| Back in 2008 I signed up for a free 200-user license to Google Apps (aka Google Workspace, aka G Suite legacy free). I used it for family with my custom domain. Now Google has decided to discontinue the free service and move everyone to a paid subscription with only 6 months warning.
Google has started a survey to see if people would be interested in a family plan option. Nothing offered yet.
I have started looking into other providers and option costs instead. Wanting to use a custom domain for sending and receiving e-mail appears to drive the cost up a bit per month.
| Provider |
Cost Type |
Cost / Month / User |
# users planned |
# users Max |
Total Cost / Month |
Mailbox Storage |
Cloud Storage |
# custom domains |
DKIM |
DNS register |
# Aliases per user |
Calendar sharing |
Mailing List Forwarder? |
Notes |
| Google Workspace - Starter |
monthly |
$ 6.00 |
4 |
300 |
$ 24.00 |
30GB |
Shared with Mailbox |
2 |
YES |
Own |
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Microsoft for Families |
yearly |
$ 2.27 |
4 |
6 |
$ 11.63 |
50GB |
1000GB |
1 |
no |
GoDaddy |
no |
YES |
NO |
Requires GoDaddy for domain at $28 / year |
| Microsoft 365 for business |
monthly |
$ 5.00 |
4 |
300 |
$ 20.00 |
50GB |
1000GB |
2 |
YES |
Own |
YES |
YES |
YES |
| iCloud+ |
monthly |
$ 2.99 |
4 |
5 |
$ 2.99 |
200GB |
Shared with all users |
5 |
🚧 |
Own |
3 |
NO |
NO |
No Android calendar edits / only read-only |
| Self-hosted static IP |
monthly |
$ 3.75 |
4 |
∞ |
$ 15.00 |
1TB |
1TB |
2 |
YES |
Own |
YES |
YES |
YES |
Lots of infastructure to setup. Probably should use a dedicated Pi + drive. |
| ProtonMail |
monthly |
$ 5.65 |
4 |
1 |
$ 22.60 |
5B |
N/A |
1 |
YES |
Own |
YES |
YES |
NO |
1000 messages per day |
| Zoho - Forever Free Plan |
monthly |
$ 0.00 |
4 |
5 |
$ 0.00 |
5GB |
N/A |
1 |
YES |
Own |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Requires you to provide an existing email address so sign-up. Makes sign-up difficult if you don't have one with someone else already. |
| Free e-mail forwarding via CloudFlare or forwardemail.net |
Update
I tried out CloudFlare's beta email routing service. It does not support subdomains unless you an enterprise plan.
I've been testing forwardemail.net with some success so far.
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