Google Workspace Just Got More Expensive. Here Is What Filipino Businesses Are Switching To

In March 2025, Google raised the price of Google Workspace again. 

Business Starter, the entry plan most small Filipino businesses use, moved to $8.40 per user per month on flexible billing, or $7 per user per month on an annual plan. 

After peso conversion and the required 12% VAT, that comes to approximately ₱611 per user per month in the Philippines.

For a solo business owner, that’s manageable. For a team of five, that’s over ₱3,000 a month, ₱36,000 a year, for email.

A lot of Filipino businesses are doing the same calculation right now and asking the same question: Am I actually getting ₱3,000 worth of value every month, or am I paying for features I barely use?

This article helps you answer that honestly, and shows you what your Google Workspace alternatives in Philippines look like in pesos, from a local provider who bills you in currency that doesn’t fluctuate with the dollar.

Is Google Workspace Actually Good?

Let’s be straight about this. Google Workspace is a genuinely excellent product. 

If your team lives inside Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet every day, if you have shared drives, collaborative editing open in four tabs, and Meet running through lunch then Google Workspace earns its price.

It is one of the most complete business productivity suites available, and the integration between Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Meet is seamless in a way competitors haven’t fully matched.

This article is not arguing that Google Workspace is bad. 

It is asking a more specific question: are you a Google Workspace user, or are you a Google Workspace email user who also happens to have Drive and Docs available?

Because if you’re in the second group, you use the email daily, you open Drive occasionally, and you could count your Meet calls this month on one hand, then you are paying the full Google Workspace price for one feature you actually need. 

And that’s worth examining.

What a 5-Person Filipino Team Actually Pays for Email Right Now

Provider	Per User/ Month	5 Users/Month	5 users/Year
Google Workspace Starter (flexible)	₱611	₱3,055	₱36,660
Google Workspace Starter (annual)	₱511	₱2,555	₱30,660
Microsoft 365 Business Basic	₱370	₱1,850	₱22,200
Zoho Mail (Lite)	₱175	₱875	₱10,500
Truehost Workplace Starter	₱26	₱130	₱1,560

Google Workspace peso pricing based on $8.40/user/month flexible and $7/user/month annual × ₱65 exchange rate + 12% VAT, as confirmed by Philippine resellers in 2025. 

Microsoft 365 and Zoho peso estimates based on USD pricing at current rates but Truehost pricing is billed triennially

The gap between Truehost Workplace and Google Workspace for a five-person team is ₱2,925 a month  that is ₱35,100 a year. 

That is real money for a small Filipino business. It is enough to hire a part-time staff member, fund a quarter of marketing spend, or sit in your account as savings.

The Honest Question to Ask Yourself

Before switching anything, answer this honestly:

• Do you and your team use Google Docs or Sheets as your primary document creation tool – with multiple people editing simultaneously, leaving comments, tracking versions?
• Do you rely on Google Meet for regular team or client video calls, and does the meeting recording or attendance tracking matter to you?
• Do you use Shared Drives in Google Drive as your team’s central file storage, with folder permissions and access controls actively managed?
• Do you use Google Sites, Forms, or other Workspace tools as part of your regular operations?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, Google Workspace earns its price for you. 

The collaboration suite is the product, and email is just one part of it. Stay and consider the annual plan to lock in the lower per-user rate.

If you answered no to most of these, if your team uses Canva for design, Facebook Messenger for internal chat, and mostly needs a professional email address that works, then you are overpaying significantly for features you don’t use. 

That’s the situation where switching makes financial sense.

What Truehost Workplace Email Actually Gives You

Truehost Philippines Workplace email hosting is dedicated business email, professional mailboxes on your own domain, with proper authentication like SPF, DKIM, DMARC configured so your emails reach inboxes rather than spam folders.

 It is not a productivity suite and does not include Docs, Meet, or Drive. What it does give you:

• Professional email at your domain: [email protected]
• Dedicated mail servers with strong deliverability: your emails reach inboxes
• IMAP access from any email client: Gmail app, Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird
• Webmail access from any browser when you’re away from your usual device
• 25GB mailbox storage on PRO, 50GB on Business: more than most teams use in a year
• Shared calendar and contacts on higher tiers
• 24/7 local support billed in pesos with no exchange rate exposure

Plan	Price/Month	Mailbox Size	Right For
Starter	₱26	5GB	Solo operators and freelancers who need one reliable professional address
PRO	₱68.25	25GB	Small teams switching from Google Workspace who need email without the suite price
Business	₱119.17	50GB	Growing businesses with heavier volume, shared inboxes, and calendar coordination needs.

Pricing is billed triennially. See truehost for current rates.

What About Google Drive and Docs If You Switch?

This is the practical question most teams have. The honest answer is that free tools cover most of what small Filipino businesses actually need.

Documents and spreadsheets

Google Docs and Sheets remain free on a personal Google account. You can still create, share, and collaborate on documents, you do it through a free 

Gmail account rather than a Workspace account. The functionality is identical for most use cases.

File storage

A free Google account includes 15GB of Drive storage, shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. 

For teams that need more, Google One storage plans start at around $3/month for 100GB, which is still significantly cheaper than a full Workspace subscription per user.

Video calls

Google Meet is free for calls up to 60 minutes for personal accounts. For longer calls, Zoom’s free plan covers up to 40 minutes per meeting. Filipino businesses widely use both without paid accounts.

Team chat

Slack’s free plan, Telegram groups, or Viber Communities handle internal team communication for most small businesses without any cost.

You can move email to Truehost Workplace, continue using free Google accounts for Drive and Docs collaboration, and use free tiers of Meet or Zoom for video. 

You get the same daily functionality at a fraction of the cost.

How to Switch Without Losing Your Email History

The most common concern when switching email providers is losing years of archived messages. Here is how to handle it cleanly:

Export first

Before changing anything, use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to download a full export of your Gmail data. This gives you a local backup of every email you’ve ever sent or received. The export arrives as an MBOX file.

Set up the new mailbox 

Sign up for Truehost Workplace, configure your domain’s MX records because Truehost support handles this if needed, and confirm that new emails are arriving correctly in your new mailbox.

Import your archive if needed

Email clients like Thunderbird can import MBOX files, making your old Gmail archive searchable even after the switch. Most teams find they rarely need to search emails older than six months, so this step is optional rather than critical.

Notify your contacts

If you’re keeping the same domain email address like [email protected], no notification is needed, the address doesn’t change, only the host behind it. If you’re also changing your email address, send a transition notice from both addresses simultaneously and give contacts 30 days.

Questions Worth Answering

What if I need Google Workspace features later?

You can return. Google Workspace subscriptions can be restarted at any time. If your business grows to a point where you genuinely need the full collaboration suite, the option is always there.

Switching to a cheaper email host now doesn’t close any doors, it just stops the billing while you don’t need the full product.

Is Truehost email as reliable as Google?

Truehost’s mail servers are dedicated infrastructure with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Deliverability is handled through proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration.

For the core job of sending and receiving business email reliably, dedicated hosting from a reputable provider performs comparably to Google for the vast majority of use cases.

The cases where Google’s infrastructure meaningfully outperforms are at enterprise scale including, thousands of users, complex routing rules, global distribution, not the 1–20 user range that most Filipino SMEs sit in.

Will my email still work in the Gmail app?

Yes. Gmail’s app on Android and iOS supports IMAP access to any external mail account. You add your Truehost email as an additional account in Gmail settings, and it appears alongside your personal Gmail.

You can set it as your default sending account, so all outgoing mail shows your business address. The interface is identical to what you already use.

Can I keep my current domain email address when switching?

Yes. Your email address is tied to your domain, not your hosting provider. As long as you keep the same domain (yourbusiness.com), your address stays the same. 

You’re simply changing which mail servers handle the delivery behind the scenes by updating your domain’s MX records. To the outside world, your clients, suppliers, partners, nothing changes.

The Bottom Line

Google Workspace is worth paying for if you use it as a full productivity suite. It is expensive for what it delivers if you’re mostly using it for email.

The 2025 price increase is a natural moment to ask which category you fall into. 

If the answer is honest and it’s the second one, you’re paying ₱600+ per user per month for an inbox, then Truehost Workplace at ₱26 per user per month gives you the same professional email, the same deliverability, the same IMAP access to the Gmail app, and ₱574 back in your pocket every month per user.

For a five-person team, that’s ₱2,870 a month saved. ₱34,440 a year. In pesos. There is no exchange rate risk.

Ready to stop overpaying for email? Truehost Philippines Workplace email starts at ₱26/month per mailbox, professional domain email, proper deliverability setup, IMAP access, and 24/7 local support. Billed in pesos, no USD exposure. See plans here.