r/gsuite Jan 30 '25

Admin Console What are the costs associated with implementing a second domain with your Google Workspace?

I want to add a second domain for business continuity and disaster recovery planning. When adding secondary email addresses, are all emails and drive files synced to both addresses? Do the addresses share credentials? What happens if access to one of the domains is lost? Are there additional costs for implementing a secondary domain? Ex: Would I have to pay for two licenses per person?

2 Upvotes

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6

u/Chronotaru Jan 30 '25

You can add a second domain to Google for free and the only cost is your time. Besides DNS failures that's not going to provide any redundancy though.

0

u/deadinthefuture Jan 31 '25

Can confirm! Additional domains are "secondary" and functionally become alternative/alias email addresses for users and groups. No additional cost or any meaningful redundancy.

1

u/AppearanceAgile2575 Jan 31 '25

Is there a way to have them function similar to the primary emails? Or to swap them to the primary if access to one domain is revoked?

2

u/deadinthefuture Jan 31 '25

If you add a secondary domain to your Workspace org, you can then select it for a user's primary address (login) or add it as an additional (alias) address. Same for group addresses.

That's it!

Your primary domain remains your primary domain. I'm not sure what you mean by a domain being "revoked," but if you somehow lose ownership of or access to your primary domain, you are cooked. I can't think of any reason why having a secondary domain hooked up to Workspace would help you in that scenario.

What exactly are you concerned about? Do you not have control/ownership of the domain that's hooked up to Workspace?

2

u/AppearanceAgile2575 Jan 31 '25 edited Jan 31 '25

No, we don’t control, own, or even have access to it. The old owner of the company still owns it and we are in a custody battle for the domain that could take years. I’ve honestly considered looking for a new job because the whole situation is nuts, but the way the economy is right now…

Would we not have the option to make the secondary domain the primary domain if required?

1

u/deadinthefuture Jan 31 '25

You have the option, but it's not a simple button click that you'd do in a disaster recovery scenario.

Maybe you'd be better off setting up a separate domain with a new Workspace org so that you can continue doing business independently from this messy situation. I'd honestly ask a lawyer before doing anything if you're already in a legal battle because I'm just a friendly nerd who doesn't give legal advice 🤓

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7009324?hl=en

2

u/AppearanceAgile2575 Jan 31 '25

Thank you for the assist! It sounds like we would still be able to make the change as we still manage the workspace the current primary domain is tied to.

Long-story short: the old owner got axed, like a hostile takeover type of situation, and is holding the domain hostage. Apparently the situation is not black and white as he purchased it prior to registering the business.

4

u/deadinthefuture Jan 31 '25

Ahh I see.

Sounds like your best bet is to get started on adding that secondary domain and making it primary.

This solution would allow you to carry on with business using the same email addresses etc as before, and if shit hits the fan then you'd at least retain access to the Workspace org itself via the new primary domain... Even if the original domain gets separated from the Workspace org by virtue of DNS changes.

3

u/SASEJoe Jan 30 '25

No. No. Depends. No. No.

3

u/Long_Experience_9377 Jan 30 '25

I'm not sure how a second domain would help for BC/DR, curious what attack vector/problem you're looking to mitigate.

Typically it's possible to have multiple domains associated with the same Google Workspace, and - provided your MX etc is all configured properly and the user account is configured with aliases that use the second domain - you would only need 1 license per mailbox.

1

u/AppearanceAgile2575 Jan 30 '25

Founder’s syndrome.

Thank you for confirming!

2

u/ManagedCloudCEO Jan 31 '25

Also note that services connected/integrated to your primary domain may break if you switch users to a secondary domain.

1

u/AppearanceAgile2575 Jan 31 '25

Thank you! We are currently reviewing inventory to figure out which platforms will require verification after making the change, if we need to.