How much does it cost to migrate to Google Workspace?

How much does it cost to migrate to Google Workspace?

Several factors contribute to establishing the cost of a Google Workspace migration suitable for your business.

Expenses may differ depending on your existing email hosting, the user count, mailbox quantity, device usage, and the chosen license.

In broad terms, migration costs typically fall within the range of $50 to $225 per user.

Is Google Workspace right for your business?

The Microsoft 365 will indeed be the platform of choice for most businesses. This is due to business legacy. Previous employees are familiar with Outlook and Word, etc. Previous infrastructure usually involved a Microsoft Server. So, the logical progression would say your business would benefit from staying with Microsoft or moving to the Microsoft Cloud. But there’s more to it than that.

A generational change

As new employees enter the workforce, we need to understand what technologies they’ve been exposed to. 83% of schools in the US taught their young people on Google Workspace. Microsoft or Apple didn’t appear much during their education, unless they worked on those systems in their own time. They were Chromebook and Google Workspace users. Alexander Abney-King performed some research and these young people felt Microsoft was out of date and Google Workspace is seen as better for collaboration.

Google has been making a similar impact in Australia. In the 6 years this article was written, an entire cohort of students have moved from high school into universities and jobs and they grew up on GSuite, now known as Google Workspace.

So if your workforce is of this younger generation or you are seeing a shift towards this younger generation, you may find that Google Workspace may be a carrot when hiring or may make them more efficient when they are employed.

Licensing 

Google Workspace doesn’t have software to purchase meaning the cost of doing business could be reduced. All you need is browser and the interface will remain the same. Microsoft 365 can be used in this manner too. However, asking your existing employee base, who is familiar with having Word “installed on their computer” to using it inside Chrome or Edge, could be difficult.

With Google Workspace, there is no choice. The browser (and the apps on your phone) are the only way to access files and applications.

Collaboration

Since its inception, Google’s suite of applications has been designed with collaboration in mind. Developed with an internet-first approach, applications like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and others were conceived during a time when sharing and collaborating on documents became the standard for a new generation of workers. In contrast, Microsoft lagged behind in this aspect for years.

Although Microsoft 365 has made improvements, Microsoft’s collaboration experience remains cumbersome and perplexing, relying on Sharepoint and OneDrive backends.

In contrast, Google apps streamline the process, making it easier to track user activities, identify and undo changes, and accomplish tasks in real-time without waiting for others to save their modifications.

A lot to consider

In addition to the above factors, each business is different, so it might be worth discussing with us our concerns and pain points to see which platform is best for your business.

Below are several elements that may influence the cost of your migration

The number of staff 

This is quite simple. The greater the number of mailboxes you need to migrate, the lower the overall cost for you. We offer discounts based on tiers. For instance, if you have fewer than 10 mailboxes, the cost per mailbox is $300 excluding GST.

On the other hand, if you have more than 100 mailboxes to migrate, the cost reduces to $70. 

Refer to the table below for a detailed breakdown.

Number of Mailboxes	Price per Mailbox ex GST
10 – 20	$200
21 – 50	$180
51 – 99	$175
100+	$70

Licensing choice

The licensing option you select will hinge on your business’s preferred working style. The more advanced the licenses you acquire, the more there is to configure, leading to a longer setup time. While it’s not mandatory to set up all features immediately, considering that you’re paying for them, configuring these features would be beneficial.

Business Starter

A good starting point for most businesses under 300 staff, hence the name. Some key features you miss out on in the starter tier are

• Noise Cancellation and no option to record Google Meet Videos.
• Only 30 GB of data per staff member
• No appointment booking pages

Business Standard

On the Starter package, you receive 2 TB pooled storage per staff member, appointment booking pages, Meet recordings and noise cancellation. If your business performs a lot of video calls, this is the better option for you.

Business Plus

In Business Plus, your pooled usage is greater, but the key difference comes in the form of security. You receive enhanced security and management controls, including Vault and advanced endpoint management. You enter the realm of e-discovery and retention rules around your data.

So if cyber security is a big factor in your business, and let’s face it, security is a factor on every CEO’s mind, then the plus option could be for you.

Business Enterprise

Extra security features across Workspace plus better recording and Meet tools, as well as streaming services, head the list of features. The added benefit of enhanced support provided directly by Google ensures issues are resolved quickly and efficiently.

Here’s a table of some of the features. For more information, take a look at the office Google page for Workspace.

Business Starter	Business Standard	Business Plus	Enterprise
AU$8.40 user/month (annual commitment)	AU$16.80 user/month (annual commitment)	AU$25.20 user/month (annual commitment)	Contact us for pricing
Custom and secure business email 100-participant video meetings 30 GB pooled storage per user* Security and management controls Standard support	Custom and secure business email 150-participant video meetings + recording 2 TB pooled storage per user* Security and management controls Standard Support (paid upgrade to Enhanced Support)	Custom and secure business email, plus e-discovery and retention 500-participant video meetings, plus recording and attendance tracking 5 TB pooled storage per user* Enhanced security and management controls, including Vault and advanced endpoint management Standard Support (paid upgrade to Enhanced Support)	Custom and secure business email, plus ediscovery, retention, S/MIME encryption 1,000-participant video meetings, plus recording, attendance tracking, noise cancellation, in-domain live streaming 5 TB pooled storage per user, with ability to request more* Advanced security, management and compliance controls, including Vault, DLP, data regions and Enterprise endpoint management Enhanced Support (paid upgrade to Premium support)

Business Starter, Business Standard and Business Plus plans can be purchased for a maximum of 300 users. There is no minimum or maximum user limit for Enterprise plans.

Google Workspace customers may have access to additional features for a limited promotional period.

*Google Workspace provides flexible pooled storage per user that is shared across the organisation

Where your existing mail is hosted

Without delving too deeply into technical details, your current email hosting location can significantly impact your migration experience. Let’s explore some options by framing a question:

“When you send an email to someone, can you access that sent email from a different device?”

If your answer is yes, that’s positive news. It typically indicates that your email is centrally hosted and residing on a server, making the migration process relatively straightforward.

However, if your response is no, it suggests your email may only exist where you read and wrote it. This implies that your email is scattered across various devices, and part of the migration process involves consolidating it, which can be more time-consuming. In such a case, you’re likely hosting your email with your website package, signalling the need to transition to a different hosting solution.

To confirm the hosting location of your email, you can visit mxtoolbox.com. Simply enter your domain, and look for the text “Your email service provider is…”.

What can I migrate to Google Workspace?

Google Workspace encompasses more than just email services. Using Google Drive, you can centralise all your business files in one location. Whether they are documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, there’s no need to store them on a server or in a different cloud solution; they can be efficiently stored within your Google Workspace environment. Similar to your email setup, the location of your files plays a role in determining the migration cost.

Here’s a comprehensive list of the information you can migrate to Google Workspace:

• Personal Email
• Group mailboxes
• Email signatures
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Public folders
• Word processor documents (Word etc)
• Spreadsheets (Excel)
• Slide decks (PowerPoint)
• Other files
• Forms
• Security permissions on folders and files
• Microsoft Teams*
• Microsoft Sharepoint*

*This custom solution is built per migration and will therefore be costed separately. 

It’s worth noting that some of these items may require manual configuration to align with your business needs. Depending on the quantity and complexity, this manual work can impact the overall cost of the migration. Keep this in mind as we delve into a more detailed discussion of the requirements.

Migration case studies for Google Workspace

So what kind of cost is your business looking at to move to Google Workspace. Here are some examples.

• An engineering business with 29 staff who decided Microsoft 365 was no longer the best option for them. We moved their email, files and implemented a centralised email signature system. The cost of migration was $4,844 ex GST.
• A community association needed some assistance with their data and emails. We setup an NFP instance of Google Workspace for their 20 staff and ensured file structures and security were in place. The cost of migration was $2,500 ex GST which we performed pro bono.
• A financial services firm with 40 staff and 60 legacy mailboxes (which they needed to keep for compliance purposes) was migrated to Google Workspace Plus. Plus was chosen for its advanced security features. Intranet and file migrate were also included. Cost of the migration was $12,000 ex GST.