Google Axes Free Google Apps For Businesses 141
New submitter Macfox writes "In a move to focus on serving small business better, Google has axed the popular free edition of Google Apps for businesses. From Dec 6th, it will not be possible to sign up for the free edition. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Google's senior vice president in charge of Google Apps said Google wants to provide small businesses that use the free version of the software with dedicated customer support — something only paying customers currently get. 'We're not serving them well,' he said of the free users."
Google's blog post notes that "this change has no impact on our existing customers, including those using the free version."
To better serve you... (Score:5, Insightful)
We are now charging you more...
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Yeah, how awful of them to charge some money to host very powerful email servers with antispam, as well as integration with just about every Google service out there. How awful.
Re:To better serve you... (Score:5, Insightful)
I just don't understand why they have to blatantly lie like that. There is nothing wrong which changing your pricing strategies to improve your income. Google even retained the free service for existing users, so it can hardly be seen as a bait and switch
If they had said; "we believe the service is good value at $$ and providing the free service doesn't provide us with enough revenue", I would have completely understood it. Weasel speak was utterly unnecessary in this case and makes me wonder if some people are just so accustomed to lying that they can't avoid it.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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With all due respect it seems your tolerance levels for corporate weasel speak may have become somewhat inflated. It is up to the users, not Google, to decide whether they "weren't properly served". When Google decided to introduce dedicated customer support to all new customers at the expense of $$ they decided this for the users and guess what, they chose the option which made Google more money.
And given that you were planning to expand your use of free GA, you make it clear that you were actually well se
Re:To better serve you... (Score:5, Informative)
Or maybe they did it because their Apps For Business was getting a bad rep from the folks using the free version being unable to get real-human support, getting a bad taste in their mouth over that, making the supported, ad-free, upscale version a harder sell.
In both cases the bottom line is revenue, but in only one case are they lying.
I haven't seen the data. Neither have you; it's all a matter of which preexisting bias we'd prefer to confirm.
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But as a teacher about to move my classes onto GA next semester I am interested to know what extra services they will provide and whether I should get my department to pony up for the business level with support. This would be good for us since the support part has been a real problem for the vast majority of technophobe faculty, or if no exactly phobic then merely confused (sorry, no anecdotes, out of respect for my colleagues).
Re:To better serve you... (Score:5, Interesting)
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This is called being 'grandfathered'. Consider yourself lucky when it happens to you. Bottom-line is if you signed up to the favorable terms on-time, you're in. Otherwise, you're out.
I think I just heard Nelson say "ha ha!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clause [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3gSjHsr1o [youtube.com]
Now unless you want to get yourself soaking wet, step away from that last remaining dry patch of grass, please.
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Why do you think its a lie?
There official blog posts lays out the reasons why they think that the free tier was a bad fit both for most individuals and for most businesses. You may disagree with those reasons, but for them to be a "lie" means that Google doesn't believe them, and you've provided no
Correction: (Score:2)
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I have a feeling people number of people using it for free are greatly reducing the availability of support people to help those who are actually paying for it. As someone who currently uses the free version and wanted to switch over a couple of other domains, I'm less than thrilled, but can understand it. I would have preferred it if they kept it available but said "you get zero support".
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Having used the free version for a number of domains, I was under the impression that the free version had community support as it's only option - ie, you could post about your problems on the forums, but you couldn't raise an issue directly with Google.
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I'm not sure, as I've never needed it. You may be correct, although I think the Google techs usually answer questions in many of their community groups ... not sure about these one though.
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If you get the paid version of Google Apps, you get a support ID number (or something along those lines) and provided with the details of how to contact Google. If you're on the free version, you don't get anything - although as you said, Google employees are often in the forums that you can use.
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Free tier individual users who use it just to have consumer-Google-account-with-Gmail-and-a-custom-domain are definitely clogging up forums for every new consumer feature attached to Google Accounts with complaints that the consumer grade feature isn't available to Google Apps users. Limiting the growth of this problem by shutting off new free Goog
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As far as I know, you can still add multiple domains to your account (I have two)
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The quote you are calling newspeak does not appear (much less, appear as a characterization by Google) in any of the sources cited in TFA.
One of the rare cases where... (Score:4, Interesting)
you aren't the product, you're the customer. A brave new world for Google!
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Re:One of the rare cases where... (Score:5, Informative)
No. They're free of advertising. You can even replace most of the Google logo's with your own corporate logos.
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As a user of Adblock Plus, I did not realize there were ads in gmail until I watched someone else use their email.
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The problem with ABP is that it doesn't filter all those ABP ads^H endorsements
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The administrator can disable the ads on the paid version of the service
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It is both, you're free to use it, but to use it you gotta pay!
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I found the hidden code on the blog... (Score:5, Informative)
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I use apps for business as a family account (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to run all my own email etc. on a server in my house, but a year or so ago I moved it all onto a 'google apps for business' account. Since then, my kids and wife have all started using google stuff much more often and it's hugely useful for us to be able to collect all that under accounts tied to the family google apps domain.
Google should do something family-related in this area, they could cut out 95% of the features of apps for business, but the most useful stuff is creating sites, sharing docs and drive between members and most importantly for me to be able to manage the accounts of all of us. There are alternatives, but this is a nice setup which works well.
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They could also lower the price (not that $50/user/year is much) but they could continue to grow their subscriber base, make some money AND keep people happy.
Re:I use apps for business as a family account (Score:5, Funny)
I would pay money for this.
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You can pay money for this. The problem is that currently it's a bit too much money for a lot of people. The value is very good for what you get, but the price is still high considering that most families don't *need* it. I family pricing plan would be a great idea.
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For a small business it's a godsend.
50$/person/year and you can forget about the hassle of running a mail/calendar/file server.
To beat this I'd have to spend less than 1 hour per person per year managing internal servers.
Of course, keeping your own copies of everything as a backup is just common sense.
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That's good because you'll have to now.
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Indeed. The only functions I use are Gmail, Calendar, and Drive.
Mostly because I don't want to deal with the annoyances of running my own mail server and spam filters.
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Mostly because I don't want to deal with the annoyances of running my own mail server and spam filters.
This. I can pay $10-$15/month for a decent VPS at a reputable host and run my own mail server, but the spam situation is intolerable. If the VPS goes down for whatever reason, I get no mail. Google has damn good spam filters and they handle all the issues related to disaster recovery, failover, etc.
$50/user/year is a bargain for businesses but it a bit steep for personal users. I've used their free service since shortly after it came out (what, in 2006 or something? I don't remember, it's been so long.) whe
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I used to run all my own email etc. on a server in my house, but a year or so ago I moved it all onto a 'google apps for business' account.
A year ago?? Good Lord man, how did you put up with it for so long? I ran my own SMTP server until about 10 years ago but between constant break-in attempts, keeping on top of the latest spam-filtering techniques, outgoing mail not getting delivered because of the # of hosts that just silently drop email from residential IPs... it just wasn't worth it.
Specifically to your post though, with the rate at which they're integrating Google+ and Circles into all their web apps, I imagine that's their solution for
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I'm served just fine by the free Google Apps (Score:4, Interesting)
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So if by charging Google can accelerate improvements to the apps, then
What about families? (Score:5, Informative)
What I'm not entirely clear about is what happens to the middle ground of people who own their own domain and want to be able to have email address for each member of their family linked to the various Google services.
If they are now trying to push those people onto the business tier then a family of 4 with 2 grand-parents each side is going to cost $400 a year - which is way too expensive to properly consider.
(I'm thankful I set my family up several years ago before they reduced the number of users from 50 to 10)
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They will likely point out that you can use any address for a Google Account, not that it helps with Gmail.
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Exactly. If they want people to pay for the service start with something like a flat payment for up to 10 users, say 100$ and any additional user should pay 50$, or something like that.
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If they are now trying to push those people onto the business tier then a family of 4 with 2 grand-parents each side is going to cost $400 a year - which is way too expensive to properly consider.
Well that depends.
$400.00 a year for Email for 8 people with aliases for everyone.
Document sharing, Collaboration between the whole family. Fully integrated with all kinds of useful tools.
Add to that groups and sites if used well is a huge benefit to families.
Then you add to that the calendering and lack of ads and I think that if you can afford it that a good case can be made for its worth.
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When you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad - until you realise that if you can live without 25MB, no adver
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Exactly!
Give us the Gmail app for cheap, leave the rest as an expensive package.
It's not like a few extra records in their mailserver configs to allow mail in/out of our domain name is a terrible drain on their resources. It's the only difference between standard gmail and the one via apps.
Hell, we're the ones who have to set up the MX records properly! They don't even have to do that!
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That's all I use it for, and as I've been on there for years I won't have to pay... yet.
If I did, I'd still use it. It works and I'm happy with it. I would, however, start making use of the other features like drive, simply on the grounds that since I'm paying for it anyway, why not? Which in turn would use more of their resources than - as you say - a couple of extra MX records on top of a standard gmail account.
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It's not really as complicated as that. All I want is for Google to not treat people who own and want to use their own domain for their email address as a business and charge them business rates. Apart from that I'm happy to have all the limitations, advertising, rules and restrictions imposed by the free accounts.
Hell, I probably would be prepared to pay so
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Google doesn't treat those people as businesses, they just doesn't see value in selling to those people unless they want to buy the full range of features that Google offers to business and accept the fact that consumer-oriented services that aren't ready for business users aren't going to be available to them. Just because an interest exists doesn't
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400$/year is for 8 accounts, expensive for that small amount of users. I am all for paying for a good service, but a small tier is needed, as I said on another comment, 100$/year flat amount for the first 10 accounts is more reasonable
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Then maybe they should let us use our own domains for regular gmail accounts? It's not like they are doing anything different.
People flamed me when I warned them about this (Score:5, Informative)
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It's based on a business technique that's as old as the hills: Give away free stuff to crush the competition until people become dependent on your free stuff, then you put on the squeeze. Google is just a private company trying to make money, not freaking Santa Clause
You put on the squeeze by... letting them keep using it for free? No one is being "squeezed" here; people who aren't using it already aren't dependent on it either.
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You can use a workaround (for now) (Score:5, Informative)
I was able to register for a single-user free account this morning by doing this.
http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-apps-free/26926/ [labnol.org]
How to Get the Free Edition of Google Apps
Alternatively, here’s a quick and simple workaround that will still let you sign-up for the free edition of Google Apps even though Google has officially retired the free edition – all you need is a free Gmail or Google account.
Go to appengine.google.com, sign-in with your Google Account and create a new Application. You may fill in any dummy date and click the “Create Application” button.
Open the “Dashboard” and on the next screen, click the link that says “Application Settings.”
Scroll down a little (refer to the video tutorial) and choose “Add Domain” to associate a domain with your App Engine application.
That’s it. Now you should see a special link* to sign-up for the free edition of Google Apps. You may either use your existing domain or buy one through Google Apps.
[*] You have to access this link through App Engine as Google Apps checks the HTTP Referrer information before serving up the sign-up page for the free edition of Google Apps.
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I just did this with a domain I registered a couple weeks ago. I had been meaning to set this new domain up with the free google apps but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Unfortunately, after verifying my domain with them, I see a message at the top of the screen in the dashboard that says, "Free 30 day Google Apps for Business trial", with a link to "Upgrade Now".
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Ok, I think I misunderstood what I was reading: I just checked my other domain on Google Apps that I've had for years, and I see the same message. So I guess it's just an advertisement for the next level of service, not countdown until your account is closed.
Best of the Self Hosting alternates?? (Score:2)
So if somebody wanted to do this themselves is there a way to self host this kind of Integrated Stack??
I like the concept of EyeOS but that seems to be a Dead Project
Personal use? (Score:4, Interesting)
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They call personal use your @gmail.com account, not personal domains
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They call personal use your @gmail.com account, not personal domains
After some searches I think you are right - but I hope you are not! We all know the way this will go "current users are not effected" is followed implicitly with "... yet".
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I think they will have a lot of problems if they try to kill the current Free edition users service. So many things are tied to the Google Account, your Android purchases, your published videos on Youtube, (they add a warning on YouTube about the tie with your domain). Unless they provide an account migration from a Google Apps domain to the free service, they will be hit by a lot of adversity
Note: They did a migration from standard accounts to Google Apps a few years back, but it was very problematic and n
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There is no longer such a thing as a "standard account" or a "google apps account". Quite a while ago Google finally fully integrated all accounts in one central system and also added the capability to be signed-on to multiple accounts (both apps and non-apps accounts as well) at the same time.
Currently I'm logged into four different accounts, one of which is a Google Apps account.
But you will no longer be able to have a domain-mapped account for free.
Customer Service (Score:2)
Well, now they won't be able to serve them at all.
Hobbyist sites (Score:2)
Exactly. I run several hobbyist sites for gaming and such. I don't run ads, I don't charge for it, it's just for fun for games I play. The free version of Google Apps was absolutely perfect for us as a free alternative to paying for hosting our own e-mail services. Plus, everyone was pretty much familiar with the Gmail interface. I've set up several gaming "guilds" with basic sites and e-mail addresses.
Back when you could have up to 50 or so accounts, this was absolutely perfect. When they reduced it
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If you read the blog post, rather than the WSJ article, they go into more depth. They explain both how they feel individuals are generally poorly served by the free tier (which delays their access to consumer-oriented offerings, as Google Apps only gets things when Google thinks they are ready for business customers) and are better served by individual accounts, and why they feel business users are
Prepare....what's next? (Score:2)
How soon for Gmail or other services to follow this route?
Really it's the correct path: give something away free to get clients, then start charging when competitors are mostly dead. No real surprise.
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Yes. Except Gmail is not even the largest email provider - much less the only "alive" one - so this case doesn't fit that prediction at all.
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Sure, not today. But...sooner or later, likely.
Speaking as a keeper of my own email of course. :)
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Smells Like Phase Out (Score:2)
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Corporate Speak (Score:2, Insightful)
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Since even the free tier of Google Apps wasn't an advertising-supported product, that's not hard to do.
It was designed as a non-time-limited starter option for business users, but it attracted a lot of consumer users who would then complain on the support forums -- not just the Google Apps support forums but those for each new consume
Where's the replacement? (Score:1)
Great Service But Expensive for Small Businesses (Score:5, Insightful)
As a web designer I have always recommended customers use Google Apps for their Email instead of the web host, CPanel or whatever.
Lots of benefits.
- Apps interface way better than whatever most typical hosts offer.
- If the host goes offline your email still works.
- Great mobile support.
- List goes on.
However most small businesses spend maybe $10-$15 / month on web hosting (Dreamhost, GoDaddy, most Cpanel hosts etc..).
And they might have 5-10 email accounts which you can always setup free at the host.
So $50/year per email account on Google Apps is suddenly WAY OUT OF THE BALLPARK. A small busness with 10 email accounts would be paying Google $500 / year for Email .. and only $120 / year for Web Hosting which always includes Email (albeit not as good).
It should be ~ $50 / year for a Google Apps account that supports 10 users ... that is market bearable for a small business who's pricing expectations are set by the shared hosting company.
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The big problem here is that Google is commingling all their services and there is only one level of payment, for example, they announced a few days ago the distribution of Android applications for your business using the Google Play infrastructure, for that, you need a Google Apps domain, so If you have all other services covered, for example you have your email infrastructure already in place (where you can have intranet only email accounts and public accounts something impossible with Google Apps) then y
Better serving you?... really Slashdot? (Score:2)
Perhaps the author of the summary to exercise a bit more "journalistic integrity"....
Good timing, with the postini shutdown looming. (Score:1)
I'm curious how this will affect businesses that are currently using postini. Since google is moving postini functionality into google apps, does this mean a business will now have to sign up for google apps to continue using any postini features?
It seems that google has been fairly quiet about exactly what the postini shutdown means for business, and I've only found vague talk of how a business is supposed to transition to google to continue the service. Especially businesses that do not use gmail, but use
The first one is always free (Score:2)
Just like drug dealers.
Seeing the words "Google" and "customer support" in the same sentence is amusing.
Net loss for Google (Score:1)
I think that this move will not bring the intended effect on Google's bottom line. The core user that is affected by this change is the enthusiast, setting up a custom domain for email for their family, opensource project, etc. This enthusiast user was advocating the Google services. I count myself as one such user whose recommendations has led at least 3 new small business customers for Google. Also their decisions to use Android over the competing platforms.
Now Google loses all of that. And since it is hi
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Agreed.
I've recommended Google Apps to countless users. Some of them even eventually upgraded to paying. Most now use Chrome and all the other Google ecosystem stuff.
Now that you have to pay up front I will no longer recommend Google Apps. Because it's so expensive comparatively speaking it's not an easy sell.
You have 10 email accounts and now have to pay $250+ / year.
Should be a bundle plan ... 10 users for $50 / year. I'd consider continuing to recommend that.
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The service is not particularly good (Score:2)
Sure the mail is relatively reliable the the control tools fairly simple to use. A lot of hassles are taken out of my hands definitely.
However when there is an actual genuine issue, getting them to look at it, it's not a quick fix. It took a 50-> 100 reply thread, nearly a year before they finally fixed up the 'last logged in' display time in the console so you could actually identify when users were using the system or not. It was set to a US based time if I recall, despite Googles other services s
Thanks for screwing over small teams and community (Score:2)
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Absolute worst case it will eventually mean spending a couple hundred dollars a year. If your one man show makes any money this will be the least of your worries.
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I know they offer a lot of cool stuff, for free/cheap... just the same, when they make it nearly impossible to get someone on the phone it really hurts as a customer, especially a paying one.
Bearing in mind, using cloud services in general gives me pause and concern... it really takes a new level of trust in those cases.
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Right, because the common phrase is "broke like Google", not "fat Google money".
Oh, wait...