Google Workspace, formerly known as G-Suite, provides powerful tools for productivity and collaboration in order for organizations to deliver services from anywhere and on any device. The platform provides custom email for business purposes and also tools like calendar, Gmail, Chat, Sheets, Drive, Docs etc. The collaboration feature allows teams to work on documents simultaneously and get real times updates and feedbacks from colleagues. Unlike traditional desktop applications, there is no need to install any software and applications in google workspace can be used across devices. It is also compatible with files made from other tools, like Microsoft Office.
Lets have a look at some Pros and Cons of Google Workspace :
Pros :
- Convenience : Having all the office productivity tools at one place is a huge convenience. Switching between tools with Google workspace is a seamless experience and saves a lot of time and effort.
- Ease of use : Products included in Google workspace are very simple and easy to use.
- Collaboration and Sharing : Collaboration is the unique selling point of google workspace. Its strong point is how easily it helps to share the data and documents within the team. Multiple team members can work on the same document at the same time and get real time updates about others’ work.
- Everything runs on the cloud : Unlike Microsoft, all the apps of google workspace run on web browsers and changes made to the documents are auto saved.
- Range of apps : Google workspace provides a wide range of applications that covers a vast variety of user needs.
- Plenty of cloud storage : Google workspace provides more than enough cloud storage with its business and enterprise plans at very reasonable prices.
- Free version available : Many of the tools like Gmail, docs, drive etc are available to use for free.
- Integrations : Google workspace has a massive and ever growing amount of integration with every possible tool which makes it easier for it to slot into any existing process.
Cons:
- Not as advanced as Microsoft Office: When you compare some of the Google Workspace applications with the Microsoft office counterparts, you will find that they are not as advanced. They lack a lot functionality which is there in the Microsoft tools.
- Requires Internet Access : The pros of not having desktop applications becomes a con also here. For using all the google workspace tools and applications, internet is required as they are available only over the internet and not offline.
- Compatibility with Microsoft : At times there are issues in displaying or converting certain elements while working on the documents created with Microsoft.
- Security: Having data hosted on the internet through cloud always imposes a higher vulnerability in terms of security as compared to data which is present on your desktop.
- Issues with multiple accounts : If you have multiple google accounts, it becomes cumbersome to login everytime and to switch between accounts. Google Workspace could introduce an enhancement to remember the last login used when moving between applications.
- Prices on higher plans : While the starter plan provided by google is affordable at 6 dollar per month per user, organizations which have a lot of employees often want to opt for a higher plan, which can cost upto 12 dollars per user per month. It’s a higher price which increases exponentially with the number of users.
As seen above, there are more pros than cons of using the Google Workspace and it is ultimately a powerful suite to be working with for any organization. It is a great solution for businesses or professionals who prefer working on the cloud, want to enable easy collaborations between users and don’t want to worry about going over the storage limits.
