Migrate From Cloud Identity to Workspace Essentials Starter

[ShivanshB]

Hi All!

I currently have a Cloud Identity Free subscription, since my initial needs only required user authentication and management. However, I now need access to services such as being able to create meetings in Google Meet. My domain is already verified on Cloud Identity. I came across this link (https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9122200?sjid=16431155004864295617-AP), where I can sign up for Essentials Starter. However, it states that I already have a workspace subscription (I do not. If I go to my subscriptions page in My Account, there are no active subscriptions).

Is there any way for me to enable Essentials Starter? Thanks

[mbeckford]

Would also appreciate an answer to this. The only way I can see to do this is delete the Cloud Identity setup and start from scratch, which I would like to avoid as this would kill off linked user accounts in the process.

[Agent21]

I'm experiencing the opposite problem with my Essential Starter, so you might want to reconsider your decision. With Essential Starter, you can't verify your domain unless you upgrade to Essential Enterprise (around $12/user/month). Profile visibility isn't showing publicly and there's a bug that reverts it back to organization-only after changing it to Public. This issue has been reported for over a year, and I believe Google has arbitrarily made it this way.

[mbeckford]

Fantastic 🙃

Nothing like only needing some basic functionality to have it paywalled behind a more expensive/unnecessary tier, especially when consumer accounts get these as standard!

Seems that Google's view is if you are on a Microsoft 365 suite (and unwilling to migrate you business over) then you have to pay-per-user for both solutions and duplicate the usage.

I'd ask for some clarity from Google on this, but given the lack of input on this topic thus far I'm just shouting into the void at this point.

[sparkktv]

I'm pretty sure Cloud Identity Free and Workspace Essentials free are the same thing, just one difference. Essentials Free allows you to use your own business email address but you still get no Gmail or Calendar. Unless you really need that feature CIF is the better route for most users. Also there is no way to switch from CIF to WEF unless you delete and sign back up but even then you won't be able to verify your domain on WEF without a paid plan. 

WEF shouldn't even really exist in my opinion and they should just merge it and CIF together into one. It would better suite us as users.

[mbeckford]

Storage is also different, which is quite imporant considering the number of Cloud projects that utilise AppScript via Drive. But agree, they should be merged or have an easier way to switch between the two. As it stands deleting and signing back up again isn't an option since this would also delete the managed user accounts already connected in my case.