How I Find & Build Profitable Google Workspace Add-on Ideas

Manuel Napoli — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:28:26 +0000

Hello there

This is my first post in this community, so feel free to let me know if something isn’t aligned with the guidelines.

Over the last two years, I’ve been building and maintaining Google Workspace add-ons.

It all started with a startup client who asked me to build one for their users. At the time, I didn’t know much about the ecosystem, but once I started digging into it, I realized something interesting:

This is a surprisingly unexplored niche for most developers.

So after delivering that first project, I decided to start building my own add-ons.

And that’s when things started to get interesting.

What I Noticed in the Marketplace

While researching the ecosystem, a few patterns quickly stood out.

1. Add-ons from big companies

Many of the most popular add-ons are simply extensions of existing products built by large companies.

Examples include integrations with their main SaaS products. These usually have good polish, but they’re not focused on solving native Google Workspace workflows.

2. Add-ons built by enthusiasts

Then there’s another category: tools built by passionate individuals solving very specific niche problems.

These are often great ideas, but they typically suffer from:

outdated UI
limited features
poor user experience
sometimes abandoned maintenance

3. Old-school Apps Script tools

Another interesting group is tools built by Apps Script developers.

Many of these are profitable, but they often feel very old-school:

license keys to activate the product
clunky UI
lots of friction during onboarding

It feels like software from another era.

4. A small group of excellent products

Finally, there’s a tiny percentage of add-ons that are both well built and highly profitable.

When I found these, it made me realize something important:

There are many underserved power users inside Google Workspace.

And that means opportunity.

My Process for Finding Add-on Ideas

My idea validation process is actually pretty simple.

I start by analyzing what already exists in the marketplace.

Things I look at:

number of installations
average rating
user reviews
last update date (is the developer still maintaining it?)

Then I combine this with:

search keywords
trends
Google Trends data
general SaaS validation techniques

Eventually I narrow things down to 5–10 potential ideas.

From there I rank them based on:

ease of building
potential demand
how much I would personally enjoy building it

Because if you’re going to maintain something long term, you should actually like working on it.

Building the Add-on

Once I have:

the idea
a keyword-optimized name
the basic feature set

…it’s time to build.

Over the past two years I’ve heavily optimized my workflow for this.

I now use a boilerplate + automation scripts that allow me to move very fast.

My typical build process looks like this:

Clone and configure the boilerplate
Plan the add-on specification using Cursor
(Optional) Split the plan into smaller specs depending on complexity
Implement the specs using Cursor
Deploy an external API to Vercel (used for DB, payments, etc.)
Submit the add-on to the Marketplace
Complete Google OAuth verification and Marketplace approval

I'm currently recording a YouTube series where I build a Google Workspace add-on from idea to profit, showing the full process.

From validation → development → launch → profit(fingers crossed lol).

If there's interest, I can also write future posts about:

common mistakes when building them
how to get your first installs
??

If you're a developer looking for less crowded product opportunities, this ecosystem might be worth exploring.

If you're curious about how I'm productizing my experience building Google Workspace add-ons, you can check out ShipAddons.

And if you’re already building add-ons, I’d love to hear about your experience.

Cheers!

DEV Community: Manuel Napoli