Adding a domain vs. signing up for another account

When choosing how to use your domains with Google services, consider these options.

Single identity—You provision all users in a single domain.
Multidomain—You can provision accounts both in a primary domain and in secondary domains.
Separate accounts (not recommended)—You can spread users across multiple Google accounts.

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The following sections list and describe the domain design options, including the pros and cons, and feature comparison.

Pros and cons

	Pros	Cons
Single identity	Single branding for the entire company No multidomain limitations Users can receive mail at alias addresses.	Users cannot sign in using secondary domains. Users who want to use an alias from a secondary domain can use this identity for sending email only—not calendar invites or doc sharing—a user with alternative branding can send mail using “send as” but cannot send cal invites or doc sharing. If mail is sent from an alias or nickname, the recipient can determine the primary identity in the headers. Potential conflicts can arise if a user in a secondary domain has the same username as a user in the primary domain.
Multi-domain	A user in a secondary domain can have the same username as a user in the primary domain without causing any conflict. Users can sign in and have an identity at a primary or secondary domain. Users at secondary domains can send email, calendar invites, and doc sharing from their identity at that domain.	Administration restricted per account Multidomain limitations may apply. If a user in a secondary domain and a user in the primary domain have the same user name, it is not flagged. Users can sign in and have an external identity at the required domain.
Separate accounts (not recommended)	Multidomain limitations—for example, the following features are supported for the primary domain only: Custom logo Domain aliases You cannot restrict sharing to the users in a single domain. No support for delegating administration by domain	No “trust” relationship between accounts—you must set other collaboration services, such as Drive, Sites, Meet, and so on to be shared externally. Multiple consoles required for administration Overhead when moving a user between domains No central booking for shared calendar resources Each account maintains a separate Global Address List Email delegation available for “local” users only

Note:

For all domain designs, aliases are optional based on customer need.
For single identity and separate accounts designs, secondary domains are optional based on customer need.
Find more details on multidomain support here.

Compare features

	Single identity	Multidomain	Separate accounts
Admin experience
Single administration console	Yes	Yes	No
Overhead when transferring a user between domains	Low	Low	High
Sync tool instances required (e.g., GADS, GAPS, GCC)	Single	Single	Multiple
Potential namespace collisions if consolidating domains	Yes	No	No
Involves multi-domain complexities	No	Yes	No
User experience
Central book for shared calendar resources	Yes	Yes	No
Collaboration functionality among coworkers	Best	Best	Limited
Single corporate GAL	Yes	Yes	Difficult
Email delegation available between coworkers	Yes	Yes	Limited
User ability to have external identity at secondary domain (i.e., send email, cal invites, doc sharing messages)	Email only	Yes	Yes

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Adding a domain vs. signing up for another account

Compare options

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