What you get after migrating
SHIPMAIL replaces the email, calendar, and contacts parts of Google Workspace. Every plan includes email hosting on your own domain, calendar (CalDAV), contacts (CardDAV), webmail, and access from any email client. Shared inboxes for addresses like support@ or hello@ are built in. Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is configured automatically during setup.
Pricing: Solo is $4/mo for 3 mailboxes. Pro is $9/mo for 10 mailboxes and 5 team members. Team is $29/mo for 50 mailboxes and unlimited team members. All plans include API access with TypeScript and Python SDKs.
What SHIPMAIL does not replace: Google Docs, Drive, Sheets, and Meet. If your team uses those daily, you can keep a free Google account for them or switch to tools you already use (Notion, Dropbox, Zoom). You do not need a paid Google Workspace subscription to keep Google Calendar or Google Drive.
Before you start
Figure out what you actually use from Google. If your team lives in Google Docs and Meet, switching email providers does not remove the need for a Google subscription. You can keep Workspace for collaboration tools and move only email to SHIPMAIL. Or cancel entirely if the team already uses Notion, Linear, Slack, or similar.
List every email address your team uses: personal addresses, role addresses (support@, hello@, billing@), and aliases. You will recreate all of these in SHIPMAIL. Count the total to pick the right plan. Solo covers 3 mailboxes, Pro covers 10, Team covers 50.
The migration, step by step
Sign up for SHIPMAIL and add your domain in the dashboard. SHIPMAIL generates the DNS records you need.
Create every mailbox before you touch DNS. This is important: if you update DNS before mailboxes exist, incoming mail has nowhere to go and will bounce. Set up personal addresses, role addresses, and shared inboxes now. If your team needs shared access to support@ or hello@, configure that in the dashboard before moving on.
Update your DNS records at your domain registrar. Remove the old Google MX records and add the SHIPMAIL records. The setup wizard shows you exactly what to add and what to remove. DNS changes take 1 to 4 hours to propagate. During this window, some messages may still arrive at Google. That is normal. No email is lost.
Migrate old emails (optional). You can start fresh and leave old messages in Gmail until you close the account. Or bring everything over by connecting both accounts in your email client and dragging messages across, or by using a tool like imapsync for large mailboxes. Small inboxes take minutes. Large ones can take a few hours.
Connect your email apps. Add your SHIPMAIL account in Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, or your phone's email app using the connection settings from the dashboard. Calendar and contacts sync through any CalDAV/CardDAV-compatible app. You can also use SHIPMAIL's webmail if you prefer a browser-based inbox.
Test everything. Send a test email from each address. Reply to a test message. Check that shared inboxes work. Verify deliverability with a tool like mail-tester.com.
Running both services in parallel
Do not cancel Google Workspace immediately. Keep it active for at least a week after switching DNS. This is your safety net: if something is misconfigured, you can revert the DNS changes and point email back to Google within minutes.
During the overlap period, monitor that all expected email is arriving in SHIPMAIL. Once you are confident nothing is missing, cancel Google Workspace. If you want to keep Google Docs and Drive without paying for email, downgrade to a cheaper Google plan that does not include Gmail.
Common mistakes
Updating DNS before creating mailboxes. If DNS points to SHIPMAIL but the mailboxes do not exist, incoming mail bounces. Always create mailboxes first.
Leaving old DNS records in place. If you add the new SHIPMAIL records but keep the old Google MX records, email delivery becomes unpredictable. Remove the old records when you add the new ones.
Rushing the cutover. DNS propagation takes hours, not minutes. Plan for the switch to happen over a day. Keep Google active as a fallback during this period.
Not testing before canceling Google. Run both services in parallel for at least a week. This is the cheapest insurance against a missed configuration.