DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SAVE MONEY ON GOOGLE WORKSPACE

 
  • My wife and I wanted to have Google Workspace on all our domains but as we were just getting started we thought to invest sometime figuring out ways to cut down on this monthly recurring cost.

  • Along with a few things I knew (coz of my day job as Google Workspace Administrator), I also did some research and testing. We were amazed to save ~65% on our workspace (explained below) cost.

  • Let me share all we learnt…. rest assured…. if you use these  tips as shown… you would be able to save 20% to 65% depending on our scenario.
Lets Start Saving

1. Google Workspace promo code

  • Let’s start with an easiest 10% guaranteed savings for first 12 months.

  • Google does not allow public distribution of these coupons, they are request based. Once you fill up the form, you immediately (automated) get a Google Workspace promotion code in your Inbox.

  • Don’t stop with just 10% here, I highly recommend you to read 9 more ways below to further reduce your recurring cost.

2. MULTIPLE BUSINESSES - SMART WAY

CONSOLIDATE MULTIPLE BUSINESSES (DOMAINS) UNDER ONE ACCOUNT

  • Let’s take a scenario, you run 3 small businesses, each business has its own website, now you need 3 email addresses to interact with prospects and customers of these businesses (one each).

     

  • Instead of going with usual way of buying 3 Google Workspace plan licenses, let see (in the below video) how playing a bit smart here can save us 65% on top of 10% which we already saved with Google Workspace promo code.

     

  • 96% of the 30,000 users who tried this method were happy with this tip as you see the video stats below.

USUAL WAY

  • Sign up 3 domains
  • Buy 3 licenses and pay $18 per month ($6/month *3 licenses, one on each domain)
  • Create 3 gmail addresses (one for each domain)
  • Switch back and forth in all 3 to check emails and reply to them

SMART WAY (Video)

Watch this video to see how you achieve the same in just $6/month.

Run multiple businesses with one Google Workspace license and save money on Google Workspace

3. SWITCH TO ANNUAL PLAN

  • If you have been following so far, you got 14 days trial + you used Google Workspace Promo Code (formerly G Suite) and earned 10% discount.
  • If you are now sure that Google's suite of productivity apps including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Meet video meetings, Sites, Google Vault along with Admin controls can help you become more productive, then consider following.
  • Then it's time to consider switching to yearly plan as it comes with 17% additional savings over Google Workspace promo code than flexible plans.

Commit & save

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ANNUAL VS MONTHLY PLAN

ANNUAL PLAN

  • Approx 17% of more savings on top of Google Workspace promo code
  • No hassle of making (or tracking) monthly payments
  • Help you psychologically treat Google Workspace as your long term email system and inspire to get most out it
  • You are locked in for a year, so if you buy 10 licenses, and 2 of your employees leave, you can not ask Google to refund for 2 users, only option for you is to give them to new employees once they join in

Pros

Cons

MONTHLY PLAN

  • Pay as you go, monthly billing cycle, increase or decrease licenses on monthly basis as you need
  • No locked in, in that worst case, if you want to move away from Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), you are only responsible for that month’s payment (monthly bill).
  • Expensive – You will end up paying 17% more than annual plan
  • You will be more prone to consider other systems as you hear of, when you know you can cancel subscription anytime, which might hurt your productivity

Go Monthly

  • If you have high attrition rate, and there is a substantial gap in employees leaving vs joining
  • If you are buying it just for yourself or for your small business (5-10 users), go for monthly plan

Go Annual

  • If yours is an established / large business, go for annual plan
  • If you are a kind of person or business who gets excited to hear about new technologies or systems, go for annual plan as it’ll put a full stop on your jump around (at least for a year)
  • P.S -: I don’t mean to avoid switching for something good, rather to avoid technology dilemma:)

MY RECOMMENDATION

Choose Your Payment Plan

GOLDY ARORA

GOOGLE WORKSPACE CERTIFIED CONSULTANT

4. GOOGLE GROUPS - LITTLE SECRET

  • I have seen businesses go crazy on creating users without taking advantage of Google Groups, though a bit less with G Suite business promo code, but it'll still increase your recurring expense.
  • It's not unusual to see some creating users like info@yourdomain.com sales@yourdoamin.com and wasting their hard earned money every month, as Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) pricing is recurring.
  • Well, that's ok, because they are experts in their business, and not in Google Workspace, but what if a little bit of learning can help you save substantial money?
  • In this video, i will show you how you can use Google Workspace Groups to send and receive emails and save some money

5. GOOGLE WORKSPACE CATCH ALL ACCOUNT

You might use your email address to sign up for different services, may be newsletter subscription etc, instead of putting your primary email id everywhere, you should rather do this-:

  • Create a Catch All Account
  • Now you can give anyone any email id, it only has to end up in @yourdomain.com, that's it
  • Google will catch all email send to any email id @yourdomain and send it your primary mailbox

GMAIL + METHOD

  • Your email id is goldy @ Gmail.com
  • Gmail allows you to receive emails on Goldy+anything@gmail.com
  • But this trick is too old, and people can easily judge your real email id by removing the part after +
  • It's ok to use if you use @gmail.com, but there is a better way if you have signed up for Google Workspace.

CATCH ALL METHOD

  • You main email id is you@yourdomain.com and you created catch all account as shown in the video above
  • You can now use any email id, it just has to end up in @yourdomain.com
  • No one can guess you real email id now, much better than playing with Gmail’s + method
  • When you sign up for things which need email id, but you really don’t want to give your real one, just give whatever@yourdomain.com, and once done, create a filter to auto delete emails coming on this email id.

6. Recipient Address Mapping

Watch me create 2000 FREE email addresses in Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) for sending and receiving emails in less than 6 minutes with this hidden feature, this will help you save by creating free emails in addition to G Suite promo code.

  • If you are a non technical person, then please do not get scared by looking at this technical term “Recipient address map” it's not my fault, google named it like this, but I’ll make it easy for you to understand it (and of course use it) to save some money with it.
  • Once you understand it well, you can really save good money, so let's go for it
  • Google has a feature (which very less knows about, and you’ll not be one of them after today:) called “Recipient address mapping” which is hidden in the Control Panel which you get access to being a suite administrator when you sign up for Google Workspace.

Understanding Recipient address map-:

  • Think of it like a spreadsheet with 2 columns, where
  • Column 2 = Your Actual Google Workspace email id for which you pay every month to Google.
  • Column 1 = Your Nick Name (for this you do NOT pay to google, but google let you receive any email sent to your nick name in your main (column 1) mailbox

So I know, you might have got some idea now, but to make sure you get it right, here is an example

Let say you are just starting up your business and like a passionate business owner, you would love to be perceived as a professional (or kind of big) business, by creating different email addresses such as yourname@yourdomain.com, anothername@yourdomain.com, support@, sales@, helpdesk@ etc, but it will be just you behind the scenes.

In this case, you can buy one license which will be your primary Google Workspace mailbox (with using Google workspace business starter or business standard plan promo code), and then put other accounts as nick names in recipient address table, and now you are free to give these emails addresses to your network, because when people send emails to any of your ids, it will come right in your primary mailbox.

But wait.... What about replying?

You might be asking what if need to reply to these emails, it won’t look if the replies go from my email id (user account) instead from the one to whom email was actually sent. Well, if you have this question, I would say “You got it”!

  • So here is the way you can do just that, google offers something called “Send Mail As”, it is a feature (if setup correctly) which let you send (or reply) from nick names too.
  • And you can also set it up in a way, that you don’t have to choose it manually all the time, rather it automatically sends from the email id to which the email was actually sent.
  • Note-: you will always have the option to choosing from email id (primary or nick name) you want to send from.
  • So let us see how to configure this hidden gem called “Gmail Send Mail As”, here is an easy step by step video to set it up

7. Switch to a Google workspace (g suite) Reseller

Though the Google Workspace Promo Code for U.S got you 10% discount by now, but what if you in your second year of Google Workspace sign up?

What if you are an existing customer where Google Workspace starter or standard promo code won’t work for you? 

Most of the businesses do not even know that Google has resellers who are specialized in transitioning you to Google Workspace and get most out of your investments in it and can help you save money even if there are no coupons code for business available for your country or even if you are an existing Google Workspace customer.

Google Partners (Google Workspace Resellers) get 15% to 30% recurring commissions on workspace licenses, and based on the number of licenses you need, they should be able to through some discounts to you.

Google Workspace Usage Stats
  • Google Workspace Setup as per Google’s best recommended practices
  • Data Migration from your email server to Google Workspace (such as emails, calendar and contacts).
  • Change Management (including “Communications management”, “Training Management” and “Support management”)
  • Security, Mobility, Integrations etc
  • They can also offer you G Suite promo code

but there is a good chance for you to save money here...

Yes! there is a good chance for you to save money here and also get personalized and expert support to use Google Workspace at its best

You can contact any Google Workspace Reseller (here is a Google Partner directory) mentioning that you have already signed up for workspace (consuming G Suite coupon code) and wondering if you can get some discount if you transfer your account to them.

In most of the cases, you should be able to get around 5% to 10% discount on your Google Workspace , making it a win-win as reseller will still get 10% margin even after giving 10% to you which will be a decent savings second year onwards when you can’t save with Google Workspace Promo Code.

Note-: You need to make sure that the reseller you are signing up with is credible + has active Google partnership + Expertise + may be a few case studies.

OK, so if you have been following so far, you would have reduced (or at least in position to reduce) your Google Workspace Smonthly bill substantially.

Let’s move on and cover couple of more saving to save

8. Do you qualify to get Google workspace for FREE?

I have seen sometimes businesses straight away jump to buy Google Workspace with G Suite coupon even if they can get it for free or at very high discount.

In case if you are an educational institute, you might be qualified for “Google Workspace for Education” which provides unlimited number of users with ZERO cost, here is the criteria provided by Google -: Eligibility criteria for Education by Google.

and if you are a non profit organization with 501 3 C status you can also qualify for it, however its free upto 3,000 users, and if you have more than 3k users, you can get 66% discount

Here is detailed criteria Eligibility criteria for Non Profits by Google

9. Keep an eye - review your usage

If its just you using Google Workspace as a single user, then its ok, but if you have a few users and usually add/remove licenses, you should make a habit of reviewing your Google Workspace license usage every month otherwise you would end up paying more than expected, and Google Workspace coupon won’t help much this way.

i would say a week ago your monthly invoicing date, this will help you avoid paying for licenses which you do not use. While reviewing, ask yourself these questions-:

  • Would this new user need and email id and password to login to new mailbox OR just needs a way to send and receive emails?
  • Can I better a Google Group and configure “Send Mail As”?
  • If the user has left, and a new one is joining, should i simply rename a user from oldemployee@domain.com to newemployee@domain.com as this will retain old employees data too (including Gmail emails, Google Drive documents, Google+ pages etc)
  • will it take a couple of months to replace the left employee? if yes, better to back up his data and delete the mailbox, and create one when new employee joins in

You can also keep track of logged in vs never logged in, suspended vs active users with the tool I created.

10. GO GET A BEER:)

If you have been sticking so far, and applied Google Workspace discount promo code and all other tips mentioned above, I believe you would have saved substantial amount of money on your Google Workspace (formerly G Suite).

 

Its time to pat yourself on the back, and may be get a beer with nachos and some salsa:)

Below I have put some more information for your reference including

How to use Google Workspace Promotion Code (instructions with screenshots)

Step 1 - Login to Google Workspace Admin Console

  • To apply your Google Workspace Promo Code, Login to your Google Apps Admin console by visiting admin.google.com and login in with your administrator credentials.
  • There are 3 possible ways to login to your Admin console, if you aren’t sure, watch the video for instructions.

Step 2 - Go to Billing Section

  • Now after login to Admin console, go to billing section by either clicking on the “Setup Billing” button on the dashboard of your Google Workspace Control Panel or by click on the big Billing icon
  • Look at the screenshot for reference
Go to Google Workspace billing section

Step 3 - Select Your Payment Plan

  • You will find Flexible and Annual plan, choose the one you want to go with, Google Workspace promotion code will work with both the payment options assuming promo codes are available for your country, so choose your country correctly.
  • Note-: Google only offers 10% discount on workspace starter and standard plans, not discount on enterprise plan.
Google Workspace Promo Code

Step 4 - Enter Your Google Workspace Promo Code

  • Click on the “Promotion Code” link and enter your promo code.
  • If it says, “The promotion code you entered is not valid or invalid code,” that means you are signing up for Google Workspace Standard plan and putting starter plan promo code or other way.
Google Workspace Promo Code

Step 5 - Confirm Google Workspace Promo Code has been applied

  • And now the final step -: You should see the message "If you see the message "10% off each month for 12 month(s).
  • Which sounds a bit confusing, but that means your Google Workspace promo code has been applied and you will start seeing 20% discount on your coming 12 monthly invoices.
Google Workspace Promo Code

TROUBLESHOOTING

Not Valid for Selected Product

After applying the discount coupon, if you get an error “The Promotion Code you entered is not valid for the selected product” that means you are signing up for Google Workspace Business standard ($12/user/month) plan from a country where Google suite referral program does not provide G Suite promotion code, and you won’t be able to apply promo code.

Google Workspace Promo Code

GO FOR STANDARD PLAN

  • If you need email archiving due to the industry you operate in (such as banking industry needs businesses to keep last 7 years email)
  • If you need Granular Google Drive sharing rules OR information rights management such as who can download your document etc.
  • If you need recently launched Google Team Drives Google Drive vs Team Drive

GO FOR STARTER PLAN

  • If you are signing up for Google Workspace business plan just to get additional storage, then consider going with basic plan to get 20% discount code.
  • And then buy additional storage, it should be cheaper option for you
  • Once you are logged into your Google Workspace Gmail, click on below link to check additional storage pricing https://www.google.com/settings/u/1/storage
  • Save 20% for first year, and next year (if required) upgrade to Google Workspace business

GOOGLE WORKSPACE Promotion Code - Availability as per Country.

Name of the CountryPromo Code Available for Google Workspace Starter plan.Promo Code Available for Google Workspace Standard plan.
ArgentinaYesYes
CanadaYesYes
United StatesYesYes
Hong KongYesYes
New ZealandYesYes
SingaporeYesYes
BelgiumYesYes
GermanyYesYes
IrelandYesYes
NetherlandsYesYes
United Arab EmiratesYesYes
United KingdomYesYes
BrazilYesNo
ChileYesNo
ColombiaYesNo
MexicoYesNo
PeruYesNo
AustraliaYesNo
IndiaYesNo
JapanYesNo
FranceYesNo
ItalyYesNo
PortugalYesNo
SpainYesNo

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOGLE WORKSPACE STARTER & STANDARD PLANS

FeaturesSTARTERSTANDARD
Pricing$6 per user per month$12 per user per month
Storage30 GB Storage per user2 TB storage per user
Password SecurityPassword monitoring and strength controlPassword monitoring and strength control
Multi Factor AuthenticationYes, 2-step verificationYes, 2-step verification
Authentication FlexibilitySingle Sign On (SSO)Single Sign On (SSO)
Mobile auditNoYes
Advanced Drive auditing and reportsNoYes
Advanced Drive administrator controlsNoYes
Google Vault for Archiving and Compliance (learn more in my Google Vault guide here)NoNo
Template Gallery for Google Doc, Google Sheet and Google Slides.Yes (no moderation)Yes, (with moderation)
Google Workspace Promotion Code by Google

Yes, 10%

Yes, 10%

Google workspace PROMO CODE FAQS

I have answered frequently asked questions about Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) Promotion Code below for your reference, hope it helps to provide clarity.

You only need to apply one code for your account, number of users or domains are irrelevant here.

You will get 10% discount on your total billing for the first year, be it one user or hundred.

However, there are couple of other ways to save on top of this 10% as mentioned in detailed post on Google Workspace Promo Code

Yes, every code has an expiry date, so make sure you ask your referral partner to send you code for current month, else you will get an error like “this promotion code has been expired”

You may fill up for the form above if you want me to send you apps coupon for current month

No, at this time, it can be applied to Google Workspace basic plan which is $6 per user per month  or Google Workspace business plan which is $12/user/month.

However, it also depends on the country your are signing up from, please look at the table below to see where Google offers promo code and for how much.

Its not recommended, as per referral program terms and conditions, it is violation if one puts codes on public coupon sites like retailmenot.com, fyvor.com, promopro.com, hotdeals.com, groupon.com, or any other website, you get the idea.

So before you apply the coupon, make sure you got it from the place (Google Workspace Referral partner).

You surely can, this new program is available in Australia too, you can find a referral partner and request coupon, or fill up the form below and I will be happy to help you with one for Australia…. just don’t expect the beer within the email:)

I mean the whole referral program is country dependent, so if you are signing up from United Kingdom, then only ask for promo code for U.K specifically, I guess you get the idea.

No, google offers it to referral partners to offer to businesses like yours who are looking to start easy with Apps, nobody is allowed to sell these discount vouchers, and you should strictly not encourage someone selling these.

No, these are country based, if you have one for United States, it will only work if you are signing up from U.S, not in any other country, if you are a business in Canada, you’ll need one for Canada.

So make sure you apply your promo code for usa.

No, this referral program is only available for new customers, if you are already a paid customer, you may read and apply the tips I shared above, but not the coupon code.

In the checkout section, you will a promotion code box with a question mark icon, when you click on question mark, it will say something like

You might have received a unique promotion code directly or from select partners to help you get started with G Suite. If so, please enter your promotion code here.

If you see this, you can apply the promotion coupon and save.

  1. You should apply right after getting as it has an expiry date attached to it
  2. You can still cancel within your 14 days trial period if you don’t find it adding value to your business
  3. Applying the promotion code will not impact your 14 days trial, you will still have the same trial period.

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