G Suite Legacy Free Edition Discontinued – What You Need to Know
On July 1 2022, Google officially ended the G Suite legacy free edition for businesses. Wondering why the G Suite legacy free edition was discontinued? Then read this article. In this, I will explain the reasons and provide you with G Suite legacy free edition alternatives.
G Suite Legacy Free Edition – Overview
Today, we use Google Workspace as a standard productive platform. However, before that, individuals, families, and small businesses can use G Suite Legacy Free Edition. Launched in 2006 under the name of Google Apps for Your Domain. In this, users used Gmail and other Google services using their own custom domain name free of charge. This free edition provides you with important productivity tools like
- Gmail with a custom domain.
- For scheduling and event management, use Google Calendar.
- To collaborate and file storage, it offers Google Docs, Sheets, and Drive.
- Google Sites for creating the website.
- Basic Admin Console controls to manage users and settings.
With these features, it became very popular among startups, educational institutions, and professional users. After that, people use the free G Suite Legacy edition for a long time, even after the service change to paid. Therefore, in 2022, Google officially discontinued the G Suite Legacy free edition and shifted the users to Google Workspace to keep their accounts.
Why was G Suite Legacy Free Edition Discontinued?
One of the main reasons why Google announced the end of G Suite Legacy free edition is to move all the users to Google Workspace. To know the reason in detail, I provide key features below.
- Google rebranded G Suite to Google Workspace. Along with more functions like a modern interface, advanced security, and better collaboration features. Therefore, by discontinuing the legacy edition and moving to the newer platform provide you with many advanced features.
- G Suite legacy was built on older infrastructure, which has become insufficient for Google to maintain. Therefore, phasing the free edition allows them to focus more on improving Workspace.
- The old legacy free edition allows the old users to keep their business email and tools for free, while the new customers have to pay. This creates a pricing gap, so to fix it, they had to discontinue the free version.
- Many business still uses the free edition, even though the paid version is affordable and provides more advanced features. So, to generate consistent revenue, Google shut down the free edition.
- Managing updates, policies, and admin settings in different programs becomes harder for Google. So, moving them to Workspace gives them a more modern platform and security standards.
For these reasons G Suite Legacy Free edition is discontinued. But don’t worry, Google automatically gives people time to upgrade to the paid Google Workspace plan if people want to keep using their accounts. At last, the G Suite Legacy free edition is shut down.
Is G Suite Legacy Free Edition Still Used?
Now, in 2025, many people are wondering does the Google Legacy Free Edition is still used. No, the free G Suite legacy is no longer available. But there are a few exceptions where a user can still use it.
- If you use the G Suite legacy Free Edition for business. You can no longer use it. Now, all the business users have to upgrade to Google Workspace for their accounts. Failing to do so, your account will either be suspended or moved to a paid plan.
- Non-commercial or personal users can still keep their accounts. These users were grandfathered in if they moved before 2022.
- Personal users who still use the account may face restrictions, like you cannot add new users, advanced business features no longer being available, Google may discontinue its service at any time, and support is limited.
Thus, in 2025, some personal users can still use the free legacy edition. But it is not available for business and new accounts. However, there is a huge issue with using the personal account.
G Suite Legacy Free Editions Alternatives
Now that it’s clear Google is shutting down its free G Suite edition, you are left with a few choices. You can either pay for and use the paid Google Workspace or simply move to an alternative service. Below are some popular platforms you can use.
Zoho
For a free experience, the best service is Zoho. You will get a single domain hosting for free that comes with 5 GB/user storage and a 25 MB attachment limitation. The free service is similar to Gmail – Only for Mail. Of course, if you want a complete suite like G Suite, the plans start at $4 each month.
Microsoft 365
For a little less than Google, i.e., $5, you can start using the Microsoft Office service with 50 GB Inbox, a custom domain name, and 1TB OneDrive storage. You also get the benefits of using the Web, desktop, and mobile versions of the applications.
Rackspace
It is a US-based firm that offers services similar to Google Workspace. The basic plans of Rackspace start with $2.99 per user per month for emails. With #3.99, you can get 30 GB storage plus mobile sync and Office-compatible apps.
These are the popular alternatives that you can use instead of the G Suite Legacy free edition. Users who are moving from their free edition to a paid G Suite plan. Most of you may have a problem migrating them. To help you in this, I have a great solution.
How to Transfer Data from G Suite Legacy to G Suite Account?
If you want to move your data from your G Suite Legacy professional to the Google Workspace. Use the SysTools G Suite to G Suite Migration Tool. A professional software that can easily move your complete data from one G Suite account to another without any issues. It is very easy to use the software because of its user-friendly interface.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What if I don’t want to upgrade to Google Workspace from G Suite legacy free edition? How can I transfer my data to another client?
A. Google has not provided any option or tool to transfer your crucial data to another free email service as of now. However, you can use our tool to migrate your data to any other email service of your choice.
Q. What will happen if I don’t upgrade to the paid subscription and my G Suite legacy free edition account gets suspended?
A. As Google already mentioned that they will be providing free access to their upgraded Google Workspace account till July 1, 2022. After that, the account will be suspended, and only the admin will have access to either export your data or upgrade the license. Thus, we recommend that you either upgrade your subscription at the earliest or switch your email client before the suspension.
Q. What will be my Google Workspace subscription if I don’t take any action?
A. Your subscription will be based on the features that you are currently using in the G Suite legacy free edition.
Final Thoughts
People are going mad on social platforms for a good reason. Google’s abrupt decision to push the “either pay or go away” option on all the free G Suite legacy users is going to affect a lot of individuals and small businesses. Plus, the fact that Google is not providing any means to migrate the data over to the standard Gmail service is also a big no. Well, we have tried to provide you with some alternatives if you decide to move away from Google. We have also given a brief overview of how to migrate your G Suite Legacy data to a standard G Suite account.
