7 Reasons to Upgrade Your Google Workspace Business Starter Plan
Google Workspace Business Starter is a robust, affordable productivity suite that handles the essentials of secure email, calendar, and document sharing services. But as your business grows, those entry-level features can start to feel like a constraint.
If you are outgrowing the limits of Business Starter, here are seven reasons to consider upgrading to a Business Standard or Business Plus subscription.
1 Massive Storage Increases:
Business Starter caps you at 30GB per user. This fills up fast when you consider high-resolution images, video files, and years of email history. Upgrading to Business Standard or Plus bumps your capacity to 2TB or 5TB per user, respectively. Furthermore, this storage is pooled across your entire organization, which gives your heavy users the flexibility they need.
2 Shared Drives:
Shared drives provide a centralized way to manage your folders and permissions. Ownership resides with the system instead of individuals, so access remains consistent even as your team changes. You also benefit from more precise access controls and a streamlined process for sharing files externally.
3 Appointment Scheduling:
This feature allows you to eliminate the cost of third-party tools like Calendly. By upgrading, you can create professional booking pages directly within Google Calendar. Simply set your availability and share a link to let clients book time with you, which removes the friction of back and forth scheduling emails.
4 Professional Meeting Tools:
Don’t rely on third-party AI extensions to capture your meetings. With a Business Starter or Business Plus Subscription, you unlock the ability to record Google Meet sessions and use built-in AI note-taking. These features are secure and fully integrated, ensuring your team never misses a follow-up item or a key decision.
5 Gemini AI Assistance:
Gemini AI is now built directly into Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Chat, and Meet. Whether you need a first draft of a proposal, a summary of a long email thread, or a custom image for a slide deck, Gemini acts as a force multiplier for your daily tasks. It helps your team move from a blank page to a finished product faster.
6 The Gemini App and Custom Gems:
Beyond the side panel in your documents, an upgrade provides secure access to the full Gemini LLM at gemini.google.com. You can create Gems, which are custom AI personas tailored to your specific brand voice or workflows. They allow you to schedule automated actions to keep your business moving efficiently.
7 NotebookLM:
This tool is a significant advantage for data-driven teams. NotebookLM allows you to create private and secure learning models using only your specific data. It functions like a research assistant that has read your internal documents and can synthesize information or answer complex questions instantly.
What About the Cost?
While upgrading comes with marginal increases in your per user licensing fees, the vast majority of small and midsize organizations can offset the increase.
With the expanded capabilities of Google Workspace Business Standard and Business Plus subscriptions, you can eliminate fees for:
- Calendaring and appointment scheduling tools
- Online meeting services
- Standalone Gen AI subscriptions
- External AI note-taking services
- Additional cloud storage providers
Help is Here
We are here to ensure you have the right tools for your specific goals. If you want to learn more, check out the blog posts and eBooks in our AI Landing Zone, send us a message, or book a meeting with our Cloud Advisors.
About the Author
Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global. Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.
