You may be using Gmail, Google’s free, web-based email hosting service, and making use of the convenient selection of Google productivity apps, such as Slides, Sheets and Docs, and wonder why you would want to upgrade to a paid version of Google Workspace. What advantages would you receive?

The paid editions come with a slew of benefits and extra features. Google Workspace is designed for team collaboration and offers additional customisation, integration, security measures, and storage space that business users require.

Let’s take a look.

–     Admin Control

With the paid version of Google Workspace, you are given access to Google Admin Console, an account management tool that gives the administrator control over the users, data, security, and compliance, including the ability to create, edit and delete accounts.

With a business account, you have control over your employees’ accounts so that, should an employee leave the company, you can retrieve their files and data related to the business, including data from other Google service accounts such as Google Analytics and Google Adwords. All this important company information can be transferred by the administrator to a new account or stored for future reference. With the free version of Gmail, the information would stay with the employee in their personal account. Should they leave the company, they will be taking all that vital company information along with them.

With Google Admin Console administrators are also able to allocate certain permissions to different users, track users account activity, limit access to certain files, and more.

–     Increased Email Storage

The free version of Gmail provides 15 GB of storage across all the Google apps (Photos, Drive, and Gmail) while the business version provides much more storage.

With the Google Workspace Business Starter edition, you have access to a maximum storage of 30 GB per user, and with Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus, you can increase your storage to 2 TB or 5 TB respectively. The Enterprise Edition offers unlimited storage.

–     Advertisements

The free version of Gmail displays ads, based on your online activity while you’re signed into Google, while the business version does not.

–     Customisable Email Addresses

With the business version of Gmail, you are able to use a custom email address that includes your company’s domain name (e.g. [email protected]), while the free version only allows you to use a @gmail.com address.

In fact, Google Workspace allows up to 600 domains for a single account, and you can add up to 30 email aliases for each user.

–     Increased Email Sending limits

In the free version of Gmail, you may only send 500 emails over a 24-hour period. Google does this to restrict spam and keep accounts safe. With a paid edition of Google Workspace, your sending limit increases to 2 000 emails a day.

–     Advanced Security Features

The business version of Gmail includes advanced security features such as two-factor authentication, email encryption, and data loss prevention.

Google Workspace allows administrators to set customised rules requiring email messages to be signed and encrypted using Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME). These rules can be configured to enforce S/MIME when specific content is detected in email messages. 

Google Workspace administrators can also set up a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy to protect sensitive information within Gmail and Drive. 

Google Workspace also gives you access to Google Vault, an archive tool which enables administrators to retain, hold, search, delete, and export their users’ Google Workspace data so that authorised users can quickly access information for dispute resolution, lawsuits, or regulatory compliance.

–     Collaboration Tools

The business version of Gmail also includes access to other collaboration tools such as Google Drive, Forms, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and more. Some of these apps have additional functionality in the paid version, such as with the sharing and restricting of document access. With the paid versions, you can quickly share documents with your entire organisation and set up expiration dates and times. With the free version, you need to add collaborators one at a time, and you’re not able to set up expiration dates and times for sharing.

Additionally, with the paid version of Google Meet you can have more participants for a longer duration. You are also able to extend your meeting to external members who don’t have Google accounts.

–     Support

The business version of Gmail provides 24/7 support through phone or chat, while the free version does not have dedicated support.

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If you want to learn more about Google Workspace and how its features can benefit your organisation, our team is ready to answer any questions you may have.