My Google Apps will no longer be free - any viable alternatives out there

saltwater

saltwater

Getting comfortable
Oct 6, 2019
503
643
Melbourne, Australia
Many, many years ago I signed up for the Google Apps (forget what it was originally called), it was free, and that enabled me to use my own domain name for my email. Anyway, fast forward to about 2012 and Google stopped offering the free version of Google Apps to new users, but they continued with existing users, as a free service. Today I received an email that as of July 2022 the service will discontinue, and users required to sign up for the paid plans. I have two users on my account, the other is my dad, which means on the most basic plan that's $74 per user per year. By the way, I'm not a business, just a home-user.

If I am going to pay for a service, what other services are out there where you can use your own domain name? If I transfer to something else, it's going to be one big pain in the a..... attempting to transfer my email history along with calendar entries. I am going to look at the Microsoft version as I already use 365 and the Onedrive system.

Steven
 
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I bought a bunch of MS 365 licenses real cheap in deals at various times so I'm stocked up for the next 10 years or so. But unless you happen to run across something like that, then it's probably going to be about the same cost/single user. I think there's a Family Plan that's about $100/year for up to 5 or 6 users and you can find discounted licenses to reduce that quite a bit.

Not sure about the domain name. I have several domains but they're all kept completely separate from MS 365. Haven't ever tried and looking quickly don't see a way to do that with my individual plans.
 
Mike A. said:
I bought a bunch of MS 365 licenses real cheap in deals at various times so I'm stocked up for the next 10 years or so. But unless you happen to run across something like that, then it's probably going to be about the same cost/single user. I think there's a Family Plan that's about $100/year for up to 5 or 6 users and you can find discounted licenses to reduce that quite a bit.

Not sure about the domain name. I have several domains but they're all kept completely separate from MS 365. Haven't ever tried and looking quickly don't see a way to do that with my individual plans.
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Yeah, I've got a Microsoft Family 365 licence and the only thing I don't use is Outlook (email & calendar). Now I find out that, under the 365 plan there is a premium feature where I can add my own domain email address but there is a catch, the domain must be registered with GoDaddy. What a croc, is nothing simple. My domain is not registered with GoDaddy.
 
saltwater said:
Many, many years ago I signed up for the Google Apps (forget what it was originally called), it was free, and that enabled me to use my own domain name for my email. Anyway, fast forward to about 2012 and Google stopped offering the free version of Google Apps to new users, but they continued with existing users, as a free service. Today I received an email that as of July 2022 the service will discontinue, and users required to sign up for the paid plans. I have two users on my account, the other is my dad, which means on the most basic plan that's $74 per user per year. By the way, I'm not a business, just a home-user.

If I am going to pay for a service, what other services are out there where you can use your own domain name? If I transfer to something else, it's going to be one big pain in the a..... attempting to transfer my email history along with calendar entries. I am going to look at the Microsoft version as I already use 365 and the Onedrive system.

Steven
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Hi @saltwater

Is it mostly the custom domain name and associated email you want?
 
On checking out the transition from my legacy (free) Google Apps to a paid plan, if I transition now, the new service is free until 1 Jul 2022, and the sweetner is, for the first year it's at half-price. It sort of gives me enough time to consider my options.
 
Flintstone61 said:
i can't remember if these guys give you an email address @whatever.com
but maybe look into that?

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Mike A. said:
Different thing. He wants it so that mail can be sent to/from whoever@domain.com but using GMail/Outlook as the back-end mail system..
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Yes, spot on, but even consider something else if it offers similar functionality, primarily email and calendar.

I already pay for Microsoft 365 and there is a premium feature there allowing a custom email (that is, your own domain email address) but the first hurdle was that Microsoft only allows domains registered via GoDaddy, for Australian based customers. I've since realised that it's a simple process to transfer my domain to GoDaddy at zero cost (I think) should I decide to go with Microsoft Outlook.

Whichever way I go, I know it's going to be a pain to transfer all the existing data.

I like the functionality of the Gmail way of handling emails and calendar and I know the Microsoft way would be similar. Attaching labels to emails seems to be a simpler process in Gmail than it is in Outlook, but not a deal breaker.

Yeah, I know, this is a first-world problem.
 
Beware of the free transfer but then high renewal costs. Don't know what kind of games GoDaddy plays these days but that always seemed to be hook with many offering free transfers/new domains.
 
Mike A. said:
Beware of the free transfer but then high renewal costs. Don't know what kind of games GoDaddy plays these days but that always seemed to be hook with many offering free transfers/new domains.
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Yep, that's in the back of my mind as well, but currently the renewal price seems to be on par with my existing registrar, Name.com. I haven't yet checked how much GoDaddy charge to add privacy to the domain.
 
Godaddy isn't my favorite company (their web admin interfaces tend to suck) but they do seem to have a considerably better value on email hosting with your own domain.
 
If you are looking for a decent registrar, give O'l Rob Monster (yeah, that's his real name) a call @ Epik dot com. He is a nice guy.
 
bp2008 said:
Godaddy isn't my favorite company (their web admin interfaces tend to suck) but they do seem to have a considerably better value on email hosting with your own domain.
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I just went through a mock domain purchase, they hit you with additional costs for protection, I assume that includes privacy protection, but that's an additional $10, so yeah, it will cost me more than my current registrar.

What I don't understand, is why Microsoft restrict this feature to one registrar. Surely a domain name is a domain name and as long as the domain name records point to Microsoft how difficult is that. This is what I'm currently doing with my existing registrar, the records point to Google, nothing fancy, even mums and dads could follow the instructions (well, maybe not all).
 
I use google domains for domain registration. They do private registration at no extra charge. I've been paying them $12 a year for .com domains since 2015. But they don't offer email hosting as part of that service. So I run an email server on a Windows VM at my house (hMailServer) and use a free sendgrid account for sending (because major email servers won't accept mail from my residential IP).
 
I took the plunge, upgraded my old free Google Apps (suite) to Google Workspaces, the business entry starter pack, that's all I need for personal use. It's free until July 2022, then half-price for the first year. For those that understand domain names and emailing, under Google Apps I can now add in a second (not sure how many more) domain name and an email generated under the second domain is treated as legitimate and not as an alias. What I mean is, previously, when I sent an email to my business email account (Microsoft Outlook/Onedrive based) at the business end there was always a message that the email did not generate from the email account, be careful. That was because it was an alias of my main account. Now that's not the case.

bp2008 said:
I use google domains for domain registration. They do private registration at no extra charge. I've been paying them $12 a year for .com domains since 2015. But they don't offer email hosting as part of that service. So I run an email server on a Windows VM at my house (hMailServer) and use a free sendgrid account for sending (because major email servers won't accept mail from my residential IP).
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Interesting, I may transfer my existing domain to Google domains considering they offer privacy protection for free, thanks for the info.
 
Probably worth the money to avoid moving all of that. Can always do later and/or if you find some better deal.

Mine now all are under Register.com. I have some kind of special deal since the original registrar disappeared and they somehow ended up there. $14.99/year with free privacy. But looking now without that they're kind of ridiculous. For a single domain it's $25/year + $10 privacy. Forget that.
 
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