Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying • Hacker News Board

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#711

Post by cx42net » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

If your main use case is to keep using Gmail with a custom domain, then it’s still possible to achieve it using our service - improvmx.com. We’ve prepared a guide that explains how to migrate step-by-step: https://improvmx.com/guides/gsuite-legacy-free-edition-alter...

Achieving the same functionality is possible on our free plan, and you can still use Gmail’s free SMTP method (https://improvmx.com/guides/send-emails-using-gmail/) to send emails from your alias, so no need to upgrade to anything.

One main caveat: since it’s not possible to downgrade a G Suite account to a « free » one, you would need to create a new Google account for each of your users. That would mean that you’d lose all previously bought subscriptions or apps bought on Google Play with your account.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#712

Post by isodude » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #463

isodude wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You add your credentials for the old and the new account and the tool moves the mail between the two. Very easy if you don't want the hassle. It should indeed exist an english version, I think there's a newer version soon to be released. You can add several mail accounts and get a mail when the transfer is complete.

Would you be comfortable adding your email credentials for two accounts in a tool you didn't write?

Those that don't trust the tool move their mail themselves I guess.

Things will probably get better as more providers have support for OAUTH2.

But still you allow someone else to see your mail.

Best case is that the destination provider have support for the migration such that you can import directly in your new mail.

Or IMAP support inside the browser!

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#713

Post by demurgos » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:33 PM UTC

rekoil wrote: post #645

underwater wrote: post #641

I don't want Google Suite. I don't want Google Workspaces. I want plain old Gmail with a custom domain. Google kept moving the goalposts and now they tell me that I'm a freeloader for not paying for the features I didn't ask for.

This is exactly how I feel, and now I'm not sure where to move because I have 8 domains configured and services like ProtonMail want me to pay them for every domain (which just makes no sense to me, I can't figure out how the code that makes this a costly problem looks, my guess is it's a money grab tbh). Sure I don't often use them all, but it comes in handy at times to be able to quickly use a different domain. Bee…

I've been using Migadu for years: you only pay for a single account and can link as many domains as you wish.

Also they're pretty cheap and support was helpful when I messaged them.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#714

Post by slawekrewaj » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:35 PM UTC

If the main concern is to keep a free Google Account on a custom domain, then that's still possible. It's enough to convert all users from G Suite to the free edition of Cloud Identity - https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7319251?hl=e...

Obviously that will require a replacement for gmail, calendar, etc, but it's understandable if somebody doesn't want to pay for Google's version

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#715

Post by YaraAllen » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:36 PM UTC

This change is a killer for those of us using Google Voice.

Not only do you have to upgrade to a Google Workspace plan but you also have to pay separately for a Google Voice subscription. With the cheapest plan (https://cloud.google.com/voice#pricing), being $10/month/user.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#716

Post by slawekrewaj » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:45 PM UTC

nighthawk454 wrote: post #217

"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further". The problem here is there's no way out now. If 15 years ago you made the mistake of wanting gasp a domain for your email, you're basically roped into paying now. Almost everything a free G Suite user wants is identical to the free @gmail account, which is remaining free. Except the custom domain. Fine - but there's no way to just lose the custom domain at t…

There is no need to nuke all Google accounts. You can switch to the free edition of Cloud Identity - https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7319251?hl=e...

You will still need to find the replacement for gmail etc though

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#717

Post by acdha » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 2:47 PM UTC

kevincox wrote: post #682

acdha wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet, over the years, these accounts are just worse than free personal Google accounts. Because we are not a business, there is absolutely no benefit to these accounts whatsoever other than the custom domain. In fact, we can't even use the new version of Google Pay. It only works with free accounts! I now feel that this was a favor in disguise: Google spent so many years blocking Domains accounts from new services t…

> Google spent so many years blocking Domains accounts This wasn't "blocking". IIUC the problem is that these accounts have tigher data use restrictions so a lot of Google services never bothered to support them. For example I believe that one restriction is that data can't be used to train ML models for other users. So if a service created one big ML model it needed to exclude these accounts. Instead of doing that a…

Yeah, I’m sure there were some internal issues behind it but as a practical matter it meant that a lot of Google’s biggest fans were unable to try new services, often for as much as a year after launch. This was a staple comment on tech forums and I think it was a factor in their reputation faltering, similar to how Reader was especially impactful because so many journalists, tech bloggers, etc. used it. Losing the people who used to get their friends and family on board was probably not worth whatever they saved delaying that work.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#718

Post by coffeefirst » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 3:10 PM UTC

rekoil wrote: post #654

coffeefirst wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I think what's lost in translation is because it was free, a lot of early adopters used it in ways that are impractical to transition to paid—extended families, hobby projects, etc, and have been using them for a very long time. I could almost be sympathetic to them not wanting to build a migration tool. But the least they could have done is set up a way to permanently forward to another gmail account so at le…

They are creating a LOT of issues for people if they don't provide a tool to migrate the account to a non G-suite account. I'll be moving email elsewhere, but losing that account and all the services it's connected to will result in a lot of annoyances for me over the years as I discover to what services I've authenticated in this manner. Not to mention Android devices and software purchases tied to the account, what…

Oh man, I didn't even think about Single Sign On. Changing your email on every service you've ever interacted with is a huge project, but if you used SSO, a lot of those can't be changed to conventional emails, and even if you can pick up your domain and hop to Fastmail or something those are going to break.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#719

Post by YaraAllen » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 3:20 PM UTC

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #459

pitterpatter wrote: post #138

So what happens if you have Google Voice with a legacy Google Apps account? https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_us/pricing.html shows that Google Voice is a separate add-on from Google Workspace

You can transfer a phone number from that sort of account to a Gmail account. I just tried it and it seems to work. Go into settings then transfer. It takes you to the legacy page to do the transfer, oddly.

Does this actually work?

The help site (https://support.google.com/voice/answer/1065667?visit_id=637...) states that:

> A Voice for Google Workspace account number to any other type of Google Account, including personal accounts and accounts using a different Google Workspace domain.

I am confused if my Legacy G Suite account is considered a Google Workspace account of if it's something different.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#720

Post by halostatue » Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 3:32 PM UTC

halostatue wrote: post #113

Does anyone have any recommendations on _easy and inexpensive_ ways to migrate an entire family off this (6–7 users)? The value we get is _not_ worth ~$500 US per year. I don’t need a full business suite. I mostly need the email and calendar. I’d need to poll other people whether they use Google Drive or not.

It’s even worse than I thought. The Google suite is almost CA$700 per year for 6 people. I can pay about CA$100 less than that to Microsoft and get copies of Word &c for everyone. I can pay less than half the Google cost and get a similar suite from Zoho for everyone.