Abhishek Chauhan
After barring new customers from signing up in December 2012, Google Cloud is now shutting down its G Suite legacy free edition, which dates back to 2006. Beginning from July 1st, the free offering will no longer be available to the users. Users of G Suite legacy free edition accounts have started receiving emails from Google notifying them about the transition.
Google’s productivity suite has gone through several names over the years. What began as Google Apps evolved into G Suite before being relaunched as Workspace in October 2020. Google Workspace was released with an expanded range of cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools. Google Workspace includes Chat, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, Meet, Forms, Sites, Google Calendar, and Gmail.
Before December 6th, 2012, Google offered a free G Suite edition (also known as the legacy free edition of Google Apps) with a limited range of business features. Google no longer offers the free edition to new customers as of December 6th, 2012. To continue the G Suite legacy free edition services, users need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace subscription.
Switch to Google Workspace from G Suite Legacy Today!
According to Google, legacy free edition users have until May 1st to sign up for a subscription, which comes in four tiers; otherwise, Google will determine the best plan for them based on the services they use. There is no free plan option available now for the users. Only a few educational institutions and non-profit organizations are qualified for a free plan. Users will have to enter the payment information into Google before July 1st (if they haven’t already done so), and Google will not charge the subscription fee until that day. If no payment information is submitted, Google will suspend the account for 60 days, preventing users from accessing Workspace’s essential services, such as Gmail, Calendar, and Meet. Additional Google services, such as Google Photos and YouTube, may still be available to you. Accounts that have been suspended can be reactivated by entering payment information.
It will just take you a few minutes to upgrade from your G Suite legacy free edition to Google Workspace, and it will have no impact on your end-users. Upgrading to Google Workspace will also unlock 24/7 customer support and access to additional premium collaboration and security features, depending upon the edition you choose. After July 1st, 2022, you will have discount alternatives for the first two months to help you through this transition. Individuals or organizations that the company will automatically migrate to a paid subscription plan will not be billed for at least two months.
Business Starter plans start at $6 per user per month and go up to $18 per user per month. Very small organizations with only one Gmail account can upgrade to Workspace Individual for $9.99 per month, but they will not receive a personalized email address. If you do not enter billing information by July 1st, 2022, Google will suspend your automated Workspace subscription/accounts.
Google doesn’t have any process to transfer paid content from one account to another. So anyone with a free G Suite account now has two options: pay for a plan or lose access to paid content. It is still possible to move emails, images, and other data from one Google account to another. You can utilize the Data Export tool to export your organization’s data if your needs have changed or you don’t wish to upgrade to a Google Workspace paid subscription.
You can buy Google Workspace from Google Workspace Reseller or Migrate to Microsoft 365 at a lesser price.
