Most businesses require a team collaboration and productivity suite that allows different departments to communicate information, connect with one another, streamline procedures, and stay on track with project goals.
Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, was designed with these goals in mind. Over the years, its robust feature set has enchanted millions of business customers, but a recent price increase has spurred some organizations to seek alternative solutions.
If you’re one of them and you’re looking to find the right G Suite alternative for your business, keep reading!
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365, perhaps the most well-known brand on our list, is one of the most popular productivity suites and is Google Workspace’s main competition.
Office 365 has a plethora of features, such as OneDrive for file storage and sharing, Exchange for email hosting, Teams for chat-based collaboration, and SharePoint for web-based collaboration. Office 365 also connects with other Microsoft ecosystem platforms, such as Microsoft Dynamics.
Source: Microsoft
Pricing: Office 365 Business Essentials costs $5 per user per month with an annual commitment.
User reviews:
“Office 365 has so many business apps that most businesses need across the board. Since it’s all in one package/system, they talk to each other already out of the box.”
Dropbox
Dropbox rose to prominence in the cloud storage sector and has now moved into team management and communication.
Dropbox Business makes it simple for team members to share files and folders, add comments and edit documents in real-time by consolidating all information within a secure, centralized repository, all from a single access point.
Source: Dropbox
Although Dropbox Business can’t compare to Workspace due to its lack of features, it does compete with Google Drive for Business, making it an excellent choice for enterprises seeking economical cloud storage.
Pricing: Dropbox Business Standard starts at $12.50/user/month.
User reviews:
“The business version gives you a lot more space along with some business-related features, like user privileges access, People Pages, Shared File locking, and files rewind which I found it very useful in the business environment, it allows you to restore previous versions of files which deleted up to 6 months back.”
Slack
Since its first release in April 2013, Slack has evolved to become one of the world’s most popular team communication software programs. And it’s clear to see how Slack was able to rise above other competing team chat applications by providing an appealing user interface (UI), video conferencing functionality, an app directory with over 1,500 apps, and robust security features.
Source: Slack
Although Slack lacks the feature set to compete on all fronts with Workspace, it is a significant competitor to Google’s Hangouts and Google Meet services. And, even if you do not switch to a G Suite alternative, you may still profit from Slack, thanks to Workspace’s newly implemented Slack link.
Pricing: Slack offers a freemium version. Small teams are free, standard plans start at $6.67/user/month, billed annually.
User reviews:
“Slack is amazing. I love that it has channels so that you can divide conversations into the appropriate teams and departments. It has dramatically lessened our in-office email volume. It has streamlined communication and made it so easy to ask my coworker a simple question without sending an email or text. It has been a game-changer for our organization.”
Zoho Workplace
Zoho Workplace is an integrated online office application package that includes an email hosting platform, chat features, web conferencing facilities, a word processor, and more.
It is a cheap G Suite alternative. For up to 50 users, Zoho Workplace provides free access to features such as unlimited chat channels, 30 MB email attachments, 5 GB file upload for docs, and Workspace integration, making it an excellent choice for small businesses.
Source: Zoho
Pricing: Zoho offers a freemium version. Businesses with more than 50 users can gain access to all of these features and more through the Standard or Professional plans that begin at $3/user/month, payable annually. Find more information about pricing here.
User reviews:
“Easy to access and use. We use it internally for multiple users. It is very easy to start a quick group chat with shared users, as well as add comments or download the file for offline use.”
Rackspace
Rackspace, a managed cloud computing provider based in the United States with global operations, offers the same global scale as Google Workspace for a fraction of the cost.
Rackspace Webmail, the company’s primary email hosting platform, is designed to provide low-cost web hosting to small businesses.
Source: Rackspace
Similar to other G Suite alternatives from this list, users may find Rackspace Webmail’s feature set to be limited in contrast to Google’s. What Rackspace Webmail lacks in functionality, it more than makes up for with 25 GB mailboxes, 50 MB attachments, Microsoft Outlook integration, a 100% uptime guarantee, and other features.
Pricing: The basic subscription is $2.99 per user per month.
User reviews:
“Rackspace email interface is very similar to MS Outlook. It allows for file structure, and search capabilities. Rackspace allows for large volumes of email to be received and stored for easy access later”
Samepage
Samepage provides a bundle of task management, file sharing, and document collaboration features all in one package, making it a feasible G Suite alternative.
Although it does not support email hosting, Samepage does include instant messaging, group and team chat, direct video and phone conversations, shared calendars, and a slew of task, content, and file management features.
Source: Samepage
Pricing: Samepage is also a low-cost option, with a free beginning version for small teams and personal usage that offers 2 GB of storage and an infinite number of users. Pro package begins at $8/member/month when paid annually and $9/member/month (when billed monthly).
User reviews:
“It is excellent, how can it be configured rapidly and then adjust as it is thought to develop. I can establish separate folders for my clients and control access to what I want each individual to view. The clients may access the folder without a download need and can do so without payment, they can also download and upload to the folder. With your encryption protection, I do not need to utilize encrypted email when the files contain private information.”
Bitrix24
Bitrix24, which was designed with small enterprises in mind, has a comprehensive set of capabilities, including:
- Web domain hosting
- Email hosting
- Document collaboration
- Group chat
- Video conferencing
- Social networking
- Human resource management
This G Suite alternative receives high marks for cloud-based and on-premises implementation options. Bitrix24 also provides features that users cannot find in Workspace, such as project management and customer relationship management, making it an excellent choice for organizations that want all of Workspace’s functionality — plus a little more.
Source: Bitrix24
Pricing: Bitrix24 offers a freemium version. It’s free for up to 12 users; Cloud Edition Standard begins at $79 per month for up to 50 users; On-Premises Edition begins at a one-time price of $1,490. Find pricing plans and details here.
User reviews:
“What I like most is that it’s all in one application. It helps manage tasks, interacting with the teams, and it also provides a video conferencing feature as well.”
Citrix ShareFile
Citrix ShareFile, like many of the other options on this list, is a team collaboration suite meant to increase workplace productivity. Citrix ShareFile is a strong solution and an appealing G Suite alternative, with online collaboration tools for mobile teams, advanced document management and sharing functions, limitless cloud storage, and better security for regulatory compliance.
Source: Citrix ShareFile
Furthermore, because of Citrix’s new agreement with Google, ShareFile customers now have the best of both worlds. Citrix clients may receive access to services such as the ShareFile Connector for Google Drive, co-editing with Google Docs, and more by integrating Workspace with ShareFile.
Pricing: The standard plan starts at $11 per user per month ($55 for 5 employees).
User reviews:
“Citrix is easy to use and secure. The best thing about it is I find it faster than Dropbox or Google drive, AND it allows for secure uploads from partners and clients. I would only use this for documents and files, rather than media.”
Conclusion
We hope you find these suggestions helpful on your hunt for the best G Suite alternative.
If you’re seeking more ways to use technology to improve team communication, you should also look into email archiving solutions. Archiving services allow you to store, search, and manage email, social media, and text/SMS message records in a single repository, allowing your staff to easily access and share crucial electronic communications and collaborate as a team.
If you need assistance finding the ideal archiving solution, book a no-commitment demo or contact Jatheon to discuss your archiving requirements.
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