The end of free GSuite for business

[d000hg]

I'm sure a lot of you have free Google business accounts, many used purely for 'vanity' email - hopefully you all are aware it's going to stop being free. I received the email notification today:

Dear Administrator,

We are writing to let you know that your G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available starting July 1, 2022. To maintain your services and accounts, you need to upgrade to Google Workspace.

We launched our G Suite legacy free edition —the original Google Apps offering for businesses and schools— 16 years ago. In 2012 we discontinued this service, and we will now transition all remaining users to an upgraded Google Workspace paid subscription based on your usage.

What does this mean for my organization?
In 2020, we introduced —Google Workspace— and tailored our offerings to provide more options to fit our customers’ needs. Google Workspace includes all the features you already use, plus several new capabilities including more storage, increased security, 24/7 support, and more.

Upgrading from your G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace will only take you a few short steps and is not disruptive to your end-users. To support you in this transition, you will have discount options for 12 months after July 1, 2022.

What do I need to do?
To avoid disruption and maintain your account(s), please upgrade to Google Workspace by May 1, 2022. Begin the upgrade by reviewing the transition help center article, and selecting the option that best suits your organization’s needs. When you've identified your preferred subscription:

Go to your Admin console.
Select your new subscription offering.
Enter your billing information.
Once you’re upgraded, you can use your new Google Workspace subscription and functionality at no-cost until at least July 1, 2022.

If you take no action by May 1, 2022, Google will begin upgrading your organization seamlessly to a new Google Workspace subscription. The new subscription will be based on what you currently use with your G Suite legacy free edition.

If you do not enter your billing details before July 1, 2022, your subscription will be suspended.

If your needs have changed and you do not want to upgrade to a Google Workspace subscription, you can export your organization’s data with the takeout feature.

Has anyone looked into alternatives for single-user scenarios? The pricing seems a bit steep just to get gmail backed on my domain.
I have a lot of emails and stuff in this account, I wonder if there is a way to convert a single GSuite user to a gmail account?

[SimonMac]

I've got an old domain on google I use for paypal and spam, guess this is the incentive to move it finally

[eek]

Might be no need see Personal G Suite legacy free users might get alternative - 9to5Google

I will wait and see if Google offer a free or cheap version before looking at alternatives.

[eek]

Well there is this section in the FAQ (https://support.google.com/a/answer/...subscription):
However there is no obvious explanation how to "provide more information".

I actually have 2 of these, one for MyCoLtd.com and another for a failed plan B. £10 a year for the domain is all I pay, which is crazy. I will argue gmail is still THE best email interface by a country mile. The idea of returning to some godawful web-email from 2002 is not a nice one, but neither is paying for a business product just for an email.

You fill in the form at https://redirect.viglink.com/?format...n%20that%20FAQ

saying that it is personal / family use only.

Which is what my gsuite account is, it's been the family email system since 2004 or so and everyone has an account.

If I have to pay we will switch to MS because I have a family office account that has credit to about some point in late 2029.

[eek]

Have they removed the form link from the FAQ or is it just Friday and my brain is not working? All I see is "sign into your administrator account" which is the normal admin dashboard.

You haven't followed the instructions - if you visit the page having logged in to google with an administration account the FAQ looks like



The link in the red box changes when you are logged in correctly and return to the FAQ page.

[courtg9000]

I know of a good cost effective solution to GSuite. You need to be a bit technical though to sort it and it is self hosted!

[eek]

I know of a good cost effective solution to GSuite. You need to be a bit technical though to sort it and it is self hosted!

Self hosted email - no thanks - that's just a world of pain...

[Paralytic]

Self hosted email - no thanks - that's just a world of pain...

...and risk. No matter how technical you are, it takes time and effort to keep this stuff locked down and up to date. I'd not want to be self-hosting email and be away on holiday somewhere when a new vulnerability is identified and in the wild.

[eek]

...and risk. No matter how technical you are, it takes time and effort to keep this stuff locked down and up to date. I'd not want to be self-hosting email and be away on holiday somewhere when a new vulnerability is identified and in the wild.

+1 - running an email server is continual work - a website you can just host and keep running assuming you have sane firewalls - run an email server and you are continually trying to keep up to date with today's hacks.

If the choice is host my own or pay Google £50 a month - that £50 a month more than justifies the pain (and I'm not planning to pay £50 a month).

[courtg9000]

Self hosted email - no thanks - that's just a world of pain...

Never self host the email - agreed
As for the rest of it .... Open Season