“What G Suite plan should I choose for my organization?” “Do I have to choose the Business plan because we are, in fact, a business, or could I choose Basic?” “What really differentiates the three plans?” These and similar questions are questions that we come across often, and questions that we know organizations Google every day. In this article I’ll get in to what functions differentiates G Suite’s three plans and disclose why one plan might be preferable over the other for some organizations.
The platform from Google makes it easy for businesses to efficiently collaborate and stay productive, and users can choose from three different pricing plans; Basic, Business and Enterprise. All three all include popular apps such as Gmail, Docs and Drive, as well as Drive for storage in the cloud and file synchronization. As the name suggests, the Basic plan is the most fundamental plan, but it still gives you access to all the important and core features any business is dependant on; an email service, document- and spreadsheets, as well as presentations. All three plans give users access to a large library of add-ons, the ability to access and edit Microsoft Office files and work offline, a guaranteed 99,9% uptime as well as 24/7 customer support by phone and/or online. The G Suite plans are, of course, ad-free, and all available for access through apps on your mobile device. Features such as password monitoring and strength control and the ability to whitelist apps are included in all three plans. It’s worth mentioning and noticing that there’s no limit in terms of how many users you can have in the different packages. You simply pay for the plan that best suits you and your employees.
G Suite’s three pricing plans are
G Suite’s plans are pretty straightforward; you choose between the three options available. It’s easy to forecast what G Suite will cost your for your business and which plan that will suit your budget. Plus, they offer a flexible month-to-month payment plan. This is especially neat for businesses that are growing and/or businesses with seasonal employees where the number of users changes frequently.
Google gives you the choice to pay monthly or annually, and it is always possible to switch between the two. Should you wish to switch from your annual plan to a flexible one, then this can be arranged during your free trial or when the time of subscription renewal is due. A switch from the monthly plan to an annual one can be done at any time.
Ok, good. But what really differentiates the three? Well, a number of functions.
For many businesses, the most significant difference between the three plans are the file storage. With ‘Basic’, users are restricted to 30GB of file storage. For ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’ the storage is restricted to 1TB per user if there are 5 or less users in the organization. However, if you’re more than 5 G Suite users file storage is unlimited. Yes, the sky’s the limit! It’s important to note that all G Suite files (Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides, etc) and files shared with you by other Google Drive users don’t count towards your G Suite file storage limit. Great, huh?
Google’s Vault is an archiving and eDiscovery tool for G Suite. With this tool it is easy to access, retain and manage your organization’s data. Vault supports
Vault is included in the Business and Enterprise plans, which these two plans the best choices for businesses that are concerned about the need to store and extensive communications history. With e-Discovery you can define your own rules for archiving of communication. This valuable feature is especially useful for legal reasons, as you can easily dig up old emails and documentation sent to or from your team.
This feature is entirely web-based, so no need to install or maintain any software. Want to know more about Vault? Users with Basic are not protected by Vault, but they can buy the license separately. The license costs an extra €4/user/month.
DLP for Google Drive is only available for Business and Business plan users, which undoubtedly makes these two plans preferable over Basic. We know how dangerous it is when businesses encounter information leaks due to hacking. With DLP for Drive admins can set up rules to scan files for sensitive information and content, and assign what actions should be taken if someone where to access or share those specific files with users outside of the organization.
G Suite Enterprise users can use BigQuery to analyze their organization’s Gmail logs. This premium feature lets admins run log queries in Gmail to gain insights into employee behaviour and activity.
Security Center, which is only available to G Suite Enterprise users, is a neat feature that helps admins to keep a track on all the potential security threats. This is easily monitored in Security Center. In the security dashboard you can keep an eye on all metrics and get an overview of external file sharing. Potential spam/malware targeted at your organization is also detectable here.
Google’s Hangout is a lightweight, fast and easy-to-use conference tool that lets users join and participate on a call, irrespective of what conference tool he or she might be using. The conferencing solution for businesses comes with all three G Suite plans, but the capabilities vary. With Basic and Business organizations can add 50 users in a call, while Enterprise can, in addition to adding 100 users, record meetings and save them to Drive. Moreover, Enterprise-users can dial-in from a phone.
With Cloud Search the time you’ve previously wasted on looking for the correct files and information is long gone. And, once authorized by you, your employees and colleagues can search for content across Gmail, Docs, Presentations, etc (no worries, they can only access the ones they are allowed to – your files can be kept private if needed). Cloud Search also gives users personalized information and recommendations; based on recent activity on i.e Google Calendar, Assist Cards will update and remind you of upcoming events such as scheduled meetings. This will be presented to you on your Cloud Search homepage. Unfortunately, Cloud Search is only available to Business and Enterprise users.
Based on the lists of features listed above G Suite’s Basic plan is most relevant for organizations of a relatively small size, and members of five people or less. If all you really need is an email address solution for your domain and no specific needs for a large amount of storage space then this plan might the right for you. But bear in mind, if you require archiving for emails and chat messages, advanced security and admin controls, then you ought to check one of the other plans out.
The Business plan will suit any organization ranging from medium to large in size, and that are in need of more than the 30 GB amount of storage that Basic offers. (And remember, if your organization consists of more than five users, your cloud storage limit is unlimited!) The Business plan includes, as mentioned, Google Vault, Google Hangout (with up to 50 participants), as well as all features of Basic. If you’re not dependant on having data loss prevention, security key management, or advanced security and admin controls, then this plan might suit you well.
Enterprise will, as you might’ve understood by now, suit organizations with large teams that require substantial security and admin controls over the apps used in the company.
Did you know that you can buy and use different plans for different users within your organization? Not all users need all features, so this is a neat solution for companies that are looking for ways to reduce their monthly costs.
Do you wish to test out and see for yourself what G Suite is all about? Contact us at sales@thecloudpeople.com and we’ll set up a non-binding meeting.