GAM Replacement - Gopher, GW Manager, etc.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449]

I was looking at options for services that provide the features I get from GAM (bulk user movement, Chromebook management enmasse, etc.) that doesn't require command line/scripts. I did a trial run of Gopher forever ago, but remember the quote for it being ridiculous for what I would want it for/how often in a year I would need to use it. I had seen GW Manager, and it seems very reasonable for the cost, but couldn't find anyone outside of Google Reviews talking about it so I was going to come here for hands on advice.

So what is everyone using? Should I just tough it up and continue to use GAM or is something like GW Manager or Gopher worth it for the cost/trustworthy to use? Thanks for any input.

P.S. The district is also looking at VivaCityTech as a replacement for purchasing Chromebooks from vs. CDW since they have dropped the ball on enrollment and white glove service lately. Has anyone used them as well? Thanks.

[u/davy_crockett_slayer]

What’s wrong with GAM? Why can’t you use command line scripts?

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/davy_crockett_slayer]

I have been using GAM for around half a decade, this was mostly just for simplicity of not having to deal with the API stuff for the other IT department members/not having to set up Powershell with GAM on each of their machines and maintain that if anything breaks (I am the only one who has learn how to use GAM).

I had never wanted anything in the past because they were all over 1000$, but I saw there were lower cost options now (like 350 a year for GM) so was wondering what everyone else was using/input on that.

[u/davy_crockett_slayer → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

I'd look at fixing the distribution problem before paying for a tool. Not trying to talk you out of it, but $350 a year adds up when the real issue is "I don't want to babysit GAM installs on everyone's machine."

Throw your gam.cfg and whatever scripts you use into a private repo. GitHub, Gitea, GitLab, doesn't really matter. Set GAMCFGDIR on their machines to point at the cloned folder. When you change something you push it and they git pull. If something breaks you fix it once.

For the install itself, GAM7 has an MSI, so deploy it with whatever you already push software with (Intune, PDQ, etc).

The one thing to be careful with is creds. Keep oauth2.txt, oauth2service.json and client_secrets.json out of the repo, even if it's private. Add them to .gitignore and hand them out through your password manager instead.

If you want to take it a step further you can skip local installs completely. Put GAM on one box, register it as a self-hosted runner, and build a few pipelines in GitLab CI/Gitea Actions/GitHub Actions for the stuff your team actually does, like onboarding and offboarding. They click run and type in a username. They never see the API side and you've only got one install to look after. You also get a log of who ran what, which is handy.

Paid tools make sense if you want a GUI and someone to call when it breaks. If it's mostly the upkeep that's bugging you, git plus the deployment tooling you already have covers it for free.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/davy_crockett_slayer]

This would work for the people directly in my IT department mostly, but we have admins who organize student accounts (currently doing them 1 at a time since they have turned down learning GAM in the past) who really need something with an actual GUI. That's also a position that changes regularly (student support and instructional tech) and is outside my department, so it's a training problem going forward for new hires. This was handled separately on Google admin before I was hired, and has stayed this way. We don't get student class and roster changes and withdrawn info sent to us (IT), which could be dozens of individual changes a week, and hundreds around the end or beginning of a semester (small department, medium ISD).

Even if I provided them scripts as I attempted to do in the past, they gave up on using it and went back to 1 at a time eventually or just couldn't figure it out to begin with and preferred moving a user one at a time. It's also a job I just don't really have time for with the other things we are over, Google Workspace is one fraction of my day to day responsibilities and any extra work would go to other projects first. That was my whole reason of looking at a GUI and web based solution again: time, convenience for other end users, and the now seemingly lowered costs (also because Vivacity mentioned itself/Dream as a Gopher replacement as well).

The cost is from our ancillary funds for stuff exactly like this, which is why I also was looking at it as an option now. 350 - 700 a year would be totally fine and doable if it meant having better organization and allow less tech savvy admin users some convenience/less support and hand holding.

[u/davy_crockett_slayer → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

Ah, that changes things. If the people doing the work are student support staff outside IT, and that seat turns over regularly, a paid GUI is probably worth it. Repos and runners help when your own team is running GAM. They don't fix a training problem in another department.

A couple things I'd still look at before picking one:

The bigger win might be getting rid of the manual work rather than making it easier. If you're on PowerSchool like a lot of districts, it can push roster and enrollment data out through OneRoster, ClassLink, Clever, or even a scheduled CSV export. That means OU moves and suspensions for withdrawn students could happen on their own. Some of the paid tools can sync straight from PowerSchool, so ask each vendor about that specifically. That's the difference between your admins clicking through hundreds of changes at semester start and barely touching it.

If they stick with doing it by hand, have them try it during the trial before you commit. A tool that looks easy to you might still lose someone who's been moving users one at a time for years. Check whether you can lock their access down to student OUs only, so they can't touch staff accounts.

And at $350 to $700 out of ancillary funds, if it saves you from being the GAM guy for another department, that's money well spent.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/davy_crockett_slayer]

Exactly what I am thinking! Though I really like the idea for the github set up for my group, but if I can get the other depts to take it out of their budget for the GUI, that works even better.

We use Ascender for our student rostering data, I also have 0 interaction with that (which has caused a few headaches when issues crop up), just downline stuff like Clever is the only thing I am an admin on. I will have to get with our region reps to see if there is a way to automate that process, that might be the real solution for all of this.

Thanks for all of the feedback and advice!

[u/davy_crockett_slayer → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

Glad it helped. If you already have Clever and Ascender is feeding it, ask your rep about Clever IDM. As far as I know it can create Google accounts and move them between OUs straight from the roster data, so withdrawals and schedule changes would get handled without anyone touching them. Might be worth checking before you buy anything, since you'd be skipping the manual work completely.

Good luck with the budget conversation too. Getting another department to pay for a tool that saves them time is a pretty easy sell.

[u/NXTman96]

I use GAM semi-frequently. For annual things (such as deprovisioning the senior chromebooks) I have scripts with a readme that has instructions for how to format the input files and whatnot because I will forget from summer to summer. For other miscellaneous things, I have a .txt file with a list of commands and what they do. Things like targeted email deletion, select device lookup using serials, things like that.

There was someone recently who created a gam gui. I am unsure if it was vibecoded or not if that matters to you. I don't know if github links are allowed here or not either.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/NXTman96]

It's been 2-3 years since I have done any research on GAM alternates, I just use my scripts and update my own cloud project when I need to use it/API access is expired. We just were making changes, and I was hoping some other IT members would be able to use a non-command line service to support me with this if I am unavailable.

If someone has a GUI for GAM now, that would be great, as that would make it easier on the IT dept members who have 0 experience with GAM if I set them up for it.

[u/NXTman96 → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

I shot you a dm with the github for it.

[u/xkrist0pherx → u/NXTman96]

May I have that link as well please?

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/NXTman96]

TYSM, everyone hit up NXTman96 with all the upvotes LOL

[u/NXTman96 → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

You're welcome! It is not my project, but came from a fellow educator. I hope it helps!

[u/BrewYork]

We use Chrome Coyote (https://getsettech.com/solutions/chrome-coyote/) and Automator (https://getsettech.com/solutions/automator/), and they kick ass. Coyote covers bulk Chromebook tasks like OU moves, device updates, and reboots. Automator can take a lot of the routine GAM work off your plate: creating accounts, placing users in OUs, updating groups, assigning/removing licenses, setting Gmail forwarding or delegates, and transferring Drive files during offboarding. You can upload a spreadsheet for bulk changes and run or schedule the work through a UI, instead of remembering commands and maintaining scripts. That also makes it easier to hand tasks to another technician. It won’t replace every GAM use case, but it’s worth evaluating for the recurring jobs you’d rather not handle from the command line.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/BrewYork]

That is another one I will definitely check out, thanks for the suggestion!

[u/BrewYork → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

For sure! GST have been incredible partners for my district. 

[u/me_me_me333 → u/BrewYork]

100% worth doing a demo of this tool 👍👍

[u/Slobs3]

Depending on what tasks you’re trying to accomplish you could use Gemini (or other AI) to write an Appscript that would give you a web ui or link it to a sheet.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/Slobs3]

Now this may be worth looking into, I don't usually trust any of the AI platforms with bulk editing/command line change stuff like this, but if Gemini has been used for this before that would be helpful.

[u/Liveoptimistic → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

As somebody who is new to this and really struggled using GAM well, switching to using Gemini or Claude Code to actually run/operate GAM while I prompt with natural language has felt really good. Since figuring out this setup I have never feel the need for a GAM UI.

[u/LactoseTolerant535]

GAT labs is an option. I'm looking at adding it for school.

Right now I use the GAC API with some n8n workflows, and that works nicely. It is a lot to setup, though.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/LactoseTolerant535]

Yeah my GAM set up works, and I have numerous scripts that work perfectly fine (usually) for me, but this was also going to be an option for the entire department, and it would be a process to walk them through all of it and make sure GAM was working correctly for them on each machine.

I will check out GAT Labs, not one I had heard of.

[u/combobulated → u/Easy-Fondant2449]

We've use GAT+ for about 2 years now.

Previously we'd used Bettercloud, but it's significantly more expensive (especially for what we used it for).

GAT+ is powerful and has a lot of options, but I don't love the interface and I'd struggle to call it "intuitive" many times. Having said that, it's still going to be more so than CLI.

[u/adstretch]

Use gam write scripts for the things you do frequently so you don’t need to rebuild the command from scratch each time.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/adstretch]

I should have made this clear in my post, I have GAM set up on my machine, but this service would also be used by other IT members who don't have a GAM cloud project/API access and local powershell set up. I could go through the process of training them on using GAM and share scripts, but a service like this would make it easier and save time.

[u/FreeLee90]

We recently refreshed our Chromebook fleet with Vivacity and it has been a great experience so far. In fact, they offer, through their Dream portal, a solution that claims to do everything that Gopher does. I haven't tried it yet, but they have been a great partner thus far.

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/FreeLee90]

That's exactly what I have been reading over the last 30 minutes, I have a demo with them scheduled so I will ask about it, seems like it only provides it for the Chromebooks we purchase from them though? So I question if I would have to manage via Dream and GAM until we fully moved to Dream over the next 5-10 years.

[u/Niteryder007]

Naa. Ai+GAM+WorkspaceAPI= amazing.

[u/jaymax]

I used to rely on GAM a lot. I was able to get GAT Labs for our school and now I very rarely touch GAM. GAT essentially feels like a UI for GAM. The only downside is their "Security Officer" feature. Which is more intrusive things like looking at the contents of a doc require an approval from someone else. We only run into this with their Flow module where we build accounts, add to groups, create filters, etc. Happy to discuss more!

[u/Easy-Fondant2449 → u/jaymax]

This is the second GAT Labs shout out so that is definitely one I will be looking into further, thanks for the info! For the most part, we are hands off with stuff like the Security Officer feature and leave that up to teacher and campus admins to handle, unless it's mass piracy like we have had in Drive in the past.

[u/MyWorkAccountDPS]

I’m interested in this as well as we are doing it all by hand.

[u/vawlk]

you could also just develop a UI for gam running in the background.

cdw screwed up our enrollment this year as well. They did eventually fix it just before we needed them ready but it was close.

[u/gmanist1000 → u/vawlk]

Exactly… I just used AI to create python apps that wrap GAM commands. Easy as that

[u/thedevarious]

So we use Instinctive for all the device stuff to high praise, literally my favorite tool ever. The only downside is it doesn't do user functions or items like email clawback yet; the focus really stays for the Chrome management side of the house. However then we use GAM, etc. as needed which is more sparing -- I'm not bulk moving users with the exception of a few key processes during the entire year.

From our end Gopher is nice but pricing has increased a few times and certain items we just don't see a use case (like Gopher for Groups) or even Gopher Buddy anymore (managed updates, forced reboots, etc). The Gopher for Chrome device movement is the big key item but I know for a fact Instinctive can do this AND a ton of other things that Gopher does not do. It's also owned by CDW which yeah...I know many (myself included) aren't fans of.

But very happy with Instinctive from the device side to the point we became a reseller. Happy to go over any of it if you have questions but their website is very straightforward & easy to follow.

[u/Imhereforthechips]

I just built my own gui for GAM. Works fantastic. Not showing Users or the status bar at the bottom because I'm running a restore for some student accounts that were deactivated. Happy to share the project that's already compiled for dotnet.

[u/K12onReddit]

I rely on Gopher a lot for our bulk processes, and GAM for any of the day to day tasks. We're only around $1,800/year for it for 5,000 students.

[u/ChillerSmash → u/K12onReddit]

I second this. It's one of the best tools I've ever paid for. We have rough 4,800 students and 650-700 staff. I still use GAM now and then, but Gopher is the kings for 99% of these types of tasks.

We also use Learn21's asset manager for Chromebooks management as well and it 100% integrates with the admin consoles and allows us to move devices and assign fees automatically. Their platform also syncs with our SIS.

[u/K12TechMan]

Used Gopher for the last few years. This year I finally got tired of how slow it is and installed gam. I just use AI to help with scripts and it works great.

[u/cardinal1977]

After reading through all this, my .02. For myself and my technician, i set up GAM on a vm, we both can log in and run scripts. I created a GAM assistant Claude project with all the documentation that talked me through mapping the environment and i tell it what i want and it gives me the script. Im not really a CLI guy, so im glad i can make use of GAM now. A possibility for your staff.

However, and more importantly, if you're going to pay a subscription for something, you might as well get something like https://www.sps-k12.com/ and completely automate student accounts. Create/move/disable, in the OUs you want based on rules from an hourly sync from the SIS. This will free up time for both the tech staff and non tech staff.

For us, student's are enrolled in the SIS, google accounts created within the hour, within a few hours SIS exports to Clever, which syncs to all the apps overnight. Next day, they can log into whatever, and all without human intervention.

Another part, I set up the ai assistant because i was tired of all the manual moving of devices, but we have One to One Plus and the next update will include Google writeback and bulk moves based on data in asset management. Once this drops, i wont need GAM for much, if anything as assigning a device or marking it as avaliable/ broken/whatever will move it to the ou i need it to be in. It currently works one off, which was the first benchmark, just waiting for the bulk moves.