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Google Axes Free Google Apps For Businesses

Posted by Soulskill on from the bringing-home-the-bacon dept.

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."

25 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. To better serve you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We are now charging you more...

    1. Re:To better serve you... by GauteL · · 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.

    2. Re:To better serve you... by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's hardly lying. You might just about get away with calling it spinning, but even so.

      It would have been lying if Google had said "To better serve you, we're removing the following features of the free Google Apps", or "To better serve you, we're now restricting free apps accounts to three users". But saying "To better serve you, we're eliminating a free service so that we can get the revenues necessary to support the product properly", that's entirely fair.

      Disclaimer: I'm sortadisappointed by this, I'm a free GA user myself and planned to use it for other projects/domains. Glad I get to keep what I have, but still.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:To better serve you... by mattiaza · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't think it's a blatant lie. I think it's more to do with expectation management. Many people still expect customer support for free services, and get upset if their calls or emails are ignored - which is much more expensive than running the web service itself. There was a Slashdot discussion about a similar problem at an Open Source company last month: http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/11/26/2345214/ask-slashdot-troubling-trend-for-open-source-company No matter how many disclaimers you put on your website or how many times you repeat the "support costs extra", many free users are still upset at you, and will complain about it on the internet.

    4. Re:To better serve you... by cduffy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google did this to increase their profits for the benefit of their share holders and employees. There is nothing wrong with it, but they should have called the spade a spade.

      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.

  2. One of the rare cases where... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you aren't the product, you're the customer. A brave new world for Google!

    1. Re:One of the rare cases where... by SirGarlon · · Score: 2

      Do the paid Google Apps have advertising? (If so, you can be both!)

      --
      [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    2. Re:One of the rare cases where... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      No. They're free of advertising. You can even replace most of the Google logo's with your own corporate logos.

    3. Re:One of the rare cases where... by dodgerfan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes. As a paid subscriber, we have the ability to turn off ads in Gmail.

      --
      Work smarter, not harder.
    4. Re:One of the rare cases where... by robmv · · Score: 2

      The administrator can disable the ads on the paid version of the service

  3. I found the hidden code on the blog... by Kingkaid · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google's blog post notes that "this change has no impact on our existing customers, including those using the free version."

  4. I use apps for business as a family account by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    1. Re:I use apps for business as a family account by m.ducharme · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would pay money for this.

      --
      Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
    2. Re:I use apps for business as a family account by tobiasly · · Score: 2

      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 families who want to have "trusted groups" of users. Yeah you don't have the admin control though which is a shame.

  5. I'm served just fine by the free Google Apps by dodgerfan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have been a free Google Apps user for years and I've never had any issues with it. The lack of support hasn't ever bothered me. I've helped several other people sign up for the free version as well and no support has ever been needed for them either. This is just a case where the free version was good enough and was keeping people for signing up for the paid version. It's always about the money. They have been thinking about killing this service for while now. When I originally signed up, I had access to 100 address. Soon after the limit had been dropped to 50 and then to 10 accounts. I think when the service launched, there was no limit on accounts.

    --
    Work smarter, not harder.
  6. What about families? by Mr_Silver · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    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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    1. Re:What about families? by DogDude · · Score: 2

      There's lots of cheap-o email out there. You get what you pay for. You only want to pay $10/year for email per person. Good for you. Find somewhere other than Google. I pay a few hundred bucks per year per person for email. I have really, really, great email service. Why do you think you're entitled to use Google's services at a price you dictate? That's bizarre.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    2. Re:What about families? by Dishevel · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  7. People flamed me when I warned them about this by ickleberry · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

    1. Re:People flamed me when I warned them about this by asavage · · Score: 2

      You seemed to miss the part about keeping it free for existing users.

  8. You can use a workaround (for now) by Morris+Thorpe · · 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/

    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.

  9. Personal use? by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The page currently has a cryptic entry "Google Applications for Personal Use" without any "learn more" which the business and educational versions have. Since many individuals use google apps for their email for a personal domain (for example with WordPress) I hope that a free perosnal version will be available.

  10. Re:very small business by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

    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.

  11. Great Service But Expensive for Small Businesses by jest3r · · 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.

  12. Thanks for screwing over small teams and community by Lord+Chaos+EOG · · Score: 2

    Small teams, very small business and community projects will be greatly screwed over by this. Many can't really afford or has enough money to spare for this. I am part of 2 business that uses google apps. If the free version hadn't existed, neither of them would ever have moved on to the paid one. Sad move by google.