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Google Sites Review: Why Is It A Good Option for SMBs? [2024]

Alexandros Melidoniotis Reviewed by: Alexandros Melidoniotis Ana Marković Written by: Ana Marković

Google Sites is a decent, free website builder that works well for personal projects. On its own, it lacks more advanced functionality for complex websites. However, when paired with Google Workspace, Google Sites provides more integrations and efficient collaboration tools. This makes it a solid, budget-friendly option for small businesses with basic project management needs.

Overview

Google Sites at a Glance

💯Free PlanYes
📄Number of Templates17
🔌Apps/IntegrationsYes
🛒E-commerce ToolsNo
Shared Reseller Dedicated Cloud WordPress
Google Sites Website Example Homepage
Google Sites is a good option for non-profit and education websites
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Google Sites Pros, Cons, & Things That Could Be Better

  • Extremely simple, easy editing interface
  • You can connect your own domain for free
  • Easy collaboration with real-time edits
  • Little integration with non-Google tools
  • Customization options are very basic
  • Small and non-diverse template selection
  • Very little storage allowed per site

Should You Use Google Sites?

Google Sites offers a simple and free way to host information online. It’s a good place to start if you have absolutely no website-building experience. It’s also available in over 70 different languages, which is a lot more than almost any other website builder.

However, you won’t be building the next hit blog or massive e-commerce enterprise with it anytime soon. Well, at least not if you use Google Sites on its own. If you sign up for Google Workspace, you’ll get access not only to Google Sites but also to other Google and third-party apps to extend your site’s functionality.

Google Workspace offers collaboration tools and a range of affordable plans that work well for small businesses that want to improve team coordination. Also, it comes with essential project management features that could be invaluable if you’re building an internal project website.

If you’re a freelancer looking for a website builder with advanced capabilities, Google Sites might not be the best choice. I recommend considering Wix instead1, which offers more functionality while staying easy to use. You can even use it for free.

3.0

Templates

Limited Templates, but Customizable to an Extent

Google Sites offers a very limited selection of 17 generic templates. Though each template is supposed to be designed with a different purpose in mind, the variation between them is so limited that you’re really only getting 17 different arrangements of the same heading, subheading, and image structures. Still, every template has a clean look and is mobile-responsive, ensuring your website looks good on smaller screens.

Google Sites Template Library
Google Sites templates lend themselves well to collaborative projects

It should be noted that with Google Workspace, you’ll get over 50 additional website templates to choose from through the Sites Starter app. These are more versatile when it comes to design and functionality and more suitable for business and e-commerce needs. Most of them are not free, but there are plenty of stylish options at affordable prices.

Design and Customization

Given the limited number of templates available, you might be wondering whether you can create a distinctive-looking site with this builder. But the good news is you can customize any of the templates a fair bit.

We’re not talking about complete creative freedom, of course, but you can change colors, font styles, as well as the layout of your text and images. For its limited customization, it’s worth noting that Google Sites offers hundreds of different font choices.

Google Sites Project Template
Google Sites template layouts match their stated purpose well, like this Project layout

Another thing I like is that each template comes with snippets of filler text that provide instructions and recommendations for content, instead of the good-old “lorem ipsum” filler. You still have a sense of what the text will look like on each page once it’s published, and you also get a bit of guidance in terms of copy.

4.0

Features

Incorporate Content from Nearly Any Google App

Google Sites Editing Interface
Google Sites makes it easy to keep all project-related information in one place

Since Google Sites is part of the massive suite of Google apps, it’s incredibly easy to connect files from various tools and group them together on your site. Your site is connected to all of your Google accounts via your email address, so you have instant access to anything saved on your Google Drive. You can directly incorporate content from Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Map, Forms, and Charts.

You can embed files on any page, and they will appear as thumbnail previews. You can adjust the size of each thumbnail and link to charts, spreadsheets, documents, etc, or link to the actual files – just be sure to set the permissions so the right users can open them. This is incredibly useful for aggregating project files, resources, or other documents related to a project.

Optimize Your Workflow With Third-Party Apps

Using Google Sites with a Google Workspace account gives you access to plenty of free and paid integrations in the app marketplace. You’ll find apps like Mailchimp for email marketing and Slack for team communication.

Also, if you need more advanced project planning features than what Sheets can give you, you can easily add a fully-fledged project management platform like monday.com or Jira. This lets you sync tasks and projects between Google Workspace and your chosen project management platform. For example, you can add Sheets, Docs, and other files to your monday.com task cards and maintain an uninterrupted flow of information.

Search Google Images or YouTube Directly From the Interface

Adding documents and such from your personal Google Drive is useful, but not really unexpected: Google likes to connect all of its products. What really impressed me is the ability to directly search Google Images and YouTube from the Google Sites interface (and then add those images or videos to your website).

In other words, if you want to embed a YouTube video, you don’t have to use a separate tab in your web browser. You just search from a pop-up box and place the video wherever you like on your page.

You can do a Google Image Search in the same way. This search box filters images to bring up those labeled for commercial reuse, which means you can legally use them without paying fees. Just be sure to verify that commercial reuse is actually allowed (since Google warns that the filter isn’t perfect), and give credit to the original source if required.

Collaborate on Your Site in Real Time

If you’re used to collaborating with others and sharing files on Google Docs, you’ll find that Google Sites works similarly. You can grant editing access to team members for real-time collaboration. You can also control who views your Google Site, restricting access to specific people, groups, or making it public for internet searches.

If you have a Google Workspace account, you can use Google Chat and set up unlimited “spaces” where you can assign tasks, set deadlines, and discuss project goals. You can create an unlimited number of spaces and make them private, restricting access to project collaborators only.

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Announcement Banners

This last feature is really useful and I was impressed by its simplicity. You can easily add a customized announcement banner to your site with the option to place it sitewide or on a single page.

Google Sites homepage with announcement banner
Adding an announcement banner (in purple above) can provide an eye-catching CTA

Customization for the banner is limited to color and text, but it’s an easy way to provide visitors with important information or direct them to a useful resource for getting started on your site.

5.0

Ease of use

User-Friendly Design and Intuitive Guidance

Google is good at understanding users’ needs and meeting them effectively. This carries over to Google Sites, which offers an intuitive, streamlined interface without a lot of clutter. Even if you’re not familiar with Google’s other apps, it’s super easy to find your way around Google Sites.

When you create your first site on Google Sites, you’ll get a series of pop-ups guiding you through the process of setting up your website. If you need a quick refresher, you can click the three dots on the menu bar, go to Help, and select Take a tour to open these pop-ups again.

Clean, Simple Interface

The Google Sites editor interface is really pleasing to look at and almost soothing to use. It’s free of clutter and expanding menus, focusing only on the essentials. There’s really only one place to look to find what you need, so it’s very straightforward, and you can start building your site quickly.

Google Sites Premade Layouts
I like how the Google Sites editor is organized, but I wish it had more content block options

Google Sites uses a drag-and-drop editor on a grid layout. Essentially, you can move elements where you want them, but they’ll always snap into the existing design grid to keep everything aligned. You can use individual content blocks to design your own layout, or you can choose from a small selection of existing layouts to save time and effort.

Research and Content Generation With Gemini

Google Sites templates offer content guidance through the examples and instructions within the content blocks. But for more support – especially for regular blogs, product descriptions, or email publishing – a Google Workspace account with the Gemini add-on can be helpful.

Gemini for Google Workspace is an AI-powered assistant that can help you speed up the process of managing projects and creating content. You’ll have to pay an additional fee to use it, but it could be a worthy investment.

Accessibility Features for Users with Disabilities

Google Sites incorporates several features to make websites accessible to people with disabilities. For instance, you can add descriptive text to images and captions to tables to make it easier for people who use screen readers to understand the content of your website. Also, Google Forms are designed to be accessible to people who use assistive technology in reading.

Additionally, you can navigate through Google Sites using only your keyboard, which is essential for people with motor disabilities.

4.0

Support

Helpful Knowledge Base, but Live Support Available Only to Google Workspace Customers

Google Sites has very little in the way of support. There are no live support options – not even an automated chat – so you’ll have to rely on the series of support documents and the community help forum if you have issues.

The support documents are fairly comprehensive, but I still found questions that they couldn’t answer. The community help forum is pretty hit-or-miss, too. It’s always worth checking to see if someone asked your exact question and received an answer, but there are a lot of repetitive questions along with ones you could solve by reading the support documents.

Google Support Articles
Google Support attempts to help you solve issues on your own, but doesn’t always succeed

All of that said, one thing I really appreciate about Google’s support documents is that they list specific error messages you may receive and give instructions for dealing with each message. In other words, they don’t just provide generic troubleshooting to work through the most common problems – they give you steps to directly solve the problem you’re experiencing.

Note that if you sign up for a paid Google Workspace plan, you’ll get access to 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. Not only that, but you’ll also get more comprehensive self-help resources, including demos, tutorials, and learning labs.

5.0

Pricing

Google Sites Is Free & Gives You More Value With a Google Workspace Account

Google Sites is completely free and comes with your Google account. Every feature and function is available for free on personal accounts (except for 24/7 customer support). But there are limits to this. If you’re using a free, personal account to set up your site, you’ll only get 100 MB of storage per site (and note that any attached files count against this). Want any more than that? You’ll have to upgrade to Google Workspace, which starts at $6/month.

Google Workspace offers a range of affordable plans that work particularly well for small businesses with a focus on project management and team collaboration. Even the cheapest Business Starter plan includes unlimited projects, 30 GB of storage space per user, and video conferencing for up to 100 people. Higher-tiered plans come with additional perks, such as appointment booking pages and advanced chat rooms with client/guest access.

If you run a small company that requires a private company website, Google Sites combined with Google Workspace is an efficient and affordable tool. But if you want to stick to a free website builder with bigger storage, advanced design tools, and superior SEO tools, I recommend checking out Wix1.

Comparison

How does Google Sites match up to the competition?

1WixCompareOur Score4.9Compare
1SquarespaceCompareOur Score4.8Compare
1Google SitesCompareOur Score4.2Compare
1SimpleSiteCompareOur Score2.5Compare

Google Sites REVIEW: BOTTOM LINE

Google Sites offers a great user experience, and it lives up to its reputation of connecting all your work across Google apps and tools. If you need a free builder to create a quick, simple site for an event, a professional portfolio, or a different kind of small-scale project, it can be a solid option.

However, for small businesses, I wouldn’t recommend using Google Sites on its own. Upgrading to Google Workspace gives you project management and collaboration features, plus an abundance of third-party apps to help you grow.

FAQ

Is Google Sites really free?

Yes. Google Sites is an app that you can access for free, so long as you have a Google account. That said, upgrading to Google Workspace will give you more functionality at affordable prices, so it’s worth considering. Alternatively, you can check out our list of the best cheap website builders for other budget-friendly options.

Is Google Sites any good?

Google Sites can be great if you want to publish a simple landing page or portfolio for free. However, if you run a small team that needs a private company website, Google Sites paired with Google Workspace can help you enhance collaboration.

How can I access Google Sites?

From your Google account, access the drop-down menu for Google apps and click on “More from Google”. Scroll down to see All Products, and you should be able to spot the Sites app straight away. You can also integrate other products from Google into your Google Sites website directly from your editing dashboard.

What is the best website builder?

It all depends on your specific needs. Some website builders give you a lot more design freedom but are a bit more time-consuming, while others let you create simple but high-quality sites in minutes. If you want to find the perfect builder for you, check our list of the best website builders in 2024.
Ana Marković Ana Marković
Ana specializes in writing about web building platforms, project management software, and other digital tools. She has been a freelance writer for 7 years, and has published countless product reviews and comparisons in that time. Ana has a passion for language and all things tech, and she combines the two to provide accessible and insightful resources for anyone interested in building websites or managing projects.
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I disagree i like Google sites

It is a great alternative if you do not want to spend money. I've been using it to build my online store. Sure it does not offer a cart or checkout but you can buy a widget and implement it Google sites. Or you can have customers directly contact you through a whatsapp button etc. Template wise you can edit basic fonts and colors and add columns to make it look more professional.

1 avatar
Harry bones, USA
October 20, 2022
5
“Upgrade” from previous to new Sites broke team wiki

I work for a large company that is also a Google Apps customer. I am on a 14-person highly technical team. We use Sites for our team wiki, and routinely update pages, often 2-3 of us making separate updates to different pages at any one. Since the rollout of the "new" sites, editing and publishing is only for the entire site, meaning one user cannot publish a page when done if someone else is also editing a page. Google touts this as a collaborative tool, but this one feature-failure is our greatest pain. The new version dropped support for tables. Tables were introduced to HTML in the early-mid-90s, but Google decided to drop it from Sites in 2020. You can imagine we use(d) tables all over the place in our team wiki. They are a basic feature when laying out things like settings, selections that differ by environments, and so on. Tables are an everyday thing. We routinely get page edit errors requiring a reload of the page, often losing content we created along the way. If you have any serious edits it is best to create the content in gDocs then copy over. This sort of works, but still requires finish editing for formatting mismatches from gDocs to Sites. This seems insane to us. Partly because gDocs does tables that do not paste into Sites...but that's just me banging on the tables again. Sure, we could try to learn to embed gDocs and gSheets elements into a page...to recreate BASIC features that used to exist in Sites, but honestly we are simply too busy to try to solve Google's shortsitedness with kludgy workarounds...I mean "integrated features that only sorta work." All that for a wiki, which normally is a relatively simple thing to maintain. Google is deaf to complaints, even from a Fortune 100 company. Someone thought the new Sites would be better, but it is, in the opinion of a technical team with a few centuries of collective experience, barely worth the effort to try.

avatar
Scot Harkins, USA
April 06, 2022
2
Creates a site without bells & whistles, but do we really want them?

I made myself a 22 page Google site for a hobby project. I didn't use any templates so made it from scratch. Do I want flashing gifs or auto scrolling gizmo's, adverts popping up etc? No I just want to show the photo's and descriptions of my vintage lathe and it's numerous accessories. Some of the free website builders don't auto reduce the pages for iphone so pleased that Google does. It's really easy & I have a drop down menu for all the pages. I wish there was an option to make photo's enlarge but apart from that I'm happy

1 avatar
Vic Newey, Great Britain
January 11, 2022
4
Be creative

Behind an interface that seems simplistic, Google Site actually lets you do what you want! You just need to be imaginative and creative. But it seems people are more used to choosing from a list. I concede that at first, it is a bit confusing, but after doing several minisites, I have realized that the possibilities are much greater than they seem. You can resize and organize everything as you like. And finally, it goes a lot faster and is a lot more fun.

1 avatar
Laurent, Thailand
July 16, 2021
5
Google Sites is great!

If you want a simple interface that you can easily work with, Google Sites is perfect. It's modern-looking, clean and unencumbered. The only ones who don't like are web-techies and websites like this who can't earn income from it. The web isn't all about business and income, so website building should be judged against those criteria. But sites like this are driven by referrals and $, so they would never recommend a freebie like Google Sites. If you are service- or people-oriented, if you want to pass on information in a simple, clean way OR if you are your own web techie, then Google Sites is ideal.

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Terry, USA
April 05, 2021
4
Google Adsense can’t be used

Good insight, however, you have mentioned that on Google Sites it is easy to use Google Adsense. What I read on Google Sites terms and conditions that no advertising is allowed on their platform. Google Adsense can only be used for websites deployed on Google Cloud, which is a paid platform.

1 avatar
Destination Bangalore, India
January 26, 2021
3
Google Sites does the job for a simple website without any features

Funny how you guys show the "Get a Wix website" pop-up. Seems biased to me :D and this is just the option that gives you the highest commission. As stated above, google Sites does the job for a simple website without many features. You can use it to write blogs, present your services and products (not sell them though) and have your virtual business card in place. Why spend money on more if you don't need more?

1 avatar
Robert, Germany
November 26, 2020
5
It could be better, but I’m happy

I use Google sites for fun, and it meets my needs... mostly. The problem is that there's no way to put a comment in there. Basically, I have to create a Google form, copy the link, and then create a button on my site and put the link in it! I have to check my email all the time for comment forms, and then manually put the comment on my website! It's exhausting, and unlike other websites, the comment won't be there immediately! But besides that, and no blogging tools, I like Google sites.

1 avatar
anonymus, USA
November 26, 2020
3
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