How to get free single-user Google Apps accounts(groups.google.com)
groups.google.com
How to get free single-user Google Apps accounts
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/google-appengine/pVZfdeky-ow/TO1SmipM2Y0J
7 comments
$50 per user per year (or $5/user/month) is a lot of money when you're just starting a business, and especially if you weren't planning on having to spend that money. Just in time for Christmas...
Now I have to contact all of the people I've sent proposals to, telling them that the "free email service through Google Apps" I promised them is no longer free. Google should have told us Apps Resellers, or, at the least, they should give us an opportunity to create a few more free Apps accounts for clients we've been pitching their product to. Not every business starts out with a need for >10 users. Google has been telling their Apps Resellers to get people 'hooked' on the free version of Apps, then migrate them to the paid offering. Now what?
Now I have to contact all of the people I've sent proposals to, telling them that the "free email service through Google Apps" I promised them is no longer free. Google should have told us Apps Resellers, or, at the least, they should give us an opportunity to create a few more free Apps accounts for clients we've been pitching their product to. Not every business starts out with a need for >10 users. Google has been telling their Apps Resellers to get people 'hooked' on the free version of Apps, then migrate them to the paid offering. Now what?
Sorry. If your business is built on marking up and reselling free things, I can't feel sorry for you. That was one of those reflex apologies. Not a real apology.
If your clients have waited until 2 weeks before Christmas to sign, then they are actually the bad guys and they deserve to pay more. When exactly are you supposed to do your gift shopping?
If your clients have waited until 2 weeks before Christmas to sign, then they are actually the bad guys and they deserve to pay more. When exactly are you supposed to do your gift shopping?
Heavens forbid that someone try to make a living providing cost-efficient technical solutions like a website and email to non-tech-saavy small businesses!
Cry me a river! Cost-efficient != free electricity and high-availability networking. I'm sure it was great while it lasted. Google have not actively shut anybody down.
If you want efficiency, buy low power machines and cobble together what services you need with free software. You can have RoundCube up and running in a matter of a few hours. I don't know any other webmail providers that provide SMTP, POP3, and IMAP for free. Those are all value-adds.
How much do you think that's worth? Would you include free support and maintenance if they were your machines and the setup charge did not fully pay for them? Do you think that it would be sustainable to do that?
Have you heard that it takes money to make money? If these businesses wanted to grow past 25 employees, they had to be prepared to move to a paying plan anyway. Those of us who were grandfathered in have obviously dodged a bullet. I can tell you that I've run mail servers on small machines for groups of users ~=25 before, and it's not very hard, but today I have free hosted Google Apps and therefore I want no part in it anymore.
Thanks, Google!
If you want efficiency, buy low power machines and cobble together what services you need with free software. You can have RoundCube up and running in a matter of a few hours. I don't know any other webmail providers that provide SMTP, POP3, and IMAP for free. Those are all value-adds.
How much do you think that's worth? Would you include free support and maintenance if they were your machines and the setup charge did not fully pay for them? Do you think that it would be sustainable to do that?
Have you heard that it takes money to make money? If these businesses wanted to grow past 25 employees, they had to be prepared to move to a paying plan anyway. Those of us who were grandfathered in have obviously dodged a bullet. I can tell you that I've run mail servers on small machines for groups of users ~=25 before, and it's not very hard, but today I have free hosted Google Apps and therefore I want no part in it anymore.
Thanks, Google!
(For the record, I am running my own mail server, but I'm not currently accepting applications for new accounts. I will be sad when I want to grow past 25 users if it means I need to start paying $5/mo for each of them, because I never learned to scale on my own.)
Yes, $50 is not much, but _you_ would need to pay $550/year for your 11 users if you signed up today. I guess that is too much for one person liking to have a few aliases.
AFAIK you do not need to pay for aliases - only mailboxes.
I signed up when it first became available, and my limit is 500. The good old days…
Is there a way to tell?
I think I signed up for my personal domain when it was 50, and my business domain when it was 10, I'd kinda like to check. Glad I go the business mail up and running in September now!
I think I signed up for my personal domain when it was 50, and my business domain when it was 10, I'd kinda like to check. Glad I go the business mail up and running in September now!
The only way I think you can check that is
Login to your cpanel ( admin ) > Setup > Users and Group > Yes, I have users - Next > It would tell you when you need an upgrade for me it says
To add more than 10 users you'll need a Google Apps for Business or Education account,..
OR (if this works) https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/DOMAIN.COM/CPanelHome#SetupW...
change DOMAIN.COM to your domain
OR (if this works) https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/DOMAIN.COM/CPanelHome#SetupW...
change DOMAIN.COM to your domain
I'm also an early adopter: I have 8 users for free. I also always thought of the free plan of Google Apps as a deal too good to be true.
+1
I have 3 domains on Google Apps and 2 other on live domains.
And Google Apps is a smooth service.
And Google Apps free plan for less number of users was amazing deal.
This is good news, because I feel that Google has always ignored a very legitimate use case of Google Apps -- wanting your own personal Google Account with your own email address.
Many people, myself included, want to use all of the personal services that Google provides backed by their own domain, not Gmail. You used to be able to do this sans hosted email, but that feature got removed a year or two back. If you wanted to use your own domain, you had to sign up for an entire Apps account, when it really should have been the same as before + some MX records for hosted email.
Perhaps using your own domain for a Google Account should be a paid service anyway, and $50/year isn't incredibly pricey. But a 99.9% uptime SLA and phone support aren't necessary for what can really be just a vanity. (That said, phone support in Google's ecosystem is kind of nice...)
Many people, myself included, want to use all of the personal services that Google provides backed by their own domain, not Gmail. You used to be able to do this sans hosted email, but that feature got removed a year or two back. If you wanted to use your own domain, you had to sign up for an entire Apps account, when it really should have been the same as before + some MX records for hosted email.
Perhaps using your own domain for a Google Account should be a paid service anyway, and $50/year isn't incredibly pricey. But a 99.9% uptime SLA and phone support aren't necessary for what can really be just a vanity. (That said, phone support in Google's ecosystem is kind of nice...)
Being a Google Apps user so that I could have it all at my own domain really made me feel like a forgotten stepchild. When the G1 came out I couldn't properly use it as you couldn't make purchases using a GAFYD account. I forget all of the things I ran into where Google wasn't compatible with itself due to me being a GAFYD user.
Oh absolutely. I had a laundry list of the things that were supported on Apps months after everybody else. We've always been second-class citizens, and now everybody new is required to pay. I hope the trend doesn't continue.
There was App Engine, there was Google+, there was Android, there was Voice, and a long host of others.
There was App Engine, there was Google+, there was Android, there was Voice, and a long host of others.
Matt Jaggard said on that Google discussion:
- "I think you're missing the point. Some startups are getting going with zero capital because an individual with some skills and some time can produce and sell a product using free cloud services and then once they've made a few bob can upgrade.
- Google WERE supporting this model very well - shame on you for stopping."
> - Google WERE supporting this model very well - shame on you for stopping."
This is ridiculous, besides the absurd sense of entitlement, it's only $50/year. People who build startups spend more on their lattes or phone subscription in a month. Come on.
This is ridiculous, besides the absurd sense of entitlement, it's only $50/year. People who build startups spend more on their lattes or phone subscription in a month. Come on.
Not that I disagree with you in general, but there are a lot of entrepreneurs for whom $50/year is a major impediment.
When App Engine had its major round of price increases a year or two ago, a number of small developers in Africa and India complained on the mailing list. Apparently the nearly-free service of GAE was supporting a number of entrepreneurs who live a very different life from the typical bay area startup groupie.
When App Engine had its major round of price increases a year or two ago, a number of small developers in Africa and India complained on the mailing list. Apparently the nearly-free service of GAE was supporting a number of entrepreneurs who live a very different life from the typical bay area startup groupie.
I lived in Peru for 5 years, everyone who has the skills to write GAE or rails apps there all have very well paid outsourced jobs working for companies from the US or Spain. $50 is absolutely no problems for them, it's not a problem either for the local growing middle class in Peru or even India and Africa. Most people who had enough education to be able to write GAE apps are from the middle class or already have well paid jobs.
Also, for some developing countries is not only the money, but how do they pay.
I mean, here in Bolivia $5 a month is equal to two lunches, not too much money, but. If are not getting a good salary (developers usually are not) you can't acces to credit cards. And that is a problem. Pre-paid cards may be an option but that increases the cost even more.
SOME people spend that much on lattes. Others don't.
Anyway this is a decent compromise. I think the most compelling use case for free was the single user "experimental" use case anyway.
Anyway this is a decent compromise. I think the most compelling use case for free was the single user "experimental" use case anyway.
More details in Google's blog post: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/12/changes-to-goog...
Again, people are missing this: Google apps 'free' & even regular gmail have never been truly free. Anything you put in there is sold off to the ad partners. It has never been a charity.
It's too soon IMHO.
I've set up Google Apps for Business / Domains for so many SMEs and this thing is definitely cutting the Office grass under a certain competitor's feet. I'm not saying said competitor is not enjoying amazing revenues: all I'm saying is Google is hurting other office suites sales with Google Apps for Domains.
People are delighted with this "free" solution. Now I'm going to have to bill them at least $50 / user per year and they'll start thinking about buying Office from another competitor again.
I understand Google needing to make money with this, but IMHO it's way too soon. They should have waited to "bait" way more SMEs into their net before doing such a move.
I've set up Google Apps for Business / Domains for so many SMEs and this thing is definitely cutting the Office grass under a certain competitor's feet. I'm not saying said competitor is not enjoying amazing revenues: all I'm saying is Google is hurting other office suites sales with Google Apps for Domains.
People are delighted with this "free" solution. Now I'm going to have to bill them at least $50 / user per year and they'll start thinking about buying Office from another competitor again.
I understand Google needing to make money with this, but IMHO it's way too soon. They should have waited to "bait" way more SMEs into their net before doing such a move.
This is a really important point. Google owned the default position for me in setting up domain email for people. Their service is great and using it for a business was a pretty easy call. Most of these folks wouldn't have ever even tried google docs without their domain being tied to it. It is win win for google.
Now its all changed. $50 per user isn't a huge amount but it is more then zero. Google has taken the default choice for many people and made us rethink it. It can only work poorly for them.
Now its all changed. $50 per user isn't a huge amount but it is more then zero. Google has taken the default choice for many people and made us rethink it. It can only work poorly for them.
Until they disable them again? Save yourself some time and aggravation. Either pony up or find a more reliable provider.
At $50/year, ponying up is an absolute no-brainer. ~$4/month? That's effectively free.
[deleted]
That said, $50 a year is not really that much considering the service provided.