G Suite Legacy Free Edition Will Not Longer Be Free from July 2022, Migrating to Google Workspace from $8.40/User/Month

scotty on 22/01/2022 - 09:56

Recently discovered this. From Google Workspace website:

If you have the G Suite legacy free edition, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep your services. The G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting May 1, 2022. Starting May 1, Google will seamlessly transition you to Google Workspace, which you can use at no cost until July 1, 2022.

I have 2 G Suite Legacy Free Edition domains — one for family and one for work — from 12-15 years ago, back when it was called Google Apps for Your Domain. Have paid $0 for the products and services for the past decade but I guess as the legacy edition is getting grandfathered, I'll need to choose between paying or migrating. All existing Google Apps domains will be migrated to Google Workspace, which "Business Starter" costs A$8.40/month for each user — that's $403.20 a year for a family of 4.

Migration would be relatively costly as well in both time & money, consider how many other products and services are bounded to these Google accounts. There are a lot of things to be moved for accounts you've had for 15 years. Also while there is Google Takeout, but no Google Import to help migrating from a Google Apps/G Suite/Google Workspace account to a regular Google account.

Anyone else affected by this?

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Comments

  • pangwen on 22/01/2022 - 10:10
    +6

    Ohhh man :(. I've got 9 users (have extended family using it too) on this plan so it will be a pretty big step up in terms of cost!

    • avoidfullprice on 22/01/2022 - 10:24
      +6

      G for gotcha good

      • iDroid on 22/01/2022 - 11:22
        +1

        Spot on.

    • leiiv on 22/01/2022 - 11:47

      With 9 non-business users, are you seriously consider paying google for it? It will cost heaps.

      • pangwen on 22/01/2022 - 14:13

        Yeah, looking at options to move. The problem is most are non-technical users so will have to balance any time I inevitably get called to help against the cost.

  • thatonethere on 22/01/2022 - 10:26
    +4

    A real bugger years ago I used to build and setup Linux boxes for small business on weekends for their website/email/squid proxy cache. After a while I shifted their email to Google Apps as it was free. Luckily been many years since I did this so I will lay low.

  • capslock janitor on 22/01/2022 - 10:44
    +11

    this mob sucks

    bring back Google play Music

    • AlienC on 26/01/2022 - 18:01
      +1

      This was a memory I did not wish to remember.

      I had already forgotten about google music lol after I had created a nice little life there.

      YouTube music now but I feel like it will be taken up by something else in the future.

      Innovation Innovation Innovation

  • rldowling03 on 22/01/2022 - 10:49
    +2

    Oh boy. I'm going to get some calls about this…

  • Clear on 22/01/2022 - 10:51
    +1

    Started using Google Workspaces a year ago and 🤮. Microsoft 365 is so much better and cheaper in a business environment.

    Importing/Exporting is where Google really falls down unfortunately. Not to mention all the products they keep discontinuing.

  • verio on 22/01/2022 - 11:01

    Yeah, not happy about that :(

  • atj on 22/01/2022 - 11:36

    This has been in the news cycle for three or four days now and I'm yet to receive any correspondence from Google. Seems a bit lax.

    I'm probably going to migrate my family domain to Fastmail and my others ones to mail-in-a-box or Purely Mail.

    Does anyone know what will happen to Play store purchases and the like when the account lapses?

    • scotty on 22/01/2022 - 12:10
      +1

      Your Play Store purchase will still be linked to your Google account, it's just that the account won't have access to G Suite core functionalities (mail, drive, calendar, etc). Your email address would just be like a Google Cloud ID. Well that's what I heard anyway, but I can't seem to be able to find a definite answer.

      • peuwayaqdq on 22/01/2022 - 19:56

        I really hope that's the case. Otherwise, can we change email address for our Play store account?

      • DSXC on 23/01/2022 - 08:04
        +1

        This is exactly right. I have a legacy account that I migrated another domain away from but kept one domain there. As I made a change to the Gsuite account it was no longer an option to have a free system so I decided not to pay it. The Google account still works with the old domain and all my purchases are still there, I just don't have access to email or any other Gsuite products.

  • leiiv on 22/01/2022 - 11:45
    +1

    Yes, I am also still looking for alternatives.
    When we signed up years ago, the promise was that it is free forever.
    http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-launches-host…

    • AlienC on 26/01/2022 - 18:02

      Diamonds are forever.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 22/01/2022 - 12:00

    Any chance google will reconsider?

    I do have grandfathered plans but also 2 paid plans already…

    • scotty on 22/01/2022 - 12:06
      +7

      There's a talk on class action lawsuit but not sure about the chances. I don't mind paying for business, but it's the family account that's the issue. I would prefer Google to provide us an option to migrate an old GSuite account to regular Google account and I am happy to pay for the Google One subscription.

      • DSXC on 23/01/2022 - 08:08

        I use custom domains with my Gmail account by using a forwarder. Check out ImprovMX. You can have multiple addresses on one domain forwarding to the email accounts of other domains. In Gmail is a pretty simple setup to have the send as the other address as default too.

        • Misplaced on 23/01/2022 - 11:52

          I found forwardemail.net to be more reliable overall than ImprovMX (which I used for a couple of years). Regardless of which service I use, the email forwarding can stop working at random times.

          • DSXC on 25/01/2022 - 08:26

            @Misplaced: Been using both for years and have not had it stop working at any point. I found improv better overall as it doesn't require a DNS TXT record to store the forwarding addresses. As long as your email is setup correctly with DKIM/SPF configured you should have no issues with either choice.

            • peuwayaqdq on 25/01/2022 - 22:05

              @DSXC: Email explicitly says it supports send email as from Gmail. Does improvmx do it too?

              Edit: Nevermind they do

              • Misplaced on 26/01/2022 - 12:42

                @peuwayaqdq: "Just so you know…This feature is a relict of an old function Google use to provide. At some point, they could disable this functionality."

  • Dacs on 22/01/2022 - 12:25

    I'm in the same boat. Had my Google Apps account for family since 2008.
    For being able to continue using my own domain with Gmail, this method might be the way to go. As far as I remember it's fairly easy to move all emails from an existing account to a new one.

    Anyone else tried it? And what would be the implications are for Google Calendar, Google Drive and Google Photos?

  • EightImmortals on 22/01/2022 - 14:12

    I might be in the same boat. We use our own domain for emails and only have three email addresses, have never used any of the other gsuite (whatever) software so not really interested in paying 8$ a month.

    Can I port that domain/email addresses over to protonmail easily enough?

    • scotty on 22/01/2022 - 15:27
      +4

      If it's just emails then it should be relatively easy. Signing up prontomail for your survive domain, change the DNS to point MX to prontomail, and then import emails from Google using pop or imap… It gets tricky when you use GSuite for more than emails.

      • EightImmortals on 22/01/2022 - 15:41

        Thanks. :)

      • peuwayaqdq on 22/01/2022 - 20:02

        Does the free version of Protonmail support custom domain?

        • Kaz0551 on 23/01/2022 - 11:12
          +1

          Does not

      • EightImmortals on 28/01/2022 - 11:20

        OK so this is turning out harder than I thought.
        The situation is that have a registered domain (e.g. eightimmortals.com) which is technically registered thought godaddy, but it was setup initially through gmail/google and the yearly renewal happens automatically. Subsequently I do not have a login ID/PW for godaddy in order to find my MX number and other details. I can't find any info in that regard in google account either, it's probably buried somewhere. I called godaddy but they were no help referring me back to google. Does anyone know how to access that information in my google account?

        Thanks

        • scotty on 28/01/2022 - 13:26

          You can use WHOIS to check the registrant's email address and sometimes it's possible to recover a domain by transferring the domain out, where the authorisation email will be sent to the registrant's email address.

          • EightImmortals on 28/01/2022 - 15:02

            @scotty: OK thanks, will give it a shot. :)
            I've got my fingers crossed that google will do an about face and offer something for non-business users.

  • Bystander on 22/01/2022 - 19:51

    Somehow this feels like bait-n-switch. Sooo annoying! While it was handy it's not worth $100 every year to me.

    More and more it feels like Google is pushing me away, no more free photo uploads, no more G Music, etc. As for Drive storage pCloud's pay once for lifetime usage looks good.

    • bamzero on 26/01/2022 - 13:51

      They played the long game :)

    • AlienC on 26/01/2022 - 18:04
      +1

      I want to believe.

      If the business model seems to good to be true then it is.

      No one is going to keep servers up past their red line date.

      Unless pcloud has a sugar daddy parent business.

  • peuwayaqdq on 22/01/2022 - 19:54
    +1

    Was about to start a thread for this but glad that this has started it. I am on the same boat with a couple of domains with about 10 users.

    A free alternative that I would consider is Zoho. I would hear some feedback from fellow OZBs about this. Most likely I will just setup a redirection to a free Gmail account.

    However, I think I will switch to Office 365 Family plan. It is much cheaper than Google Workspace. If anyone has an alternative they are considering, please post it here for others to consider as well. Thank you.

    • Ramrunner on 23/01/2022 - 12:11

      Office 365 Family (now Microsoft 365 Family) does not give you custom email domains?

      Office 365 Basic @ $6.90 per user per month would be more comparable?

      Thought I'd never see the day MS would be cheaper then Google ($8.40) for the basics but there you have it.

      • peuwayaqdq on 23/01/2022 - 12:19

        Wait, is that true that we can't use custom domain for our Microsoft 365 Family emails? I thought we can.

        • Ramrunner on 23/01/2022 - 12:27

          I'd never seen that before. On their Microsoft 365 Family product page there's absolutely no mention of being able to do that, Whereas it's specifically listed in the commercial offerings.

          Maybe double check. If it can be done' I'd certainly be interested for a few of my customers myself.

        • Ramrunner on 23/01/2022 - 12:29

          Looks like only available through GoDaddy?

          FAQ

          I already own a domain that's registered with a provider other than GoDaddy. Can I set up a personalized email address in Outlook.com?
          At the moment, we only support connecting domains managed by GoDaddy with Outlook.com.

          Looks like it's a Microsoft Partner (GoDaddy) type setup only. I'd say it's not a true domain thing but more of a redirecting thing.

        • [Deactivated] on 23/01/2022 - 12:56

          Only avail through GoDaddy, unfortunately.

        • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 08:54

          @Rumrunner, thank you for pointing that out. I missed the info that it is only domain name registered through GoDaddy.

          @Kyle-K nice find.

          I am wondering though if the workaround is reliable long run. Would hate it to find my email stopped working without knowing and missed some important emails.

          • Ramrunner on 24/01/2022 - 11:03

            @peuwayaqdq: For me personally my email is pretty important to me so I would not rely on a workaround or even really the way Microsoft does it through GoDaddy, I would set up with a system designed from the ground up to allow this - it just feels a bit "tacked on" with the MS365 Family solution.

            But then on the other hand the price difference is pretty substantial. If it was for persnal email I would probably be looking for alternatives also.

            Tough one. At least you have the facts to make your best decision. All the best!

            • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:01

              @Ramrunner: The workarounds have existed for 2 1/2 years.

              • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 12:22

                @Kyle-K: Some people reported that the workaround didn't work for them on that thread. I am not sure if that's users' error.

          • Smigit on 26/01/2022 - 18:11
            +1

            @peuwayaqdq: Anything preventing the domain being transferred to GoDaddy? Might not be one’s preference as a registrar, but if the alternative is $8.50 per user per month to use a business plan or using unsupported options then perhaps it’s worth considering. Back in the day I did use GoDaddy for domains and it was fine enough and there was always codes available that made the prices reasonable enough.

            • peuwayaqdq on 26/01/2022 - 21:47

              @Smigit: Not in particular except some not so good experience with GoDaddy in the past mainly around transfer out domains. But I would transfer to GoDaddy if I have to and I have decided to use MS 365 Family.

              However, I feel that the DNS workaround isn't less certain than transferring my domain to GoDaddy. As long as Microsoft doesn't allow this feature by default, I feel that there still might be unexpected changes to it.

    • LucyDartnell on 23/01/2022 - 13:43

      What questions do you have?
      I use Zoho paid email and Microsoft 365 Business Basic

      • LucyDartnell on 23/01/2022 - 13:51

        Zoho 5GB is $1.65 + GST/per user/per month
        MS 365 Basic 1TB is $6.90 + GST/per user/per month (includes OneDrive)

        *Prices doesn't show include GST most likely due to this service being a business to business service

      • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 08:55

        Do you have any issues at all with Zoho email? Do they have good uptime?

        • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:07

          There's never been any problems with up time however in the early days of their free service probably a few years back before they had the restrictions on their free offering they had been blacklisted a couple of times.

          • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 12:20

            @Kyle-K: Meaning that your emails didn't reach the recipient successfully?

            • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:25
              +1

              @peuwayaqdq: Some emails may not have been delivered but I think the most part for the people that were using at that I set it up for as this was the next option after Google Apps was discontinued for new signups the emails just ended up in spam folders for a couple of weeks off and on.

              These issues were quite awhile back now and these issues can really happen to any provider.

  • kiitos on 23/01/2022 - 09:30

    What format are g suite documents? Are they compatible with office or apps like libre Office?

    • peuwayaqdq on 23/01/2022 - 12:25

      I don't really need to open G Suite document in another app but it supports Save As .docx.

    • Dacs on 23/01/2022 - 12:43

      By default they download as docx or xslx. If you download from https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout you can choose pdf instead.
      Note that downloaded documents might be altered from how they appear in Google Drive since the Microsoft and PDF formats don't support all the same features and formulas. Eg spreadsheet functions like IMPORTXML() will just be values instead of formulas, and there may be other issues such as fonts or formatting that are different.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/01/2022 - 12:55

    Here’s a comparison of alternatives. -> https://thelistoftools.com/tools/email/email-service

    Unfortunately missing a few notes for the alternatives, such as Zoho free doesn’t allow IMAP/POP, which makes a move OUT from Zoho a mess (as you’ll have to upgrade -> transfer out via IMAP -> cancel). Not sure how to go about moving GSuite emails IN, haven’t dug that far yet…

    • cloudmonk on 23/01/2022 - 16:04
      +1

      Zoho has an imap migration tool for moving data in.

      I suspect if you want to leave zoho you’ll need to upgrade for 1 month.

      • [Deactivated] on 23/01/2022 - 16:32

        Thank you, I suspected some sort of support may be there based on their spiel.

        Trying to decide whether to go for Zoho or upgrade iCloud for AU$1.49/Mo/5 users…

      • CacheHunter on 28/01/2022 - 12:01

        But no tool if you ever want to get your data out again…

    • CacheHunter on 28/01/2022 - 12:01

      I have a free zoho account on a domain I setup after Google stopped offering the Legacy accounts. If you want to read your mail on your phone, the only option is the flaky Zoho app. Without POP or IMAP, you can't add your own client app. The same goes with only being able to access email via a browser on a desktop.

  • djz on 23/01/2022 - 18:40

    Anyone who is also an Apple user actually consider iCloud+ now that it also allows custom domain email hosting?

    Sure their web email interface sucks but if you’re already paying for iCloud+ you can literally have free custom domain email hosting included free and if you’re like me and only use email app clients rather than the web interface then you’d never notice the crappy web UI and lack of features.

    The other benefit of using iCloud+ Is that they have the best Push email implementation with the least effect on battery life for Apple device users.

    I am seriously considering it as an option.

    • [Deactivated] on 24/01/2022 - 08:05

      So I decided to watch some YT vids and read some reviews on the iCloud+ service offering. There’s reports that there are quite a few bugs. See https://medium.com/empty-coffee/three-months-with-apple-iclo… for that.

      Edit: note the DKIM records issue is a big red flag to avoid this service at this point in time for me.

      I also can find scarce info on how many aliases per domain are allowed for each user. Additionally, if there’s any non-Apple users you wish to onboard it makes it a bit more difficult (but not impossible).

      For example, if I wanted to do the below, I’m not sure it’s possible.

      Primary user: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
      User 2: [email protected]
      User 3: [email protected]
      User 4: [email protected]
      User 5: [email protected]

      Note that primary user has a second domain.

      • djz on 24/01/2022 - 10:44

        I wonder how many of the issues are still there though as they did launch it as a beta and I believe they fixed a number of issues already (eg initially you couldn't use your custom domain if it was already an apple ID->Fixed. Couldn't add email addresses with 2 of less characters before @ -> fixed) .

        the DKIM issue I can't find any info as to whether they have fixed it or not.

        • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:04
          +1

          I have a domain name set up for testing purposes with iCloud+ i'll have a look at the DKIM issues sometime this week.

          • djz on 24/01/2022 - 13:39

            @Kyle-K: yes please let us know how it goes as I am holding out until I read reports that iCloud DKIM is ok before making the switch from G suite.

            • Kyle-K on 15/03/2022 - 22:01

              @djz: Took me a little bit to circle back around. But I didn't see any issues for the month and a half that I used the service with one of my test domain names with iCloud+.

              • [Deactivated] on 15/03/2022 - 22:57

                @Kyle-K: Yeah I had problems with DKIM. Only worked for iCloud.com emails here.

                I had failures for the following (limited) use cases:
                * Calendar event creation (regardless if using iOS Calendar app or iCloud.com Calendar screen)
                * iOS Mail App Emails
                * MacOs Mail App emails

                Consequently, I've ditched iCloud+ already… absolute junk.

      • Smigit on 26/01/2022 - 18:16
        +1

        https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-set-up-icloud-custom-ema…

        Your iCloud service/family can have 5 tlds registered and each person can have 3 addresses/alias per tld. So your scenario is possible.

  • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 09:14

    Suppose I am changing my email provider now and I update my MX records. I start receiving emails in my new mailbox. Can I still login to my Google Workspace account using the current email address and password? That will help with the transition.

    • scotty on 24/01/2022 - 11:22
      +1

      Yes I think so. Your Google Workspace is independent from where your domain's MX is pointed.

      • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:05
        +1

        Yes you can still login and migrate your email stored there after you've switched MX.

    • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 12:22

      Thanks for confirming @scotty and @Kyle-K

  • Kaz0551 on 24/01/2022 - 11:33

    Looks like 365 Family is the best for me. 50gb email storage and 1TB onedrive per user.

    Zoho "legacy free email" was only 5gb storage per email user and I have 3 users over that now.

    • peuwayaqdq on 24/01/2022 - 12:24

      What do you mean by "legacy"? I don't want to move to Zoho only to find out they will stop the service soon after.

      • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 12:27

        To be honest that is a real risk that you're going to have to take they've already limited their free offering once.

      • Kaz0551 on 24/01/2022 - 12:59

        I have a Zoho Mail free for life account with 25 seats… not sure if you can still get it?

        Limited at 3GB per user without upgrade.

        • Kyle-K on 24/01/2022 - 13:13

          I have a Zoho Mail free for life account with 25 seats… not sure if you can still get it? Limited at 3GB per user without upgrade.

          You definitely can't get this one any more it was discontinued I think from memory a couple of years after Google kill new registrations on Google Apps.

          Zoho killed this plan and removed IMAP/ POP/ Active Sync and restricted it to 5 users on their new free offering. Which means you can only access the mail through the webmail and dedicated apps now.

    • andrek on 24/01/2022 - 16:06

      Just tried setting up MS365 with a custom domain. The Family plan doesn't allow for multiple aliases :(

      Can I set up multiple aliases on a single mailbox with my domain? (for example, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected])?

      No, this isn't supported. If you want to create multiple aliases on a single mailbox with your domain, we suggest purchasing a Microsoft 365 Business Basic subscription.

      • Kaz0551 on 24/01/2022 - 16:40

        Does it support [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] or is that just a Gmail thing?

        • Smigit on 26/01/2022 - 18:19

          I don’t know about custom domains, but that does work for MSs domains you may have. Just did exactly the above to do a bunch of self referrals for DropBox.

          Can’t test as I don’t have O355 families, but if the above works for an @outlook.com address I’d hope it also works for customs.

      • mhz on 25/01/2022 - 15:28

        Wouldn't it make it cheaper then to stay with Google and pay their plan rather than signing up for Microsoft O365 Business Basic?

        • andrek on 25/01/2022 - 22:53

          I already have a family plan I use for OneDrive, so it won't be extra for me.

      • peuwayaqdq on 25/01/2022 - 20:14

        For some reason I can add multiple aliases. Or is it different thing?

        img

        • andrek on 25/01/2022 - 22:52

          I believe aliases are only available on business plan.

        • andrek on 26/01/2022 - 10:44

          Ah, I see where the confusion is. The screenshot you provided is for Microsoft account you manage on https://account.live.com/names/manage . Yes, you can add multiple aliases there. They are used to log into Microsoft, i.e. for identity. You're only adding another email address which you can use when authenticating to Microsoft, you are not adding another address where others can send you emails and you can receive in your MS365 mailbox.

          The aliases I am talking about are Microsoft 365 email aliases and configured in premium feature settings in outlook.com. Email sent to that email address will end up in the same mailbox as your main MS365 mailbox.

  • superValue on 24/01/2022 - 22:56
    +2

    Not happy Jan.

  • peuwayaqdq on 25/01/2022 - 20:17

    I follow this instructions and get a free trial Microsoft 365 Family plan. I manage my domain in CloudFlare and got it set up without any fuss. It's quick and I can receive/send emails.

    However it seems I mis-understood custom domain in the Family plan. It is only an alias to another Outlook email address instead of an actual mailbox. Is it possible to create a mailbox with custom domain? Thanks.

    • leiiv on 26/01/2022 - 08:53
      +1

      That is the way the 365 Family plan works. The plan owner adds other existing outlook accounts to the family. So mailbox is created manually by signing up to the free outlook account.

  • bamzero on 26/01/2022 - 13:42
    +1

    Just got the email today. Thanks for the big FU Google.

    Sure, it was free, so I put up with the missing features (family sharing etc) but you got me tied in with all your services so it's not just a matter of email. I wonder now what happens with any of my purchases under those Google accounts. I'm also just using for family, the subscription cost is too high for my use.

    (OK have just seen this:

    To complete the upgrade, set up Google Workspace billing before July 1, 2022. If you don't provide your payment information, your Google Workspace subscription will be suspended until you set up billing.

    After 60 days in suspension, you will no longer have access to Google Workspace core services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Meet. Enter a valid form of payment to restore your suspended account.

    If you don’t upgrade to a Google Workspace subscription, you will not lose access to other Google services, including YouTube, Google Photos, and Google Play, nor paid content, including YouTube and Play Store purchases.

    So purchases will remain accessible.

    Also this:
    If I don’t want to upgrade to a paid subscription, can I transfer my data?

    In the coming months, we'll provide an option for you to move your non-Google Workspace paid content and most of your data to a no-cost option. This new option won't include premium features like custom email or multi-account management. You'll be able to evaluate this option prior to July 1, 2022 and prior to account suspension. We'll update this article with details in the coming months.

    Will have to see what that is about later)

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