Google Suite Download For Mac
PCMag reviews products, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Can the applications that keep Chromebook users happy keep your home office at peak productivity?
No, I'm not revisiting in which I asked whether or not Chromebook hardware was sufficient for home-based business operators and telecommuters. This current column is the second of my four-part bi-weekly series on office productivity suites, following the kickoff on. This week, the spotlight shines on, Office's opposite in many ways.
Office links you to your files from virtually anywhere and your personalized settings roam with you. Your personalized Office goes where you go. Get Office fast. Microsoft Office 365 Professional (5 PC/Mac + 5 Tablet + 5 Mobile) (Valid for one year then $75 per year to renew) With Office as a subscription, you always have the latest versions of Word Excel PowerPoint Outlook OneNote Publisher and Access right when you need them and just how you want them.
Google's Nik Collection, a photo editing software package designed for professional photographers, once retailed for $149.Today it's absolutely free to download, for both Windows and Mac users. Here you can read Google's announcement, which includes more information on the software package and its capabilities. First, install G Suite Sync for Microsoft ® Outlook ® (GSSMO) on your computer. Installing GSSMO also installs G Suite Migration for Microsoft Outlook, which lets you import your Outlook data to your new Google Account.
While Microsoft offers free Office Online versions of,, and PowerPoint, its subscription also gets you the traditional local (i.e., installed on your laptop or desktop) programs, with encyclopedic lists of features compared to their browser-based cousins. With Google G Suite, by contrast, what's online is what you get: This compact, efficient suite lives in your browser (preferably ), with nothing to download, so it's available on your computer, tablet, or phone wherever there's web access. The word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing modules also (if, say, you're on a plane without Wi-Fi), though configuring them to do so is a rigmarole. As you'd expect, its online accessibility makes Google G Suite a 'lite' productivity choice. It's an illustration of software's version of the 80/20 rule (that is, 80 percent of users will never need more than 20 percent of the features; ask historians about the old Microsoft Works versus Microsoft Office). The word processor, for example, is just that: a word processor instead of a page layout program that supports multiple columns, drop caps, and endnotes (though it does provide footnotes and an add-on offers bibliographies). But, if your work relies on quick and clean rather than elaborately formatted documents, you may be pleasantly surprised by Google G Suite's functionality.
From Zero to $10 in One Month Google G Suite's biggest marketing challenge is that the word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation components—dubbed,, and, respectively—are used by millions who don't spend a penny for them. Open a Google account with a Gmail address and you get free access to Google G Suite, along with 15 GB of cloud storage for your email, photos, and other files. That's not quite as skimpy as it sounds,because Docs, Sheets, and Slides files don't count. So if your budget is zero, Google matches Microsoft in offering an online productivity trio; email with calendar, tasks, and contacts; and some cloud storage. If you can slip Google a few bucks, however, things get interesting.
Costs $10 per user per month. In other words, $120 a year if you're a solo entrepreneur (and two or three times that if you have an employee or two). In return, you get 1 TB per user of —or unlimited storage if there are five or more in your organization. Plus you get ad-free business email with addresses such as yourname@yourdomain.com instead of allthegoodnamesaretaken@gmail.com. You also get Google's promise of 99.9 percent uptime; Google Apps Sync for (which still carries the Google Apps moniker); text, voice, and HD video chats for up to 25 people via Google Hangouts; and administrative and security options for Drive and email not present in the free versions. (I'm assuming you don't need to retain and search users' email accounts and chats in case of litigation, but big companies love this stuff.) At a glance, $120 per year sounds like a poor deal compared to, which combines online apps with installations of Office 2016 on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets, and five phones. Technically, however, Google G Suite doesn't compete with that bundle but with Office 365 Business Premium, which includes email and HD videoconferencing support for $12.50 per user per month, so a year with Google winds up being $30 cheaper instead of $20 more expensive.
Right-Sized or Underpowered? But while it's fair to compare Google G Suite to Office Online, comparing it to Office 2016 is like bringing a handgun to a cannon fight.
Again, Microsoft's PC-based suite is designed to have almost every feature anyone might ever need; Google's online suite is designed to have most features most people use daily. Sheets, for example, is a capable spreadsheet with scads of built-in functions, data functions including filter views and pivot tables, and 28 chart types ranging from bar and pie to candlestick, radar, and map (and it won my heart with a dialog box reading, 'Heads up! Are you sure you want to delete this sheet?' But you'll look in vain for Excel's fancy sunburst and forecast charts, or even for things like adding a subtitle to a chart. And while there are a handful of notable add-ons available such as Google Analytics reporting and project timelines with, most add-ons are things like classroom gradebooks.