Google’s products and applications have grown in popularity in recent years. Gmail is now the most popular email solution despite being fairly young compared to competitors like Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. Google Docs Editors (Docs, Sheets, Slides) is also rapidly gaining popularity as the best Microsoft Office 365 alternative in the market. Not to mention there are also other popular solutions like Google Drive, Meet, and Google Calendar, and chances are, you’ve used at least one of these Google services in the past year.
But, with all of these Google productivity services and applications available for free, is upgrading to the paid Google Workspace plans worth it?
We’ll explore the answer to this question in this guide, and with this information, by the end of this guide, you’ll have a better idea of if and when to upgrade to Google Workspace.
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Different Google Workspace Plans Available
You won’t be able to effectively decide whether you should upgrade to paid Google Workspace plans if you don’t know your options.
Google actually has quite a wide variety of Google Workspace plans (or editions). There are even unique Google Workspace editions offered for specific types of businesses or organizations, like for non-profit businesses and retail businesses.
Yet, there are four basic Google Workspace editions that most businesses should look for:
- Google Workspace Business Starter: for $6/user/month, you’ll get the following features:
- Custom business email with security features
- 100 video conference participants in Meet
- 30 GB Google Drive cloud storage
- Security and management control features
- Standard support only
- Google Workspace Business Standard: priced at $12/user/month, and you’ll get additional premium features such as:
- Custom business email with security features
- 150 video conference participants in Meet
- 2 TB Google Drive Cloud Storage
- More security and management control features
- Standard support initially, paid upgrade to Enhanced customer support available
- Google Workspace Business Plus: priced at $18/user/month with the following features:
- Custom business email with security features, eDiscovery, and retention with Google Vault
- 500 video conference participants in Meet, plus attendance tracking
- 5 TB Google Drive Cloud Storage
- Enhanced security and management control features, including Google Vault and advanced endpoint management
- Standard support initially, paid upgrade to Enhanced customer support is available.
- Google Workspace Enterprise: contact for price, or get your Enterprise plan from a Google Workspace consultant like Pythian, where you can get the following features:
- Custom business email with security features, eDiscovery, and retention with Google Vault, S/MIME encryption
- 500 video conference participants in Meet, noise cancellation, in-domain live streaming
- Up to unlimited Google Drive Cloud Storage
- Enhanced security and management control features, including Google Vault, advanced enterprise endpoint management, DLP, and data regions
- Enhanced support initially, or a paid upgrade to Premium customer support is available
When Should You Upgrade to Your Google Workspace?
Now that you’ve understood the different Google Workspace editions available and the benefits you’ll get from each plan, here are the top signs when it’s time to finally make that upgrade:
1. You need more Drive storage space
The free version of Google Drive ‘only’ offers 15 GB of storage space, and while it might be enough for the majority of users, virtually all types of businesses now deal with an increasing amount of data in their day-to-day operations.
Remember that Google Drive’s storage space is shared across other Google Applications (Docs, Gmail, Photos, etc., ) and soon enough, you may realize that the 15GB space is probably not as spacious as you initially thought.
With paid Google Workspace plans, you can get more Drive storage space, from 30GB per user to unlimited storage as you see fit.
Besides the larger Google Drive storage space, you’ll also get more data security, access control, and data management features from the paid Google Workspace editions.
2.You need branded email address and you want to use Gmail’s interface
While there are a lot of different providers offering personalized/branded email addresses, with Google Workspace, you can access and use this branded email with Gmail’s intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
This can provide a sense of familiarity to your team, and the reliable Gmail interface will also ensure a consistent user experience whenever your team members access and use the company emails.
Google Workspace will also unlock advanced access control and security features on your branded emails. You can easily add and remove email addresses to facilitate upscaling or downsizing, and assign up to 30 alias accounts depending on your workflow’s needs.
3.You need more protection on your data
Paid Google Workspace plans don’t only offer more applications and features but also access to Endpoint Management, Google’s enterprise-grade security solution.
With Endpoint Management, you’ll gain access to advanced security features to secure all desktop and mobile devices connected to Google Workspace. You can control which device can access your sensitive data and collect detailed data consumption information on each device. You can also remotely provide and revoke access to critical data to ensure comprehensive security.
4.You need a more streamlined collaboration
Investing in paid Google Workspace editions means you are gaining access to advanced communication and collaboration features that you won’t get from the free editions of the services.
For example, with the Team Calendar, you can allow team members to easily schedule meetings and get every participant notified in real-time. With the right plan, you can also get more participants in Google Meet sessions, as well as an unlimited number of sessions.
Team members can also co-edit the same Google Doc (or Sheet and Slide presentation) simultaneously in real-time, which can be very useful in remote-working situations.
Wrapping Up
While the free version of Google Workspace services and applications: Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets,and Meet, are adequate for most users’ day-to-day workflows, paid Google Workspace editions offer so many more values and benefits that can help your team communicate and collaborate better to achieve improved productivity.
Above, we have discussed the different Google Workspace editions available and the signs that you should follow to know when to make the upgrade to Google Workspace Business or Enterprise editions.
Hopefully, with the tips we’ve shared, you can make a better-informed decision about when to upgrade to Google Workspace, and make the most of your investment.