You’ve been happily using Google’s G Suite Legacy (formerly known as Google Apps) for years. You’ve added lots of login accounts over all this time, and now you have to decide to pay for Google Workspace, or move to another email hosting provider.
With all of the best-in-class features Google Workspace offers, the standard pricing of $6.00 per user account per month is an amazing value. However, if you’re a solopreneur or small business, suddenly having to pay for multiple accounts can be a shock to the system. It’s also true that most users barely scratch the surface of what Google Workspace offers, and only think of it as email. For many users Google Workspace may just be overkill. But before you make a hasty decision, here’s a few questions to help clarify your needs and make a better decision for your business:
Do you need all the Google Workspace features, or are you just using email?
If you’re just using the email, you may still want to consider staying with Google Workspace, as it offers incredible flexibility on a system-wide and per-user level. Do you need lots of domain and mailbox aliases? Is it important to have a great deal of administrative control of how your email works?
Does every email address you’re using really need their own mailbox?
You can leverage domain and mailbox aliasing, back-end message routing, Google Groups and shared access features that will allow you to consolidate the number of your user accounts to only the essentials. This alone can slash your monthly costs dramatically.
Are you using other Google features such as Drive, Groups, or resource scheduling?
For example, Google Groups is one of the unsung heroes of the Google ecosystem. Often overlooked, it can be used for all sorts of collaboration and message management purposes. It may be worth it to take the time for a deeper dive into how you can be using the features like Drive, Sheets and Docs better before deciding to make a switch.
Are team collaboration features important?
Google was at the forefront of providing team collaboration tools on files, documents and spreadsheets. While these types of features are now available to some degree with some other cloud systems, Google’s collaboration tools are easy to use and reliable.
Finally, is the disruption of switching to another provider worth the trouble and cost?
Make no mistake, if you decide to switch to another email hosting provider, there will be disruption. Even the most well-managed migration process takes time, planning and adaption by your team to the new system. Chances are you will need to work with a technical partner to handle the technical details of changing email hosting providers and migrating data and this will cost some money. However, if you only save a few dollars per month on a small team, it may be smarter to just stick with Google.
Here’s a quick list of the best email hosting services – plus basic pros/cons of each:
Google Workspace – A whole office solution, entirely cloud based, with no desktop applications. The pro is that the Google ecosystem is everywhere and user logins can be used for SSO (single sign-on) for outside service accounts. For $6.00/user/month – you’re getting all you could possibly want or need, with incredible technical flexibility and management control. However, it’s not recommended if users like to use Outlook for mail and calendars. It’s best with just browser-based use. That said, if you want the most powerful solution available, this is it.
Microsoft Office 365– This is (like Google Workspace) a whole office suite product. If your office is accustomed to using Outlook to read mail and manage calendars, this is the way to go. Pricing for businesses ranges from $5.00 – $12.50 per month per user account with annual payment.
Zoho Mail – Great assortment of features for a fantastic price. 5GB mailboxes are only $12 per year each – and there are higher-tier plan options. Nice browser-based interface and it works with mail apps too. They also seem to support “mix and match” – assigning different plans for different users in your organization. This can be a big plus!
Rackspace Mail – Great choice if having good customer support is important – this is a great service and it’s well-priced at $3.00 – $7.00 per user/month, depending on plan. Works well with Outlook, mobile, etc. Service is basically just email, but they have a calendar and other features available. Office 365 and hosted Exchange options are available via Rackspace as well.
For reference, here’s Google’s support post about the end of free G Suite Legacy. The good news is that there’s still time to think about what options are best, as the deadline to make a decision is May 1, 2022. Start your migration planning now!
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