TL;DR
Google Workspace costs $7/user/month ($84/year) per domain. Most solopreneurs only use it for custom domain email - Gmail, Drive, and Calendar all work with a free Google account. SendMailAs gives you the same custom domain email for $29/year with unlimited domains.
The $84/year problem
Here is a question I keep seeing in Reddit threads, Indie Hackers posts, and Hacker News comments:
"I just want to send email from my domain in Gmail. Do I really need to pay Google $7/month for that?"
The answer is no. But Google has done an excellent job of making people think Workspace is the only way to get custom domain email in Gmail. It is not.
Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7/user/month ($84/year). It includes:
- Custom domain email
- 30 GB storage per user
- Google Meet (100 participants)
- Admin console
- Standard support
- Security and management controls
That is the bundle. You cannot buy just the email part. If all you want is you@yourdomain.com working in Gmail, you are paying for a lot of features you will never touch.
What solopreneurs actually use
An honest audit of the features you pay for
I have talked to dozens of solopreneurs about their Workspace usage. The pattern is almost always the same:
| Feature | Do you use it? | Available free? |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domain email | Yes - this is why you pay | Yes, via forwarding + SMTP |
| Gmail | Yes | Yes, free personal account |
| Google Drive | Yes | Yes, 15 GB free |
| Google Docs/Sheets | Yes | Yes, free personal account |
| Google Calendar | Yes | Yes, free personal account |
| Google Meet | Sometimes | Yes, 60 min free |
| Admin console | Never | N/A (you are the only user) |
| Endpoint management | Never | N/A |
| Vault (eDiscovery) | Never | N/A |
| Security policies | Never | N/A |
The pattern is clear. You use Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Docs - all of which come free with a personal Google account. The only feature locked behind the $84/year paywall is custom domain email. Everything else is either free or irrelevant to a team of one.
Feature-by-feature breakdown
What Workspace adds vs what you get free
Storage: 30 GB vs 15 GB
Workspace Business Starter gives you 30 GB pooled across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. A free Google account gives you 15 GB. If you are a solopreneur sending text-based emails and using Drive for documents, 15 GB lasts years. If you genuinely need more, Google One offers 100 GB for $20/year - still cheaper than Workspace.
Google Meet: 100 vs 60 minutes
The free tier of Google Meet allows 60-minute group calls. Workspace extends this to 24 hours and adds recording. If your calls regularly exceed 60 minutes, this matters. But most solopreneurs use Zoom, Cal.com, or just keep calls under an hour.
Admin console and security
The admin console lets you manage users, set password policies, enforce 2FA, and control device access. These features exist for organizations with multiple employees. If you are the only person in your "organization," you are managing yourself. You already have 2FA on your personal Google account.
Shared Drives
Shared Drives belong to the organization rather than individual users. This matters when employees leave and you need to retain their files. As a solopreneur, your regular Drive is your shared drive.
Custom email (@yourdomain.com)
This is the real reason solopreneurs buy Workspace. And it is the one feature you can replace for a fraction of the cost. Email forwarding + SMTP relay + Gmail's "Send mail as" feature gives you the exact same experience: send and receive as you@yourdomain.com from your Gmail inbox.
The real cost math
It gets worse with multiple domains
For a single domain, Workspace costs $84/year. That is annoying but manageable. The real pain hits when you have multiple projects, each with its own domain.
| Domains | Google Workspace | SendMailAs Pro | Annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 domain | $84/yr | Free (1st domain) | $84 |
| 2 domains | $168/yr | $29/yr | $139 |
| 5 domains | $420/yr | $29/yr | $391 |
| 10 domains | $840/yr | $29/yr | $811 |
With Google Workspace, every domain requires its own subscription. There are no multi-domain discounts. A solopreneur with a personal brand site, a SaaS product, and a newsletter is paying $252/year just for email. With SendMailAs, the first domain is free and Pro is $29/year for unlimited domains.
About domain aliases in Workspace: Workspace does let you add domain aliases, but they share the same set of users. If you want different email addresses on different domains (e.g. hello@brand.com and support@saas.io), aliases work. But if you need separate user accounts or different routing per domain, you need separate subscriptions.
What you actually need
The three components of custom domain email
Custom domain email in Gmail requires three things:
1. Email forwarding (receiving)
Routes incoming mail from your domain to your Gmail inbox. Cloudflare Email Routing does this for free. When someone emails you@yourdomain.com, it lands in your Gmail inbox.
2. SMTP relay (sending)
Provides credentials so Gmail can send email as your domain. Gmail's 'Send mail as' feature connects to the relay server. When you hit send, the email goes out as you@yourdomain.com.
3. DNS authentication (deliverability)
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records prove you own the domain and keep your emails out of spam. Without them, your emails will likely be rejected or filtered.
Google Workspace bundles all three (and a dozen other things) into one $84/year package. But you can assemble these three pieces yourself for free - or use a service like SendMailAs that packages them for $29/year.
For a complete walkthrough of the manual approach, read our Cloudflare Email Routing + Gmail Send As guide.
How to switch away from Workspace (15 minutes)
You do not lose your Gmail inbox
The biggest fear is losing emails. You will not. Your domain is separate from Google Workspace, and your Gmail inbox persists on your personal Google account. Here is the process:
1. Export your email (optional)
Use Google Takeout to download your Workspace email as an MBOX file. This is a safety net - you probably will not need it since your forwarded emails already live in your personal Gmail.
2. Set up the replacement
Sign up for SendMailAs (or configure Cloudflare Email Routing + SMTP relay manually). Add your domain and verify DNS.
3. Update DNS records
Point your MX records to Cloudflare (or your new forwarding service) instead of Google. Update SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. SendMailAs does this automatically.
4. Configure Gmail Send As
Add your custom domain as a 'Send mail as' address in Gmail settings, using the new SMTP credentials. SendMailAs provides pre-filled credentials.
5. Cancel Google Workspace
Once you have confirmed email works both ways, cancel the Workspace subscription. Your personal Google account continues with all your Drive files, Calendar events, and contacts.
Important: Before canceling Workspace, make sure to transfer any files in Shared Drives to your personal Drive, and export any data you need using Google Takeout. Once the Workspace account is deleted, Shared Drive files are lost.
When Google Workspace does make sense
Being honest about the tradeoffs
This article is not anti-Workspace. It is a great product for organizations. It just does not make financial sense for a team of one. Here is when you should keep Workspace:
You have employees
Admin console, user management, security policies, and Shared Drives are built for teams. Once you have 3+ people, the per-user cost becomes reasonable for the management features you get.
You need compliance features
Vault (eDiscovery), audit logs, data loss prevention, and retention policies are required in regulated industries. If your lawyer or compliance officer says you need these, you need Workspace.
You send high-volume email
Workspace's email sending limits are generous (2,000 emails/day). If you send newsletters or transactional email from your primary domain, Workspace's infrastructure handles it. For most solopreneurs, low-volume SMTP relays are sufficient.
You need a Google Workspace API
Some third-party apps require a Workspace account for API access (e.g., certain CRM integrations). Check your tool chain before switching.
If none of these apply to you - if you are a solopreneur who just wants branded email in Gmail - you are overpaying.
Save $55-$811/year
Custom domain email without the Workspace tax
SendMailAs gives you everything you actually use from Workspace: custom domain email in Gmail, with proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. First domain free. Unlimited for $29/year.
The $29/year alternative
What SendMailAs replaces in Workspace
I built SendMailAs for exactly this problem. I was paying Google $84/year per domain across six projects - over $500/year - just for email. Everything else I used (Gmail, Drive, Calendar) was free with a personal account.
| What you need | Google Workspace | SendMailAs + Free Gmail |
|---|---|---|
| Send as you@yourdomain.com | Included | Included |
| Receive at you@yourdomain.com | Included | Included |
| SPF, DKIM, DMARC | Automatic | Automatic |
| No "via" banner | Yes | Yes |
| Gmail, Drive, Calendar | Included (Workspace version) | Free personal account |
| Multiple domains | $84/yr each | Unlimited for $29/yr |
| DNS monitoring | None | Continuous monitoring |
| Price (1 domain) | $84/yr | Free |
| Price (unlimited) | $84/yr per domain | $29/yr total |
For more details on how SendMailAs compares to Google Workspace, see our detailed comparison page.
Frequently asked questions
No. Your domain is yours - Google Workspace just provides the email hosting. When you switch to a service like SendMailAs, your email address stays the same (you@yourdomain.com). You keep using Gmail. The only difference is how email is routed behind the scenes.
Yes. Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides are all available with a free personal Google account. The free tier includes 15 GB of storage. Workspace adds shared drives, admin controls, and enterprise features - but the core productivity tools work fine without it.
No. Google Calendar works with a free Gmail account. You can share calendars, create events, and send invitations without Workspace. The Workspace version adds features like resource booking, appointment scheduling, and admin policies - features most solopreneurs never use.
For the email part - sending and receiving from your custom domain via Gmail - yes. SendMailAs uses Cloudflare's email infrastructure for receiving (99.99% uptime SLA) and its own SMTP relay for sending. Your emails are authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, just like Workspace.
With Google Workspace, you would need a separate subscription for each domain: 5 x $84/year = $420/year. With SendMailAs Pro, you get unlimited domains for $29/year. That is a 93% cost reduction. This is the most common reason multi-domain solopreneurs switch.
Yes. The migration is straightforward: sign up for SendMailAs, add your domain, update your nameservers to Cloudflare, and SendMailAs configures everything automatically. Your Gmail inbox stays the same - you just stop paying Google Workspace. The whole process takes about 15 minutes.
Honestly: admin console, Vault (eDiscovery), endpoint management, and advanced security policies. If you are a solopreneur, you probably never used any of these. You also lose Google's direct email hosting - but SendMailAs replaces that. Your Gmail inbox, Drive, Calendar, and Docs all continue working with a free Google account.
SendMailAs is currently designed for Gmail. The receiving side (email forwarding) works with any email provider, but the Send As configuration is optimized for Gmail's interface. Support for other email clients is planned.
Stop overpaying for email
Custom domain email in Gmail. Automatic SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. No Google Workspace required. First domain free forever. Unlimited for $29/year.