Google has launched a free business subscription for its Workspace collaboration suite.
Workspace Essentials Starter bundles together Google’s Drive, Meet, Chat, Docs, Sheets and Slides – with Gmail the notable exclusion.
Google is positioning the new offering as a portfolio that can (and should) be adopted by employees outside of the technology managed by their business’ IT department –a trend known as shadow IT.
Kelly Waldher, Vice President of Marketing at Google Workspace, said in a blog post:
“With Essentials Starter, we’re making it easy for employees to choose their own productivity tools and bring modern collaboration to work”
“Starting today, with Essentials Starter, employees can make the switch from legacy productivity tools and experience the difference with Google Workspace.”
Google clarified in a statement, sent to Tech Crunch, that Workspace Essentials comes with limited admin controls - with these features largely reserved for its paid subscriptions.
Users can sign up to Essentials Starter using their work email address, with no payment required. They can invite other employees within their organisation to sign up after this point.
The subscription comes with unlimited one-to-one meetings and team meetings of between 3 and 100 people, with a time limit of 60 minutes each.
