IT Teams

  • 12 min read

Top 8 Google Workspace Alternatives & Competitors In 2024

Team Zluri

17th October, 2023

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As an IT manager, you always seek tools that align with your team's unique needs. This quest might lead you to explore alternatives to Google Workspace. While Google Workspace enjoys widespread popularity, numerous competing productivity suites offer similar or superior features.

Whether you focus on real-time collaboration, document management, or video conferencing in a cloud-based platform, you'll find several Google Workspace alternatives worth considering.

Team productivity plays a pivotal role in your organization's success. In an era marked by the surge in remote work and the necessity for seamless collaboration across diverse locations and time zones, choosing the optimal productivity suite becomes paramount. One such team productivity and collaboration platform is Google Workspace. 

The platform is meticulously crafted to empower teams to work faster, smarter, and more collaboratively than ever before. With its user-friendly suite of tools and features, it enhances productivity, streamlines communication, and promotes seamless collaboration across the organization

It includes popular applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Slides, Google Meet, and Google Calendar. These tools can be accessed through a web browser or through mobile applications, making it easy for your team to work from anywhere, on any device.

Drawbacks Of Google Workspace

While Google Workspace has many benefits and features, it also has some limitations that you should be aware of. Here are a few examples:

• Learning curve: One potential limitation of Google Workspace is that it has a steep learning curve for users who are not familiar with the platform. This can be a challenge for your IT teams during the onboarding of new employees or training existing ones, as it can take time and effort to master the various tools and features. 

• Limited offline functionality: Google Workspace tools are designed to be used online, which means that their functionality can be limited when internet connectivity is poor or unavailable.

• Limited customization options: While Google Workspace applications are highly configurable, you may have limited control over the underlying software and are unable to make more significant customizations or modifications to the platform.

• Price: Although Google Workspace is relatively affordable, the pricing can add up for larger organizations or if you have more specialized needs, such as additional storage or more advanced features.
  
  Considering the above drawbacks, we’ll take a closer look at the top 8 Google Workspace alternatives, including their pros and cons. The list covers a range of options to help you find the best tool for your needs.
  
  But first, let’s explore Zluri and what features it provides to help you increase your team's productivity and streamline IT operations.

Boost Your Team's Productivity & Streamline IT Operations with Zluri

Zluri is the ultimate SaaS operations management platform that helps you optimize your IT infrastructure and increase employee productivity. With Zluri, your IT admins can easily manage software applications, licenses, and user access rights from a single dashboard, providing employees with the right tools at the right time. 

• Simplified IT Operations:

Zluri provides a suite of features that simplifies complex IT operations. It automates repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time for your IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives. By reducing manual intervention, Zluri promotes productivity and efficiency, ensuring that your team's efforts are optimized.

• Centralized IT workflow Management:

Zluri is designed to streamline IT workflow management by centralizing control of various tools and platforms into a single, user-friendly dashboard. This centralized approach simplifies the management of multiple software applications, making it easier for your IT team to oversee and maintain your digital infrastructure.

• Application Usage Data Analysis:

Zluri leverages intelligent algorithms to analyze usage data. By monitoring how your team interacts with different applications, it identifies redundant or underutilized software. These insights help you make informed decisions, optimizing your software portfolio, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring that your investments align with your organization's needs.

• Enhanced Productivity and Compliance:

Zluri's data-driven approach enhances productivity by reducing downtime and errors. It also aids in ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and security standards. By aligning your software usage with compliance requirements, you minimize risks and protect sensitive data, thus improving overall security.

• Real-Time Actionable Insights:

Zluri's insights and analytics features provide your IT teams with actionable data. These insights empower them to make informed decisions about your software stack. By pinpointing areas for improvement, you can fine-tune your technology ecosystem to meet your organization's specific needs, enhancing efficiency and performance.

• Seamless Integration:

Zluri seamlessly integrates with popular productivity and collaboration tools such as Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Slack, and Zoom. This integration ensures that your employees have easy access to the applications they need, promoting collaboration and streamlining workflow within your organization.

• Customizable Operations:

Zluri's flexibility allows you to customize IT operations to suit your organization's unique requirements. By tailoring your software solutions to your specific needs, you provide your employees with tools that optimize their workflow, helping them achieve their goals more efficiently.

• Administrative Benefits:

Zluri offers significant administrative benefits. It provides IT admins with the features to monitor and manage software usage effectively. This oversight helps optimize software investments, reduce security risks by identifying vulnerabilities, and enhances overall employee productivity through informed decision-making.

Thus, Zluri's comprehensive feature set, powerful automation capabilities, and user-friendly interface combine to provide your organization with an overall efficiency boost. It simplifies IT operations, enhances productivity, ensures compliance and security, and offers valuable insights, all of which help your team stay ahead of the competition and achieve your organizational goals efficiently.

So, what are you waiting for? Schedule a demo today!

List of 8 Best Google Workspace Alternatives To Consider 

Here are the Top 8 Google Workspace alternatives that offer better functionality, including cloud-based collaboration and project management platforms, file-sharing systems, and communication tools. These platforms offer a range of features to help teams collaborate effectively and manage projects and tasks.  

1. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based productivity tool that enables teams to communicate and collaborate in real-time. With messaging, conferencing, and file-sharing features, Microsoft Teams allows your IT team to manage documents, store files online, and create groups for notifications. It also allows for customization, with each team having the ability to communicate through instant messaging, online meetings, calling, and web conferencing. 

The tool can fully integrate with Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Sharepoint, making it easy to work on files collaboratively. Microsoft Teams offers advanced features like an open application processing interface, assistant bots, conversation search, contact search, and multi-factor authentication. Essentially, Microsoft Teams streamlines team collaboration and communication through a variety of features and integrations.

Pros

• By using Microsoft Teams, you can easily share files and schedule events all in one place. This will help you stay organized and save time, as you won't have to switch between different tools to perform these tasks.

• The tool offers an all-in-one package, which means you can access all the necessary tools in one single package. This can save you money, as you won't have to purchase different tools from different providers. 

Cons

• If you're considering using Teams as your collaboration and communication tool, there's one potential downside to keep in mind. Unlike its main competitor, Zoom, Teams does not have a test audio/mic function before a meeting/call is about to begin. This means you might experience audio or mic issues during a call without knowing them in advance. 

• If you're new to Microsoft Teams, you may find that the platform has a steep learning curve. With so many features available, navigating at first can be overwhelming and confusing. It may require some training or practice to fully understand all of its capabilities.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.3/5

2. Zoho Workplace

Zoho Workplace is a comprehensive digital workspace solution that consolidates your workspaces, simplifies file sharing, and optimizes team communication. The platform's integrated dashboard consolidates all of your office work and collaboration activities into a single location, while its AI-powered smart assistant, Zia, allows you to find anything you need in a matter of seconds. With Workplace's mobile app, you can stay connected and productive along with your team, no matter where you are.

The Zoho Workplace bundle includes a variety of apps such as Zoho Mail, Cliq, WorkDrive, Writer, Sheet, Show, Meeting, and Connect, all of which are designed to enhance your productivity and collaboration.

Pros

• If you're looking for an affordable option, Zoho may be a good option. With plans starting at just a few dollars per month, it's one of the most affordable services on the market. Despite its low price, it still offers many features, including a customizable inbox, calendar integration, and mobile access.

• The platform is designed with a user-centric approach, and every feature is tailored to make your experience as seamless and straightforward as possible. 

Cons

• If you're considering using Zoho Mail, it's essential to know that customer support can sometimes be slow. This can make obtaining quick and efficient assistance difficult if you or your team encounter any issues or problems while using the service. 

• Zoho Meeting doesn't offer a lot of customization options. The platform has limited modification options for meetings, which may not be sufficient if you want to customize their meetings to meet specific needs.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.4/5

3. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a comprehensive online workspace with various tools to help your organization run more efficiently. With features like task and project management, CRM, chats, video calls, website building, telephony, CRM marketing, and analytics, Bitrix24 offers everything needed to streamline your business operations.

The unique aspect of Bitrix24 is that all of these tools are combined into a single online service, with seamless integration between them. This allows users to easily access everything they need through a standard browser version, desktop app, or mobile app. With Bitrix24, you can increase productivity and simplify your operations.

Pros

• It helps you keep track of the roles assigned to project participants, making it easier to manage tasks and ensure accountability. It also allows you to categorize team members based on their functions, quickly identifying who is responsible for what and streamlining communication and collaboration accordingly.

Cons

• You might encounter occasional glitches or technical issues with Bitrix24, such as getting stuck or redirected to the login page. While the platform offers many features, these technical hiccups can frustrate and interrupt your workflow.

• If you encounter any issues while using the tool, it may be difficult to reach the support team. Getting a response from the support team can take a while, which can be frustrating when you need urgent assistance.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.1/5

4. You can also use a combination of tools
4.1 Slack

Slack is a project collaboration and team communication tool hosted in the cloud, enabling easy communication across various organizations and industries, such as media, research, technology, education, financial services, retail, transport, and logistics.

With Slack, you can communicate via public channels, which allow members from different teams to start conversations, while private channels enable interaction within smaller teams. Additionally, direct channels facilitate one-on-one messaging between colleagues.

Slack also integrates social media feeds into the application, allowing users to stay up-to-date with ongoing conversations across various channels. Sharing files such as PDFs, images, documents, and spreadsheets is effortless, as users can simply drag and drop them into the application.

Pros

•  The thematic channels in Slack are a great way for your team to discuss specific projects and topics in real-time. Its ability to send direct messages helps optimize individual communication. These features streamline your team's collaboration and improve productivity.

• Using Slack, your team members can receive instant notifications about any project updates or changes. This feature helps to save a lot of time and reduce the need for unnecessary emails or meetings.

Cons

• If you deal with a large number of files or attachments, you may find that Slack's file storage capabilities are limited. You may need to store larger files or attachments elsewhere, leading to a lack of centralization and potentially confusing team members.

• As a user, you may find that the interface of Slack can be overwhelming and confusing due to the many options and features available. This can make navigating and finding what they need difficult for your new members. 

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.5/5

4.2 ClickUp

ClickUp is a task and project management platform that provides a compelling alternative to Google Workspace. This highly customizable tool simplifies the process of managing tasks and projects, making it an excellent choice for you and your teams.

One of the standout features of ClickUp is its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy to use, even for non-technical users. With ClickUp, users can chat with team members, create feature-rich documents, and visualize timelines and workloads, all from a centralized location. 

Additionally, ClickUp offers many customization options, allowing you to tailor the platform to your specific needs and preferences. Overall, ClickUp is a versatile and user-friendly tool that can help streamline productivity and collaboration.

Pros

• ClickUp seamlessly integrates with other tools, allowing for greater automation and better communication within specific tasks. With the ability to pair ClickUp with other tools like Make or Zapier, you can streamline workflows and keep all communication related to a specific task in one place.

• The versatility and flexibility of the platform enable you to customize workflows and processes to fit your specific needs. With ClickUp, you can create custom fields, templates, and automation to streamline your daily processes and save time.

Cons

• If you're new to ClickUp, you may find that the platform has a steep learning curve, and it can take some time to get the hang of all the features and how to use them effectively.

•  Additionally, you and the team may face occasional glitches or slow loading times, which can be frustrating and may delay the associated tasks.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.7/5

4.4 Zoom

Zoom is a powerful collaboration tool enabling you to communicate remotely with other team members. The platform offers many features, including video conferencing, webinars, chat, screen sharing, and file sharing, designed to enhance productivity and streamline communication.

The platform's high-quality audio and video ensure that you can communicate with your team efficiently, regardless of their location. The platform offers various features, including competitive analysis, reporting, employee tracking, configurable workflows, and an activity dashboard.

Managers can use Zoom's attendance tracking and leave management system to keep track of employees' attendance and export related data. This functionality makes it easy to monitor employee productivity and performance. 

Its chat functionality allows users to send instant messages to colleagues and team members, fostering quick and easy communication. You can also share files and collaborate on documents in real-time, making it an ideal option for remote teams.

Pros

• The tool's call recording feature is incredibly convenient and effortless to use. It lets you keep track of all the points discussed in any meeting, even if you can't take notes. This is particularly useful for future reference and ensures that nothing gets lost in the discussion.

• If you're looking to host large meetings with many participants, Zoom is an excellent tool to use. Its ability to support up to 100 participants and provide a platform for long sessions is ideal for thorough and productive discussions. You can easily share your screen and take advantage of the breakout rooms feature to encourage group discussions and collaboration.

Cons

• If you are new to the tool, it might take some time to understand all the available options and features, which could be a bit challenging. It may require some effort for your team to explore the interface thoroughly and understand all the functions and how they relate to your work.

• Using the unpaid version of Zoom only offers about 40 to 45 minutes per call, which can be a disadvantage if you need to have longer meetings or discussions without interruption.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.5/5

4.5 Asana

Asana is a cloud-based platform designed for collaboration and project management that assists teams in coordinating tasks, organizing projects, tracking progress, and maintaining connectivity. It offers a broad range of features that aid teams in working smarter and more effectively.

While Asana is a powerful workflow management tool, it does not have specific tools for creating documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. If you are considering using Asana as an alternative to Google Workspace, it is important to explore its app integrations so that you can link all the necessary tools in one place.

Additionally, it offers a range of customization options, allowing you to tailor the platform to your specific needs and preferences. 

Pros

• Asana offers a wide range of integrations with other software, allowing you to streamline your workflow and access all the tools you need from one central location. 

• Asana's customizable features and tools can meet your specific project management needs, providing a highly tailored and personalized experience. This can help streamline your workflow, increase productivity, and ensure you have everything you need to manage your projects efficiently.

Cons

• If you are managing a small organization, you may find that Asana's pricing plans may not be flexible enough, as the premium plan can be quite expensive compared to other similar software. It would be helpful to have more affordable options tailored to the needs of smaller organizations or individuals.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.3/5

4.6 Dropbox Business

Dropbox is a file-sharing software catering to organizations of all sizes. With this solution, you can share files and send file requests to others, even if they do not have a Dropbox account. Multiple users can collaborate on files and provide comments, including the ability to work with Microsoft Office.

In addition to file sharing, Dropbox also includes a number of other useful features. For example, it can recover deleted files and maintain version histories, allowing users to retrieve older versions of files. It also tracks all actions taken on specific files.

Dropbox provides advanced sharing options that allow only selected users to access important files. Additionally, files can be remotely wiped if sensitive data is compromised, providing an added layer of security. Dropbox can also back up all images as they are added, ensuring that valuable data is not lost.

Pros

• Dropbox can be used across various devices and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, making it easy to access your files from anywhere. This cross-platform compatibility also ensures seamless collaboration between your team members, who may be using different devices.

• The tool enables you to share and collaborate on files in real-time. This feature allows you and your team members to work together on projects simultaneously, making the workflow more efficient.

Cons

• You may find that the cost of the tool can be a bit high, especially for the higher tiers that offer more storage space. This could make it difficult for budget-conscious organizations or smaller teams to afford the service.

• If you are managing a larger team with a higher volume of files and data, Dropbox has a limited storage capacity. This may require upgrading to a more expensive plan or seeking an alternative solution for storage needs.

Customer Rating

• G2: 4.4/5

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Google Workspace alternatives:

1. What is Google Workspace, and how does it differ from G Suite?

Google Workspace is a collection of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools developed by Google. It includes apps like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and more. The key difference between Google Workspace and its predecessor G Suite is that Google Workspace offers a more integrated and collaborative experience, with features like Google Chat, Google Meet, and improved collaboration capabilities.

2. Is Google Workspace suitable for small businesses, and can it scale for larger enterprises?

Yes, Google Workspace is suitable for businesses of all sizes. It is highly scalable, allowing small businesses to start with a few users and expand as they grow. Larger enterprises can also benefit from the advanced security and collaboration features offered by Google Workspace Enterprise plans. It's a versatile solution that caters to a wide range of organizational needs.

3. Why should I consider alternatives to Google Workspace?

Consider alternatives to Google Workspace if your needs aren't met by its features or pricing. Different alternatives may offer better integration with existing tools, more robust security, or more flexible pricing structures. Assessing your requirements can help you determine if an alternative is a better fit.

4. What are some common reasons to seek Google Workspace alternatives?

Common reasons to explore Google Workspace alternatives include concerns about data privacy, a desire for more affordable options, the need for specialized features that Google Workspace may not offer, or simply a preference for a different user interface and user experience.

5. How can I determine if an alternative to Google Workspace is the right choice for my organization?

To determine if an alternative is suitable, conduct a thorough evaluation by considering factors like your organization's specific needs, budget constraints, desired features, and user feedback. You may also want to test the alternative through a trial period or pilot project to ensure it meets your requirements before making a decision.

About the author

Team Zluri

Team Zluri