There are a couple of ways to do this and all of them involve adding entries to the DNS records of your domain, which you do through the website of whoever you bought your domain from. For many years I’ve bought all my domains through Gandi and I highly recommend them (not a referral link and I’ve no promo codes to pass on). Google & Gandi work for the “Automatic Activation” method which makes things very easy from this point.
Once signed in, the verification process begins!
The automatic process is doing what you can do by hand. Firstly, it adds a DNS TXT record with a unique string that is publicly available. Because you can set this google know this is really your domain.
Here things get a little complicated, as I already had this domain set up with our old Google Workspace legacy account and I left the email settings in place. These are DNS MX records that tell the world where to deliver your email.
If you’re using email on another provider I assume Google Workspace would give you the option as to whether to change these settings from your current provider to the google servers. As we weren’t using the domain for email (at least, not in a way I minded breaking for few days) I can’t tell if that’s the case or if they’d be added automatically if there are no existing MX records. Seeing as this is step 3 in the setup and we haven’t yet done step 2, I’m assuming assuming you get to choose when to switch over the email servers.
It can take some time (several hours) for the DNS records to show publicly for google to check but you can carry on with other steps whilst you’re waiting.
Step 2 is to create your users.
Obviously my user is already there so I use the “Add another user” link to add more.
After that, it’s time to accept the terms and log into our new accounts!
Naturally the dashboard has a lot of options but in my excitement the first thing I want to do is send an email. In google workspace a grid of 9 dots at the top right opens the menu for all the workspace apps. Gmail is the one I want and…. it doesn’t work!
I’m signed into the admin panel and every other app I click on redirects me back to the Admin panel. What’s going wrong? I think it’s due to the domain still be verified. Sure enough the next morning I could log in fine. I think there is the option of accessing Gmail by logging in using the test domain whilst verification is happening but it worked before I got to try that.
Now my email is working, next on my list:
2FA – two factor authentication or MFA – multi factor authentication, which is to say I want to enforce better security on our email accounts requiring anyone that logs in not only knows their password but gets an extra security code from a device they own.
Set up a shared email address – which is all new to me as our legacy workspace account didn’t allow for this
I’ve also signed up for a google referral program where you get a discount and I get a commission. I’ve not idea if this will work but if you’d like a discount code, send me an email and ask and we’ll both find out.
Here’s a my rough and ready task list of what I need to do:
Get email working, with Multi Factor Authentication, for 2 users (others to follow once it’s working)
i. Create account
ii. Changing DNS
iii. Adding user
Get shared email account working
Import from old accounts and setup collection of email from those accounts
How to handle the server/infrastructure emails (noreply@ and server@)
User calendars and sharing access between us
Calendars for resources (Van allocation)
Get Google Drive Desktop/FileSyncBackup and sync working, or whatever it’s called, on our desktops and mobiles
I’ve probably forgotten several things from that list so as I remember them I’ll come back and edit it
Sign up
My choice is Business Starter, so I click that link
Select the number of accounts I’m going to use. I’m not sure what selecting the larger numbers does
Enter my name and my existing email address.
Say I already have a domain name
and then enter the domain name
Things get interesting from this point, so pay attention!
At the same time as doing this, we’re transitioning onto a new domain name that we’ve had for a while. It had already been setup with google workspace as an alias to our our old domain name but we’d deliberately not been using it for everyday tasks. As such, I’m treating this domain as if it’s brand new
However, if you are planning on using Google Workspace with your existing domain you have to be careful not to break your existing email! At this point, just like the message on screen says, your emails won’t be affected yet.
I like to get the emails with updates and tips, so I said OK.
and I like to automatically set that for my users knowing they can unsubscribe if they’re not interested.
Now to set a password for my new account.
In my business I’m using 1password password manager to create strong passwords (blue circle icon by the password field and it’s suggested a password). NB: I didn’t use this suggested password 🙂
It’s time for my small business to update our solution for email, file storage, calendars, etc so I’m making notes as I go that you may find helpful and I will find helpful when I look back to remember what I’ve done and why.
Situation:
When I started Roots Kitchens Bedrooms Bathrooms in 1998 our email was provided by our Internet Service Provider. Then we got our own domain, eventually our own web server and in the early 2000’s I set up our own email server. A few years after that, spam filtering became unmanageable and we moved onto Google Apps as it was then, Google Workspace as it is now. As an early adopter (around 2006) we had a free 50 user account and to their credit Google still have this free account some 15 years later. It’s a ‘legacy’ account, still free, but several features added to later versions don’t apply to our account.
We need different features than offered by the free account so I’m on the hunt to replace it.
Features needed:
Email
Shared email account (currently we each have our own email address and check a shared account, but this is less than perfect when we’re busy, not being entirely sure if someone else is already acting on an email. Our current Google Workspace free account doesn’t allow for shared email and this is one of the motivations to upgrade).
Calendaring
The ability to view each others calendars and make appointments, all fairly typical I think.
File storage
Our current free service offers 15GB per user but for two of us that’s too small.
Low cost
We aim to keep overheads as low as possible.
We need 6 user accounts. I’ve compared costs for annual renewals and ignored any introductory discounts
What we don’t need:
MS Office desktop applications (LibreOffice works well for us)
Options:
A rough and ready spreadsheet to compare options
Platform
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Zoho
Zoho
M365
M365
Product
Business Starter
Business Std
Workplace Std
Workplace Pro
Business Basic
Business Standard
Cost per user*
£4.60
£9.20
£3.20
£5.60
3.8
9.4
How many users?
6
6
6
6
6
6
Email storage (GB)
30
2000
30
100
50
50
Extra file storage (GB)
same
same
10
100
1000
1000
Total GB
30
2000
40
200
1050
1050
Comment
Extra storage = 50gb/£5/month, 1tb/£57/month
Shared drives for team/group
no desktop office apps, but online versions included
includes desktop apps
Monthly
£28
£55
£19
£34
£23
£56
Yearly
£331
£662
£230
£403
£274
£677
*price used assumes no introductory offers, monthly rates
The also rans:
rackspace.com – Were an excellent dedicated server host when I used them years ago. I found it hard to identify their cloud email offering and it seems to be “rackspace email” as just email then an option for Microsoft Exchange mailboxes in order to have calendars, and that get’s pricey.
fasthosts.co.uk – similar to rackspace in selling MS Exchange mailboxes. Only checked because I seem to have been seeing lots of adverts for them lately.
hey.com is an opinionated email system. It seems like a great option for personal email but the business (hey for domains) setup seems not quite ready for us. Expensive but when I experimented with the personal option when it launched, I think it it could be worth it. footnote: for my personal email I actually have Google Workspace Standard as I need the file storage space.
We need 6 user accounts. Whilst per user pricing is great I also like to see the cumulative price for a year. Note one of my business goals is to minimise overhead spend.
Observations when comparing:
Google Workspace Starter:
Pros: We’re all familiar with Google Workspace as we already use it and have no complaints.
Cons: Accounts can’t be mixed, so once one of us needs more than 30GB of file/email storage we all need to upgrade. Extra storage is outrageously expensive, eg 50GB/£5/month or 1TB/£57/month
Microsoft 365
There are several Microsoft 365 options but the one I’m interested in doesn’t include the Desktop installed Office Apps. We’ve used “Libreoffice” for many years, it’s an open source program with equivalents to Word, Excel and Powerpoint. It functions almost identically to MS Office but costs nothing. It can use MS Office file formats too, so we have no trouble interacting with files sent to us by suppliers. The one down side is that anyone familiar with MS Office takes a day or so to get used to the different software but from that point on it’s hard to tell the difference. We do use an MS Access database but it’s my job to set up forms and queries, everyone else just uses it a a regular desktop application. One day I’ll migrate it into a web application but it works so well it’s never quite reached the top of my todo list.
Pros: Better price than google Starter and way more storage
Cons: I use Outlook on Android and through the web interface for a organisation I volunteer with and I find it not as comfortable and fluid to use as Gmail.
Zoho
There are two relevant options, “Workplace Standard” at £3.20/user/month and “Workplace Pro” at £5.60/user/month
For 6 users, Workplace Standard is £230/year for 30GB of email and 10GB for extra files.
For 6 users, Workplace Pro is £403/year for 100GB of email and 100GB for extra files.
Zoho looks really interesting as a solution. It appears to play well with standard applications (if you like Outlook, you can keep using that, if you like your phones’ email client, it works with that). Beyond my simple search for a platform, Zoho offer CRM [1], Accounting, ERP [2], social media management, helpdesk software, and more. I’ll be looking at their ‘Books’ accounting software soon as I have time to replace Xero.
[1] Customer Relationship management – software that helps you track and improve interactions with your customers.
[2] Enterprise Resource Planning – software that helps manages sales, stock and inventory, deliveries and so on.
Pros: Better price than google, Potential to easily expand into their other products
Cons: No familiarity on my part with their systems and how it is to use.
So, what am I going to do?
I’m going for Google Workspace Business Starter
At £331/year it’s more than Zoho Standard (£230) or Microsoft 365 Business Basic (£274) but I decided the extra cost is worth it for continuing with a product we’re used to using.
If I was a new business starting out today and had the time to research as I once used to, I’d start with Zoho. I think it’s other apps could be useful in the future.
If I didn’t know Google workspace and gmail so well, then at an entry level M365 business basic is better value for it’s storage and if I needed MS Office then M365 Business Standard at £9.40/m (£677/year) would beat Google Workspace.
These things are never easy decisions to make, but now I’ve made my decision I can get onto setting things up.
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