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G Suite is Google’s suite of intelligent apps and productivity tools that let you perform common business tasks ‘In the Cloud’. This was formerly known as Google Apps, and was re-branded in late 2016.


G Suite Taglines says : 

Collaborative way of working in the cloud, from anywhere, on any device

G Suite is one of the most widely-used online productivity suites in the world. In this G Suite review, we’ll take you through the most important things to be aware of, to help you decide whether G Suite is right for you.

Lets first look at this Video that showcases the Capabilities of G Suite :

Now let’s start by quickly taking a look at why you would use G Suite, and what its G Suite pros and cons are.


What kind of Business should use G Suite ?

Google’s G Suite is a suitable solution for almost all kinds of Businesses :

  • One-person business (1 user)
  • Small business (2–9 users)
  • Medium-size business (10–250 users)
  • Enterprise (250+ users)
  • Educational institutions
  • Nonprofit organization


Is G Suite suitable for my Business?

G Suite is a perfect place for all Businesses of all sizes and industries that:

  • Work on-the-go and rely on mobile communication.
  • Express frustration with existing email clients or want to acquire a professional email
  • Collaborate internally with employees and externally with their clients
  • Are looking for cloud storage or collaboration tools
  • Want to scale without spending time and money on technology upgrades
  • Currently use the free version of G Suite and are running out of space/user
  • Small-to-medium businesses looking to use an application toolset where their teams can easily collaborate and share files, and where administrators can control access and security settings
  • Solopreneurs or freelancers who want an affordable solution for email and productivity tools, and who want to be able to easily share work with clients and partners
  • Schools and educational institutions who want to enable collaboration between teachers and students (note – there is a version of G Suite for Education that is free)
  • Nonprofits who want to take advantage of G Suite’s free version for nonprofits
  • Anyone who prefers to work out of the cloud, as opposed to using desktop solutions and local storage


What are the Features of G Suite ?

  • Business email address  (info@yourdomain.com)
  • 30GB of online storage (unlimited storage of Google Docs)
  • Security and admin controls
  • 24/7 phone and email support
  • 99.9% guaranteed uptime SLA with financial penalties and no planned downtime
  • Offline and online capabilities


Benefits of G Suite

One of the greatest benefits of going with G Suite for your business is that most of your employees are probably already used to using products like Gmail for email and Google Docs. This makes the transition super easy and ensures you don’t have to waste time explaining to new hires how to utilize company tools; unlike Zoho or Office 365 where there might be more explanation needed.

The other core tools in G Suite are also easy to use and intuitive — very little training or tool learning required. It makes it possible to focus on core educational issues rather than learning tools.

It is a very economical solution for the company compared to having desktop applications and the necessary infrastructure to support.

G Suite also has the best compatibility on mobile devices compared to any other email provider.

The email application has some improvements over regular Gmail. You can set SPF and DKIM dns records to be known as a verified sender. Thus your emails won’t be marked as spam by supported email servers.

Google makes it super easy to one-click switch between accounts (personal Gmails and G Suite accounts).

Number of plug-ins for G Suite/Chrome that allows for integration and improvements (Grammerly, Seismic for sales docs, salesLoft, tracking software, etc.)

You can scale up or down in real time, and costs are pro-rated, which is important with any business that has fluctuation in it’s employee base.

Google Identity, which allows you to use your GSuite ID to log into all kinds of things online with good security and minimal password management.

G Suite has no scheduled downtime or maintenance windows. All of their data centers are built with redundant infrastructure. G Suite offers a 99.9% Service Level Agreement (SLA) for covered services.


Drawbacks of G Suite

G Suite is entirely web-based with no options for software.
Lack of a good desktop client is a problem for some users who are used to Outlook.

While the Google productivity apps (Docs, Sheets, etc.) are good, the native desktop apps from Microsoft are still more powerful in some aspects (though not others, such as collaboration and revision history)

Google Docs is great if you just need a simple document, but doing anything more than that, such as making it a little prettier by adding a design or imagery, is very limited. Of course, you can add pictures, but not in the capacity you can in Word or Pages. I’ve tried to create templates for clients in Google Doc and it just doesn’t work. I wish it did, as it’s a great universal software.

There is no way to create your own “tabs” in the Gmail filter when you configure your Inbox. While their algorithm is very smart, knowing what emails are promotional and which are from friends, there are certain ones I’d love to have grouped together in other categories.

Google Forms could be more robust and allow for more customization. While there are other companies that do forms better, the benefit of G Suite is having everything in one place and it would be great if the forms could be more complex.

G Suite is lacking in any project management features. While it does have Google Keep for list making, that is incredibly limited and doesn’t allow for due dates to be set for tasks.

The hangouts replacement Chat application has some room for improvement if it’s to replace your current alternative solution, such as Slack.


G Suite Plans that you can choose from ?

G Suite has three different plans you can use. You can try out any of the plans for free for 14 days to see if you like them first.

Basic Plan $4.80  $6 USD / user / month

INCLUDED APPLICATIONS

SECURITY AND MANAGEMENT

  • 24/7 support By phone, email and online
  • Admin Security and administration controls
  • Enterprise-grade access control with security key enforcement
  • Advanced Protection programme
  • Endpoint management Remotely manage your mobile fleet

Business $9.60  $12 USD / user / month

INCLUDED APPLICATIONS

SECURITY AND MANAGEMENT

  • 24/7 support By phone, email and online
  • Admin Security and administration controls
  • Archive and set retention policies for emails and chats
  • Data regions for G Suite
  • Enterprise-grade access control with security key enforcement
  • Advanced Protection programme
  • Vault Retain, archive and search data
  • eDiscovery for emails, chat and files
  • Audit reports to track user activity
  • Endpoint management Remotely manage your mobile fleet

Enterprise $25 USD / user / month

INCLUDED APPLICATIONS

SECURITY AND MANAGEMENT

  • 24/7 support By phone, email and online
  • Admin Security and administration controls
  • Archive and set retention policies for emails and chats
  • Data regions for G Suite
  • Security centre for G Suite
  • Data loss prevention for Gmail
  • Data loss prevention for Drive
  • Hosted S/MIME for Gmail
  • Integrate Gmail with compliant third-party archiving tools
  • Enterprise-grade access control with security key enforcement
  • Gmail log analysis in BigQuery
  • Advanced Protection programme
  • Vault Retain, archive and search data
  • eDiscovery for emails, chat and files
  • Audit reports to track user activity
  • Cloud Identity Premium Manage users, devices and apps
  • Endpoint management Remotely manage your mobile fleet
  • Context-aware access


How to purchase G Suite ?

You can purchase G Suite using this link :
https://refergsuite.app.goo.gl/qa1k

You can also contact me to get Discount codes to get 20% off on your first year of G Suite when you sign up. Drop an email to aerospace.prince@gmail.com or just click the Gmail icon below.

*This link is a part of G Suite Referral Program.


Steps to Setup your G Suite

Create An Account

Creating an account with G Suite is a surprisingly simple process.

  1. Enter the required details about your business.
  2. Connect your account to a domain. You can also buy a domain at this point in case you don’t have one.
  3. Enter the email address you want to use.
  4. Choose the plan you want to purchase.

Setup G Suite

  1. Add people to your G Suite Account.
  2. Verify your domain name.

Once that’s been completed, you’ll be able to access your Admin Console, where you’ll manage everything to do with your G Suite account, including email, users, apps, devices, reports and integrations.


What are the things you can do in G Suite Admin Panel ?

  • Add and manage users
  • Enable and configure security settings (e.g. 2-step verification)
  • Enable/disable apps for individual users
  • Access reports and logs on usage patterns, sharing and collaboration
  • Use the universal search bar to search through users, groups, settings and help.
  • Manage devices
  • Manage integrations with third-party apps
  • Control where different data is stored (e.g. US vs Europe)


Quick overview of all G Suite Applications

Gmail : Gmail is slick and fast and packed with features. From labels and filters to IMAP/POP support and a new confidential mode (to attach expiry dates to emails), it’s difficult to beat – and it’s now more tightly integrated with the likes of Google Calendar and Google Keep.

Calendar : It combines a clean and intuitive interface with a stack of handy features. Compare calendars across colleagues, color-code events for easy reference, get time zones that adjust as you travel, attach guests lists and files to your events.

Drive : A comprehensive online file storage locker and so much more besides. G Suite Basic plans come with 30GB of storage for every employee. G Suite’s Business, Enterprise, and Teams editions provide unlimited storage so you will always have enough space for your files. One of the best things about it is the amazing search functionality!

Docs, Sheets & Slides : These online tools form the backbone of G Suite, and while they don’t have the complexity or the power of desktop programs (Microsoft Office), they’re more than enough for most businesses. You can also export to common third-party formats. This makes it easy to collaborate with other individuals or companies and send files back and forth, without ever needing to install or purchase additional software.
One of the best features of Google Docs and Spreadsheets is the real-time commenting and unlimited versions.

Hangouts : Hangouts still exists as a box inside Gmail, but there’s also Hangouts Chat (a Slack-style app for chatting in teams) and Hangouts Meet (a video calling app for chatting with up to 30 people).

Sites: To create a full fledged website for your business, though WordPress does a better job. The Google Sites app makes it effortless to build a multipage site in less than an hour.

Keep : If you’re looking for a basic Evernote alternative, Google Keep rocks! This is a great little tool regardless of whether or not you’re using G Suite. Being a Google product, it works flawlessly within the Google ecosystem. Create to-do lists, notes, and set reminders to stay on track. Everything syncs across your devices.

Forms : An incredibly quick and easy way to gather information.

Slides :  Google Slides is a decent alternative to Microsoft Powerpoint. Just like with their other products you can take advantage of their real-time collaboration and commenting.

Vault : Vault allows you to manage, retain, search, and export your organization’s email, Google Drive file content and on-the-record chats.

Cloud Search : The Cloud Search feature allows you to search across your company’s content in G Suite. From Gmail and Drive to Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, and more.

Tip : If you’re just getting starting with G Suite, we recommend subscribing to their blog to keep up to date with new features and releases. 


G Suite Support

Help Center, which is available to all users and offers step-by-step instructions on setting up different aspects of your G Suite account
Other help resources include a community user forum, and the Google Cloud Connect Community.

You can click here to go to G Suite Support : https://gsuite.google.com/support/


Privacy and Security

Gmail has been known for its fine spam-filtering capabilities since its inception. There is also a sophisticated anti-phishing capability. The same level of scrutiny is applied to attachments. All attachments are scanned for viruses with Google’s machine learning (ML) algorithms.

It’s also a good idea to access any cloud-delivered service using a virtual private network (VPN) service to protect data in transit. The VPN Services you can use are :

Google is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Google’s data center for Google G Suite is compliant with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, SOC 2, and SOC 3 Type 2.


Switching from Microsoft to G Suite?

Refer this link : https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9247553

Lets quickly compare a couple of features between Microsoft and Google.


Comparison of Outlook vs Gmail

In Outlook…In Gmail…
View messages and their replies by default as individual entries in your InboxGroup messages and their replies by default in conversation threads so you see multiple related messages in one view
Spell check automatically while composingCheck spelling after composing
Attach and forward multiple messagesForward all or select messages in a conversation thread
Delete messages, typically to save spaceArchive messages to declutter your inbox
Sort messages by sender, date, or sizeFind messages by sender, date, topic, and more using Gmail
Organize messages in foldersTag messages with labels
Assign color categories to messagesColor-code your labels
Flag important messagesStar or add markers to important messages
Manage incoming email with rulesManage incoming email with filters
Flag messages for follow-upAdd messages to your tasks list or a Follow Up label
Get desktop mail notifications via Desktop AlertsEnable desktop notifications in Chrome
Share a mailboxDelegate your mailbox to individuals or use Google Groups to share more broadly


Comparison of Google Sheets vs Microsoft Excel

In Microsoft Excel…In Sheets…
Collaborate in Excel for the webCollaborate in real-time from Sheets
Share using Excel for the web or a shared workbookShare directly from Sheets
Save automatically using SharePoint® or OneDrive®Save automatically to Drive
Manage versions with History or Version History in OneDriveManage versions with version history
Add formulas and use Formula AutoComplete
for suggestions		Add formulas and use formula suggestions that appear as you enter text
Record macros or use VBERecord macros or use Google Apps Script
Create filtersCreate filters and filter views
Insert recommended pivot tables or create one manuallyCreate pivot tables manually or automatically with Explore
Create charts manuallyCreate charts manually or automatically with Explore
Set notifications in OneDriveSet notifications in Sheets


G Suite Certification

Prove your expertise in using G Suite productivity and collaboration tools with this certification. Demonstrate your skills and advance your career.
Register yourself in this link :
https://cloud.google.com/certification/gsuite?hl=en-GB

About this certification exam

  • Length: 2 hours
  • Registration fee: $75 (Academic pricing will be available to students and educators, including administrators.)
  • Languages: English
  • Exam format: The exam will be two parts; multiple choice and performance based.
  • Testing Options: Visit FAQs for more information about testing options.
    a. Remote Testing: Take the exam at the comfort of your home or office
    b. Public Testing Centers: Take the exam at a testing center


Alternatives to G Suite

Although the flexibility and Reliability Google offers has no comparison still the suite / features similar to what Google offers is also offered by following Compaines:

Office 365

Few of the many reasons people still prefer Office 365 over G Suite are :

1. Full Enterprise Content management. This combined with the security and compliance features in Admin portal means that personal and confidential data are much easier to manage.
2. Full Database functionality. SharePoint lists delivers a tremendous DB experience which need little IT knowledge to configure.
3. The robustness of a Desktop Application is unmatched.

Zoho

Zoho is a user-friendly and affordable solution for emails. Its very thorough and the best solution you will find while searching CRM. Zoho CRM is simple enough to immediately begin improving a company’s sales process out of the box, but powerful enough to create complex workflows, automation, custom solutions, and integrations. We were able to immediately start saving time working through leads, while continuing to improve and hone our sales experience, and then our customer experience by integrating with our Accounting system and Ticketing system.

Zoom for Video Conferencing

Cloud-based video conferencing solution that assists SMBs and large enterprises with wireless media sharing, video system interoperability, screen sharing, and more. The system is brilliant to set up & present meetings & collaboration opportunities, yet the best part is the attention to detail for customer service & support such as the one offered by VoIP Phone Systems.”

Slack

One of the best ChatOps tool, Good price, high-quality product, compatible with a lot of tools for integrations, good order, good for agile teams and DevOps culture teams. Easy and pleasant to use across all devices, great pricing, impressive number of integrations with several other services that teams probably use (no matter the industry).

JIRA

Jira Software is trusted by agile teams looking to capture & organize issues, assign work & track team activity. The software is designed so Scrum, Kanban, & hybrid models are all successful.

Monday.com

A great tool for Brainstorming, Calendar Management, Contact Management, Content Management, and Project Management. Monday.com gives this with ease of use and great design. It is super user friendly, they are always adding new features and the support team is great.”

User Reviews of G Suite

I looked at various Review sites to get the verdict from users of G Suite.

Trust Radius has Overall score of 9.2/10
G2 has a 4.5/5 Rating for G Suite
Capterra shows a amazing 4.7/5 !


Final Verdict

While it is true that Docs, Slides and Sheets can’t compete with the complexity of Word, Excel and PowerPoint – these apps and the rest of G Suite are super-fast and lightweight inside a web browser. It’s been built with the modern, web-based, connected world in mind, and it shows – both in the powerful features and slick operation of the G Suite apps.

G Suite is the ultimate easy, integrated, and functional solution for multiple tasks, communication, and workflow, no matter the company or industry. If you’re sending an email, creating a document/form/spreadsheet, or chatting with coworkers, there is not a more elegant solution that is easy for everyone to use, as most people are familiar with some Google products in their personal lives. Perhaps there are more complicated situations in which a specifically tailored platform would be more helpful (e.g. sales), but for the basic backbone of an organization’s functioning, G Suite is the way to go.

We can say, Google is way ahead of the curve.

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2 thoughts on “Google’s G Suite – Review, Plans, Benefits, Drawbacks, Alternatives, Certification, Discount Codes – A Complete Guide 2022”

  2. Hi there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my twitter group? There’s a lot of folks that I think would really enjoy your content. Please let me know. Many thanks

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