Cold Emailing
Feb 19, 2026
CEO and co-founder
Cold Email Without Google Workspace: Step-by-Step Migration Guide for Agencies
Updated January 14, 2026
TL;DR: Scaling cold email on Google Workspace creates a linear cost trap that eats agency margins. At 50 inboxes, you're paying $350-420/month for infrastructure alone. Migrating to flat-rate dedicated infrastructure drops that to $129/month for unlimited inboxes, and automated DNS configuration eliminates hours of manual setup work. The migration takes 2-4 weeks including warmup, and you don't need technical DNS expertise. We walk you through the exact process: auditing your current domains, provisioning new inboxes with automated DNS, exporting credentials to your sending platform, and managing the warmup transition without client disruption.
If your Google Workspace bill climbs every time you land a new client, you're experiencing the cost trap that kills agency margins. Adding a 10-inbox client immediately adds $70-84/month in infrastructure costs before you send a single email. Scale to 100 inboxes across your client base and infrastructure costs hit $700-840/month, consuming 2.5-3.0% of billings and squeezing net margins below 1.5%.
For agencies running 50-200 domains, Google Workspace is no longer a viable infrastructure partner for cold email. This guide covers the exact steps to migrate your cold email operation to dedicated infrastructure. We're talking specifically about burner domains used for outbound campaigns. Keep your primary agency inbox on Google Workspace or Outlook.
The math behind the migration: Why Google Workspace kills agency margins
Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7.00 per user per month with annual billing, or $8.40/month on flexible monthly plans. That sounds reasonable until you start multiplying.
Inbox Count | Google Workspace (Annual) | Google Workspace (Monthly) | Inframail Unlimited |
|---|---|---|---|
50 inboxes | $350/month | $420/month | $129/month |
100 inboxes | $700/month | $840/month | $129/month |
200 inboxes | $1,400/month | $1,680/month | $129/month |
The problem is linear scaling. Landing a new client with 15 sending domains adds $105-126/month in infrastructure costs before you write a single email sequence.
Use our email sending capacity calculator to model these costs for your specific client load.
Agency founders who've made the switch report immediate margin impact:
"So affordable that it will make your unit economics work, even for lower ticket b2b businesses like ours" - Verified user review of Inframail
Dedicated infrastructure vs. Google Workspace: What you are actually buying
Google Workspace is built for business productivity, not high-volume cold outreach across hundreds of burner domains.
When you use Google Workspace for cold email, you're sending from shared IP pools. Postmark's infrastructure guide explains that shared IP addresses pool everyone's reputation together. If another sender on your shared pool engages in poor practices, your deliverability suffers as a consequence.
The "noisy neighbor" problem is real. Litmus research confirms that with shared IPs, one bad actor spamming gets the whole range flagged. Your campaigns suffer because of someone else's behavior.
Dedicated cold email infrastructure works differently:
Dedicated IPs: Your sending behavior alone determines ESP trust. No contamination from other users.
Automated DNS: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records configure automatically without manual panel work.
Flat-rate pricing: Your cost doesn't scale linearly with inbox count.
Built for volume: The infrastructure assumes you're sending thousands of cold emails daily.
Watch our dedicated IP vs shared IP pools comparison for a detailed breakdown of how this affects your campaigns.
Step-by-step: How to migrate from Google Workspace to dedicated infrastructure
The migration follows four phases over 2-4 weeks. Each phase builds on the previous one, and the overlap strategy ensures zero client campaign downtime.
Phase 1: Auditing your current domain health and reputation
Before transferring anything, check which domains are worth keeping. Migrating a blacklisted domain to new infrastructure doesn't fix the blacklist.
Run these checks on every domain:
MXToolbox Blacklist Check: MXToolbox scans major blacklist databases to see if your sending IP or domain has been flagged.
Google Postmaster Tools: If you're sending to Gmail addresses, Google Postmaster shows your domain reputation score, spam rate, and authentication status.
Spamhaus lookup: Check if your domain appears on Spamhaus lists, which many ESPs reference.
According to Cleverly's domain reputation guide, you should check reputation weekly and keep bounce rates under 2% and spam complaints under 0.1% to maintain healthy scores.
Decision framework for each domain:
Domain Status | Action | Real Cost |
|---|---|---|
Clean (no blacklists, good reputation) | Transfer to new infrastructure | $0 |
Minor blacklists (1-2, delisting possible) | Request delisting, then transfer | $0, but 2-3 day delay |
Major blacklists or burned reputation | Retire domain, purchase new | $16.44/domain |
For domains with questionable history, buying fresh domains through your new platform often costs less than the time spent rehabilitating damaged ones. Our guide to custom domains covers domain selection best practices.
Phase 2: Provisioning dedicated inboxes without manual DNS work
This is where the time savings compound. Manual DNS configuration is the bottleneck that keeps agencies stuck.
According to DMarcly's setup guide, achieving a basic DMARC, DKIM, and SPF setup takes approximately 1 hour per domain with permissive settings. For 50 domains, that adds up to significant DNS panel work.
You add domains through our dashboard and we auto-configure MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records in seconds. Our getting started guide walks through the complete workflow.
"InfraMail makes it remarkably easy to purchase domains, configure them correctly, create inboxes, and initiate warm-up immediately. The level of automation is exceptional." - Verified user review of Inframail
Watch our SPF, DKIM, DMARC setup tutorial to see the 2-minute setup process for 10+ inboxes. Our full platform walkthrough covers the complete automation flow from signup to Instantly import.
DNS propagation timing:
According to WhatIsMyDNS monitoring data, DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48-72 hours, depending on your DNS provider and record types. Plan for 24-48 hours before all records propagate globally. Google Workspace Admin Help recommends DKIM and SPF should authenticate messages for at least 48 hours before enabling DMARC enforcement.
"I personally have over 1,000 email accounts with Inframail for one flat price. Adding all those records would have probably taken dozens of hours. Instead all records were added within 10 minutes." - Verified user review of Inframail
Phase 3: Exporting credentials to your sending platform
Once your inboxes are provisioned, you need to connect them to your sending platform. We generate IMAP/SMTP credentials for each inbox and let you export them in bulk to CSV format.
For Instantly.ai: Navigate to Email Accounts, click "Add New" then "Connect existing accounts," select "Any provider IMAP/SMTP," choose "Bulk import from CSV," and upload your exported CSV with IMAP/SMTP credentials. See Instantly's bulk import documentation for required column formats.
For Smartlead.ai: Open Email Accounts, click "Add Account(s)," download the CSV template, fill in account details, and upload your file. Smartlead's bulk add documentation outlines the complete process.
Our help article on changing sender names and downloading CSV files covers the export process in detail. Our platform compatibility guide confirms integration with major sending tools.
Phase 4: The warmup and transition period
You cannot blast 1,000 emails per day from a brand new inbox. ESPs flag that behavior immediately. The warmup period is non-negotiable.
According to Smartlead's warmup guide, email address warmup typically takes around 14-30 days. Saleshandy research recommends 3-4 weeks for optimal results.
Recommended warmup schedule:
Week | Daily Send Volume | Action |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 | 30-50 emails | Warmup only, no client campaigns |
Week 2 | 50-100 emails | Start client campaigns at low volume |
Week 3 | 100-150 emails | Ramp to moderate client volume |
Week 4+ | Full capacity | Full client volume |
The domain warmup deep dive explains that warmup periods typically last 15-60 days depending on your target sending volume.
The overlap strategy: Keep your Google Workspace accounts running during the 2-3 week warmup period. Your existing campaigns continue uninterrupted while new infrastructure warms up. Once the new inboxes hit stable deliverability, migrate campaigns one client at a time.
Our warmup guide for migrating accounts provides platform-specific instructions. The Ultimate Cold Email Infrastructure Guide covers the complete warmup process visually.
"I've been using Inframail for a couple of months and the experience has been really good. I can set-up inboxes in 5mins while saving money on Google Workspace subscriptions and benefit from great deliverability." - Verified user review of Inframail
Managing deliverability on dedicated IPs Inframail has 38 5-star reviews on Trustpilot.
Dedicated IPs mean you own your reputation completely. On shared IP pools, bad actors hurt everyone. On dedicated IPs, only your behavior matters.
Monitor these metrics weekly to protect client retention and avoid emergency weekend domain rotations:
Bounce rate: Keep under 2%
Spam complaints: Keep under 0.1%
Reply rate: According to Instantly's cold email benchmarks, a good cold email reply rate is 5-10% for most B2B teams
Open rate: 40-60% indicates good inbox placement
Our guide to identifying spam issues covers these key metrics in depth. For common SMTP issues, we maintain troubleshooting documentation.
Our deliverability monitoring dashboard tracks domain and IP health with blacklist monitoring. We auto-submit delisting requests when domains are flagged. Our phantom redirects feature hides domain redirects from ESPs for additional protection.
"All of my campaigns on Inframail are on a >10% reply rate, which is really good. The team also responded very quick in the support chat to answer my questions." - Verified user review of Inframail
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis: 50 vs. 200 inboxes
Here's the complete breakdown including all costs.
50 inbox scenario:
Cost Category | Google Workspace (Annual) | Inframail |
|---|---|---|
Platform/hosting | $350/month | $129/month |
Domains (5-6 domains @ $16.44/year) | $8.22/month amortized | $8.22/month amortized |
Monthly Total | $428.22/month | $137.22/month |
Annual Total | $5,138.64 | $1,646.64 |
200 inbox scenario:
Cost Category | Google Workspace (Annual) | Inframail |
|---|---|---|
Platform/hosting | $1,400/month | $129/month |
Domains (20-25 domains @ $16.44/year) | $34.25/month amortized | $34.25/month amortized |
Monthly Total | $1,714.25/month | $163.25/month |
Annual Total | $20,571 | $1,959 |
At $3,000/month average client retainer and 10 clients sharing 200 inboxes, your infrastructure cost-per-client drops from $171.43/month on Google Workspace to just $16.33/month with flat-rate infrastructure. That's about 0.5% of billings instead of 2.5-3.0%.
According to average domain pricing research, you can expect to pay $16.44 per year for standard .com registrations.
Make the switch and protect your margins
Every month you stay on Google Workspace for cold email costs you $3,492 extra per year at 50 inboxes, and over $18,612 at 200 inboxes.
The migration takes 2-4 weeks with proper warmup. You don't need DNS expertise. The overlap strategy ensures zero client campaign downtime. And once you're on flat-rate infrastructure with dedicated IPs, adding clients improves your margin instead of squeezing it.
"One of the best mailbox infra vendors I have ever used super easy and quick setup and support is practically 24/7 with at max a 2min wait to get a question answered." - Verified user review of Inframail
Sign up to Inframail and get started today. Watch our step-by-step setup tutorial for a complete walkthrough, or explore our FAQ documentation for detailed answers.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my emails stored in Google Workspace?
No. Changing MX records doesn't delete existing emails. During migration, keep GWS running so you can access historical correspondence.
How long does the complete migration take?
The technical setup takes a few hours with automated tools. The warmup period adds 2-3 weeks before you can send at full volume. Plan for 4 weeks total from start to full production sends.
Do I need technical DNS skills?
No. With automated DNS configuration, we handle SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup without manual DNS panel work. You don't need to log into registrar dashboards to create TXT records.
What happens if my new domains get blacklisted?
Our monitoring dashboard tracks blacklist status and we auto-submit delisting requests. You can also use MXToolbox for independent verification.
Can I migrate just some domains to test first?
Yes. Start with 10-20 domains on month-to-month billing to validate deliverability before committing your full domain portfolio. Use the overlap strategy to run both systems simultaneously while testing.
Key terms glossary
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A DNS record that lists which IP addresses can send emails for your domain. Receiving servers check SPF to verify the sender is legitimate. Think of it as a guest list that tells email servers which senders are authorized.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): A digital signature attached to each outgoing email that proves the message wasn't altered in transit. Uses cryptographic keys stored in your DNS that match keys on your sending server.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance): Tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks. You can set it to reject suspicious mail, quarantine it, or deliver it anyway.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): The protocol that lets email programs retrieve and read messages from a mail server. Keeps emails stored on the server so you can access them from multiple devices.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The protocol used for sending emails from your email program to servers, and between servers. This is the outbound delivery mechanism.
Dedicated IP: An IP address used exclusively by your organization for sending emails. Your reputation depends only on your own sending behavior, not other users sharing the same IP.
