G Suite is unquestionably one of the best collections of workplace productivity apps and tools available on the market. For somewhere between $5 and $25 per user, you’ll get access to the best software Google has to offer, a system of tightly interconnected apps, and a full marketplace of third-party G Suite apps to explore.
If you know what you’re doing, there are dozens—if not hundreds—of G Suite tips and tricks to make your experience even better.
The thing is, most G Suite users aren’t capitalizing on the full potential of the G Suite tools available to them. There are about a dozen incredible apps built into G Suite directly, and hundreds more available through the G Suite marketplace. If your day begins and ends with Gmail and Google Docs, you might be seriously missing out.
In this guide, we’ll explore 39 of the most important G Suite apps you should definitely consider using—and why they’re each so useful.
Table of Contents
- Core G Suite Apps
- G Suite Marketplace Apps
- 12. EmailAnalytics.
- 13. Freshdesk.
- 14. Kanbanchi.
- 15. SignRequest.
- 16. Dialpad.
- 17. Appy Pie.
- 18. Form Mule.
- 19. Lumin PDF.
- 20. MixMax.
- 21. Zoho Meeting.
- 22. Supermetrics.
- 23. ScheduleOnce.
- 24. DirectIQ.
- 25. Sortd.
- 26. Wrike.
- 27. Copper CRM.
- 28. Evercontact.
- 29. Yet Another Mail Merge.
- 30. Bitium.
- 31. Form Notifications.
- 32. Mailtrack.
- 33. Asana.
- 34. Insightly CRM.
- 35. DocuSign.
- 36. Infogram Charts.
- 37. GQueues.
- 38. Awesome Table.
- 39. Kami.
- Related posts:
Core G Suite Apps
We’ll start by highlighting the core G Suite apps that make up the standard G Suite experience for the average professional:
1. Gmail.
Gmail and Outlook are the two most popular email platforms in the world, and for good reason. But even then, Gmail has several advantages over Outlook that, from my perspective, easily make it the best (for more info, see our in-depth comparison of Gmail vs. Outlook). You can customize your inbox interface to better suit your needs, tinker with countless add-ons and extensions to improve your experience, and utilize tags and other organizational methods to stay on top of your tasks. You get out what you put into it. Be sure to check out these Gmail hacks and Gmail tips and tricks to maximize your Gmail experience!
2. Docs.
Google Docs is Google’s version of Microsoft Word, and for the most part, it offers all the same features. Collaborate with your teammates to collect feedback and improve your documents iteratively, and export as just about any file type you need.
3. Sheets.
Google Sheets, similarly, is Google’s version of Microsoft Excel. With it, you’ll be able to create, collaborate on, and share spreadsheets—including any nifty charts, graphs, and other visually striking data tables designed to make your data more intuitive.
4. Slides.
Google Slides is all about creating and sharing slide-based presentations (not unlike Microsoft PowerPoint). Integrate written content, images, videos, and more to spice up your work.
5. Drive.
Google Drive is good for all your storage needs. You’ll get 30 GB of storage automatically with the Basic plan, but if you upgrade to Business with 5 or more users, you’ll have access to unlimited cloud storage. It makes it easy to save, share, and organize your docs, sheets, and slides.
6. Forms.
One of the ridiculously underrated core apps in G Suite is Google Forms, which allows you to create surveys, quizzes, and similar types of content. Use it to collect customer feedback, better understand your employees, and get creative with business development. Be sure to check out our post on sales vs business development!
7. Calendar.
Google Calendar integrates with pretty much every other G Suite app, and allows you to schedule and organize your meetings (see our list of the best appointment scheduling apps), deadlines, and other important upcoming events. You can also set up automatic notifications so you never miss another meeting.
8. Keep.
Google Keep is a note-taking app that helps you stay organized across all your apps. Use it to keep a to-do list, organize your priorities, or just jot down thoughts you need to follow up on later.
9. Hangouts.
Chances are, you’ve already used Hangouts at least once. It’s the gold standard for video and audio communications, since you can quickly and easily get in contact with anyone in the world—without lag or interruptions to get in your way.
10. Currents.
Google Currents is a pseudo replacement for the now-defunct Google+ social media app. With it, you can have your employees create individual profiles, develop custom streams of content, and even create forums and subforums in which to engage with each other.
11. Vault.
Google Vault is one of the more specialized apps on this list. It’s designed to improve your archiving and electronic discovery, which may reduce your litigation costs, or may be entirely useless to you. For the organizations that use it, it’s vital.
G Suite Marketplace Apps
Now let’s turn our attention to the G Suite apps from the G Suite Marketplace on our radar (and a few third-party apps you can discover on your own). This list includes both free and paid options, all designed to make your G Suite experience better:
12. EmailAnalytics.
EmailAnalytics, if you couldn’t guess, is our own analytics tool designed to help you better understand your email habits, and the habits of your employees. With it, you’ll dig into metrics that reflect your employees’ email-related behaviors in Gmail. For example, how many emails do they send in a day? How long do threads last before they disappear? How long does it take them to reply to new leads or customers? When you know more about your team’s performance, you can do more to improve it.
13. Freshdesk.
Freshdesk is a SaaS app designed for customer support. Once integrated, you can use it to host conversations with website visitors, across a variety of channels, including phone, chat, and email. You’ll also be able to integrate information from Google Contacts into your Freshdesk tickets, and analyze your customer data.
14. Kanbanchi.
The first of several task management-related apps on this list, Kanbanchi is a G Suite app that helps you organize all your to-do items into a single, comprehensive, visually appealing workflow. It is similar to popular Kanban software such as Trello and Asana. There are many features to enjoy with Kanbanchi, including a built-in Kanban board, a Gantt Chart, and a time tracker. You can also easily integrate your projects and items with Calendar, Gmail, and other G Suite apps.
15. SignRequest.
SignRequest is a G Suite app that will help you manage the exchange and signing of important documents (like contracts). With it, you can digitally request signatures from your clients, saving you time and money that you would have spent collecting hard copies.
16. Dialpad.
Gmail is one of the best email apps on the market, but sometimes, you want to communicate via voice or text. Dialpad is a cloud communication app available within G Suite. Without leaving Gmail, you can initiate calls, send texts, and even view your communication history.
17. Appy Pie.
It may sound like a children’s game, but Appy Pie is quite the useful tool. The basic premise is that it’s a tool that helps individual users create small, simple apps without any prior coding knowledge. If you’re constantly trying to find ways to streamline your productivity or improve your spreadsheet management, Appy Pie could be exactly what you need.
18. Form Mule.
Form Mule is a communications tool that allows you to simplify your email marketing strategy. With it, you’ll be able to send targeted, individualized emails using data from any of your Google Sheets. Depending on your needs, you can run a manual email merge or set up a triggered merge that initiates automatically at a point you determine.
19. Lumin PDF.
If you find yourself exchanging and managing PDFs on a regular basis, consider using Lumin PDF. It’s a G Suite Marketplace app that allows you to highlight, edit, and even sign PDF files straight from your browser. You can also erase blocks of text, rotate and/or remove pages, and even draw lines and shapes. And while we’re on the topic of PDFs, don’t miss our post on how to save an email as a PDF!
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20. MixMax.
MixMax is one of several CRM-related G Suite apps available through G Suite Marketplace. It has a suite of different features and options designed to improve your email sales strategy and overall performance. For example, you can track email opens, clicks, and downloads, easily schedule meetings, and even call upon templates to speed up your email drafting.
21. Zoho Meeting.
If you schedule lots of meetings and have a hard time keeping track of all your prospects, Zoho Meeting may be right for you. It’s designed to make it easy to engage with your customers and coworkers, and schedule online meetings, presentations, demos, and other forms of interaction. Google Calendar is great for keeping you organized, but Zoho Meeting makes things a little bit simpler.
22. Supermetrics.
Supermetrics was developed to be a comprehensive productivity and organizational tool, working within Sheets. It integrates data from Google Analytics, Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, Twitter Ads, and dozens of other platforms into your G Suite spreadsheets so you can quickly and easily manage the data.
23. ScheduleOnce.
There’s also ScheduleOnce, a tool that integrates with Google Calendar to streamline and simplify meeting scheduling within your organization. With it, you can let prospects schedule demos, presentations, and consultations directly from your website; you can also allow customers to schedule service or a conference.
24. DirectIQ.
DirectIQ is another email marketing-centric platform that allows you to add contacts, design emails from templates, and manage high-level campaigns easily. If you’re new to email marketing, or if you’re looking for a simpler solution, this is ideal. You can also keep track of your email marketing metrics, so you can better understand (and eventually improve) your campaign performance.
25. Sortd.
Sortd is an organizational tool that integrates with Gmail (and G Suite overall). With it, you’ll gain access to Trello-style Kanban boards, contacts, notes, follow-up flags, reminders, and automated features to simplify your responsibilities. You can also use it to conjure sales and activity reports, and even rename your email subject lines to stay better organized.
26. Wrike.
Wrike is a project management app for G Suite that allows you to better organize and execute your most important work. With it, you’ll be able to dissect big projects into more digestible tasks and sub-tasks, collaborate with teammates on common projects, and use a built-in report builder to measure and analyze your performance.
27. Copper CRM.
Copper CRM is a G Suite Marketplace sales tool that helps you track just about every interaction you have within G Suite. You’ll be able to keep track of prospects you’ve communicated with, leads you’re currently chasing, and customers with whom you currently have appointments—all in one place. You can also make use of automated workflows to simplify your work.
28. Evercontact.
If you’ve ever struggled with obsolete and outdated customer information, Evercontact could spare you the pain in the future. It’s designed to keep all your team’s contact information is up-to-date at all times, so you aren’t losing emails to outdated addresses or disconnected phone numbers. It will constantly analyze your contact records and scan them for new changes.
29. Yet Another Mail Merge.
Gmail and Google Sheets are enough to organize and manage your email marketing campaigns—at least if you’re using Yet Another Mail Merge. This G Suite app lets you pull data from Google Sheets and mass send messages using Gmail. You can also customize emails to individuals, increasing your chances of success. For more mail merge tools and tips, see our guide to how to mail merge in Gmail.
30. Bitium.
You can find Bitium in G Suite Marketplace, but it works with a wide range of cloud applications. With it, you’ll be able to increase your organization’s security by centralizing your login credentials, employee data, and more. Each user on your team can more easily and securely manage their usernames and passwords, saving them time while keeping them more secure.
31. Form Notifications.
Form Notifications is a G Suite app developed especially for Google Forms. It delivers exactly what it promises, providing automatic notifications when individuals complete surveys and forms in your apps, and messages to creators, collaborators, and other individuals of note.
32. Mailtrack.
Simple and effective, Mailtrack is a sales email tool that allows you to keep track of your emails once they’re sent to prospects and clients. With it, you’ll be able to determine when your emails have been read, check how many times they’ve been read, and even track whether or not your prospects have clicked the links you’ve included.
33. Asana.
Asana is a project management app in its own right, but in G Suite Marketplace you can tightly integrate it with your other G Suite apps. Once installed, you can access your projects and tasks without leaving Gmail, making it far easier to manage your workload (and improve your efficiency).
34. Insightly CRM.
Insightly CRM is another CRM tool designed for businesses in manufacturing, consulting, media, and healthcare. As you might expect, it allows you to more easily and consistently manage your customers’ information, from tracking them as possible prospects to taking care of them as long-term customers. Insightly is one of our top-rated CRM software tools. Check out the entire list!
35. DocuSign.
DocuSign is another G Suite app designed to make it easier to manage the exchange and signing of official documents. Once integrated with G Suite, you’ll be able to sign, track, send, and manage documents within apps like Gmail and Google Docs. It’s very intuitive, and could save you the need to physically overnight an important document.
36. Infogram Charts.
Infogram Charts is perfect for helping you create visuals for presentations, demos, consultations, and other important meetings. With no need for coding skills or technical knowledge, you can create your own animated charts, graphs, and interactive reports, all using data you’ve gathered in G Suite.
37. GQueues.
There’s also GQueues, a minimalistic task manager designed specifically for use in G Suite. With it, you can make use of two-way syncing with your Google Calendar, sync attachments with Google Drive, create, manage, and delegate tasks, and even set up recurring tasks.
38. Awesome Table.
Awesome Table is built to make your Google Sheets data easier to share and more intuitive to understand. You can convert your numbers into charts, graphics, and other highly shareable materials you can then send to your coworkers or include on your website.
39. Kami.
Kami was designed as a classroom app, but almost any industry can take advantage of it. Kami allows you to write, draw, type, annotate, comment, augment, and enhance PDFs within your browser, making it much easier to collaborate, share feedback, and ultimately improve your team’s work. Think of it as your digital pen and paper.
If you’re trying to sort out how these G Suite apps could benefit your workplace productivity, you’ll first need a way to measure that productivity.
That’s why we designed and built EmailAnalytics. After just a few clicks, you’ll integrate your Gmail accounts and get the ability to review metrics like your average email response time, your busiest times and days of the week, and even your average email thread length. Sign up for a free trial and see what it’s like for yourself!
Jayson is a long-time columnist for Forbes, Entrepreneur, BusinessInsider, Inc.com, and various other major media publications, where he has authored over 1,000 articles since 2012, covering technology, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He keynoted the 2013 MarketingProfs University, and won the “Entrepreneur Blogger of the Year” award in 2015 from the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurs. In 2010, he founded a marketing agency that appeared on the Inc. 5000 before selling it in January of 2019, and he is now the CEO of EmailAnalytics.