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After pampering many users for over a decade, Google is forcing all companies that still have a G Suite account to switch to paid Google Workspace. If you don't know what we're talking about, we'll tell you everything as always. Meanwhile the news is that G Suite becomes paid: that's it Therefore the alternatives!
In 2005 Google launched G Suite 1, a suite for companies that is almost completely free, making available the use of services such as Google Drive, Google Docs but most of all Gmail with its own personal domain. Subsequently, in 2012, the possibility of using G Suite for free was closed but users with the free version were told that they could continue to use it undisturbed 2. In 2016 the G Suite suite becomes Google Workspace.
By now I think we've all learned a little about how it works, right? A Big Tech enters a market with a straight leg by offering wonderful services for free, obviously making a loss (even for years) because they can afford it anyway. In the meantime, other companies are struggling to keep up because they cannot offer everything that Big Tech offers for free (or at negligible costs).
G Suite becomes paid
Once Big Tech has gained a huge market share by destroying its rivals, prices are raised. Let's give you an example above all: without AWS, Amazon would not reach profit 3 4. In other words: Amazon's online store is so competitive in terms of prices and services because it makes the real profits elsewhere (but in this way destroying its competitors). It's one of the many reasons why we recommend you alternatives to Amazon.
What will happen with G Suite?
From June 1, 2022, all users who had a free version will no longer be able to use it. Or rather, if they want to continue using it they will have to do without the custom domain and will not be able to manage more users 5. Costs: starting from around €5 per month per user for 30GB of storage or around €10 per month for the standard Business plan 6. Money that perhaps many would like to give to companies that have not fooled their users by making them believe they can use their services for free forever.
There are obviously other reasons for not using Google. Here we leave you some links for further information:
- Google announced new AI features for its online learning platform, Google Classroom: https://t.me/eticadigitale/54889;
- A series of ethical problems;
- Criticism of Google on Wikipedia.
G Suite becomes paid: here are the alternatives
So let's see where we can move our services. In the meantime, we will propose companies that offer complete packages in addition to email on a personal domain (cloud, document sharing, etc.).
If, however, you only need an email address with a custom domain without anything else, we will talk about it further below (here).
Infomaniak
It is our trusted provider on which we also host our site. They offer both the email-only service and the complete calendar, tasks, drives and documents service in shared collaboration thanks to kDrive (based on Nextcloud). The costs are €1.50 per month for a minimum of 5 email accounts (obviously in addition to the cost of the customized domain), 50 email accounts cost €23.25 per month and have unlimited storage. For each user you can add €4.99 per month to add kDrive with its 2TB of space.
You can manage emails with IMAP.
Infomaniak is based in Switzerland and manages its servers independently. It is an eco-friendly company 7 and actively collaborates to improve services Open source like Nextcloud.
Mailboxes
Hosting very interesting and environmentally friendly German that allows you to create emails with your own domain starting from €3 per month per user 8. The email will have an initial space of 10GB and an additional 5GB will also be allocated to use with their cloud. Their cloud is equally interesting as it is possible to share and collaborate on documents online and you can have shared calendar and tasks.
Nextcloud
This could be your opportunity to switch to Nextcloud! There Nextcloud suite in fact it perfectly replaces Google's. Several providers allow it to be used with a customized domain, therefore perfect for companies. Some examples: Webo or The Good Cloud (although very expensive). You can find other providers here.
Kolab Now
Swiss company that offers only emails on a personalized domain or a complete package at €10 per month for 5GB of space. To use a custom domain choose Group Accounts during recording.
G Suite becomes paid: here are the alternatives only for emails
The previous ones were complete alternatives to the Google suite. If, however, you only need email boxes on a personalized domain then the choice is wider, we leave you with some alternatives below:
- Infomaniak, as mentioned, offer infinite space and a minimum of 5 email accounts for €1.50 per month;
- StartMail, the company is StartPage. It costs around €30 per year for emails with a personalized domain and 10GB of space;
- Gandi.net, together with the domain they offer 2 email accounts with 5GB of space included. You can obviously buy as many as you want;
- ProtonMail, as we know, is quite expensive and does not allow the use of IMAP due to encryption;
- Tutanota, just like ProtonMail, it does not have IMAP but the costs are decidedly lower;
G Suite becomes paid: here are the non-privacy-friendly alternatives
Finally, we leave you some links that you might find interesting. However, keep in mind that the companies below are not privacy-oriented and do not necessarily have high ethical standards:
- Zoho, a company that offers complete suites of everything and which you can also use with your personal domain. Their servers are located all over the world 9 and their main site makes a lot of calls to third-party domains 10
- Microsoft Office 365, is a US Big Tech that suffers from the same problems as Google. We do not recommend switching from Google to Microsoft.
- Google Workspace on Wikipedia[↩]
- Please note this change has no impact on our existing customers, including those using the free version – Archive link[↩]
- Amazon doesn't make money from e-commerce, but it makes record profits: here's how[↩]
- This means that they are i profits from web services to make Amazon profit and not e-commerce, which indeed, outside of North America, carries a significant red.[↩]
- Is there a no-cost option if I don't want to upgrade?[↩]
- Google Workspace pricing[↩]
- Eco-friendly host[↩]
- Mailbox Rates[↩]
- Zoho data center[↩]
- Zoho on Webbkoll[↩]
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