Google Workspace is one of the most popular office productivity suites in the world, holding almost half of the entire global market share. However, while the Google app suite enables productivity and collaboration, it doesn’t ensure the long-term security of your data as it doesn’t include native backups. Although the data you store in Google Workspace is hosted by Google, it’s your responsibility to maintain, manage, and secure it in the case of a security incident or accidental deletion. So, it’s important that businesses using the Google app suite invest in a third-party backup and recovery solution for Google Workspace.
Google’s native data restoration offers minimal protection against accidental deletion, overwrites, and ransomware. Once data within Google Workspace is deleted, admins have 25 days to recover it before it’s permanently purged from Google’s systems. If a user’s account is deleted, you can restore their Drive files within 20 days of the account deletion. Additionally, you cannot restore individual files or folders, Fusion Tables, data for users that have met their Drive storage limit, or data in a user’s Trash.
Some organizations may try to use Google Vault as a backup tool, but Vault is primarily an eDiscovery tool for compliance. It does enable business to archive their Google Workspace data with retention rules and audit reports, but Vault exports are limited to a small number of accounts and only for one Google service at a time. So, attempting to use Vault for backup and recovery will prove time-consuming and resource intensive. It may even result in long period of downtime should you be hit by a ransomware attack and need to restore multiple systems.
Data loss incidents happen every day. The most important thing is that your business can recover from them quickly. A third-party backup and recovery tool for Google Workspace can help you achieve that as it will ensure that you always have a secure copy of your data stored in a secondary location, which you can access easily to recover lost or damaged data.
In this article, we’ll explore the top backup and recovery solutions for Google Workspace. We’ll give you some background information on the provider and the key features of each solution, as well as the type of customer that they are most suited for.
Spanning, a Kaseya company, is a leading provider of backup and recovery solutions for data stored in Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Salesforce, which they offer directly to organizations as well as via MSPs. Over 10,000 organizations globally rely on Spanning to protect their SaaS data against human error, programmatic errors, malicious insiders, and ransomware.
Spanning Backup for Google Workspace Features:
Spanning Backup for Google Workspace Pricing: Spanning is priced per user per month/year, with customizable cloud retention terms based on data and/or license type. Pricing is available from Spanning upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Spanning Backup for Google Workspace is a strong backup and recovery solution for small- to mid-sized businesses. Its key differentiator is the flexible retention policy feature, which enables admins to set retention policies based on data type. This (and its compliance with SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA) makes Spanning particularly well-suited to organizations working with sensitive data that must be stored for a specified duration to comply with data protection regulations.
CloudAlly, an OpenText company, is a leader in cloud-based data protection for SMBs. Their SaaS data protection platform secures over 14,000 organizations globally against malicious and accidental data loss.
CloudAlly Backup for Google Workspace Features:
CloudAlly Backup for Google Workspace Pricing: CloudAlly’s Google Workspace backup solution is available monthly for $3/user, or $30/user/year with discounts available for not for profit organizations and companies with fewer than 100 users. They also offer a storage-based package that offers the same rates per 10GB of storage. Enterprise pricing is available on request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: CloudAlly offers an intuitive backup and recovery solution with lots of out-of-the-box configurations and 24/6/365 customer support, making it a strong solution for SMBs. However, its advanced search features and robust security controls also make this a strong solution for enterprises looking to back up their Google Workspace data long-term.
Acronis is a market-leading backup and disaster recovery provider. Their Cyber Protect solution offers endpoint management and security, email security, data loss prevention, and backup and recovery via a single, unified platform. Cyber Protect supports backup for Google Workspace among other cloud/SaaS apps, and uses Acronis’ runVM technology to provide one of the fastest recovery capabilities on the market. This minimizes user disruption and ensures continuity in the event of a data loss incident.
Acronis Cyber Protect Features:
Acronis Cyber Protect Pricing: Acronis offers Google Workspace backup as part of their Cyber Protect – Backup Advanced package, which is available from £106.99.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Acronis tailors their platform for different industries, with solutions available for healthcare, energy, government, and automotive sectors. This, along with the solution’s strong security features and promise of business continuity via a virtual server in the event of a disaster, makes their Cyber Protect solution suitable for mid- to large-sized enterprises. Particularly those working with sensitive data and looking to backup their Google Workspace environments in line with industry compliance requirements for data security.
RecoveryManager Plus is a backup and recovery solution that supports Active Directory (AD), Azure Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Zoho WorkDrive and Google Workspace. The platform offers comprehensive data backup features and granular restoration in case of accidental deletions, modifications or unexpected disaster scenarios like ransomware attacks.
RecoveryManager Plus supports comprehensive mailbox backup for Google Workspace, covering all mailboxes, emails, calendar items, contacts, and notes. It can support multiple Google Workspace domains, with all backups managed via the one RecoveryManager Plus admin console. The solution also supports Google Drive, and even personal Google accounts as required.
Backups can be scheduled and are fully automated. All backups are incremental, so documents can be recovered instantly to the point of the last backup being made. RecoverManager Plus supports granular restore options – you can restore a whole user account, or a single Google Drive file. Backups can be stored on-prem or in Azure storage options. Deploying the solution is quick and straightforward, and backups can be set up for Google Workspace in just a few minutes. The administrative dashboard features backup delegation controls, custom notifications, automated backup scheduling and audits and reporting.
Overall, RecoveryManager Plus is an effective, comprehensive solution for handling backup and recovery for Google Workspace. Its user-friendly admin console is ideal for IT managers, developers and CISOs across firms of all sizes. This solution is a component of AD360, ManageEngine’s integrated enterprise identity and access management suite.
Afi is a backup and recovery provider that offers secure backup and data management for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Their solutions are built on a modern cloud architecture and leverage AI and machine learning to minimize the strain on IT teams while improving their resiliency to data loss incidents.
Afi Google Workspace Backup Features:
Afi Google Workspace Backup Pricing: Afi offers two pricing plans. SaaS Backup starts at $3/user/month and includes three daily backups, anti-ransomware protection, and role-based access. The complete Afi Data Platform increases to 24x daily backups, adds downtime prediction, global indexing, instant alerting, and a reporting API. Pricing for this package is available from Afi upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Afi offers robust automated backups and granular data restoration via an intuitive, user-friendly interface. While the SaaS Backup option only offers three backups per day – which may not be enough for organizations working with a lot of time-critical or sensitive data – Afi is a strong backup and recovery platform for mid-sized organizations looking to secure their Google Workspace data. It’s multi-tenancy support also makes Afi suitable for MSPs.
Backupify, a Datto company, is a backup and recovery provider for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Their backup solutions are trusted by over 40,000 organizations globally to provide continuity and quick recovery during a data loss incident such as accidental or malicious deletion, app outages, and ransomware attacks.
Backupify Google Workspace Backup Features:
Backupify Google Workspace Backup Pricing: Backupify is priced per user per month/year, with specific pricing details available from Backupify upon request.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Backupify is a user-friendly, intuitive backup and recovery solution that offers extensive automation to reduce strain on IT resource, while implementing robust security measures to ensure the integrity of backed-up data. While 3 daily backups may not be enough for larger enterprises, we recommend Backupify as a strong solution for small- to mid-sized businesses looking for a “hands off” backup solution for their Google Workspace data.
Druva provides data resiliency tools, including backup and disaster recovery software. inSync is Druva’s cloud-native solution for backing up data stored in SaaS applications, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, and Salesforce. Powered by Druva Cloud Architecture and built on AWS, inSync enables businesses to ensure continuity in the event of a data loss incident, while proving compliance with data protection standards and improving visibility into their SaaS app data with search and discovery.
Druva inSync Features:
Druva inSync Pricing: Druva inSync for Google Workspace is available via three packages. Business is available for $2.50/user/month and offers backup and recovery of up to 10GB per user. Enterprise is available for $4/user/month and adds on end archiving for end-user data when they leave the company for an extended period and up to 50GB storage per user. Elite is available for $7/user/month and adds on eDiscovery and federated search across files and emails.
Expert Insights’ Comments: Druva’s inSync platform offers strong backup functionality for Google Workspace, but the solution’s standout feature is its granular eDiscovery tools. That, alongside its compliance monitoring and audit support for multiple data protection standards, makes inSync a strong solution for mid-size to larger enterprises—particularly those that need to securely backup sensitive data such as PII, PHI, and legal documents.
Keepit is a cloud data security provider that specializes in backup and recovery solutions for popular SaaS applications, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Zendesk. The platform is trusted globally by organizations of all sizes, across multiple industries, to securely store cloud data.
Keepit Features:
Keepit Pricing: Keepit is available via three packages. Business Essentials starts at $2.95/seat/month and offers most backup and recovery functionality, with a 1-year retention limit and essential support. Enterprise Unlimited starts at $4.95/seat/month and adds unlimited data retention, a full API for integrations, role-based access, and advanced 24/7 support. Governance Plus starts at $7.95/seat/month and adds a regulatory letter and amendments to the contract, local authorities audit rights, and an adjusted data processing agreement (DPA).
Expert Insights’ Comments: Overall, Keepit is a comprehensive and secure backup and recovery solution for any business looking to protect their Google Workspace environments. The platform’s pricing plans enable SMBs to access enterprise-grade features—such as granular search and restore—without stretching the budget. At the same time, larger enterprises can benefit from compliance-ready features such as role-based access, enhanced auditing, and unlimited retention periods.
SysCloud is a backup and recovery provider that specializes in securing SaaS application data against ransomware, compliance gaps, deletion, cloud outages, and technical errors. Their backup solutions are trusted by over 7 million users globally to provide security and continuity, as well as to help ensure compliance.
SysCloud Features:
SysCloud Pricing: SysCloud offers backup for Google Workspace from $4/user/month or $38/user/year (a saving of 20% with annual subscriptions). Note that you should purchase SysCloud licenses for at least 75% of users to enable backup for Shared Drive. Custom pricing is available for MSPs.
Expert Insights’ Comments: SysCloud is a user-friendly backup solution that’s not only easy to navigate and manage, but offers regular automated backups and high levels of security. The platform is well-suited to SMBs looking to backup their Google Workspace data and ensure it’s free of security and compliance gaps. The platform also works well with Google Classroom, making it particularly well-suited to schools looking to ensure continuity in the event of a cloud outage.
SpinBackup is a provider of data protection solutions for the most widely used SaaS apps, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Salesforce. Their backup and recovery for Google Workspace is available standalone, or as part of their wider SpinOne platform. SpinOne is a unified data protection platform that offers ransomware monitoring, risk assessments, access management, data loss prevention, and backup and recovery, all via a single interface.
SpinBackup Google Workspace Backup Features:
SpinBackup Google Workspace Backup Pricing: SpinBackup Google Workspace Backup is available via three plans. SpinBackup is available from $3/license/month, and offers daily automated backups with disaster recovery and 30GB of storage. SpinSecurity is available from $5/license/month and adds on ransomware protection. The unified SpinOne platform is available from $9/license/month and adds on application risk assessment, access management, and data loss prevention, as well as 50GB of storage. All plans require a minimum contract size of $1,080.
Expert Insights’ Comments: SpinBackup Google Workspace Backup offers strong automation and reporting tools that enable admins to effectively “set and forget” the solution. The platform is very navigable, with an intuitive management interface and user-friendly search functionality. Overall, we recommend SpinBackup Google Workspace Backup as a strong solution for SMBs looking to secure their Google Workspace data.
Backup and recovery solutions create point-in-time copies of your data then write these copies out to a secondary storage facility. This may be your own on-premises or cloud facility, the backup provider’s private cloud platform, or a public cloud such as AWS or Azure. Storing your backups in a separate location creates an logical gap that protects them from any compromise that may affect your live servers. In other words, if your business is hit by ransomware, but your backups are securely stored in an isolated location, the attacks won’t affect your backed up data.
With these backups in place, your backup and recovery provider can quickly restore your data in the event that the original copy is lost or destroyed by human error, technical error, natural disaster, or a cyberthreat.
Google Workplace is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) productivity application suite. SaaS applications operate using a shared responsibility model: the SaaS provider is responsible for protecting the application, operating system, hardware, virtualization, and network. You (the customer) are responsible for protecting your users and data, and taking care of the administration.
According to Google’s terms of service, “Google, and its suppliers and distributors, will not be liable for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable.”
So, Google solves problems related to software failure and outages, but you have to protect your data against loss or damage caused by human error, programmatic error, and malicious actors.
The short answer here is no.
Google does back up Google Workspace data in order to support their own backup and recovery plans, but these backups exist solely to safeguard Google; they are not accessible to your business, your admins, or your end users.
If you want to be able to access and restore backups of your Google Workspace data, you need to create those backups yourself. That’s where third-party backup and recovery solutions come in.
These are the main features that you should look for in any backup and recovery solution for Google Workspace:
Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.
Craig MacAlpine is CEO and founder of Expert Insights. Before founding Expert Insights in August 2018, Craig spent 10 years as CEO of EPA cloud, an email security provider acquired by Ziff Davies, formerly J2Global (NASQAQ: ZD) in 2013, which has now been rebranded as VIPRE Email Security. Craig has extensive experience in the email security industry, with 20+ years of experience helping organizations to stay secure with innovative information security and cyber security solutions.