Google Workspace Business Standard - Review 2022

Google Workspace, formerly known as GSuite, remains one of the top business-class email hosting choices. Y'all get a maximum of 300 users, a hefty 2TB of deject storage per user, 150 participant video meetings with recordings through Google See, and the suite of Google tools that brand the platform and then popular including Bulldoze, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and of class Gmail. Workspace isn't better than Microsoft 365 Concern Premium, but it's a first-class alternative that joins that platform as well as Intermedia Hosted Commutation in earning our Editors' Option designation.

Google Workspace Pricing and Plans

Google Workspace starts at $12 per user per month for the Business Standard edition nosotros tested. Besides the features mentioned above, the package includes hosting for video meetings with up to 150 participants and dedicated management and security tools for IT administrators. A free 14-day trial is bachelor on the Google website.

If that's too rich for your blood, there's a Business organisation Starter plan that runs only $6 per user per calendar month. This as well includes access to the Workplace productivity suite, though with some feature disparities, such every bit a cap of 100 participants in video meetings and no dissonance counterfoil characteristic. Also, file storage is reduced to 30GB per user.

Overall, Google Workspace is a skilful value but only because it includes one of the leading online productivity suites. If you compare information technology to our lowest-cost competitor, IceWarp Deject, Google'southward offering certainly looks expensive—IceWarp's everyman tier starts at just $2.fifty per user per calendar month and fifty-fifty its mid-tier package only raises that to $3.90. Then again, IceWarp's productivity suite lags far behind the capabilities of Workspace and its next-closest productivity competitor, Microsoft 365.

Google Workspace file storage

Getting Started

During the sign-up process, yous're required to supply a domain proper noun. I have mixed feelings about this being such a prominent and in-your-confront item, since setting upwards a domain tends to be somewhat painful the first time you lot do it. However, Google provides plenty didactics that experienced IT pros shouldn't have as well much trouble handling it. Once you've added the advisable information and verified your domain, yous're off to the races.

Unfortunately, I was non able to exam the account direction piece due to the restrictions on my examination account, but it'south done through the same awarding where y'all ready upwardly a domain (called Google Domains). Permissions tin can and then exist set to reflect whether you're adding a standard user or an administrator. You tin can as well customize specific roles in case you don't want to give every ambassador the keys to the kingdom.

Much of Google's magic is in how footling you actually need to configure, but y'all still get the same kinds of options you do elsewhere. Policies, quarantines, and retention policies are all fair game, though I wasn't able to exercise much testing of them due to my business relationship's restrictions.

Google Workspace Business calendar

Email Client and Collaboration Tools

While Workspace extends to a large set up of tools, the most popular ane is probably Gmail. Love it or hate it, the interface is intuitive and modern, with well-nigh everything you want to see on screen. Hangouts, meetings, and your email are in quick reach forth with the residue of Google'due south Apps menu. Google has paid attending to the details of a typical workflow and understands that a lot of us live in our email. Considering of this, the almost pop items like Google Conversation, Tasks, and Google Meet are quickly accessible from the same screen.

When you need to open an attached certificate, y'all click to salve information technology to Google Drive and start working on it. If needed, you tin share that document with others, and work at the same time. Combine this with Google Meet and Jamboard for whiteboarding, and y'all've got a smashing toolset for remote piece of work, with the power to speedily share ideas and get traction on your documents at the same time. For those who need to level upwardly on collaboration, Google Chat allows you to create virtual rooms that let y'all have threaded conversations with shared files and tasks, similar to Microsoft Teams.

Google Workspace document collaboration

Google has some unique postal service features, too. One of the nearly annoying aspects of email is the person who tin never call up to reply. Gmail has the power to "nudge" someone virtually an untouched message every bit a reminder to go them back on track. This seems like it would be an effective strategy for folks that only look at things at the top of their inbox.

Calendaring has also undergone a pregnant upgrade. Every bit in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, agenda entries can be public or individual so only the right level of data is available to your coworkers. I peculiarly liked the automatic message you tin can set right from the calendar when marking yourself every bit out of the office. At that place's as well a one-click option for adding Google Run into video conferencing to a meeting. Of course, as with almost all other calendar apps, you can set reminders at a specific time, or repeating reminders if you're decumbent to snooze alerts every bit I am.

Perhaps one of the most useful features is the date slots component. Sometimes y'all and your team take a busy schedule, and it'southward hard to discover a time when everyone can meet. Yous can manus Google Calendar a meeting length and a set of participants, and it will try to pick the best time for you. This simply works, of class, if everyone keeps their calendars up-to-engagement.

Google Workspace chat

Google Workspace Security and Integration

Google's information centers are some of the all-time in the world. In addition to being geographically distributed, they've completed all of the relevant SOC audits and run across all necessary standards to ensure that your data is safe. While this doesn't mean that an assailant couldn't steal your password and read your electronic mail, information technology does mean that nobody is going to be breaking downwardly Google's data center door so they tin steal your server's hard drives.

On the software side of things, Google supports several forms of ii-factor authentication, and the website states that data is "encrypted when information technology's stored on disk, stored on backup media, or traveling between data centers." New to the service is the ability to send secure emails, which adds additional legitimacy to Google's growing presence in business concern. For those that aren't on Google's platform, you'll get a hyperlink that will ask you to validate with a passcode to view the e-mail's contents. This is very like to Microsoft 365's secure email feature.

In terms of integration, Google Workspace, much similar its Microsoft counterpart, is well integrated with a broad multifariousness of products and services, including all the popular ones, like Slack and Salesforce. Information technology's well-nigh more surprising to find a service that isn't integrated with Google than i that is.

Everything You Demand for Email Hosting

Google Workspace has everything y'all need for a productive office environment, both on-bounds or for employees working remotely. Plus, since there are then many folks that are already used to using Gmail for their personal correspondence, it's not much of a jump to move to the business edition. With the added video conferencing, document editing, and collaboration tools included, Workspace is a stiff competitor to Microsoft 365 Business organization Premium at simply over half the cost.

The only real drawback is the lack of 100% compatibility with Microsoft Part documents. This really applies mainly to Excel and for certain data-centric operations, but as long equally you have to pull out Microsoft'southward software for something, Google Workspace will never totally supersede that suite, though the online behemothic is constantly working to refine that process. For this reason, Google Workspace stands as a close runner-up to Microsoft 365 Business Premium but joins information technology as an Editors' Pick laurels winner for bargain hunters.