Compare Google Workspace for Education Editions: A Deep Dive into Levels, Features, and Benefits

Where would the 1:1 classroom environment be without Google Workspace for Education? Tying together the best of Google’s suite of classroom tools, apps and features, Google Workspace for Education has provided a platform for many schools to sprout their entire digital ecosystem from.

Whether you are a teacher creating and delivering instruction, or a system administrator managing the school’s fleet, Google Workspace has offered robust mechanisms for delivering technology-enriched education. Google Workspace for Education lets teachers, students, and administrators securely collaborate in the cloud. With innovative features that enable hybrid learning, communication, and collaboration, Google’s suite of tools provides an excellent platform to support education.

… And all that with only the free version! The free-of-charge Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals brings schools just that: the fundamentals of a great digital educational environment. It sets a strong foundation for getting acquainted with Google tools for educators and admins.

However, there is so much more that schools can do to transform the teaching and learning experience when they embrace the enhanced editions of Google Workspace for Education (Google Workspace for Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education Plus).

Let’s dive into learning a little more about Google Workspace for Education, and take a moment to compare its premium license options. The goal is to see which feature sets and benefits are the right fit for your school’s unique needs.

A Brief History of Google Workspace for Education

Formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite, Google Workspace represents Google’s series of connected apps, and collaboration tools. With the addition of Google Classroom and the interactive whiteboard app, Jamboard, Google had itself a complete education solution. Originally introduced as Gmail for your Domain back in 2006, Google Workspace for Education has undergone a number of rebrands, including its previous iteration as G Suite Enterprise for Education (GSEfE).

Today, it goes plainly by Google Workspace for Education and has taken the title as the most widely used app suite in education according to a number of studies and surveys.

One such study, conducted by FutureSource Consulting, found that Google Workspace for Education held a 58% market share in the K-12 space, compared to Microsoft 365’s 22% market share. The research conducted focused on information gathered during the academic period of 2020-2021 and encompassed the perspectives of Information Technology decision-makers throughout North America.

Another study conducted by Kahoot! Surveyed over 1,200 U.S. educators and found that 44% of respondents reported using Google Classroom as their primary learning management system (LMS), compared to 25% who reported using Microsoft Teams.

Meet Your Goals with Google Workspace

There is so much Google Workspace paid edition caMeet Your Goals with Google Workspace
n do to enrich your school’s digital environment. The question is, “Where do we start?!”

Here is just a taste of some of the ways upgraded editions of Google Workspace for Education can unlock new and/or improved experiences for students, teachers, and admin:

Enrich Teaching and Learning

In the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, teachers gain access to a wealth of new tools to use with their students. Practice Sets, Originality Reports, Classroom add-ons, Google Meets Collaboration Mode and live translation–to name a few–are great tools for educators to enrich their classrooms.

• Practice Sets: Integrated directly into Classroom, Practice Sets allow teachers to assess student understanding through a variety of question types and access detailed analytics. These tools provide immediate, AI-generated resources to support students’ learning and guide them toward deeper understanding.
• Originality Reports: Integrated directly into Classroom, Originality Reports promote academic integrity by cross-referencing student work with online resources, websites, and your school’s corpus of student work stored in Drive. Now supporting additional languages, these reports are viewable to students before submission, allowing them to take ownership of their academic integrity. Teachers can also access detailed insights for each submitted assignment, all within Google Classroom.
• Classroom Add-Ons: Connect your favorite teaching and learning apps directly into the classroom. Add elements from Pear Deck, Adobe Spark, Kami, and more into lessons for a more engaging, multimedia learning experience.
• Google Meet Collaboration Mode and Live Translation: Collaboration mode allows students to join a Google Meet session camera/mic-free while experiencing a lesson in-person. There, they can access the Q&A, add-ons, breakout rooms, polls during the session. With recent updates, ESL students can now benefit from real-time captions and translation in even more languages, making lessons more accessible and inclusive.

Enhance Video Conferencing and Live Streaming

For educators looking for efficient ways to stay connected virtually with their students and maintain a cohesive learning environment, video conferencing tools are a must.

The Teaching and Learning Upgrade allows for larger meetings (up to 250 participants or 10K in-domain viewers) with more engagement tools. Teachers can utilize polls, Q&As, breakout rooms, and add-ons to enrich the virtual learning experience. 

The Teaching and Learning Upgrade is also beneficial if hosting live stream events for your community is something you do, or wish to do. With powerful streaming capabilities available through enhanced editions of Google Workspace, you can improve family engagement and accessibility.

Strengthen Against Security Threats

Security is top of mind right now for IT leaders and schools nationwide. According to a 2021 report from the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, there were at least 408 publicly-disclosed cyber incidents in U.S. K-12 schools in 2020. That was an 18% increase from the previous year and included data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other types of cyberattacks that targeted students’ data and disrupted school operations.

Google Workspace for Education Standard and Plus come with the Security Center that helps you proactively protect against, monitor for, and audit/analyze security threats.It includes features like advanced phishing protections, malware detection, and detailed reporting tools, giving schools the ability to secure their digital environments with confidence.

→ Read how this school district improved their security with Google Workspace for Education Plus

Extend Your Team’s Capabilities

The amount of support required is largely dependent on the existing capacities of your team or organization.

If you have a comprehensive and robust IT team in place that can help facilitate tasks as needed, then you may require less intensive levels of technical assistance than a school or district with limited personnel and resources.

Whether you’re stretched thin or just looking for simple ways to streamline your IT processes, the Google Workspace for Education Standard and Plus editions can help. With access to advanced device management tools and faster response times from Google support, you can more powerfully manage, monitor, audit, and analyze your school’s device fleet.

See how Monica Burns explores the power of Google Workspace for Education in this insightful webinar, packed with practical tips and real-world examples for educators.

Compare Editions of Google Workspace for Education

Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals

Google for Education Fundamentals is a free platform designed to help K-12 schools, higher education institutions and homeschool co-ops, facilitate collaborative learning and is COPPA and FERPA compliant.

This edition offers an abundance of efficient, secure and reliable collaborative tools for teachers and students alike.

These include Google Classroom, Meet, Calendar, Gmail, Assignments, Slides, Forms and Sheets – all tools that provide convenient ways to comment on student work and offer feedback. With up to 100 Meet participants and 100 TB of pooled cloud storage available to users, this edition is a comprehensive practical resource.

When applying for Google Workspace for Education, institutions are able to take advantage of a 30-day trial period before their application approval.

EdTech Consultant Monica Burns highlighted this benefit:

“I think it is an important thing to remember that sometimes when we apply for things, we tend to sit on our hands and just wait for something to happen but that’s not the case here; you would be able to jump in right away with all of your favorites here in the fundamentals edition.”

Google Workspace for Education Standard

Google Workspace for Education Standard offers more protection than the basic plan and is a go to edition for security features.

With this edition, schools and educational institutions can take advantage of advanced security and analytics capabilities such as Security Center and Security Investigation at just $3 per student, per year. 

With these tools, institutions can detect potential threats, investigate suspicious activities, and get detailed reports with deeper insights into Google Classroom and Gmail log analysis. All of which may resolve security concerns you may be using a third party tool for.

Burns praises the benefits of Google Workspace for Education Standard and its security features:

“Instead of wondering how something happened or why it happened you’re getting some of that behind the scenes information that can really help you make some more actionable decisions moving forward”

Teaching and Learning Upgrade

The Teaching and Learning Upgrade enables educators to access advanced technology tools that facilitate better communication, instruction, and assessment.

For just $4.80 per staff license, per month (or $48 per license when billed annually), teachers will be able to use upgraded features like:

• 250 participants capacity within Google Meet
• 10,000+ domain viewers for larger classes
• Google Classroom integrations with more popular third-party tools and AI-enhanced resources
• Unlimited originality reports.

This edition of Google Workspace not only builds upon the core fundamentals of teaching, but also offers a range of interactive features to help improve the instructional experience.

Google Workspace for Education Plus

Google Workspace for Education Plus is the most comprehensive solution available within the Google editions.

For a cost of $5/student/year you can transform your school with an all-in-one solution that includes Google Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade as well as:

• Up to 500 participants and 10,000+ in domain viewers within Google Meet
• Google Classroom extras such as roster syncing
• Enhanced security and analytics
• Personalized Cloud search
• Robust support

→ Download our comparison guide for a closer look at Google Workspace for Education's Editions.

Google Workspace for Education Add-Ons

Google Workspace for Education offers an add-on that brings their AI platform—Google Gemini—into the mix. For those of you unfamiliar with the tool, Google Gemini is an AI assistant designed to work seamlessly with apps like Docs, Gmail, and Slides, helping teachers with tasks like lesson planning and creating interactive content—all within the tools they already know and use.

Gemini can be added to any of the Google Workspace for Education editions, including Fundamentals, Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Plus. This means your school can enhance its current Workspace setup with advanced AI capabilities, no matter which edition you're using.

Depending on what your school needs, you have the option to choose between two different tiers:

• Gemini Education: A budget-friendly option that helps with drafting lesson plans, summarizing emails, and creating visuals in Docs, Gmail, and Slides. Great for schools new to AI, it’s designed with manageable usage limits.
• Gemini Education Premium: Unlocks full AI capabilities, including advanced note-taking in Google Meet, enhanced data protection, and tools for a fully integrated, AI-driven teaching experience.

What Can You Do with Gemini?

There’s a long list of capabilities schools can gain with Gemini. We’d even say that, with AI becoming increasingly popular, it’s reshaping how educators work and connect with their students, making tasks more efficient and collaborative.

When it comes to Google Workspace, much of what Gemini does happens behind the scenes or seamlessly integrates into your workflows, so it enhances your day-to-day without disrupting the tools you’re already using.

Here’s some of the things you’ll be able to do with Gemini:

• Maximize Efficiency: Automatically generate lesson plans, templates, and engaging content like images directly within your Workspace apps.
• Seamlessly Streamline: Work within Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Drive using Gemini’s side-panel assistance, so you never need to jump between tools.
• Protect Data: Leverage AI to prevent data breaches, ensure compliance with education standards, and secure your school’s digital environment.
• Simplify Writing: Quickly draft, refine, and proofread emails and documents with AI suggestions that make your content clear and polished.
• Enhance Design: Easily create custom images and presentations that add visual appeal and engagement to your lessons and projects.

Trafera Is Your Partner for All Things Google

If you're still deciding which Google Workspace edition fits your school best, we've put together a quick visual aid to help guide your decision. But if you're ready to take the next step, Trafera is here to help! We get Google, and that means we can help you choose the right edition, get set up, and keep things running smoothly with tools like Google Technical Services and Domain Audits.

Just fill out the form below, and let’s bring Google Workspace to your school