https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/04/before-google-kills-free-gsuite-accounts-why-not-offer-a-family-email-plan/ Skip to main content * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Subscribe [ ] Close Navigate * Store * Subscribe * Videos * Features * Reviews * RSS Feeds * Mobile Site * About Ars * Staff Directory * Contact Us * Advertise with Ars * Reprints Filter by topic * Biz & IT * Tech * Science * Policy * Cars * Gaming & Culture * Store * Forums Settings Front page layout Grid List Site theme Black on white White on black Sign in Comment activity Sign up or login to join the discussions! [ ] [ ] [Submit] [ ] Stay logged in | Having trouble? Sign up to comment and more Sign up Also stop shutting down services, in general, we're begging you -- Before Google kills free Gsuite accounts, why not offer a family email plan? Apple and Microsoft sell custom domain email to consumers, but Google doesn't. Ron Amadeo - Apr 15, 2022 9:06 pm UTC Before Google kills free Gsuite accounts, why not offer a family email plan? Enlarge Google reader comments 36 with 31 posters participating Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit Some longtime Google users are facing a rough transition. In the early days of Google's business-focused productivity service--first called "Google Apps for Your Domain" then "GSuite" and now "Google Workspace"--Google offered domain-branded Google "business" accounts for free. From 2006 to 2012, users could make a free Google Apps/ GSuite account with a custom domain, so their email ended with a domain they owned, instead of "@gmail.com." In January, Google announced a significant policy change and told these users they needed to start paying the standard business rate for their Google accounts or face an account shutdown. It's an unfair rug pull for users that set up a free account years ago with no warning that Google might eventually charge for it. These people are in deep, with all data, emails, and purchases stored on these accounts, and it feels like data extortion to suddenly tell them to pay up or lose everything. Google later relented somewhat and offered a vague escape hatch option, promising that someday these "Legacy Gsuite" users could port their data and purchases to a free, consumer Gmail account--with the caveat that Google won't host their custom-domain email anymore. Many of the important, specific details of this transition plan are not public yet, but what is specific is the deadline for payment and account shutdowns, and users are just left to flap in the breeze while their anxiety builds. A key problem is that Google actually stopped pitching custom-domain email to consumers, and now these Legacy Gsuite users have no obvious upgrade path. In the past, there was nothing wrong with using Google Apps/Gsuite for non-business purposes, and Google even encouraged it. Just look at the original Google Apps for Your Domain blog post, which says Google launched the service after "listening to feedback from thousands of small businesses, K-12 schools, nonprofits, universities, even families with their own websites." Google encouraged families to use this, and now it's telling these families they are businesses. Advertisement My question is, why does this have to be so hard? Here's an idea: offer a Google Workspace (or Google One) "family plan" that supports a custom domain at a reasonable consumer rate. This isn't a crazy idea because all of Google's competitors already offer this. In my conversations with various people affected by the policy change, free Gsuite users aren't necessarily miffed about paying for a custom email domain. Still, they often aren't businesses and don't want to pay business rates for GSuite. Hey Google, copy Microsoft's pricing plans. Enlarge / Hey Google, copy Microsoft's pricing plans. Microsoft / Ron Amadeo Let's compare what Google is offering to the competition. Google Workspace's closest competitor is Office 365, and besides the business offerings, Microsoft offers a "Microsoft 365 Family" plan. This is $100 per year for a six-person family. It has 1TB of cloud storage per user, a 50GB inbox, access to all the Microsoft Office apps, and, critically, custom domain email accounts. Even using the cheapest "Business Starter" plan, Google Workspace is $6 per month per user. If we match Microsoft's six users, one-year offering, that's $432 per year, and that's only with 30GB of cloud storage per user. With 2TB of cloud storage per user, the next tier up is $12 per user, per month, or $864 per year. Apple's comparable product is the iCloud+ subscription, which also offers custom domain email support, starting at $1 per user per month. That's six times less than what Google charges, and Apple is offering 20GB more per user--50GB total. For six people that would be $72 per year, while Google would charge $432 per year for a lower storage tier. The Google One + Google Domains + Gmail team up Google isn't against charging consumers for cloud storage--the premium Google offering is called "Google One," and there is even a way to share storage with five family members. The prices are alright, with 100GB of storage going for $20 a year and 2TB of shared storage for $100 a year. There is no way to run a custom domain email on this service though, but why not? Adding custom domain support to Google One would give Legacy GSuite users a fair and obvious upgrade path, and it could generate more revenue for Google. Advertisement Google selling custom domain email to consumers would make more sense than Microsoft doing it. Microsoft doesn't sell domain names and encourages 365 customers to buy a domain through GoDaddy. Google does sell domain names directly, and recently took Google Domains out of beta. Just think of the corporate synergy here! Google could pitch families on buying a domain name, custom email, and cloud storage, and they sign up with everything in the Google ecosystem. The easy solution: Tack custom domain emails onto these Google One plans. Enlarge / The easy solution: Tack custom domain emails onto these Google One plans. Google Less geeky families might not love a custom domain email service, but it's popular enough that Microsoft and Apple offer it, so there's some demand. Google seems to have some idea that these people exist since the GSuite survey was aimed at free G Suite admins with 10 users or fewer using the service for "non-business" purposes. Google hasn't announced anything to address these people, though. The latest news on this saga came out when Google quietly updated its support page about the shutdown earlier this month. Google now says that "in the coming weeks" Legacy GSuite users will see a link in the Admin console to "join a waitlist" so they won't be automatically charged for having a GSuite account. Google wants to kick these users off the free GSuite service but still doesn't have a clear plan for doing that, and many of the dates have been delayed a month while it figures out what to do. Customers not on the waitlist will be automatically charged on June 1 (it was initially May 1). If Google can't bill your credit card, account suspensions start in August instead of July. There's still no waitlist out there though, and joining it means eventually losing your email and transitioning to a free consumer Google account. Google shouldn't kick these users off the service; it should create a reasonable upgrade tier in line with the competition. reader comments 36 with 31 posters participating Share this story * Share on Facebook * Share on Twitter * Share on Reddit Ron Amadeo Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Email ron@arstechnica.com // Twitter @RonAmadeo Advertisement You must login or create an account to comment. Channel Ars Technica - Previous story Next story - Related Stories Today on Ars * Store * Subscribe * About Us * RSS Feeds * View Mobile Site * Contact Us * Staff * Advertise with us * Reprints Newsletter Signup Join the Ars Orbital Transmission mailing list to get weekly updates delivered to your inbox. Sign me up - CNMN Collection WIRED Media Group (c) 2022 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. 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