How to replace Google Workspace for your business — for free, permanently
20 June 2026
Most Indian businesses pay Google every month for software that could run on a server in their own office. Email, file storage, documents, spreadsheets, shared calendars — all of it has a mature, open-source equivalent you can host yourself, pay for once, and own forever.
This guide walks through exactly how to replace Google Workspace with a self-hosted stack built around Nextcloud and OnlyOffice, what it costs, and how quickly it pays for itself.
What Google Workspace actually costs
Google Workspace Business Standard is roughly ₹150 per user, per month in India. That sounds small — until you multiply it by your team and by the years you will keep paying it.
| Team size | Monthly | Per year | Over 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 users | ₹1,500 | ₹18,000 | ₹90,000 |
| 25 users | ₹3,750 | ₹45,000 | ₹2,25,000 |
| 50 users | ₹7,500 | ₹90,000 | ₹4,50,000 |
And that bill never stops. It also goes up every time you hire someone, and every time Google raises prices. You are renting your email and your files indefinitely — and they live on servers outside India.
What Nextcloud + OnlyOffice replaces
The good news: there is a single open-source platform that covers most of what Google Workspace does.
- Google Drive → Nextcloud Files. Sync and share files across your team, with mobile and desktop apps that work just like Drive.
- Google Docs / Sheets / Slides → OnlyOffice (integrated into Nextcloud). Real-time collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, fully compatible with Microsoft and Google formats.
- Google Calendar / Contacts → Nextcloud Calendar & Contacts. Shared calendars and address books over standard CalDAV/CardDAV.
- Gmail → Roundcube (or Mailcow for a full mail server). Email hosting is the one piece worth doing carefully — for many businesses it is easiest to keep email with a provider at first and self-host files and documents, which is where most of the cost and data-ownership concern lives anyway.
For a typical small business, Nextcloud alone replaces the parts of Google Workspace people actually use all day.
What hardware you need
You do not need a data centre. A small, quiet mini-PC sitting in your office is enough for most teams.
- A mini-PC (refurbished or new) with a recent CPU, 16–32 GB RAM, and a 500 GB–1 TB SSD: roughly ₹40,000–₹80,000 one-time.
- A small UPS for clean shutdowns during power cuts.
- Your existing office internet — no special connection required for internal use.
That single box comfortably serves files and documents for a 25-person team, and it sips electricity compared to running a server room.
Step by step: Nextcloud in Docker in about 30 minutes
If you are technical, the rough shape of a deployment looks like this:
- Install a minimal Linux (or Proxmox, if you want a hypervisor) on the mini-PC.
- Install Docker and Docker Compose.
- Create a
docker-compose.ymlwith three services: Nextcloud, a PostgreSQL database, and the OnlyOffice Document Server. - Bring it up with
docker compose up -d, then open Nextcloud in a browser and complete the setup wizard. - Connect OnlyOffice in Nextcloud's admin settings so documents open and edit in the browser.
- Put it behind a reverse proxy (we use Traefik) for clean HTTPS, and set up automated backups.
If that list looks like a weekend you would rather not spend, that is exactly the part we handle for clients — a fully configured server, ready to use, with a handover so your team knows how to drive it.
How long until it pays for itself
Take a 25-person team paying ₹45,000/year for Google Workspace. A self-hosting setup might cost ₹80,000 in hardware once, plus modest running costs. In under two years the hardware has paid for itself — and every year after that is close to pure savings, while the SaaS bill would have kept climbing with your headcount.
Want the exact numbers for your team? Our cost calculator lets you set your team size and the tools you pay for, and shows your real annual savings and payback period.
Ready to own your software?
We set up and configure all of this for businesses across India — or just for one specific tool if that is all you need. The first conversation is always free.