Updated 03-Aug-2025
Google likes to remove functionality on free products to induce upselling. This is a common tactic in many software/SAS models. However, the cost of adopting Gsuite is very high, relative to free. Essentially a 5-10 pack of mailboxes with $5/month for the least expensive Gsuite paid option. That's $300-$600/year. What is sadly missing is a less expensive option.
I don't mind paying money for valuable services, but an individual consumer who really only has family mailbox accounts, this is ridiculous pricing. As someone with multiple domains, here is how to get around this issue.
No Duplicate Mailboxes
The main problem comes when one wants to have mailboxes that have the same username, e.g., info@primary-domain.com and info@secondary-domain.com. Because added-on domains are always only aliases, only the primary domain is possible (e.g., info@primary-domain.com), and all subsequent domains with the same info@ are aliases of the underlying primary domain.
Steps to Support Duplicate Mailboxes
The work-around is as follows:
- Create a unique mailbox such as
secondary-domain@primary-domain.com. - After some amount of time (an hour at the most) the address
info@secondary-domain.comwill be added (providedinfo@primary-domain.comwas already a primary or secondary mailbox address). - Log into
secondary-domain@primary-domain.comand addinfo@secondary-domain.comas a second account. This will generate an email which will be sent toinfo@primary-domain.com. Verify access with the verification code. Set thatinfo@secondary-domain.comas the default and configure the mailbox to always send email from that address. - Log into
info@primary-domain.comand add a forwarding address ofsecondary-domain@primary-domain.com. This will generate a verification code emailed tosecondary-domain@primary-domain.com. Verify this. - Next, create a new filter for incoming mail addressed to:
info@secondary-domain.comand have it forward email tosecondary-domain@primary-domain.comand also delete the email locally.
The steps above will properly route and address mail so that the new mailbox will function properly using the normally disallowed duplicate username in the free version of Gsuite.
Endgame with Gsuite
Frankly I dislike Google and Gsuite. My use is only a holding action to not have to deal with email migration. The vast majority of time I no longer use Gsuite other than calendar and email, and also the use of those accounts for YouTube and Google Business Listings, and also the Analytics/Google Ads suite. Obviously there needs to be Google accounts, but they can be independent Gmail accounts rather than Gsuite accounts. At some point ( hopefully in 2019), I'll migrate off and do self-hosting on mail and calendar, and therefore move YouTube, Business, Analytics over to Gmail accounts.