What Is Google Workspace? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

What is Google Workspace? You may have heard the term online or come across it when you were looking for productivity tools or alternatives to a traditional office suite.

If you haven’t heard of Google Workspace before, you may have heard about G Suite. This was the original name for Google’s suite of cloud computing, productivity, collaboration tools, and other products, which were launched in 2006.

Google Workspace is the updated and rebranded version of G Suite. It’s an affordable cloud-based set of apps with a range of useful features. Let’s dive in! 🏄

What is Google Workspace?

Google designed Google Workspace to help businesses and organizations of all sizes create, communicate, and collaborate more effectively. As a cloud-based solution, it allows users to access their files and apps from anywhere with an internet connection.

It’s used by startups, businesses, enterprise-level companies, individuals, as well as educational institutes and non-profits.

Introduction to Google Workspace

So, what is Google Workspace and what does it consist of? Before you decide whether Google is right for you, we should spend some time discussing the various pricing tiers.

🎯 There are several plans:

• Google Workspace Individual: Google Workspace’s plan for individuals is priced at $9.99 per month. It includes email marketing apps, booking services, and core Workspace apps. It’s designed for solopreneurs or anyone that doesn’t need to manage individual accounts.
• Google Workspace Business: This plan is ideal for smaller organizations with 1–300 users. There are three plans to choose from. The Starter plan costs $6 per month and comes with 30 GB of storage and a limit of 100 meeting participants. The Standard plan costs $12 per user and comes with 2 TB of storage per user, meeting recording capabilities, and a limit of 150 meeting participants. The Plus plan costs $18 per user per month and comes with 5 TB storage per user, meeting recording capabilities and access for 500 Meet participants. The Plus plan also provides users with access to Google Vault and endpoint controls.
• Google Workspace Enterprise: Businesses of any size can opt for the Enterprise plan. However, businesses with more than 300 users must upgrade to this plan. It also offers more security controls and unlimited storage. Pricing information is available upon request.
• Google Workspace Education: Only qualified educational institutions can access this plan. The Fundamentals plan is free, while the Standard plan costs $3 per student per year, and the Plus plan is priced at $5 per student per year.
• Google Workspace Nonprofit: Qualified nonprofits can sign up for this plan, which mirrors the Workspace Starter plan. Google offers it for free to qualifying organizations. NPOs can also get the Business Standard, Plus, and the Enterprise editions of Google Workspace at discounted prices.”

Now that you have a solid overview of the plans, the next step in answering what is Google Workspace, is taking 👉 a closer look at the apps you’ll get with the popular tool suite.

Gmail

What is Google Workspace without its most popular app – Gmail? Other than its search engine, this free web-based email service is arguably Google’s most well-known product. It is one of the most popular email services in the world, with over 1.5 billion active users. One of Gmail’s many perks is that you can even use it with your own domain name.

It offers a host of other benefits, including spam filtering, search functionality, and integration with other products in the Google Suite, such as Calendar, Drive, and Docs. If that’s not enough, you can also group related emails together into conversations or label them to keep your inbox organized.

Because Gmail is web-based, you can catch up on email from any device with an internet connection. It’s free for personal users and comes with an array of security features, making it a viable option for solopreneurs and those with a side hustle.

Calendar

Google Calendar is a free, web-based calendar service that allows you to create and share calendars, set reminders, and schedule meetings.

This handy tool offers a variety of features, including the ability to create multiple calendars (e.g., personal, work, school), set reminders, or share events. Furthermore, Google Calendar integrates with other Google products, such as Gmail and Meet, so that you can easily schedule meetings and manage your calendar from within other Google apps.

It’s a great calendar tool you can access from any device, including your mobile phone.

Google Meet

Google also offers Google Meet, a free video conferencing service, that lets you hold meetings with colleagues and clients from anywhere in the world.

It provides high-definition video and audio, so you can see and hear your meeting participants clearly. Furthermore, it offers screen-sharing capabilities, chat, and seamless integration with other Google apps.

Not only is it easy to use, but it also includes robust security features and maintains a solid reputation for reliability. For a deeper dive, read our comparison of Meet versus Zoom to discover how these two renowned video conferencing tools compare.

Chat and Spaces

Google Chat is a messaging and collaboration tool that lets you engage in one-on-one or group conversations, share files, and assign tasks. It integrates with other Google Workspace products, like Gmail, Calendar, and Drive, enabling users to easily access and manage their work from within Chat.

Google Chat contains a feature called Google Spaces, which allows users to create dedicated spaces for specific projects or teams. Spaces can include a variety of tools, like task lists, file sharing, and discussion threads. This makes it a great place to collaborate with others on projects, share ideas, and track progress.

Together, Google Chat and Spaces make it easy to communicate and collaborate with colleagues and clients in real time. This can help to improve teamwork and productivity. Both Google Chat and Spaces are free to use for Google Workspace subscribers.

Drive

Google Drive is a renowned cloud storage service that enables you to store and disseminate files online. Remarkably, it boasts over 1.5 billion active users, making it one of the most widely used cloud storage services globally.

In addition, it provides an array of features, such as file storage and sharing, bolstered by real-time collaboration capabilities and seamless integration with other Google apps.

Overall, it offers a variety of storage plans, including a free plan with 15 GB of storage, and it has several security features that protect your data from unauthorized access.

Docs

Google Docs is a collaborative word processing application that allows users to create, edit, and share documents online. It provides real-time collaboration, version history tracking, and versatile formatting options. The best part? Google Docs is also free for personal users.

Sheets

Google Sheets is a collaborative spreadsheet application that lets users create, edit, and share spreadsheets online. Like Docs, multiple users can edit the same spreadsheet in real time, ensuring everyone always sees the latest version.

Google Sheets provides a variety of formatting options, such as fonts, font sizes, and colors, which enables users to craft professional-looking spreadsheets. It’s free for personal users.

Slides

Google Slides is a collaborative presentation application that allows users to create, edit, and share presentations online. Additionally, it offers many of the same features as Docs and Sheets, including real-time collaboration, version history tracking and formatting options.

It can be accessed from any device with an Internet connection and is a good choice for individuals, businesses, and organizations of all sizes.

Forms

Google Forms is a free, web-based form builder that allows users to create surveys, quizzes, and other types of forms.

It provides an array of question types, including multiple choice, short answer, and paragraph. This versatility ensures users can tailor forms to their precise requirements.

Moreover, users can infuse their forms with conditional logic, thereby displaying specific questions based on prior responses. There’s also an option to embed file uploads, enabling respondents to conveniently attach files to their submissions.

Keep

Google Keep is a free, web-based note-taking app that allows users to create and share notes, lists, and images.

Furthermore, with Keep, you can craft notes of any length, ranging from short snippets to comprehensive records. These notes can integrate text, images, and links for richer content. Beyond just notes, you can also assemble lists of items, such as to-do tasks, grocery necessities, and shopping agendas. As you accomplish items, you have the ability to mark them as done.

Finally, Google Keep provides the convenience of storing images directly within notes and also facilitates the sharing of both notes and lists with others. This feature is invaluable for team collaboration on projects or even for casual information sharing with friends and family.

Sites

Rounding out our comprehensive response to the question “what is Google Workspace?”, we have Google Sites. To be clear, ⚠️ we don’t actually advise anyone to use Google Sites. However, since it is a part of Google Workspace, we have to mention it.

So what is it?

Simply put, it’s a free, web-based website builder that allows users to create and share websites without any coding experience. It uses a drag-and-drop editor, letting you easily add and remove content, and there are a variety of templates to choose from, so anyone can get started quickly. You can also customize your website with a variety of themes, colors, and fonts.

Sounds tempting on the surface, but read our Google Sites review and you’ll see why it’s not a true viable option for building a website.

Are you still wondering “what is Google Workspace?” 🧐

There are a variety of pricing tiers to select from, including a robust free version with all the tools you need to run a small business.

Hopefully by now you have the answer to “what is Google Workspace?”, but, if you still have questions, drop a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer you.