Google might offer an alternative for personal, non-business users of G Suite legacy free edition

Abner Li | Jan 26 2022 - 11:15 am PT

Last week, Google announced that all G Suite legacy free edition users will have to transition and start paying for Workspace starting in July. This has upset non-business users that signed up for G Suite 16 years ago with their domain, and Google is now reaching out to these legacy personal users.

G Suite legacy free edition users will get ‘no-cost’ transfer option, presumably to Gmail address

As spotted by Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo, Google has a section on their transition FAQ for those that “use G Suite legacy free edition for personal use and don’t want to upgrade to a Google Workspace subscription.”

People in this scenario signed up for Google Apps in the 2000s to use Gmail and other services with a custom, non-gmail.com email address. They might have given out accounts to their family members and have various Google services tied to that account – many of these users do not want to pay (starting at $6 /user/month) for the full Workspace suite that’s primarily aimed at people running businesses. However, at the moment, that’s the only way to keep access to those apps.

Google looks to have heard this common complaint. The survey found on that FAQ entry acknowledges that situation, and lets “customers [that] may not use G Suite legacy free edition for business” sign-up to receive “updates on more options for your non-business legacy account.”

This is specifically aimed at accounts with “10 seats or less,” with Google asking how you use the G Suite legacy free edition currently:

For personal use or to manage my family
To manage a business
For both
Other

This could possibly take the form of a new Google Workspace tier for personal users that want a custom domain name for their email, or maybe a deep plan discount. Google already offers Workspace Individual for very small businesses that use their Gmail to manage work affairs.