Essentials edition

Google Meet, Drive, and docs editors for your domain

If you own or manage a domain, you can get Google Meet for secure video meetings; Google Drive for cloud storage; Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for content creation; and administrative controls. In addition, you can get account (identity) management features, such as the ability to create user accounts and manage user profiles and password strength. With Essentials for your domain, you get many of the features of other editions of Google Workspace but without the cost of services you might not need, like Gmail and Calendar.

You can also buy Essentials through a Google Sales representative or local reseller.

Other options

• If you don't own or manage a domain, use Essentials with a team.
• If you need Gmail and Calendar, sign up instead for Business Starter, Standard, or Plus.

Use Essentials with your domain

Use Essentials with a team at your company, simply by signing up with your business email address. Then optionally unlock more features by verifying you own your domain. Here's how it works:

1. Sign up with your business email address (email verified). You can then add other users who have email addresses in the same domain. For example, if your address ends in @yourbusiness.com, you can use Essentials with other people whose addresses end in @yourbusiness.com.

   Note: You can't sign up with an address at a public web host like gmail.com or yahoo.com. Instead, you must use a custom address, such as for a business or organization. 

2. Optionally unlock more business features (domain verified). If you're the owner or IT admin for your organization's domain name, you can unlock account (identity) management features, such as the ability to create user accounts and managing user profiles and password strength. You also take over management of any existing Essentials users in your organization.

Compare key features below.

Meet and Drive features

Google Meet and Drive features are available for both email-verified and domain-verified accounts.

• Voice and video conferencing—Host and join video meeting from anywhere, with up to 150 participants. Learn more
• Collaboration—Use shared drives to collaborate more easily within project teams or departments. Learn more
• Files available any time, any place—Get to Drive files from any location on any computer or mobile device. Learn more
• Productivity suite—Easily create and co-edit files with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. Learn more

For a list of all Essentials features, see the Essentials site.

Identity management

Essentials can give you administrative control over user profiles (identity management) across all your organization's domains.

Feature	Domain verified	Email verified
	Add and remove existing user accounts Control who in your organization can use Essentials. Learn more		✔
Create and delete user accounts Control who in your organization can use Essentials. Learn more	✔
Assign a super admin role Give another user full administrative control over your organization's Essentials account. Learn more	✔	✔
Assign custom admin roles Give other users a specific set of admin controls, such as for a Help desk. Learn more	✔
Manage user profiles Reset Drive users' passwords, add photos, and update employee information. Learn more	✔
Manage security settings Enforce password strength settings and 2-step verification.	✔
Add domains Add other domains you own to your Admin console so users in those domains can use Essentials, too. Learn more	✔
Set up third-party single sign-on (SSO) Set up single sign-on for managed Google accounts using third-party identity providers. Learn more	✔
Basic endpoint management Make your organization's data more secure across your users' mobile devices, desktops, laptops, and other endpoints. Learn more	✔

Bonus services

Essentials gives you the following services, too:

Service	Domain verified	Email verified
Directory Admins and users can manage personal and global contacts. Learn more	✔	✔
Groups / Groups for Business Create admin-controlled groups and mailing lists. Host community forums or collaborative inboxes. Or let users create their own groups. Learn more	✔
Google Keep Capture, share, and collaborate on your notes on any device, anywhere. Easily create task lists, action items, voice memos, and more. Learn more	✔	✔
Admin SDK Use APIs to manage users and services, create reports, and more. Learn more	✔
Upgrade access to Google Workspace Easily upgrade to a Google Workspace edition to get Gmail and Calendar. Learn more	✔

Next steps

• Set up Essentials for your domain