The Real Cost of Google Workspace vs Email on Your Own AWS

The sticker price isn't the whole story

Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7.20 per user per month. inbox.camp costs $4. That's a 44% savings, but price per user is only part of the equation. Let's dig into the real cost of each option.

Google Workspace: what you're paying for

At $7.20/user/month (Business Starter), you get:

• Gmail (custom domain)
• Google Drive (30 GB pooled per user)
• Google Meet (100 participants)
• Google Docs, Sheets, Slides
• Google Chat
• Admin console

That's a lot of stuff. But if you only need email? You're paying for Drive, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Chat whether you use them or not. There's no "email only" tier.

For a 20-person team, that's $1,728/year for Google Workspace.

inbox.camp: what you're paying for

At $4/user/month, you get:

• Email (custom domain, unlimited domains)
• Full IMAP and SMTP (connect any mail client)
• Clean web UI
• Auto DNS configuration (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• WorkMail migration
• User management, aliases, catch-all

Plus you pay AWS directly for the underlying infrastructure:

• SES — $0.10 per 1,000 emails sent (receiving is free)
• S3 — ~$0.023/GB/month for storage
• Route 53 — $0.50/month per hosted zone

For a typical 20-person team sending 500 emails/day total, your AWS bill adds up to roughly $3-5/month. Your inbox.camp bill is $80/month. Total: about $85/month, or $1,020/year.

That's a $708/year savings compared to Google Workspace.

The hidden costs of Google Workspace

The per-user price is just the beginning. Consider:

Storage overages: Business Starter pools 30 GB per user. Once your team fills that up (and they will — Google Drive makes it easy), you're upgrading to Business Standard at $14.40/user/month. That 20-person team is now paying $3,456/year.

Data migration: Moving years of email from WorkMail to Google requires third-party migration tools or manual IMAP sync. Budget $5-15/user for migration tools, plus IT time.

Training: If your team is used to Outlook or Thunderbird, switching to Gmail's web interface has a learning curve. Some people love it, some people don't. Either way, there's productivity cost.

Vendor lock-in: Once your team is on Drive, Docs, and Sheets, leaving Google becomes exponentially harder. The email might be cheap, but the ecosystem is the real product.

What about Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 Business Basic is $6/user/month. It includes Exchange email, OneDrive (1 TB), Teams, and web versions of Office apps. Same story as Google — you're paying for a bundle when you might only need email.

20-person team on Microsoft 365: $1,440/year. Still $420 more than inbox.camp.

The real savings: control

Beyond the dollar amounts, the biggest cost difference is control:

• Google/Microsoft: They set the price. They change the features. They decide your storage limits. Last year Google increased Workspace prices by 20% for some tiers. You pay whatever they ask.
• inbox.camp + AWS: Your S3 storage costs are set by AWS (and they only go down). Your sending costs scale linearly with usage. You can switch away from inbox.camp without losing your data — it's already in your AWS account.

When Google Workspace makes sense

Let's be fair. Google Workspace is the right choice if:

• You actively use Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet
• You want a fully integrated productivity suite
• Data residency and infrastructure control aren't priorities
• You're okay with Google's pricing decisions

But if you just need email, and you want it on your AWS infrastructure, paying $7.20/user for a productivity suite you won't use doesn't make sense.

The bottom line

	Google Workspace	inbox.camp
Price per user	$7.20/mo	$4/mo
20 users / year	$1,728	~$1,020
Data location	Google's cloud	Your AWS
Encryption keys	Google's (CMEK extra)	Your KMS
IMAP/SMTP	Yes	Yes
Extras included	Drive, Meet, Docs, etc.	Email only

Simple email. Your AWS. Less money. Join the waitlist.