What's going on with G Suite/Google Workplace?

May 6, 2022 1:58 PM

I'm confused about this upcoming change with Google Workspace--the discontinuation of the free G Suite legacy version on June 1--and what it means in terms of my website and email.

I think I originally got on G Suite by mistake years ago. I'm a one-man show and all I want is (free) Gmail and to be able to use it with my custom domain email.

I tried to switch but eventually gave up because it was so confusing. (I still get those annoying "this person is not part of your organization" email warnings all the time.)

Now they're saying things are switching and it sounds like they're going to start charging me for all these bells and whistles I never wanted in the first place?

Google's help center only makes things more confusing.

Basically, can I escape G Suite/Workplace/whatever it is and become just another free Gmail user, without starting over from scratch?

posted by gottabefunky to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: I'm a one-man show and all I want is (free) Gmail

Gmail is still free, in the blue_beetle sense.

If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold.

and to be able to use it with my custom domain email.

What's going on is that the thing you were using to do this (currently known as G Suite legacy free edition) is going away. While you don't use most of the service, you do use the bit that lets you associate your domain with the G Suite mail servers. When someone emails, say, [e-mail], the sending mail server has to look up something to know where mail for gottabefunky.horse should go, and the receiving mail server has to know it should accept mail for gbfunky on that domain. That's more or less what G Suite/Google Workspace was helping you do.

If you no longer care about the custom domain, it sounds like there's an easy option, although it's a bit vague at the moment. Emphasis added.

Is there a no-cost option if I don’t want to upgrade?
A no-cost option will be available for all customers who do not want to use Gmail with their custom domain (for example, [e-mail]), or the ability to manage multiple users. Customers who choose this option will retain access to the no-cost version of Google Workspace services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and additional Google services such as Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube. You will also retain access to paid content such as movies purchased in the Google Play Store.

You'll see a message about the waiting list in your Google Admin console in the coming weeks.

If you want the no cost option, you need to join this waiting list in the Google Admin console before June 1, 2022, so your account is not automatically upgraded to Google Workspace. Those on the waiting list will remain on the G Suite legacy free edition until the no-cost option is available. Once the no-cost option is available, we’ll be in touch with more details on what will happen to your account. You will have 60 days to evaluate the no-cost option or choose Google Workspace before any changes are made to your account.

If you change your mind after you join the waiting list for the no-cost option, you’ll still be able to upgrade to Google Workspace at any time.

If you want to keep your custom domain, your options are to pay for Google Workspace, or shift to (and pay) a different provider like Fastmail.
posted by zamboni at 2:32 PM on May 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just FYI, in January I moved off G Suite to Fastmail because I also am a "one man show". This was my question from back then. It probably would have gone extremely smoothly had I not forgotten that at some point I had Wordpress start managing my domain and so there were 3 parties I had to coordinate instead of 2 (DomainPeople, Wordpress and Fastmail).

I am just chiming in to say that: 1) I am very happy with Fastmail, 2) I still have my separate original free Gmail account from many years ago tied to my cell phone and use that for Docs, Sheets, etc. and 3) I now use Drop Box Pro for cloud storage. The total cost isn't that much more per month than what Google was charging.

The above is "for what it's worth", and may not be relevant to your circumstances. And of course zamboni has given you all the details on your other options.
posted by forthright at 4:09 PM on May 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

I also moved off of G-Suite to Fastmail last month.

I was able to easily get everything going into my main @gmail.com inbox. One aspect I like about the fastmail service that it is very clear you can have multiple domains all going to one inbox for no extra charge. Charges are user based instead.

I was really daunted by the conversion, and I put it off for a long time. Probably took less than an hour with all the testing I did and was super pleased how easy it was.

I guess I need to log back into the G-Suite stuff and confirm I am not going to get billed for a service I don't want!
posted by Dalton Luceria at 6:25 PM on May 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

I also switched from old, free G suite to Fastmail last month. I don’t think there are any decent, free options if you want to use your own domain. I had been meaning to get my email away from Google for a while but I guess I procrastinated until money was on the line.

Fastmail is excellent on the whole, and I like the settings UI and domain management stuff a lot better. You get some nice bonus features like DNS and (minimal) web hosting. I have had occasion to contact G suite support in the past and it was a weeklong Kafkaesque nightmare with no ultimate solution, so that’s another point for Fastmail. On the downside, their anti-spam is just a tad worse than Gmail, and the search doesn’t look inside attachments quite as effectively.
posted by pocams at 8:27 PM on May 7, 2022

Oh, a couple of other options that aren’t free, but that you may already be paying for. If you have Office 365 Home, or if you have a friend who can add you to their family plan, you can get free email using a custom domain through Microsoft. Some very weird caveats like having to use Godaddy for your registrar, but it does sound possible. If you have Apple iCloud+, you can connect a custom domain to the email you get through that as well.
posted by pocams at 8:31 PM on May 7, 2022

Apparently Google relented. I know this thread is a couple of weeks old, but in case someone else comes across it later…
posted by likedoomsday at 7:25 PM on May 21, 2022 [1 favorite]