Rackspace Email vs Google Workspace
In this blog post we are going to compare Rackspace webmail and Google Workspace for managing your business email.
Ever heard the phrase “wedded to an idea” or “wedded to a service”?
Deciding to stick with an email service is almost like sticking to a marriage because you have invested so much time in the service.
Practically your entire day revolves around using your email service.
The longer you have stayed with the service, the tougher it is to think of an alternative, no matter how miserable things get.
Consequently, switching to another service may seem like breaking a marriage.
It can be scary.
It can be disruptive.
It has the potential of changing your life (at least the business side of it) for ever.
Yes, email is serious stuff.
Intelligent decisions are made through education and awareness.
Hence, I’m not here trying to sell you something.
Nah!
I’m not going to tell you that look, start using Google Workspace today otherwise all hell is going to break loose.
Yes, feature-wise, Google Workspace is definitely better than Rackspace webmail and the lineup of features that Google Workspace has definitely outweighs the Rackspace webmail feature set, but that’s not the issue.
There are two essential components when you have an online business (there are many, but these two triumph): web hosting and email.
For regular business, web hosting is a passive interaction in the sense that once you have started hosting your website, it primarily works in the background.
Email, on the other hand, is something you interact with daily.
Why compare Rackspace webmail with Google Workspace?
Is comparing Rackspace webmail with Google Workspace like comparing apples with oranges?
Depends. Read on.
From customers and clients to business partners to suppliers to support executives to marketing, you need email for all your communication needs.
When I talk of email, by default I talk about professional email, not free email services like Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook.com.
So, email is something that is constantly in front of you. Every element of the email interface that you use has an impact on your productivity, on your state of mind, and on your general well-being.
But, Is email the only digital tool that you use to run your business operations?
Do your employees create and exchange documents, spreadsheets and slides, and even graphics, videos and images?
Are they constantly chatting with each other to carry out their responsibilities?
What about videoconferencing?
Cloud storage?
Online collaboration?
Without Google Workspace if you are using these digital tools, you must be using different tools like Skype, Dropbox (or anything else), MS Word, MS Excel and myriad other tools.
Even if you are not yet using all these tools, as a growing business you are soon going to need them.
It’s inevitable.
Hence, the comparison.
Rackspace webmail, goes without saying, enables you to use email using the default web interface or through one of your preferred email clients.
Basically, it is a no-frills service. Send emails. Receive emails. That’s it.
Google Workspace on the other hand is a complete business solution having all the fundamental tools to enable you to solve all your communication and collaboration needs.
When you subscribe to Google Workspace, you will be able to do the following:
Online collaboration
One of the most prominent features of Google Workspace. Whether you want to collaborate on documents, slides or spreadsheets, every Office application is available through the browser, supporting sharing of the document with multiple users.
What does this mean?
Suppose, you and your colleagues are working on a presentation for which multiple people have to access the same document, in most of the cases, at the same time.
The traditional way of working with the document was to work on the document and then email it to everyone.
Online collaboration allows everyone to access the document through a browser window or a mobile app and work on it and the changes are made in real-time.
Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and much more
MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint: these are the major Microsoft Office attractions.
But the problem is that Microsoft Office is quite a bulky application to install, it works best as a desktop application and when it comes to real time collaboration, although MS office has this capability, in terms of speed and flexibility, it comes nowhere near Google Workspace.
Google Workspace has Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides as web-based alternatives to MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint.
A great thing about these Google Workspace components is that from the beginning itself they’ve been designed for real-time collaboration.
You can access these documents through your browser window. They also have dedicated mobile apps.
Along with Docs, Sheets and Slides, you also have
- Online forms
- Note taking app, Google Keep
- Sites, to make and manage intranet websites
Communications
For email you have Gmail.
The best thing about using Google Workspace as your primary email service is that you and all your employees get to use your favourite email interface – Gmail. Yes, even for your business email.
Who doesn’t love Gmail?
You can manage your entire schedule using Google Calendar.
You can integrate task management and email right into your Google Calendar with real-time notifications to all the stakeholders.
You can use Google Chat interact with your employees and customers in real-time using text chat.
Google Hangouts gives you the same interactivity, but with video.
Online cloud storage
The basic account of Google Workspace gives you 30 GB of storage per user. This is a Google Drive function.
As a cloud storage facility, Google Drive allows you to keep your work files online, in the cloud, and then provide secure access to all the concerned parties.
Your files can be accessed from computer, phone or tablet.
Hence, you can see that when you switch over to Google Workspace, you get the complete bundle of digital tools that you can use to run your business operations.
The cost comparison between Rackspace webmail and Google Workspace
Rackspace webmail is just email.
You pay $2.99 per user per month for the email service.
Google Workspace is a complete Office Suite (along with email) that you can access from your browser and your mobile apps.
For starter package you pay $6 per user per month.
Google Workspace comes in three variations (at least for small businesses like yours) and you can opt for a package according to your business needs:
- Google Workspace Business Starter : $6 per month per user
- Google Workspace Business Standard : $12 per month per user
- Google Workspace Business Plus : $18 per month per user
For an average business, the difference between Starter and Standard / Plus plans is the space that one gets for the cloud storage and some additional features like data retention policies.
In the Starter plan, you get 30 GB of cloud storage which you can use for emails (Gmail) , images (Google photos) and document storage (Google Drive).
Is it difficult to migrate from Rackspace webmail to Google Workspace?
Not at all.
Although every business wants you to be able to migrate from another business seamlessly, a little bit of preplanning is required and this is where you need to collaborate with a professional service, especially when there might be thousands of email messages and threads and you don’t want to disrupt your ongoing conversations.
Pro Tip Most of your employees and team members might already have been using the Gmail interface for years. So, that is not going to be a problem.
The scariest thing for you must be the thought of losing important email messages or breaking the ongoing conversations/threads.
This is where at Googally we have devised a failsafe procedure that ensures that not only your previous email threads are transferred to the new Google Workspace system without breaking their chronology, but even your ongoing conversations are brought to the new system without causing any sort of discontinuation, over the weekend.
Pro Tip Whether you have 300 email messages to migrate, 3000, or 30,000, we don’t charge extra (we charge per user).
You can read about our Rackspace to Google Workspace migration services here. On this link we have explained in detail how we can help you migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace without losing or without disturbing even a single email, even if you have been using Rackspace webmail for years and have thousands of emails stored over there. We can transfer all the emails within a weekend.
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