G Suite has grown and evolved a lot over the past 10 years. There's now a range of different G Suite editions to better suit the wide variety of organisations that utilise Google's office productivity platform. 

The three main G Suite editions are; Basic, Business and Enterprise, but there are also other editions that have specific use-cases, such as G Suite for Nonprofits and G Suite for Education, both of which are free to use for qualifying organisations. Each of these options provide access to the core G Suite apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive etc. but with advanced features and functionality being reserved for the higher tiers of Business and Enterprise.

Outside of these core offerings, there is one further G Suite edition available for organisations that are not yet ready to uproot their systems and move everything to Google, but still want to take advantage of the cloud storage and collaboration features - Drive Enterprise.

So, how do you choose the right strategy for your company? It all starts with looking at what each edition has to offer.

G Suite Basic

The Basic tier provides your business with a professional email address, 30 GB storage per user and access to Google's suite of collaboration tools - including:

• Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms & Hangouts (for video calls and instant messaging) and more.
• Google Apps Script - This is a scripting language with similar syntax to JavaScript which automates functions within the G Suite platform. It is commonly used for workflow-type processes.

(Remember that it’s only non-Google documents which count towards these storage limits - all Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are stored without affecting your allowance.)

Licence Costs: £4.60 per user per month

Get in touch for a setup and migration quote via [email protected] or 0333 789 0102.

G Suite Business

G Suite Business is essentially the enhanced office suite for Google services. Alongside everything you might expect to get from Basic G Suite edition, you also get:

• Unlimited Storage - For organisations with 5 users or more. If there are 4 or fewer users, then the available storage is 1TB. 
• Shared Drives - Shared space where teams can easily store, search and access their files from anywhere, on any device. Any files stored in Shared Drives are owned by the organisation, not the user. Documents also inherit the sharing permissions of the Shared Drive.
• Google Cloud Search - Search across all G Suite services, such as Drive, Contacts, and Gmail, and third-party data sources.
• eDiscovery and Compliance - Google Vault automatically traps all Google communications in and out of the business and retains for a predetermined period of time. Its intended use is for archiving, legal holds and audit reporting.
• Advanced Mobile Device Management - Enforce a range of policies such as passwords on devices, manage apps and the ability to wipe all data from devices.

Administrator Controls

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between G Suite Basic and G Suite Business is the additional administrative controls, such as:

• Drive activity alerts: You can get custom alerts when documents are shared outside of your domain.
• Advanced drive reporting: Advanced alerts, custom APIs, mobile alerts and more.
• Security keys: Administrators can deploy and track security keys for the business.

Licence Costs: £9.20 per user per month

Get in touch for a setup and migration quote or an upgrade / custom deal via [email protected] or 0333 789 0102.

G Suite Enterprise

Enterprise delivers a premium office suite that includes advanced security features and controls for the most demanding organisations.

As compelling and fully-functional as G Suite Business might be, there are some organisations who have higher requirements around security and compliance. G-Suite Enterprise is designed to support and enhance large businesses who want features like security key management, enterprise-grade meetings, and data loss protection features. The Enterprise edition also comes with the opportunity for 100 people to participate in Google Hangouts Meet calls, which can also be recorded and stored in Google Drive.

In G Suite Enterprise, users have access to everything you get in the Basic and Business G Suite editions, as well as:

• Enterprise Grade Meetings - Additional features within Hangouts Meet, such as recording video meetings and increasing attendees to 100 users.
• Data loss prevention features - Makes sure that end users do not send sensitive or critical information outside the corporate network. Think of a user creating a document, loading it with your customer’s credit card information and sharing this with an external email address.
• Optical Character Recognition - An automatic scan of inbound and outbound Gmail messages that extracts text from images to check if those images contain sensitive information which should not be shared. If a message is found, it is quarantined and the administrator is notified.
• Security Centre - Provides advanced security information and analytics, and added visibility and control into security issues affecting your domain. 
• Customization opportunities - The dashboard can be customised to your organisations requirements and preferences.
• Enhanced Email Encryption (S/MIME) - Further protects against data loss by supporting the use of third-party certificates which are uploaded by the administrators and remain in force for future email exchanges.

Premium Admin Controls

G Suite Enterprise offers the highest level of administrative control that Google has to offer. With this edition, your company will be able to:

• Use third-party archiving products to discover and store critical emails.
• Require security keys for users to sign into their accounts.
• Analyze Gmail Logs in BigQuery for data collection and assessment.
• Use S/MIME Encryption to improve email security
• Automate tasks for mobile device management by setting custom rules that trigger when suspicious activities are detected

Licence Costs: £20 per user per month

Get in touch for a setup and migration quote or an upgrade / custom deal via [email protected] or 0333 789 0102.

Drive Enterprise

This G Suite edition provides the complete range of Google Drive features for organisations without having to move to other G Suite services like Gmail and Calendar. Drive Enterprise includes the Docs editors, Sites, and Google Vault.

This allows organisations to create, store, share, and collaborate in the cloud — without causing any disruption that’s often associated with migrations or implementing new tools and technologies.

Licence Costs: Varies depending on storage quantities and active users. Get in touch for a quote - [email protected] | 0333 789 0102

G Suite for Education

Educational institutions such as schools and colleges can qualify for this free G Suite edition through Google for Education. They will also benefit from access to Google Classroom which is designed to connect teachers and students, allowing for a more streamlined approach to lesson planning and management.

Find out more about Google for Education here.

Licence Costs: Free

Get in touch for a setup and migration quote via [email protected] or 0333 789 0102.

G Suite for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organisations can benefit from this free G Suite edition through the Google for Nonprofits program, which also brings a host of other features such as a $10,000 Google Ads grant and advanced Youtube features.

Licence Costs: Free

Get in touch for a setup and migration quote via [email protected] or 0333 789 0102.

Choosing the Right G Suite Edition

You can use our pricing calculator to get an example of your recurring costs after switching to G Suite here.

Contact

For further information on any of the G Suite editions mentioned above or to discuss the process of moving to the cloud, please do not hesitate to get in touch via the details below, we would be delighted to have a chat about how we can help.

[email protected] | 0333 789 0102

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