Google Sites is Google's website builder. It is part of Google Workspace and open to anyone with a Google account. Google, headquartered in Mountain View, California, launched the service in 2008. It is designed for sites that serve a team, a project or an event and that look right on any device: pages are built by dragging blocks onto an automatic grid, and content that already lives in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Calendar or Drive can be embedded directly.
Google presents it as a tool that needs no coding and barely any learning, since a site is assembled from the same building blocks as the other Workspace apps. Several people can edit the same site at once, as in Docs or Slides, and owners decide who can edit and who can view. According to Google, sites built with it scale to high traffic and to large numbers of simultaneous users.
What Google Sites does
- Drag-and-drop page building on an automatic grid layout that scales to desktops, tablets and mobile phones.
- Premade templates, plus custom templates with their own images, fonts, buttons and menu layouts.
- Embedded Workspace content from Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Calendar and Drive, which stays in step with the original.
- Real-time co-editing, with changes visible instantly, as in Docs and Slides.
- Version history and control over who can edit content.
- Sharing and owner permissions, managed in a few clicks.
- Publishing to the open web or to named viewers only.
- Custom domains, bought through Google's partner hosts or brought from Workspace or a registrar.
How it works
A site can start from one of the premade templates in Sites, opened with a Google account. Blocks are dragged onto the page, and the grid adapts the layout to each screen size on its own. Documents, spreadsheets, calendars and forms are embedded rather than copied, so an update to the original also shows on the site.
Collaborators work on the site at the same time, and the owner then publishes it either publicly or only to specific people. According to Google, people outside an organisation can view a site even without a Workspace account, unless sharing settings restrict it. For a custom domain, the owner can choose to buy a new domain during sign-up and get it through one of Google's partner hosts.
Who it is for
Google aims Sites at individuals, small and medium businesses, startups, large enterprises, education and nonprofits. It is meant for sites that gather and share information about a team, a project or an event.
Prices
Google Sites is free with a Google account and is also part of the free Google Workspace Essentials Starter. It is included in every paid Google Workspace plan; Google's pricing page showed these prices, in euros, when it was read:
| Google Workspace plan | Price per user per month | Google Sites |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | €6.80 | Included |
| Standard | €13.60 | Included |
| Plus | €21.10 | Included |
| Enterprise | On request | Included |
Google offers a 14-day free trial of Google Workspace.
What customers report
Google's product page quotes three organisations:
- Chicopee Police Department: Sergeant Matthew Post says the tool is intuitive and needs no coding, and that he set up the site himself instead of hiring external developers.
- Natura: chief information officer Renata Marques says the company gathered all its Google Workspace training materials in Sites, from organisational charts to training content, and cut the time it takes to find a document from 30 minutes to five.
- City of Los Angeles: chief information officer Ted Ross says city departments built robust, good-looking sites without involving IT.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Sites free? Yes. It comes with a Google account and with the free Google Workspace Essentials Starter, and every paid Workspace plan includes it too.
Who can see a site built with Google Sites? Whoever the owner chooses: a site can go to the open web or to named viewers only, and people outside an organisation can view it without a Workspace account unless sharing settings restrict access.
Can several people edit a site at once? Yes. Sites supports real-time co-editing, as in Docs and Slides, with version history and control over who can edit.
Can a Google Sites site use a custom domain? Yes. A domain can be bought through Google's partner hosts during sign-up, or come from Workspace or a registrar.
What is Google Sites best suited for? Sites for a team, a project or an event, especially when their content already lives in Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Calendar or Drive.
When did Google Sites launch? In 2008.
Links
- Product page: workspace.google.com/products/sites
- Create a site: sites.google.com
- Google Workspace pricing: workspace.google.com/pricing
- Google Workspace support: workspace.google.com/support