also has a chat feature and integrations with Google Meet, Calendar, and other third-party apps.

Drive

Drive allows users to store and manage all of their files in one secure place. Files are stored in the cloud so users can free up disk space and customizable folders mitigate the amount of time spent searching for the right file.

Meet

Meet allows team members to have secure, high-quality video meetings from wherever they're located, on any device. Users can record, share their screen, and access chat features in Meet. All meetings have dial-in phone numbers as well.

Calendar

Google Calendar integrates personal and business calendars with your to-do list so you can have access to all of your tasks for the day. You can easily schedule meeting times on your calendar which integrate with Google Meet for video calls so that the link to your video meeting is automatically generated in the meeting invite.

Docs

Docs is a powerful word-processing tool that allows users to create and edit documents from their browser without an additional software requirement. Multiple people can work on documents simultaneously and changes will be reflected in real-time. Popular file formats like .pdf, .txt, .html, and more can be imported for editing and exported into different file types as required. Documents also have unlimited version history and commenting ability to make editing simple and trackable.

Sheets

Sheets is an intuitive spreadsheet tool with widespread data analysis capabilities. Data can be imported from third-parties, removing any struggles from working with different applications. Many shortcuts and formulas are the same in Sheets as Microsoft Excel to minimize the learning curve of switching platforms. Google AI suggests relevant formulas as you type and allows for powerful data visualization.

Slides

Slides allows users to create professional presentations together and edit simultaneously. It only takes minutes to create a beautiful slideshow by using one of the many available templates, creating your own, or importing from another software. You can even personalize themes with your company colors and add images, transitions, and videos to take your presentation to the next level.

Jamboard

Jamboard is a collaborative whiteboard and visualization application that's perfect for brainstorming or drafting designs with a team. Jamboard allows for integration with the rest of Google's tools, meaning you can import images from Drive, Docs, and Sheets to markup and export quickly. Users can join from PC, Mac, mobile devices, and tablets.

Forms

Forms allows users to survey large groups quickly. Pre-built templates are easy to customize with images, links, and a variety of question types to get valuable insight for your business. Response data appears in real-time and is automatically summarized in easy-to-read charts and raw data can be easily imported to Sheets for additional analysis.

How much is Google Workspace for Business?

Google Workspace offers three pricing plans for businesses: Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus. Each plan includes access to all Workspace apps including Gmail, Meet, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and more. These plans have a maximum of 300 users, but Google offers an Enterprise plan for companies that need more users or storage. You can try any Business plan free for 14 days before making a final commitment.

Business Starter

The Business Starter plan is $6/month per user when billed annually or $7.20 per month per user when billed monthly. This plan includes access to all Workspace apps and offers 30 GB of storage per user. Video meetings hosted with this plan allow for up to 100 participants.

Business Standard

The Business Standard plan is the most popular plan. This plan costs $12/user per month when billed annually or $14.40 per user per month billed monthly. Users on this plan can conduct video calls for up to 150 users with optional recording. The storage on this plan increases to 2 TB per user.

Business Plus

Google Workspace's Business Plus plan is $18 per month per user if billed annually or $21.60 per user per month when billed monthly. Video calls allow up to 500 participants with video recording and audience tracking. The Plus plan also includes increased security and management controls including Vault for secure data preservation. Users on this plan get 5 TB of flexible pooled storage.

Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are two of the most commonly used productivity and collaboration softwares for businesses today. If you're deciding between the two, keep reading to learn about the key differences.

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both have four pricing plans to best meet your needs. One of the advantages of Microsoft 365 is that they offer desktop versions of all of their softwares that have more advanced features than their in-browser counterparts. However, their Basic Business plan only includes web and mobile access, so if you want the desktop apps you have to upgrade to the Business Standard plan at $12.50 per user/month when billed annually. All plans have the ability for web calls for up to 300 people but if you want to include a dial-in number for attendees on the go, it's an additional monthly fee, whereas all of Google Workspace's business plans offer dial-in meetings for free.

The biggest difference between Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, however, is their collaboration capabilities. All of Google Workspace's apps were designed with collaboration in mind, whereas Microsoft recently added real-time coauthoring and are still ironing out some bumps. Microsoft 365's coauthoring experience is not as seamless as Google's when working on a browser, and changes are slow to be reflected when using the desktop apps.

If collaboration is essential to your business, Google Workspace makes it effortless at a price that can't be beat. Since Google Workspace allows for offline editing, you aren't missing out on anything by the lack of desktop apps.

Bottom line.

Google Workspace offers comprehensive and easy-to-use tools that are valuable for every member of a business. Wherever your team is located, Google Workspace ensures that everyone can stay connected - online or offline.