Migrating away from Google G Suite Legacy free edition (part 2)
Since writing my last post on leaving Google G Suite Legacy, I not only got some good feedback on Twitter, but also came across some more useful resources.
Just over two weeks left in May and still the waiting list is not available. If one were cynical, you might think Google didn’t want you to leave!
Resources
There’s good discussions at:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/gsuitelegacymigration/
- Whirlpool - Part 1 and Part 2
Both are great reads - and I feel somewhat affirmed that others have come up with similar solutions. It’s likely someone has already done a similar migration to what you’ve decided to do, so worth reviewing their experiences.
Cheap or paid
Simon Waight shared his experience and makes some good points:
I stopped worrying (too much) about cost and focused on the importance of reliable, secure email. I am in a similar boat. You want Exhange plans for sure. I also pay for Defender which gives me strong malware and phishing protection.
— Simon Waight (@simonwaight) May 10, 2022
I get $0 work discount so I pay full fare. 6 accounts using a mix of business accounts. Some kiosk accounts and a couple of basic accounts so we get Exchange for everyone. Last two are Business Premium to get desktop apps.
— Simon Waight (@simonwaight) May 10, 2022
Make sure to setup DKIM and DMARC for email.
— Simon Waight (@simonwaight) May 10, 2022
So yes, there’s definitely an element of you get what you pay for. And if you’re not paying for it, then that probably means you’re the product! Weigh up the pros and cons of that.
Cloudflare Email limitations
At the time of writing, Cloudflare Email does not support forwarding to multiple email addresses. I have a few Google Workspace ‘Groups’ configured that forward to multiple addresses, that is a problem.
If you’re in the same boat and plan to go down the email forwarding/routing approach, then there’s probably a couple of solutions:
- Choose a different email router service (https://improvmx.com/ was mentioned in the conversation linked to previously)
- Forward to one email address and then create a rule for that mailbox that then forwards those emails to the intended recipients.
Microsoft 365 Family with GoDaddy
Apparently there are ways to ‘trick’ Microsoft 365 into thinking you’ve switched your domain hosting to GoDaddy without actually doing it, in order to take up the custom email hosting offer. I won’t link to them here but you can find them if you’re really interested. Just be aware that you’re putting yourself in an ‘unsupported’ situation.
Setting a Reply-To address
In GMail you can set a different Reply-to address from the one that the email is sent from (eg. the From address can be different to the Reply-To address).
Outlook.com allows you to set the ‘From’ address when composing an email. If you have aliases set up with your Microsoft account, you can choose one of those as the From address too.
Ideally, you would want to do some testing to see what the experience of receiving an email from one of these accounts looks like. Does it get flagged as spam? When you reply does it pick up the correct email address to reply to?
Finally, returning to one of Simons’s points, will it work with SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
Categories: Domain hosting