Google Workspace Backup for UK MSPs: What It Costs and What Google Doesn't Cover
Quick answer. Google Workspace does not back up your customers' data in the sense an MSP means it. Native retention covers accidental deletion for a limited window; it does not protect against a departing employee clearing a Shared Drive, ransomware syncing through Drive, or an admin error nobody notices for three months. Third-party Google Workspace backup for UK MSPs typically costs £1–4 per user per month wholesale. BOBcloud charges £1.20 per user, covering Gmail, Drive, Shared Drives, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Chat and Meet, with UK storage from £20/TB.
Disclosure. BOBcloud publishes this article and sells a white-label backup platform to MSPs with Google Workspace protection included. Our rate is below in full. We have described what Google's native tooling does from their own documentation rather than characterising it unfairly — the case for backup does not need exaggerating.
Most MSPs arrive at Google Workspace backup the same way: a client deletes something important, the client assumes Google has a copy, and the MSP discovers what Google's retention actually covers at the worst possible moment.
This is a practical guide to what Google protects, what it doesn't, what a third-party backup adds, and what it costs.
Does Google Workspace back up your data?
No, not in the way an MSP means the word.
Google operates a shared responsibility model. They guarantee the availability and durability of the service — your data will not be lost because a Google data centre fails. What happens to that data inside your customer's tenant remains your customer's responsibility, and by extension yours.
The native tooling is real, but it is designed for compliance and short-term recovery rather than restoration:
Trash holds deleted Gmail and Drive items for a limited period, then purges them permanently. Check the current window in Google's admin documentation — it has changed before and it is shorter than most clients assume.
Admin restore can recover a deleted user's data, but only within a short window after deletion, and only for users. It is not a mechanism for recovering arbitrary files or folders.
Google Vault retains data for eDiscovery and legal hold. It is a compliance and search tool, not a restore tool — it exports data, it does not put it back where it was, and it does not preserve folder structure or sharing permissions.
None of that is Google failing at anything. It is simply not the same product as backup.
What actually goes wrong
Four scenarios, all of which we see reported by MSPs, and none of which native retention handles well.
The departing employee. Someone leaves, and on the way out clears their Drive and a Shared Drive they had edit rights to. Discovered two months later, by which time Trash has long since purged.
Ransomware through Drive sync. A workstation gets encrypted, Drive for Desktop faithfully syncs the encrypted versions to the cloud, and the same happens on every other machine syncing that folder. The sync is working exactly as designed.
The retention policy that did its job. An admin sets a two-year Vault retention rule. Twenty-five months later, someone needs a contract from that period. The policy deleted it correctly.
Shared Drive deletion. A Shared Drive is removed by someone with manager rights. Admin restore covers users, not Shared Drives, and this is the case most third-party tools are weakest on too — worth checking specifically when you evaluate.
What a proper Google Workspace backup covers
The baseline across the market is Gmail, Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts. Some platforms stop short of Shared Drives, which is the gap worth checking first because it is where the collaborative work lives.
Our module covers Gmail, Drive, Shared Drives, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Chat and Meet. You can choose all Shared Drive folders or select specific ones, and exclude deactivated Workspace users so you are not paying licences on people who have left.
There is also a lossless option for Google-native documents. Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings and Forms are backed up preserving their original formatting and structure rather than converting them to Office formats and back — which is where fidelity is usually lost, particularly in Sheets with formulas and Forms with response logic.
Three things worth checking with any vendor, ours included:
- Are Shared Drives included, or extra?
- What happens to Google-native file fidelity on restore?
- Can you restore to a different user, for when the original account is gone?
What Google Workspace backup costs
Wholesale rates for MSPs generally sit between roughly £1 and £4 per user per month. The spread comes from what is bundled: storage allowance, retention length, which workloads are covered, and minimum seat counts.
Ours is £1.20 per user per month, wholesale, all eight data types under one licence. Storage is billed separately on actual usage:
| Item | Price / month |
|---|---|
| Google Workspace user licence | £1.20 |
| Storage — Wasabi London | £0.02/GB (£20 per TB) |
| Storage — Azure UK South | £0.06/GB (£60 per TB) |
| Storage — your own destination | no charge |
No minimum seat count, no minimum term, and restores are not metered.
A worked example
A customer with 40 Google Workspace users holding 300 GB across Gmail and Drive:
| Line | Cost |
|---|---|
| 40 users × £1.20 | £48.00 |
| 300 GB on Wasabi London × £0.02 | £6.00 |
| Total | £54.00 / month |
That is £1.35 per user all in, wholesale. What you charge retail is your decision — most MSPs we work with land between £3 and £5 per user.
You can model your own numbers on the cost calculator, or see every rate on the pricing page.
Where the data sits, and why UK MSPs ask
Storage is in the United Kingdom by default — Wasabi's London region, or Azure UK South if a customer contract names Microsoft specifically.
This matters more than it used to. UK GDPR does not prohibit international transfers, but it does require a lawful transfer mechanism and a documented assessment, and that is administrative work your customer has to do or you have to do for them. Data that never leaves the UK removes the question. For public sector, healthcare and education clients it is often a contractual requirement rather than a preference.
You can also point backups at your own S3-compatible storage, Backblaze B2, your own Azure tenancy, or a NAS in your own rack — in which case there is no storage charge from us at all and the residency question is entirely yours to answer.
Where we're not the right answer
You want Workspace backup inside a single-vendor stack. If backup arriving on the same invoice as your RMM and PSA matters more than pricing flexibility, a bundled platform suits you better than we do.
You need very high backup frequency. Some Workspace-specific tools back up Gmail multiple times an hour. If a client's tolerance is that tight, look at a specialist rather than a general-purpose platform.
You only want a tool for one client. We are a wholesale platform for MSPs building a backup service. For a single Workspace tenant you would be better served buying a per-tenant product directly.
The questions worth asking any vendor
- Are Shared Drives included in the base rate, or a module?
- What is the overage rate once the bundled storage runs out?
- Is there an egress or restore charge?
- What has the renewal increase been for each of the last three years?
- Can I restore a departed user's Drive into a different account?
Get the answers in writing. The headline per-user rate is the part of the contract least likely to surprise you.