BREAK FREE FROM GOOGLE WORKSPACE WITHOUT PAYING A PENNY
All good things come to an end, and that includes Google’s free Workspace accounts for private domains. For more than 15 years, you’ve been able to link your own internet domain to Google Workspace (previously known as G Suite), so you can make use of a personally branded online office suite, and receive emails addressed to your custom email address inside a Gmail inbox.
It’s been a very attractive idea for small businesses and sole traders, but also to a large number of individuals who run their own personal domains. So the news that Google is retiring its free service as of 1 May affects an awful lot of us.
That’s not to say it will be impossible to keep using your branded email domain with Google Workspace, but you’ll have to pay. Google will start prompting free users to move to a paid subscription on 1 May; if you haven’t provided payment details and transitioned to a paid plan by 1 July, your account will be suspended. If you don’t complete the upgrade within 60 days after that, you’ll no longer have access to several core services, including Gmail, Calendar and Meet. You can find the full timetable at pcpro.link/332work.
Google says it will recommend the
