# Business email for the whole team, not a license per person.

URL: https://samva.dev/compare/google-workspace

Samva Mail

A Google Workspace alternative for email only. Every person gets a private mailbox on your domain, the team shares support@ and orders@, and one plan price covers them. Mail users take a mailbox, not a seat.

[Get your business email](https://samva.dev/signup?entry=marketing_page)

[Talk with the founder](https://samva.dev/contact)

[Google prices checked October 31, 2026](https://samva.dev/compare/google-workspace#sources)

## Who should switch, and who should stay.

Switch if

- You pay Google per person mostly for email, and nobody lives in Docs, Drive, or Meet.
- You want a mailbox for everyone, with seats only for the people who manage sending.
- support@ and orders@ need more than a group: roles, send modes that hold a send for approval, and Close so nobody answers twice.
- You want your own apps and agents working in a shared mailbox, each reaching only the mailboxes you give it, with a person approving what they send.

Stay on Google Workspace if

- Your team works in Docs, Sheets, Drive, Meet, and Calendar every day. Samva has none of them.
- You need years of mail moved over. Google imports mail from other providers; Samva has no import.
- People read mail in Outlook, Apple Mail, or a phone mail app. Samva Mail runs in the browser, with no IMAP and no native app.
- Each person keeps a lot of mail. Business Starter pools 30 GB per person; a Samva plan shares one storage allowance across all its mailboxes.

## What a team pays a month.

Monthly cost of business email for a team on Samva and on Google Workspace

Each team also has support@ and orders@. On Samva they are two more mailboxes from the plan's allowance. On Google Workspace they run as Google Groups, so the column counts one license per person. Google's prices are its standard US rates before tax and introductory offers.

| 3 people | $5 on Starter: 10 mailboxes, 10 GB of mail across them | $21 on a one-year commitment, $25.20 month to month: 90 GB pooled |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 5 people | $5 on Starter: 10 mailboxes, 10 GB of mail across them | $35 on a one-year commitment, $42 month to month: 150 GB pooled |
| 10 people | $19 on Growth: 50 mailboxes, 50 GB of mail across them | $70 on a one-year commitment, $84 month to month: 300 GB pooled |
| 25 people | $19 on Growth: 50 mailboxes, 50 GB of mail across them | $175 on a one-year commitment, $210 month to month: 750 GB pooled |

Fig 10. Isometric drawing: the verified domain acme.co feeds a rail under a sorter gantry reading support@acme.co, and the letter is filed in the shared support@acme.co cubby, beside orders@acme.co, apart from the personal rack holding ada@acme.co and ravi@acme.co.

Fig 10.

One plan covers a private mailbox for each person and shared ones like support@ and orders@, all on your domain.

## What each one gives you.

Samva Mail compared with Google Workspace for business email

Google Workspace facts checked October 31, 2026 against the sources at the end of this page.

| How you pay | One plan price with a mailbox allowance. Mail users take a mailbox, not a dashboard seat. | Per user per month. Business Starter is $7 on a one-year commitment or $8.40 month to month. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Your domains | Mailboxes on every domain you verify, up to your plan's domain allowance, plus samva.email addresses. | A primary domain and up to 599 more. A user on a secondary domain is another paid user. |
| Personal mailboxes | A private mailbox for each person. Only its owner reads it, administrators included. | A Gmail mailbox for each licensed user. |
| Shared addresses | Shared mailboxes like support@ on any of your domains, worked by the people you grant, each with a role and a send mode. Done clears your queue; Close resolves it for everyone. | Google Groups as a collaborative inbox, where members assign conversations and mark them complete. |
| Storage | One allowance shared across the plan's mailboxes, listed on the pricing page. | 30 GB pooled per user on Business Starter, 2 TB on Business Standard. |
| Where you read mail | Samva Mail in the browser on desktop and phone. No IMAP or SMTP access and no native app. | Gmail on the web, and other mail clients through IMAP. |
| Moving mail in | No import from another provider. | A data migration service that copies mail from Exchange Online and IMAP providers. |
| Docs, Drive, Meet, and Calendar | Not included. | Included, with video meetings for up to 100 people on Business Starter. |

## Moving from Google Workspace.

1. **Try it on a second address first.** Start with a samva.email address or a domain you do not use for mail yet, so nothing changes for your main domain while the team tries Samva Mail.
2. **Add your domain, turn receiving on, and give everyone an address.** Verify your domain and turn receiving on. Mail keeps arriving in Gmail while you do; nothing moves until the MX record changes. Then invite your team so each person has a private mailbox, and create the shared ones like support@ and orders@.
3. **Point your domain's mail at Samva.** When the team is ready, change the MX record at your domain itself to the inbound one Samva lists under Receive mail. From then on, new mail lands in Samva Mail.

What does not move: mail already in Gmail stays there, because Samva has no import. Keep Google Workspace until you no longer need it.

Fig 11. Isometric drawing: mail for acme.co rides a rail to a junction whose MX selector points at Samva, so the letter is filed in the support@acme.co cubby of the Samva Mail rack, while the Gmail rack at the end of the other branch keeps the mail already filed there.

Fig 11.

Your domain's MX record decides where new mail goes. Point it at Samva and new mail lands in Samva Mail, while the mail already in Gmail stays there.

## WhatsApp in Samva Mail

Coming soon

Connect your WhatsApp Business number and keep using the WhatsApp Business app on it. The number becomes an endpoint of a shared mailbox, so your customers' WhatsApp conversations sit in Samva Mail beside their email, under the same people, agents, and approvals.

[Get notified](https://samva.dev/contact?subject=whatsapp)

## Samva agents

Coming soon

Samva agents answer your customers on the email addresses and WhatsApp numbers you choose. A new agent holds each reply for a person to approve, and every Google Calendar booking, change, and cancellation waits for approval.

## Integrations for agents

Coming soon

Connect Shopify, Google Calendar, or Linear, and your agents use them under your grants and approvals, such as answering a customer's order question from your own Shopify orders.

## Common questions.

### Is Samva a Google Workspace alternative?

For business email, yes: private mailboxes for each person and shared ones like support@ on your own domains. It is not an office suite. There is no Docs, Drive, Meet, or Calendar.

### Does every person need a paid seat?

No. A Mail user takes a mailbox from your plan's allowance and no seat. Dashboard seats are for the people who manage sending, and the pricing page lists how many each plan includes.

### What does a team of five pay?

With support@ and orders@, $5 on Starter: 10 mailboxes, 10 GB of mail across them on Samva. On Google Workspace Business Starter, $35 on a one-year commitment, $42 month to month: 150 GB pooled.

### Can I bring my old Gmail messages?

No. There is no import from another provider yet, so mail already in Gmail stays there.

### Can I use Outlook, Apple Mail, or my phone's mail app?

No. Samva Mail is a web client that runs in the browser on your desktop and your phone. There is no IMAP or SMTP access and no native app yet.

### Who can read my mailbox?

Only you. Each person invited to Samva Mail gets a personal mailbox that only they can read, administrators included.

### Where do the Google Workspace prices come from?

Google's own pricing page and help center, checked October 31, 2026. They are standard US rates before tax and introductory offers.

## Give every address an owner.

[Get your business email](https://samva.dev/signup?entry=marketing_page)

[Talk with the founder](https://samva.dev/contact)

## Sources, verified October 31, 2026

- [Google Workspace Help: Business editions](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/getting-started/editions/business-editions)
- [Google Workspace Help: Compare Flexible and Annual/Fixed-Term payment plans](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/billing/compare-flexible-and-annual-fixed-term-payment-plans)
- [Google Workspace pricing](https://workspace.google.com/pricing)
- [Google Workspace Help: Add a user alias domain or secondary domain](https://support.google.com/a/answer/7502379)
- [Google Groups Help: Collaborative inbox](https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/167430)
- [Google Workspace Help: Migrate email with the data migration service](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/migrate/migrate-email-with-the-new-data-migration-service)
- [Gmail Help: Add Gmail to another email client](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229)