March 3, 2026

Over the last several years Google Workspace for Business has added many new tools and feature updates. For firms using free Gmail or those seeking an alternative to Microsoft 365 Business, the updates to Google Workspace are intriguing. What does Google Workspace have to offer now? How easy is it to upgrade a personal free account? What are some pros and cons of switching from MS 365 for Business to Google Workspace for Business?

Plans for Lawyers

Google Workspace for Business (f/k/a G Suite, f/k/a Google Apps for Business) has multiple plans. Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus plans can be bought for a maximum of 300 users. Pricing is per user, per month, with a 1-year commitment. Starter, at $7 a month, is the most limited in terms of applications, storage space, and limited video meeting participants with no recording capabilities. Standard, at $14 a month, provides 2 TB of pooled storage per user, plus more applications such as NotebookLM, e-signatures, appointment booking pages, and a migration tool. Plus, at $22 per user per month, includes 5 TB of storage per user, eDiscovery, Vault for data retention and archiving, secure LDAP, advanced endpoint management, and security controls. Starter, Standard, and Plus all have 14-day free trials. There is an Enterprise version with added security and control features.

Strong Suit

Google Workspace for Business has all the apps you expect from a modern office productivity suite. Tools to manage email/calendar/contacts, create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and file storage are all core functions. Additionally, you get chat, forms, Site for intranets and team pages, chat, notes, tasks and more.

Google Workspace excels at collaboration. Sharing information internally and externally is easy. Real time collaboration with versioning, permissions, and tracked changes has been core to Google’s products since the beginning.

Google Workspace has interoperability with Microsoft documents. You can open, edit, store, and share Microsoft generated files. You can generate files and save them to Microsoft file extensions (docx, .xlsx, .pptx) to share with others (although if you share a native Google file with a Microsoft user, they can open it in the browser).

Caveats

Google’s browser-based tools do not have sophisticated features built into the Microsoft Office suit. If you have a need for advanced formatting, sophisticated spreadsheets, or integrations with certain third-party tools, the Google suite is probably not for you.

All Cloud All the Time?

Google Workspace for Business applications (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat, Drive, Meet, Calendar, etc.) are all browser-based. There is no installed version of any of the tools, and they are available via a browser with an Internet connection. If your Internet connection is spotty, slow, or prone to failure, Google Workspace for Business may not be the best fit for your firm or organization.

Since Google Workspace for Business runs in the cloud you will be storing all your client confidential work with Google. There is no option to store and use your files on your own private network. While the more expensive plans offer more security controls, your work is stored with Google so, as Chris Singleton points out in his excellent overview “Google Workspace Review – All the Pros and Cons”  if you are dealing with sensitive information “you may still need to give some thought to data residency (i.e., where data is physically stored), government access requests, and the broader implications of entrusting critical business operations to a big tech company.”

Offline Access

While Google Workspace for Business is a cloud-based suite, there are some options to work without relying on internet access. For instance, you can access your files through Google Drive offline by getting Drive for desktop (Mac or Windows) and either mirroring the files or streaming the files in the setup. Mirroring files stay on your computer even if the Drive account is disconnected. Streaming files let you make specific items available offline under certain circumstances.

To access and edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides offline, you will need to install the Google Docs Offline Chrome extension. When you open the file from Drive, check the box next to “Create, open, and edit your recent files on this device while offline”.

If you don’t need all your files available offline you can make individual file available offline with a right click on the file in Drive and choose “make available offline”.

Gmail can also be used offline, though there are quite a few caveats. This setting will need to be made globally in the admin portal. Then, from the Gmail settings, users can choose whether offline data is kept/removed from their computer after they sign out of their Google account. Keeping data on the device is not recommended on shared computers. Deleting data on sign out will require Gmail to be resynced each time users sign in, which may take a few hours.

OS and Device Agnostic

Because Google Workspace for Business is completely cloud-based, it works on any computer that has a browser and internet connection. Whether you are on a Chromebook, Windows desktop, Linux based machine, MacBook, Android phone, iPhone, or other device you can everything in the Workspace. It will always look, feel, and function the same.

AI Everywhere

Google’s generative artificial intelligence tool, Gemini, is integrated into Google Workspace for Business suit at no additional cost. Workplace Standard includes Gemini assistant built into in Gmail, Docs, Meet, and more. The subscription gives users expanded access to models and features in the Gemini app. NotebookLM has expanded access to features. The Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub suggests that it does not “use your prompt, Workspace content, webpage context, or generated responses to train generative AI models without your permission” and does not “share your prompt or the generated response with other users or organizations”.  Furthermore, it says “Your content is not human reviewed or used for Generative AI model training outside your domain without permission.” That said, read all the terms and conditions, the privacy policy, and consider the level of sensitivity of information of the files and information in your Google Workspace. Use principles of least privilege and make sure to set your account up with appropriate administrative controls.

Meet With More

In Google Workspace for Business Standard the Meet video conference tool allows you to have up to 150 participants with a maximum meeting length of 24 hours. It provides US and international dial in phone numbers, studio noise cancellation, adaptive audio, and meeting recordings saved to Google Drive. Features such as moderation, hand raising, breakout rooms and polling are included. In the Business Plus plan attendance tracking and in-domain live streaming are also included. Google Meet also is enhanced with Gemini for transcription and meeting notes, stored in Google Drive.

Notable Features

In addition to email, calendar, contacts, documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, video conferencing, and cloud file storage, Google Workspace for Business plans may also include:

Workspace Studio – an automation tool to streamline and manage tasks across Workplace. Get a daily summary of email, add a task when you add a document, get a notification when a form response comes in, and many more easy “flows” you can build to help you stay on top of information, communication, and workflows.

Google Vids – Create videos from slides, record yourself and your screen, create 8 second video clips from a prompt, create an AI avatar, and much more. You can edit videos, add voiceovers, add stock images, add text captions, and create templates. Videos are limited to 10 minutes. Files are stored on Google Drive and are easily shared and viewed.

Bookings – Use appointment booking in Google Calendar to allow others to reserve time on your calendar.

NotebookLM – Upload files, videos, text, web links and more to ground the Gemini AI on specific resources. You can interact with your dataset with prompts or use the many pre-built output tools to create interactive podcasts, mind maps, flash cards, reports, and more.

Esignatures – Request signatures, see status of pending signatures, and more from Google docs or PDFs in Google Drive.

Email Campaigns – Send personalized emails with mail merge linked to a spreadsheet for email campaigns, announcements, or newsletters. An unsubscribe link will be added to the message automatically.

Draft Email from Docs – Write and send important emails directly from Google Docs – get started by typing @email in a blank Google Doc.

Google Sites – create sites for your internal team with no coding skills. You can let people outside of your firm or organization get access to your site, but they are not a substitute for a business website.

Cloud Search – search across your firm’s content on Google Workspace and third-party data sources on any device.

Google Chat – Chat with individuals or create a group to chat and collaborate.

Groups for Business – create email and distribution lists for collaboration.

Keep – Create notes, reminders, and add the Chrome extension to save webpages, images or selected text.

Tasks – Capture, organize and track tasks from within Google apps. Add tasks from Gmail, delegate tasks in Google docs, create and assign tasks in Google Chat.

Still Need Word or Excel?

Some firms have subscriptions to both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 so they can have Word. If you prefer to work in Google and want a local, licensed copy of Microsoft Office if you occasionally need MS Word or Excel, you can buy a lifetime license of Word, Excel and PowerPoint to load onto your Mac or PC for as low as $100.

Migrations

If you are considering making the switch, there are migration tools to help your firm move email, files and data from MS Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.

You can also migrate email from other providers like GoDaddy, iCloud or Yahoo! using IMAP. To move files from a local or network drive you can drag and drop them into Drive, though depending on the number of files this will take a while.

If you have a personal Gmail account and decide you would like the extra privacy and functionality of a Google Workspace for Business plan, moving to a paid Google Workspace account is quite easy. Just create a Workspace for Business account and tell it to use your existing account. All your Google docs and Gmail messages will be in the new Workspace account. You will need a domain name. If you do not already have one consider getting one through Squarespace Domains. Google Domains was sold to Squarespace Domains and setting up your domain in Google Workspace requires just a few simple steps. You can continue to send messages from either your old email address or the new email address simply by choosing from the drop-down menu when drafting a new message. Messages sent to your old Gmail account will now appear in your new Workspaces account.

If, however, you do NOT want to bring over all the old emails you can start fresh and forward important messages, import contacts, and drag files into your new account.

Integrations and Add-Ons

There are hundreds of products that integrate with Google Workspace. Check the products you currently have integrated with MS 365 to make sure there is an equivalent Google Workspace integration. Common products used by legal professionals from QuickBooks to Clio to File Vine have integrations. If the integration is not listed in the Google Marketplace you may be able to integrate through single sign on.

In addition to integrations, there are hundreds of add-ons for Google Workspaces to extend or enhance the functionality of the productivity tools like Docs and Sheets.

Conclusion

Google Workspaces has added a lot of core business functionality over the past several years. Tools like appointment bookings, robust video conferencing, video creation, and even esignatures are now included in the suite, making it easily rival Microsoft 365. Generative AI via Gemini built into Workspaces at no additional cost means the total monthly spend is far lower than a Microsoft 365 plan plus the $30 Copilot add-on. With capabilities to work with and generate MS file formats, for many firms and individuals Google Workspace is worth another look.