What is G Suite?
G Suite is a multi-functional tool offered by Google that allows you to organize your tasks, collaborate with your team, and connect to customers. It comprises business, educational, productivity, and collaboration software to maximize your efforts.
What is included in the G Suite?
The Primary G Suite tools include Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Calendar, Sites, Hangouts, and Keep. Let’s review these applications in more detail.
Gmail: Gmail is the email software provided in G Suite. With a G Suite plan, businesses are offered up to 30GB of storage space, have an email address customized to your company, and 24/7 support through either phone or email.
Drive: Google Drive is a cloud storage program that is able to manage all of your company’s content and allows for collaboration across the entire organization. Documents can also be viewed in other file formats so additional software is not necessary. Capacity ranges from 30GB to unlimited per user, depending on the plan you have.
Docs, Sheets, and Slides: Unlike Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides offers simultaneous collaboration, saves all changes automatically, and tracks revision history. It provides communication through a built in chat.
Forms: G Suite also provides users with a web form and survey tool, known as Forms. Along with automatic saving and collaboration capabilities, it allows you to create personalized surveys, send them using a URL, and compiles the data in a user friendly way.
Calendar: This online calendar is integrated with Gmail which allows you to create and manage appointments, meetings, and tasks in one central area. Businesses can take advantage of smart scheduling and other calendar options that make running your company that much more streamlined. It allows for others to see your schedule (if shared with them) and be better able to manage the tasks of the day.
Sites: Use Sites to build simple websites using the Google platform. No coding or design skills are necessary, as it is extremely user friendly. Premade templates offer a professional, yet easy to create website.
Hangouts: G Suite provides an online messaging and communication tool through Hangouts using text, voice, or video. Some of the features include screen sharing, intelligent muting, live streams, and administrative controls.
Keep: One of the newer additions to G Suite is the note-taking tool called Keep. You can use it to create, share, and organize lists, memos, and images. You can access it through either a Chrome extension or an app on your mobile device.
Additional G Suite Applications
For businesses, there is also App Maker, which allows teams to build custom apps using an intuitive, low code tool.
Cloud Search provides users with the ability to search across the entire company content for specific information, which proves to be a huge time saver.
Pricing
Basic plans for G Suite start at only $6 per month, and include all of the basic applications. Business will cost you $12 per month, but also includes Unlimited Drive storage, as well as Cloud Search. The most costly plan is Enterprise (the most popular) at $25 per month. This plan, however, also includes more security management features for your business. G Suite has proven itself to be an affordable solution to ensure collaboration, productivity, and streamlining of your personal or business needs.