Infrabox vs. buying Workspace seats directly
This is the fairest comparison on the site, because underneath they are the same thing. Infrabox provisions Google Workspace mailboxes. Buying seats directly gets you Google Workspace mailboxes. The mail is identical because it is the same mail.
What differs is who does the configuration work, who holds the admin account, and how the mailbox reaches your sending tool at the end of it.
01the approach
The other approach, fairly
What buying workspace seats directly actually involves.
Described properly, not caricatured. If this list looks straightforward to you, that is a real signal about which column you belong in.
- 01
You buy seats from Google and hold the Workspace tenancy and its Admin Console yourself.
- 02
You bring your own domain, add it to the Workspace, and complete Google's ownership verification.
- 03
You publish MX, SPF, DMARC and the DKIM key yourself, and remember to switch DKIM signing on afterwards.
- 04
You get the whole Workspace, not just the mailbox — Drive, Calendar, Meet, admin policy, the lot.
- 05
And you solve the last-mile problem yourself: getting each new mailbox to a state where an automated sending tool can actually authenticate as it, which for a freshly created user is the genuinely fiddly part.
02side by side
Side by side
The comparison itself.
A dash instead of a tick means the row is a trade-off rather than a win — the two approaches simply differ, and which side you want depends on you.
| Criterion | oursInfrabox | the alternativeBuying Workspace seats directly |
|---|---|---|
| The mailbox itself | Trade-off:A Google Workspace mailbox. | A Google Workspace mailbox. Identical. |
| Domain registration | Trade-off:Registered through the platform and connected to DNS we manage, which is what makes the records writable automatically. | Yours, at whichever registrar you like, configured by you. |
| DNS records and verification | Yes:Published and confirmed as part of provisioning, on every domain, the same way. | Your job, once per domain, from Google's documentation. |
| DKIM | Yes:Generated, published and switched on automatically as one of the eight steps. | Available in the Admin Console, and dependent on you remembering the second step after generating the key. |
| Sending credential for automation | Yes:Minted and verified against Gmail before hand-off; your tool connects over plain SMTP. | The hard part. A brand-new user must sign in and clear an identity challenge before it can hold one. |
| Admin Console access | Trade-off:Held by the platform, which is the precondition for the pipeline running unattended. | Yours, completely. |
| The rest of Workspace | Trade-off:Not the product. These mailboxes exist to send and receive campaign mail. | Drive, Calendar, Meet, org policy — the whole suite. |
| Setting up the tenth domain | Yes:The same eight steps, unattended, with a progress view. | The same manual sequence you did nine times already. |
| Cost | Trade-off:A per-mailbox monthly fee plus the domain, both published on our pricing page. | Google's seat price, which is Google's to quote and not ours to print on a page comparing ourselves to them. |
03where we lose
Where we lose
When buying workspace seats directly is the right answer.
Every comparison page should have this section and almost none do. These are the cases where we would tell you not to buy from us.
The mailboxes are for people, not campaigns
You must hold admin yourself
Your estate is small and static
The bottom line
Same mailboxes, different division of labour. Buy direct if you need the Admin Console or the rest of the suite. Come to us if what you actually want is a lot of correctly configured sending domains without spending your week in DNS panels.
Our side of it costs $3.79 per mailbox per month.
Plus the domain, priced per TLD per year. That is the entire price list — no provisioning fee, no onboarding fee, no volume tier to negotiate. Put your own numbers in.
04questions
Questions
On this comparison.
Are these real Google Workspace mailboxes?
Yes. Your domain is attached to a Google Workspace and real Workspace users are created on it. There is nothing simulated in the middle.
Why can't I have the Admin Console?
Because the pipeline holds that admin account in order to run the remaining steps without a human. It is a genuine trade-off rather than a policy we are pleased about, and if Admin Console access is a requirement for you, buying direct is the honest recommendation.
Can I bring a domain I already own?
Talk to us about the specific domain rather than reading a yes or a no off a comparison page. The automation depends on DNS records being writable by the platform, so what matters is where the domain's nameservers point.
Do I get Drive and Calendar?
Not as part of what we sell. These mailboxes are provisioned to send and receive campaign mail; if you need the rest of the suite, that is a reason to buy Workspace directly.
The other comparisons
Infrabox vs. doing it by hand
Registrar, Admin Console, DNS records, verification, DKIM, a credential per mailbox. Everything the manual path actually contains, and when it is still the right path.
Read itInfrabox vs. a generic SMTP relay
Relays move messages. Mailboxes are places mail lives. Why that distinction decides whether replies reach you at all.
Read it
Think you are on our side of the table?
Tell us how many mailboxes across how many domains, and which tool you send with. If one of the other approaches suits you better, we will say that instead.