Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google announced last month that it plans to make free “legacy” G Suite accounts pay for a subscription by May 1st. The move surprised a bunch of G Suite users that have been using the service with custom domains, and now, Microsoft is trying to entice G Suite users to pay for Microsoft 365 instead with a 60 percent discount offer.
“If you’re a small business that’s relied on G Suite legacy free edition, we couldn’t help but notice you might be in the market for a new solution,” says Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365. “We’ve got news for you: today, you can get a 60 percent discount on a 12-month Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium subscription, along with the help you need to make the move.”
The cheeky offer is available on Microsoft’s website and includes support for custom domains, Microsoft Teams access, Office apps, and OneDrive cloud storage. Microsoft is also including a year of Business Assist for Microsoft 355, which helps businesses migrate to Microsoft 365 more easily. The offer is exclusive to G Suite legacy free edition users who purchase a 12-month Microsoft 365 subscription by August 2nd, 2022.
Some G Suite legacy users might want to wait on a new solution from Google, though. After a backlash, Google says it plans to “provide an option for you to move your non-Google Workspace paid content and most of your data to a no-cost option.” We’re still waiting on full details from Google, but it sounds like G Suite legacy users will be able to transition to a free Gmail account without premium features like custom email domains or multi-account management.
This should hopefully solve some headaches for people who have relied on their free G Suite accounts for their YouTube channels or who have used the account for Google Play purchases. For others who used the free G Suite option for family or business email accounts on a custom domain, it looks like the only option is to start paying or move to competitors like Microsoft 365.