G Suite For Education pricing

[Garacesh]

So I've set our school up with GSfE and we've bought a Chromebook to test with only to find out 2 things:

 

Google's 10,000 licenses for Education are user licenses only and do not cover using devices.

Purchasing a Chromebook does not purchase a license to use that Chromebook (to my knowledge, I may be wrong..)

 

So before I get on to Google's sales dept and start the typical run-around, would anybody mind giving me a bit of insight into what we're probably going to be looking at, price-wise? How many devices, whether they're costed by users or device, are they perpetual, device-lifetime, or yearly? etc.

 

We're not dedicated to making the switch, but I just want to get a full picture of what would be the end-result before writing up a proposal.

[mjk]

it's circa £16 for a device license.

You only need it to manage device settings, ie you can still manage user settings on a chromebook without the device license but won't be able to do things link bulk manage network settings etc.

 

The device licenses are perpetual in that they last the lifetime of the device (typically 5yrs) and you only need them for chromebooks.

Edited June 12, 2017 by mjk

[Garacesh]

ie you can still manage user settings on a chromebook without the device license but won't be able to do things link bulk manage network settings etc.

Hm.

It was my understanding that you needed a device license to enrol a chromebook, and it was only by enrolling the device that you could have the device 'unowned' (in a similar fashion to how Windows PC's offer a Username box). Otherwise, the first user to login gets made the 'owner'. At least, that's certainly how it went with my testing.

 

Is the £16-per-device linked to the device? So it's £16 for the lifetime of the device, and then if it breaks and I get it replaced, I have to buy a new license for the new device, or is it $16 for 'a device owned by the organisation' license, that I can take off the [hypothetically broken] device and apply to the [replacement device]?

[j224]

This might help- https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/2717664?hl=en

[mjk]

Hm.

It was my understanding that you needed a device license to enrol a chromebook, and it was only by enrolling the device that you could have the device 'unowned' (in a similar fashion to how Windows PC's offer a Username box). Otherwise, the first user to login gets made the 'owner'. At least, that's certainly how it went with my testing.

 

Is the £16-per-device linked to the device? So it's £16 for the lifetime of the device, and then if it breaks and I get it replaced, I have to buy a new license for the new device, or is it $16 for 'a device owned by the organisation' license, that I can take off the [hypothetically broken] device and apply to the [replacement device]?

That's about right.

 

It depends who owns the device - we have a hundred or so that are unmanaged devices, students own them and login to the domain on them. The school doesn't own or manage the devices but still gets to manage the user settings which is a good compromise. The device license is linked to the physical device but if you replace it with a like for like machine (ie when it's broken) it doesn't cost a license. so in effect the licenses are only £3.5 per year per machine all in. It will only be a problem if you want to replace 100 devices at the same time with a new model.

[Garacesh]

It depends who owns the device - we have a hundred or so that are unmanaged devices, students own them and login to the domain on them. The school doesn't own or manage the devices but still gets to manage the user settings which is a good compromise.

That's not something we'd want to do here.. We'd want our laptops 'ownerless' and fully managed by us. Nice to know this is an option though. Flexibility can't be complained at, I guess.

 

The device license is linked to the physical device but if you replace it with a like for like machine (ie when it's broken) it doesn't cost a license. so in effect the licenses are only £3.5 per year per machine all in. It will only be a problem if you want to replace 100 devices at the same time with a new model.

A reasonably negligible cost, especially when you consider a Chromebook is about £75 cheaper than a Windows laptop on average (at a glance, I've not fully costed it yet).

[fiza]

The licences are £19. As far as I know the licence is for the lifetime of the device but if it breaks and you replace it with the exact same make and model then the licence is transferable but not to a different make or model.

[rogerdnixon]

The headline cost is £19, but we pay £16 - haggle. The licence is associated with the device. If the device breaks, you can deprovision the device and the licence becomes avaliable again, but only for the same model of device.

 

When you enrol a device, the user you use to enrol it goes down on the management console as the user - but this means little and can be changed on the management console. There are two good Google Sheets Add-ons to bulk manage devices - ChromebookInventory and ChromeGopher or you can use the commandline tool GAM. When you enroll a device now, you have the option to put in an Asset ID and a location.

[FN-GM]

Hm.

It was my understanding that you needed a device license to enrol a chromebook, and it was only by enrolling the device that you could have the device 'unowned' (in a similar fashion to how Windows PC's offer a Username box). Otherwise, the first user to login gets made the 'owner'. At least, that's certainly how it went with my testing.

 

Is the £16-per-device linked to the device? So it's £16 for the lifetime of the device, and then if it breaks and I get it replaced, I have to buy a new license for the new device, or is it $16 for 'a device owned by the organisation' license, that I can take off the [hypothetically broken] device and apply to the [replacement device]?

 

If it breaks you can re-assign the licence.

[mowgli82]

I de-provisioned a chromebook then assigned the licence to a "chromeready" box and it worked fine... then assigned it back to the chromebook after i'd finished testing so they can be transferred between device types.... well they could be last year.

[NotSoFast]

I've found the same thing. Sometimes it works, though I suppose you shouldn't count on it.