Can users with different licenses use the same features in an organization?

[thatonealma]

Hello!

1. As an organization, are you able to have different users with different license plans? 

2. If the organization has users with "better plans" that have extra features, and users with "standard plans", does the organization as a whole have the "better plan" features? 

3. Also, are the "standard plan" users able to use the features of the "better plan" in an organizational setting? 

I hope I was clear. 

Thank you very much!

[cryptochrome · Accepted solution]

Mixing different licenses is only possible in certain edge cases. We would have to analyze your requirements to give a definitive answer. 

When you mix different licenses, you will assign the different license types on a user-by-user basis. A user with a lower-tier license will have limited features available (depending on the plan) and users you assign a higher-tier license will have more features. 

So your "standard plan" users would not be able to use the features that are available in the "better plan". Only users assigned with a "better plan" license will benefit from those features. 

I hope this makes sense. If you need more details, feel free to drop me a personal message. 

[christiannewman]

As @cryptochrome inferred, partial domain licensing (mixed editions of Google Workspace) promotes confusion amongst your users as they'll be unaware of who has access to what functionality. It can be challenging to build standard operating procedures that accommodate your environment's lowest common denominator of functionality. As a result, I typically don't recommend partial domain licensing unless there's an extremely compelling business case for implementing it (as mentioned above, usually an edge case). Eligibility requirements for partial domain licensing include a minimum number of users, and a minimum % of users on the higher edition.