G Suite Business Free for 30 Days
Sign up for a Free 30 Day Trial of G Suite Business and get Free Admin support from Google Certified Deployment Specialists.
Recently Google Cloud refreshed their Office 365 competitor, Google Apps for Work, with a new name (G Suite) and three new levels of features: Basic, Business and Enterprise. At the onset G Suite pricing looks to have remained simple but a new enterprise push and sales quotas for partners there are a plethora of options for companies in the 50-5000 user range.
Google Workspace (G Suite) Basic Pricing: $5.50 - $6.00 /month
First, let’s get through G Suite Basic. At $6 per user month this version of Google Apps for Work includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Keep, Hangouts and other core apps from Google.
Flexible Monthly |
12 Month Commit |
Pro-Rate |
|
Google Direct |
$6 |
$6/Monthly |
Exact Pro-rate |
Google Cloud Partners |
$5.50-$6.00 |
Varies: |
Varies |
Notes on G Suite Basic Pricing.
We’ve found that the most value in G Suite Basic comes from a direct relationship with Google. Most Google Cloud partners do not have the automated billing systems in place to provide as accurate pricing as Google directly. If you purchase G Suite from a reseller, ask how they pro-rate and invoice on flexible mid-month adds and deletes.
Google Workspace (G Suite) Business Pricing: $12 /month
I’d recommend G Suite Business for any business with at least one full time employee. Four quick reasons to Go G Suite Business include Team Drives, Vault, Cloud Search and unlimited Drive space.
Pricing is actually simplified with G Suite Business in that it’s $12 per user per month so there’s no need for any long term commitment. Pricing comes down to pro-rating on monthly licenses and discounts.
G Suite Basic customers can negotiate and choose from a number of different upgrade price offers for G Suite Business but once at this level there is no discount for yearly commitment. Some Google Cloud partners will provide G Suite Business at a discount, especially if you switch from Google direct or another reseller and provide a one, two or three year contract.
Notes on G Suite Business Pricing.
Pro-ration of licensing fees becomes more important for Google’s G Suite Business and Enterprise versions, especially at “list” price.
Sample Pricing methodology differences for G Suite Business. Month = 30 Days
Price/Mo |
Pro-rate Methodology |
Buy on 15th |
Delete on 5th |
|
Google Direct |
$12 |
Daily Pro-rate |
$6 |
$2 |
Google Reseller A |
$12 |
Daily Pro-Rate |
$6 |
$2 |
Google Reseller B |
$12 |
Last Month’s Max License |
$0 |
$12 |
Google Reseller C |
$12 |
Max license |
$12 |
$12 |
Explanation of pro-rate methodologies for G Suite licensing: For simplicity of billing some Google Cloud partners will round out licensing for G Suite customers. We recommend you ask your reseller what their policy is on pro-rating G Suite Business prices and pencil out some scenarios. Beware, some G Suite Resellers use a “Maximum License Pricing methodology” which always works in their favor.
Google Workspace (G Suite) Enterprise Pricing: $25/ User
The enterprise version of G Suite is not only suitable to enterprise but any business able to justify the steep price jump of $15 user from the Business version. Many of the features in the new enterprise version were supported in earlier versions of G Suite Business. It’s also important to note that some features in Google’s new G suite Business are available from third party vendors as extensions of Google Apps.
Key Value Drivers in Google Workspace (G Suite) Enterprise:
Advanced Video Meeting Features
- Dial-in Access
- Capacity Increase from 25 to 50
- Record meetings
Enhanced Security Features
- Data Loss prevention for Gmail/Drive
- Ability to use Own S/Mime Certificates in Gmail
- Security Key Enforcement
- Integration with 3rd party e-discovery/archiving
Technology Analysis firm Gartner suggests Google Cloud and its partners are already discounting the enterprise version as they work to incorporate new features to drive the value needed for the $25/user price tag. With massive deployments ongoing at companies like Verizon and Colgate-Palmolive it will be interesting to see where the enterprise feature-set and price point goes. Certainly features such as integration with existing e-discovery and security systems is key to enterprise adoption.
Playing the Price Wars in the Cloud.
To recap, Google Cloud offers three versions of G Suite, it’s office productivity suite that includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Hangouts and more, bundled together with support and higher level of availability. G Suite Basic provides personalization and administrative controls for $6/user/month while for $12/user/month G Suite Business adds Google Vault, Cloud Search and team drives with unlimited disk space. G Suite Enterprise adds a handful of video conferencing and security features and retails for $25/user/month.
Google is offering incentives and discounts to get companies to adopt G Suite Business and Google Cloud platform. Start your free trial with Apps Admins today and get a 14 months for the price of 12.