Google Workspace Essentials vs. Local by WP Engine

Well-suited for: Fast-paced drafting ideas, docs, charts, sheets, etc. Love it for client calls as well. Google Meet runs in a web browser; you don't need to download any special software. Shared Drives are great for sharing information; the ability to add a Google Notebook to them is the icing on the cake. It is less appropriate when Wi-Fi or the internet is spotty, or when you need heavy-duty Excel macro data crunching.

Incentivized

It's great for quickly cloning an environment down from WP Engine and/or Flywheel servers but can also just be used as a way to setup local environments on your own with manual syncing. If you need to spin up local environments that are not WordPress based then this tool isn't ideal. It can be used for it but it's not design for that.

Incentivized

• Google Docs & Google Slides are essential to our company as we are remote. Multiple people can work on the documents at one time.
• Easy to share and store files in Google Drive.
• Google Calendar is amazing, it integrates seamlessly with other Google products and it's our company's primary calendar tool.

Incentivized

• Easily clone installs from WP Engine to local envrionments
• 1 click setup of Local WordPress sites for new or existing builds
• Can optionally push back to WP Engine with ease
• Easily change PHP versions
• Integrates with IDE for error reporting

Incentivized

• Record option to be there in Google meet
• ability to share documents outside google accounts need to be looked at
• Improvement in conversion to MS office based documents and converting those documents to googles format needs a little work.
• Will be good to have a pdf to word converter and vice versa

Incentivized

• Interface for syncing files could be improved
• Would be nice if there was an easy way to use media from WP Engine host to save on space for larger sites
• 1 click login doesn't always work as expected if SSL in place.

Incentivized

Now that our department has used G Suite Essentials for close to 2 years, I can't imagine not using it. It has proven to be a very practical tool for sharing files / folders on a shared drive. It also makes it easy to modify and update content. It is user friendly and the interface is simple.

Incentivized

It is so easy to use, very intuitive and the site looks nice. There is no hint of the old DOS days in the look and functionality. Let's be real, Google Workspace Essentials is attractive and easy on the eyes and even offers a dark mode if you want to rest your eyes a bit or are in a mood for such

Incentivized

Super easy to use the only thing that might need some improvement is the interface for syncing files. It's intuitive for push/pulling down from WP Engine and Flywheel environments but can sometimes disconnect and require re authentication. Also currently sometimes it can be difficult to tell proper account name you are pulling from bug that's a known bug that's being worked on

Incentivized

Google Workspace Essentials is more robust than Dropbox with the other features that are available. Google Workspace Essentials is very comparable to Microsoft 365, and we ultimately went with Google because at the time, it was free/priced better than MS, and now we have lots of legacy files already stored on Google servers, so a switch would be too time-consuming. We went with Google Workspace Essentials over OpenOffice because of the email features of using Google.

Incentivized

While Docker is powerful, setup is more complicated and is less consistent. Local minimizes friction and does what it needs to do with out extra complication that can sometimes come with using Docker or other platforms.

Incentivized

• Our fundraising and development efforts nearly doubled 2020-2022, largely in part to the organizational tools within Google Workspace Essentials.
• We've opened up the capacity to work more closely with contractors in a more collaborative nature because of GWE's capabilities.
• It was integral to our brand overhaul.

Incentivized

• Save hours of onboarding time for development
• Consistent environments across the time minimize unexpected issues
• Integrated error reporting makes it easy to track down issues

Incentivized