Google has announced a new, free tier of its Workspace suite, Workspace Essentials Starter. Basically, it lets workers use tools like Google Docs, Sheets, Chat, etc. with their coworkers without requiring them to switch over to Gmail if they`re already using something like Exchange or Zoho. While employees have long been able to replicate this use case with personal Google accounts, having an official product for it could help with security and make it easier to manage a team of people working together.
According to Google’s blog post, users will be able to sign up for Essentials Starter using their existing email accounts and will then be able to invite their coworkers to work on projects with them. Google provides 15 GB of storage per user. It’s not a huge space for sharing media, but it should be able to store enough text documents, slideshows, and spreadsheets. The plan doesn’t include email, but employees can continue to communicate with each other using chat and Meet.
Google says Workspace Essentials Starter is designed to “make it easy for employees to choose their productivity tools and use the latest collaboration technologies.” This seems like a nice touch to the staff, but a bit cumbersome for the IT department.
A closer look at the plan details reveals that teams are limited to 25 people, but an unlimited number of teams in an organization can sign up. There are also, of course, limits on what you get access to using the free version — you’re not going to get support from Google, and Meetings and Chats all have some limitations when compared to the paid Enterprise Essentials plan.
