Google Drive offers a range of business plans to suit different needs, with the most basic plan starting at $6 per user per month.
Google Drive's business plans are designed to provide secure and collaborative storage for teams.
Each plan has its own storage capacity, with the basic plan offering 30 GB of storage.
Google Drive's business plans also include advanced features like file sharing and collaboration.
Pricing and Plans
Google Drive offers a range of pricing plans to suit different business needs. You can test Google Drive using a 14-day free trial. The Business Starter plan starts at $6.00/user/month and includes up to 30 GB of cloud storage per user.
Google Drive has 3 pricing editions, from $6 to $12, and a free trial is also available. The Business Standard plan costs $12.00/user/month and includes up to 2 TB of cloud storage per user.
Google Drive's pricing plans are transparent and mostly easy to understand. The Business Plus plan provides 5 TB of cloud storage for each user and supports up to 250 participant web conferences with audience tracking for $18.00/user/month.
You can upgrade to the Enterprise plan, which is highly customizable and supports as much storage capacity as is needed. The Enterprise plan costs $8 per month for each active user, with additional storage costs of $1 per 25GB or $0.04 per 1GB.
Here's a summary of Google Drive's pricing plans:
Google Drive also offers discounts for non-profit organizations and educational institutions, typically ranging from 10-25%. Additionally, there's a free version of Google Drive available for individuals.
Features and Security
Google Drive offers a range of features and security options to suit businesses of all sizes.
Client-side encryption is available for Google Drive, allowing administrators to control and manage encryption keys, but it's only available to Enterprise tier subscribers.
You can client-side encrypt Google Docs, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, and other files, but not file titles, metadata, or linked content outside of Google Drive if you subscribe to the Business Starter, Business Standard, or Business Plus tiers.
Two-step authentication and security keys are available across all Business plans, including Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus.
Here's a breakdown of security features across Google Drive Business plans:
Google Drive Business plans also offer other security features, such as alert centers, audit and investigation tools, and security investigation tools, but these are only available to Business Standard and Business Plus subscribers.
Security and Data
Google Drive offers a range of security features to protect your files, including client-side encryption, which ensures that files are encrypted on your device before being uploaded to the cloud. This means that even Google can't access your encrypted files.
Two-step verification is available on all Business plans, requiring you to verify your identity with a second form of authentication in addition to your password. You can also use security keys for two-step verification, which adds an extra layer of security.
Google Drive also offers basic data exports, which allows you to export your data in a format that can be easily imported into other services. However, this feature is only available on the Business Standard and Business Plus plans.
The Business Plus plan offers advanced security features, including generative AI security protections, which can help detect and prevent security threats. This plan also includes a Drive data protection insights report, which provides detailed information about your data security.
Google Drive's security dashboards and investigation tools are also available on the Business Plus plan, including an alert center that notifies you of potential security issues and an audit and investigation tool that allows you to track and investigate security incidents.
Device security settings are also available on the Business Plus plan, including strong passcode enforcement, network management, and mobile device security policies.
Here is a summary of the security features available on each plan:
It's worth noting that some of these features require verifying your domain or enabling advanced mobile management.
Email Usage
Email usage is a crucial aspect of any business account. You can store up to 2 TB of emails, documents, and photos with the Business Standard plan.
The attachment size limit is also worth noting. When sending emails, you can attach files up to 25 MB in size, but when receiving emails, the limit is 50 MB.
If you need to send emails to a large group of people, the Business Standard plan allows you to send messages to up to 2,000 recipients, with 500 of those being external addresses.
Here's a breakdown of the email usage limits for each plan:
These limits can help you plan and manage your email usage effectively.
Docs Editors
Docs Editors provide a range of features to help you create and edit documents. With Google Drive for desktop enabled, you can access your files from anywhere and collaborate with others in real-time.
All three plans, Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus, include Google Drive for desktop, allowing you to access your files from your desktop. This feature is essential for anyone who needs to work on documents frequently.
The Business Standard and Business Plus plans offer advanced features, including Turn Docs creation on or off, Connected Sheets, and Generative AI in Docs, Sheets, & Slides. These features are perfect for businesses that need to create and edit complex documents.
Here's a breakdown of the Docs Editors features across the three plans:
With the Business Plus plan, you can also proofread documents, which is a great feature for businesses that need to ensure accuracy in their documents.
Chat
Chat is a powerful tool in Google Workspace, allowing you to communicate with your team seamlessly. You can turn chat history on or off, set space history options for users, and even automatically accept chat invitations.
You can also control external chat, allowing or restricting it for your organization. This feature is available in all three Business editions: Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus.
If you're using Business Plus, you get even more features, including the ability to control file sharing in Chat and automatically delete Chat messages for your organization.
Here's a breakdown of the chat features available in each Business edition:
To get the most out of Google Chat, you'll need to sign up for Google Workspace and choose the Business edition that suits your organization's needs.
Workspace Features
Google Workspace offers a range of features to enhance your productivity and security. Google Drive storage space is allocated to each user, with the Business Standard plan offering 2 TB of cloud storage per user.
The amount of storage space is not used by native Google Workspace files like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites. Instead, uploaded files like PDFs, Microsoft-formatted files, images, and videos, as well as emails and email attachments, use Drive storage.
The Business Plus plan offers more storage, with 5 TB of cloud storage per user. This is more than double the storage offered by the Business Standard plan.
Here are the key features of the Business Plus plan:
- Greater Admin Security and administration controls
- A Security center
- Data loss prevention for Gmail
- Enterprise-grade access control with security key enforcement
- Data loss prevention for Drive
- Hosted S/MIME for Gmail
- Cloud Identity Premium which allows users to manage devices
These features are additive, meaning each successive plan includes everything in the lower tier plan. This makes it easy to upgrade to a higher plan if you need more advanced features or storage.
Storage and Capacity
Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage, which can be a great starting point for small businesses or individuals. This amount of storage can hold a decent amount of files, but it ultimately depends on the type and size of the files you're storing.
Google Drive's storage capacity can be expanded with paid plans, but the details of these plans aren't mentioned in the article.
Google Drive's free storage is a good starting point, but it's essential to consider the limitations of shared files and data governance, which are locked behind the Enterprise tier. This means that businesses may need to upgrade to a paid plan to access more advanced features.
Google Drive's storage capacity is expandable, but the exact details of the paid plans are not provided in the article.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is a game-changer for businesses and individuals alike. It allows you to store, edit, and access files on remote servers, which can be synchronized and shared across devices.
Google Drive, for example, has recorded over one billion users and hosted over two trillion files since its launch in April 2012. It offers apps available across several operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
Cloud storage offers a range of benefits, including synchronization across devices, convenience, automation, security, and data recovery in case of loss or compromise. It's also cost-efficient, making it an attractive option for businesses and individuals.
Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage, which is a great starting point for most users. You can upload any type of file to Google Drive and even convert certain file types to Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides format.
Some cloud storage services, like the one mentioned in our review, have flexible pricing tiers that allow you to choose the plan that suits your needs. They also offer administrative tools for sharing files with teams and departments.
However, not all cloud storage services are created equal. Some may lack features like Task and Workflow tabs, or have limitations on password protection for shared files. Be sure to do your research and choose a service that meets your needs.
Here are some key benefits of cloud storage, as mentioned in our review:
- Synchronization across devices
- Convenience
- Automation
- Security
- Data recovery in case of loss or compromise
Data Regions
Data regions play a crucial role in managing your organization's data storage and security. You can set a single data at rest region policy for everyone in your organization with the Business Plus plan.
The Business Standard and Business Plus plans offer additional features for data regions. With Business Plus, you can set data at rest region policies for organizational units or groups, which is a more granular control over your data. This is particularly useful for large organizations with complex structures.
If you're looking for detailed reports on your data regions, the Business Plus plan is the way to go. You'll get advanced data regions reports, including data processing by region and service, and data at rest by service.
Here's a summary of the data region features available in each plan:
Note that the Assured Controls data regions add-on is not included in any of these plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between personal and business Google Drive?
Google Drive personal is a free cloud storage service, while Google Drive for business is a paid service designed for enterprises with additional features and support
Is there a 1tb Google Drive plan?
Yes, Google Drive offers a 1 TB plan, which is included with Google Workspace Individual. You can also purchase additional storage through Google One.
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