Ask HN: Worthwhile replacement for Google suite free edition

What's wrong with Google Workspace Business Starter? $72 a year for each real user sounds very reasonable for what you get (30 email aliases I think, 30GB of storage, no migration to do) and HN comments always warn about free services. For people that have their extended family and friends on their G Suite account, can't you ask them to pay if they want to keep the custom domain?

Since you are looking for an alternative instead of paying for Google Workplace does that mean there is a requirement for the replacement to be free?

Zoho has worked well for me for years.