Most searches for a Google Workspace alternative start with a price rise, a compliance question, or a wish to depend less on one company. Most then stall on the same thought: we can’t replace all of it.
You may not need to. The useful question is which parts of Workspace your team really depends on, because you can move them separately.
Details are from vendor pages, last checked in November 2026. Check current pricing before you decide.
What you’re paying for
Business Starter is listed at €6.80 per user per month billed monthly, before tax. For that you get a bundle:
- Gmail on your own domain
- Docs, Sheets and Slides for working together
- Meet for video calls, up to 100 people on Starter
- 30 GB of pooled storage per user
- Gemini in Gmail
It’s good value if you use all of it. If your team mainly uses email and a few shared spreadsheets, you may be paying for a suite to get a mailbox.
Why teams look elsewhere
- Data residency. Google’s data regions appear tied to Enterprise plans, and we found no equivalent commitment for Business plans.
- End-to-end control. Client-side encryption is limited to higher tiers, not Business plans.
- Dependency. When mail, files, calendar and logins all sit with one company, losing access to that account is a serious risk.
- Price per seat. The cost adds up for teams where many people only need email.
Your options, by what you’re replacing
A full suite. If you need everything in one place, look at suites. Proton’s business plans include a document and spreadsheet editor and meetings, and mailbox.org includes online office tools and video meetings. Microsoft 365 is the obvious large alternative, though it doesn’t address the dependency question (more on that here). Test the editors with your real documents before you commit. This is usually where a migration gets harder.
Email only. If your documents aren’t the problem, you can move mail on its own. Keep Docs on a smaller number of accounts, or move your files separately later. This is the lowest-risk first step, because email runs on open standards and your own domain goes with you.
Email and agents. If part of the appeal of Workspace was Gemini in your inbox, note that you can get something similar by connecting your own assistant over MCP. Lettio’s email MCP server works with Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients, and it’s included.
Where Lettio fits, and where it doesn’t
Lettio replaces the mail part of Workspace, not the suite. There’s no document editor, no spreadsheet tool and no video calling, and we’re not planning to pretend otherwise. If your team lives in Google Docs, you’d still need something for that.
What you do get is a mailbox on your own domain, hosted on our own EU servers, with IMAP, SMTP, JMAP and CalDAV included. It’s from €2 per mailbox, with backup and restore, and a person handles the migration for you. Mail isn’t end-to-end encrypted, and it’s never used to train a model.
A sensible way to move
- List what people really use. Check which accounts open Docs, Sheets or Meet each month. Many teams are surprised.
- Separate the mail decision from the documents decision. They have different risks and different timelines.
- Check your domain and DNS. You’ll update MX, SPF and DKIM records as part of the move, so make sure someone can reach them.
- Export before you change anything. Google’s Data Export tool can take several days, so don’t leave it for the final week.
- Move a small group first. A pilot with a few mailboxes will show problems while they’re cheap to fix.
If email is the part you want out of Workspace, you don’t have to solve everything else at once.