google claims there are more than 425 million users of its free webmail service, gmail. within that number are at least several million businesses that use a generic gmail address to contact customers.
Google sells a nearly identical version of Gmail as part of its Google Apps online productivity suite, which costs US$5 per user per month. Why should a business use the paid version of Gmail?
there are seven main reasons that make paying for gmail a very easy decision.
1. custom email address
Businesses using the free version of gmail can only send emails like mybusinessname@gmail.com. Notice how your bank, insurance company, and airline never use consumer email addresses. the reason they don’t is because it looks cheap. for us$5 a month you can have a contact@mybusinessname.com email address. it looks much more professional and is worth it for the brand value alone.
2. guaranteed uptime
google supports the paid version of your gmail with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime. that means the service is designed to run 24/7 without failure, and unexpected outages will be less than nine hours a year. Although there is no similar guarantee for the free version of Gmail, it rarely has any problems. The warranty is probably more valuable in theory than in reality, since compensation for downtime is limited to fees paid to Google, which are small.
3. double the storage
the free version of gmail comes with 15gb of space for your documents, emails, photos and other files. The paid version has 30GB on the $5/month plan and unlimited storage for $10/month (or 1TB if your business has fewer than five users). Companies that handle Microsoft Office documents rarely touch these per-user limits, but as we move to using video more often at work, those storage limits will become more relevant.
4. 24/7 support
This is a great incentive, especially for businesses that have started to look beyond Gmail to other parts of the Google suite. The free version of Gmail includes access to Google Docs (word processing), Google Sheets (spreadsheets), and Google Slides (presentations), but if you’re having trouble, you can’t pick up the phone and call Google. for us$5 a month, you can.
5. no ads
Most companies probably see this as a peace of mind, but it’s also less distracting from a productivity perspective. In the free version of Gmail, Google shows small text ads targeted to any keywords it finds in your emails. this process is automated, there are no real people checking emails and matching ads to them, but it does make some companies worry about a third party accessing sensitive business information.
6. google app market
Companies using the free version of Gmail cannot install third-party applications through the Google App Market. Although most of these applications can be purchased directly from software companies, two main benefits are lost.
Connected apps can exchange information with your gmail account. Whether it’s tracking emails to clients in a crm or sharing contact details with quoting software, business users can save a lot of time by automatically sharing data between online programs.
The next time you need to export/import data from one app to the next, think how easy it would be if the apps were in sync all the time.
the other benefit is that connected apps can be launched from google apps. that means you don’t need to register a separate username and password. spread this across your entire staff and it’s a huge productivity saver and a boon to security.
google apps uses two-factor authentication (using your mobile device to sign in and a password) and is therefore much more secure than standard one-time password access.
7. sync gmail with microsoft outlook
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email clients in the world. However, if you have a free gmail account, it’s not that easy to sync your emails, calendar, and contacts. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is a tool that comes with the paid version of Gmail that allows you to use Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013 effectively with Google apps.
You get the cost savings, security, and reliability of Google apps as your email server, while employees can use the interface of their choice for email, contacts, calendar, and notes.
how much are you willing to pay for paid versions of gmail in your company?