Google G Suite is a powerful suite of applications that combines Gmail, cloud storage, productivity software, calendar, and more. G Suite offers all of these solutions at an incredibly affordable price, making it a tool for everyone, not just business users.
G Suite is known as Google Apps for Work and before that, Google Apps for Your Domain.
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What is G Suite?
G Suite is Google’s suite of smart office applications and productivity apps. Most people know Google has email (Gmail) and cloud storage (Google Drive) and these two apps are included in G Suite and have many other great features.
Depending on the G Suite plan you choose, you’ll have access to all the G Suite apps and install various advanced functionality for those apps. The biggest difference is in Google Drive storage – 30GB for Basic and Unlimited for more than 5 users (1TB of storage per person if less than 5 members) – with options to choose from select security and other advanced search.
Note: Every user benefits from Google’s security and alerting features, but with higher-end plans, you can customize security alerts and use G’s centralized security platform Suite; Lower G Suite plans require you to call their 24/7 support team for advanced help.
How much does G Suite cost?
Before December 6, 2012, Google offered a free standard version of G Suite with reduced functionality, which was released to any user registered with their domain name. Currently, G Suite pricing will depend on the number of users in your company with a larger number of services, features, and storage.
There are 3 versions of G Suite available for small and large businesses:
- Basic: 30GB of shared Drive and Gmail storage per user. Includes all Google apps but lacks Cloud Search (the ability to search across your entire corporate content on G Suite), App Maker (build custom apps for your business) and Vault (save data storage and eDiscovery for G Suite). There is a base cost of $6/user/month.
- Business: Similar to the Basic plan but unlimited storage for all users and includes Vault, Cloud Search, and App Development. The Business plan costs $12/user/month and is currently discounted to $9.60/user/month.
- Enterprise: Includes all the same features as the Business plan but adds advanced security and administrative controls, e-discovery, and data loss prevention. The Enterprise plan costs $25/user/month.
Manage an organization or are responsible for making decisions related to the IT sector of the academy. You will be able to get the G Suite Education package for faculty and students. G Suite Education includes 2 versions for your institution:
Apps available in G Suite
All G Suite plans include the following apps:
- Gmail: Enhanced Gmail version, without ads and using a custom domain name (address is not gmail.com).
- Google Drive: Save documents, images, spreadsheets, and more to a secure cloud account with Drive. Depending on your G Suite plan, you have access to different levels of storage.
- Google Docs/Sheets/Slides: Each plan provides access to Docs, Sheets, and Slides through Drive, where you can easily create and share files and documents.
- Google Calendar: An ad-free version of the calendar integrates seamlessly with Gmail to allow you to respond to events; Drive for easy file attachments; and Hangouts Meet to set up online meetings.
- Hangouts Meet: Create and host online voice and video meetings for users on your custom domain (other G Suite users) and even users who don’t have the same domain as you. This is especially useful for small business owners who want to archive customer calls. Depending on the G Suite plan you’re using, you may even be able to record calls for future use.
- Hangouts Chat: Chat securely with the rest of your domain users with Hangouts Chat. You can also add external users by starting a conversation with them and inviting them to Chat. They will have to accept your invitation and then you can chat with each other.
How is G Suite different from the free Google apps?
Most people have an Email (Gmail) address, which gives you access to Drive and the free versions of Google apps. So why should you pay for G Suite when you can still access Docs (documents), Sheets (sheets), and Gmail for free?
G Suite is designed for business because it’s a suite of business apps. The full name of Google Apps is Google Apps for Business. By paying for a Google Apps subscription, users gain access to features designed for businesses like Custom Domains, unlimited cloud storage, 24/7 support, support for additional marketing tools and no advertising while using the service.
Now that many people had a custom domain name for business or personal use, Google started rolling out Google Apps to everyone and renamed it G Suite.
What are the specific differences of Google G Suite?
Free users will see ads while using the app, but this will not happen for paid users.
Google uses the information stored in the free user’s app to advertise, and the paid user does not.
Paid users will have a custom domain added to their G Suite account and use a custom email like [email protected], rather than [email protected]
Paid users can store more data in their Drive (including unlimited storage for some higher-paying G Suite plans).
Paid users get additional custom administrative tools for their G Suite account, such as adding new users, managing G Suite-connected devices, adding two-factor authentication to two-factor authentication and more.
