How to Reduce Google Workspace Costs

Is your business currently relying on Google Workspace and its applications? 

While Google Workspace is a reliable and valuable solution for most businesses, it’s also an open secret that many businesses are actually spending more than they should on their Google Workspace licenses for one reason or another.

Reducing costs should be one of the primary objectives of all businesses and organizations, and this is why learning how to reduce Google Workspace costs as part of labor expenses is very important if you want to improve your business’s profitability.

In this article, we’ll share some actionable tips on how you can lower your Google Workspace license costs to help you save more money and improve profitability. 

1. Downgrade to a Cheaper Plan

This one might seem obvious, but many businesses and organizations are actually using Google Workspace editions above their actual needs (and they don’t even know it.) 

So, evaluate your business’s needs and your current Google Workspace plan, and check whether they are a good fit.  

For example, if you are currently on the Business Plus plan ($18/user/month) that offers 5TB Google Drive Cloud storage but your team happens to only use 1 TB in a year, probably it’s a good idea to downgrade to the Business Standard ($12/user/month) plan that offers 2TB of Drive storage. Of course, you’ll also need to evaluate other features you may need.

If you happen to get your Google Workspace subscription from a Google Partner (more on this later) you can ask your Partner to help review your current plan and determine whether a downgrade is viable.

2. Get more value from a Google Partner

While you can get your Google Workspace subscription directly from Google, you might not always get the best deal possible. Also, a Google partner can provide valuable guidance and insights into which Google Workspace plan is suitable for your needs, to ensure your investment is cost-effective. 

With that being said, one of the best ways to reduce your overall Google Workspace costs and especially get the best value for your investment is to get help from a Google Partner like Pythian.

Pythian can not only help you pick the most suitable Workspace plan according to your needs, but you’ll also get extra features and values like personalized training and education, custom cloud product development, fast and reliable customer support, and so much more.

Make the most of your Google Workspace plan by getting the full support from Google Partners like Pythian, including integrating the whole Google Workspace ecosystem into your workflow and migrating your data.

3. Reduce The Number of Accounts

Pretty obvious, that one of the most immediate ways to reduce your Google Workspace costs is to reduce the number of users. Re-check your account list, and it’s virtually guaranteed that you’ll have at least one account you don’t need that you can delete. 

However, many businesses are afraid of deleting accounts in fear that they might need some information stored in the account in the future, but you actually have the option to migrate Drive and Calendar data to another account. 

For example, you can create a new account for achieving purposes called “archive@yourdomain.com,” and migrate all information from old and unused accounts here.

If this sounds too complicated, again, this is where a Google Partner like Pythian can help you in the migration process to ensure you don’t lose any data. 

4. Make The Most of Group Addresses and Aliases

Keep in mind that Aliases and Groups do not require a license, so you can leverage them to support multiple emails from just one account. 

Many companies actually made the mistake of adding another license just to have another business email address with the company’s domain, while you can actually get this feature by using Alias or Group email addresses (i.e., support@yourdomain.com, products@yourdomain.com, etc.)

To use this feature, simply:

• Create a group 
• Add users who are responsible for tracking conversations in this Group
• Turn on the collaborative inbox features in the Group
• Assign the right permissions to each user in this Group

5. Use Domain Alias

A common issue that often affects Google Workspace licensing costs is when you change your domain name, which means you technically need to create new accounts for the new domain name. 

However, most likely the old accounts on the old domain name may still store valuable data, and you might want to keep them for data integrity and privacy purposes. To tackle this issue, many companies opt to simply keep the accounts in the old domain, so each user now keeps their old account (email) and another one for the new email, essentially doubling the costs. 

The more cost-effective option is to add the new domain as a domain alias, so each user can still send and receive emails using both the new and old domain names. If people send emails to your old domain name, you’ll still receive it under the same account, essentially allowing you to keep two different email addresses without needing to pay extra.

Wrapping Up

The 5 different tips we’ve shared above can help your business reduce your Google Workspace costs, so you can get more value out of your investment. 

However, arguably the best way to reduce your Google Workspace’s overall costs is to get your subscription from a Google Partner like Pythian, which can help you ensure you are using the right Google Workspace plan according to your needs and help optimize how you are using the Google services to ensure cost-efficiency.