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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."

9 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 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.

  2. 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."

  3. 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.

  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.
  5. 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.

  6. 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.