Google Workspace enables teams of all sizes to connect, create and collaborate. It includes productivity and collaboration tools for work: Gmail for custom business email, Drive for cloud storage, Docs for word processing, Meet for video and voice conferencing, Chat for team messaging, Slides for presentation building, and shared Calendars.
$6
per month per user
HostGator
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
HostGator, from Newfold Digital (formerly Endurance), is a web hosting service with WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting capabilities.
Since our company is structured around Google Workspace at the moment, it is well suited for our entire workflow. I do have concerns though, for when it comes time for our company to have our own intranet built and how well the data migration will be from Google Workspace to that intranet that gets built.
HostGator for email, domain and website hosting--delightful, 100% satisfied! Have always had ample capacity for company email needs, features work well. I have used it off and on for several organizations since 2011. HostGator website building is fairly straightforward, although I wouldn't recommend it for first-time web designing. The pluses on the HostGator website builder: great-looking themes, adequate webpage capacity, really cool scrolling capabilities, which trends well now. Easier than building a WordPress website from scratch, which can also be done for free in HostGator. I'd say it's limited compared to feature-rich WP, but it designs as nicely as Wix.
Google's service integration is seamless. Sharing files and documents with team members and clients couldn't be simpler. We can limit file sharing and access as needed.
As expected, Google Workspace integrates perfectly with Android phones allowing for a seamless mobile experience. Integration with iOS is also good.
Spam protection is second to none. I cannot remember ever finding a spam message in my inbox!
Google has a good reputation for email deliverability making it less likely your outbound mail ends up in someone's spam folder.
Google Workspace allows you to host multiple domains and alias domains on your account.
There is a robust set of tools to allow routing of mail to different mailboxes.
Collaboration is so easy with Workplace. Real time editing of documents is flawless. When chatting with collaborators, I can see their changes as they make them with no delay.
The pricing is a big feature for this hosting company
Every three years when the hosting contract is coming to an end, they offer a reduced fee to upgrade your server plan, which is more cost effective than renewing at the regular rate for whatever plan you're currently using.
The customer service workers are professional and friendly.
I have several Workspace accounts, and it can be kind of annoying to switch between them. For example, if I click in my work email but my Chrome defaults to my personal Workspace, I have to open the file differently or log in and out of the other account.
Meet is my least favorite feature. I find it very subpar to Zoom in both ease and picture resolution. It's harder to tell when you're sharing your screen and you can't see comments if you're presenting.
Google My Business can be difficult to navigate. I frequently forget where features are and have to hunt around for them.
There is no better solution for cloud storage and real time collaboration. The amount of features included in G Suite is unmatched and out of other things we’ve tried over the years, nothing comes close to being as great of a tool.
Because we have in house technical support to compensate the lack of quality HostGator tech support, and because the price continues to be affordable the business is likely to continue using HostGator. They provide what the business needs and we have in house support to maintain it.
On the user end, it's great, probably some of the most user friendly products out there. On the admin side, it can get a little more arcane, but it's still better than a lot of other services. At worst I wrangle some CSVs to perform mass changes, but it's a far cry from the days of Powershell scripts or purely manual entry.
My experiences of getting support have been positive. Calling in is not overly difficult, but it does require getting a PIN. The knowledge of those responding to the calls has been impressive. I have managed to work with them to fix two Google bugs that I had identified. These bugs required a some technical expertise and the support staff were able to understand the issue and forward the concerns to the appropriate persons. The first bug was fixed with 24 hours. The second bug took a little longer, but it was also more complicated to reproduce.
While you will get support from HostGator, it seems to be a different level from 8-10 years ago. It may take 15-20 minutes to get someone on chat, and unless you follow up, I've found followup email support to take a couple of days. If you stick with it, though, you will get support, and I've never had a problem they couldn't help with.
They are different. Over the years, one has had better support than the other. Google support is good, there have been times Microsoft support was awful, and times when it was significantly better. For me, Outlook is just a drain on resources. Word is that my primary word processor anyway, so I don't feel like I'm losing much. SharePoint seems capable of a lot, and exchange certainly is capable of a lot, but it requires so much configuration, even for a small business, that return on investment seems quicker and easier with Google Workspace. For those who absolutely need a completely Microsoft environment, Office 365 has that, Google Workspace does not. Still, I prefer Google Workspace over Office 365.
I prefer HostGator over GoDaddy. HostGator does have better and more reliable customer support, and the user interface and user experience are overall much more friendly and easier to use. GoDaddy does have downtime associated with their hosting in my experience, but I have not experienced that with HostGator.
