Google to start charging for web apps

Twista said:
Hmmm...

Is this popular in SA?
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That is an open-ended question considering that Google SA would have to provide stats before the popularity of Google Apps in SA can be assessed.

That said, I use Google Apps to host my domain.

If there is even one fApple out there willing to admit to using Google Apps then it must be incredibly popular.
 
Google Apps is quite popular.

It's the most reliable and free mail server solution for small business imho. I use it myself and have signed up a bunch of folks over the years.
 
I've been using it for 3 years, Cell C uses Google Apps with about 2000+ users. Grove Group in Cape Town might have some stats on Google Apps.
 
Google charging for stuff??? Impossibru! Adwords is the business model of the future. More free services = eyeball time on screens = sometime in that period the user will undoubtedly Google something = sweet, sweet hot-served ads for clickeroonie dollars. Pure genius.
 
So as an individual person i will have to pay $50 per year just to get email service on my personal domain?
 
This sucks. Use to get free email addresses for new domains. Now I can't.

At least I already signed up for email my current two domains. Hope they don't start charging.
 
DeathStrike said:
So as an individual person i will have to pay $50 per year just to get email service on my personal domain?
Click to expand...
Yes and no.
In the past to link your domain to gmail you had to register on the free google apps for business link for that domain. Google has now changed the free google apps for business standard link to a trial.

So to answer your question if you already registered your personal domain for google appss standard free then it stays free until google decides otherwise and who knows when that is. If you haven't yet then you can either register a free gmail domain address or do a trial/pay for yourdomain.
 
Just got an email from Google to confirm

Hello from Google,

Here's some important news about Google Apps—but don't worry, there's no need for you to take any action. We just want you to know that we're making a change to the packages we offer.

Starting today, we're no longer accepting new sign-ups for the free version of Google Apps (the version you're currently using). Because you're already a customer, this change has no impact on your service, and you can continue to use Google Apps for free.

Should you ever want to upgrade to Google Apps for Business, you'll enjoy benefits such as 24/7 customer support, a 25 GB inbox, business controls, our 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited users and more for just $5 per user, per month.

You can learn more about this change in our Help Center or on the Enterprise Blog.

Thank you for using Google Apps.

Clay Bavor
Director, Google Apps
Click to expand...
 
Well, I am a "full-loyal supporter" of Google Apps. But Google should have reduced the users (to 5 or 3), instead of just cancel the free service.

I don't see many extra features from the Standard-Free Version to the Business-version (except the increase from 5 to 25GB) and the 24/7 support & 99.9% uptime I don't see it as a "extra value". I never had to contact support on the 4 years that i've been using Google apps. Also the 99.9% uptime was already there (never had a minute of google apps downtime on any of the domains that I'm running with google apps... free or business edition).

I always recommended to all SMB to make use of Google Apps as a it can really increase productivity, put your costs down and 99.9% availability in all devices.

Now the alternative will be domains.live.com (I head that you can have 500 users) but it seems that it lacks of advanced functions such as groups.

Now, for "Non-profits"... not sure if Google apps is accepting foreign or "non-US" "non-profits" organizations to make use of Google Apps (free up to 3000 users).

Anyway... 50 USD (R400-R450 depending of exchange rate, less than R2 per day) per user/per annum is "affordable" for most companies.
 
I think the thread title is very misleading as it seems like Google is going to charge for all their web based services, instead it's "Google Apps" specifically.

I do agree though they should have stripped it down to 5 users or less for the free service.


But maybe now they will offer a much more affordable package that isn't $50 a year because I'm very lucky to have a Free account for up to 50 users which they haven't cancelled and I'll have a very difficult time convincing the boss to pay $50 per year per user if they lower that limit.

It seems affordable until you realise that you can get free hosted email with most web hosting packages for up to 200 users for <R300 a month. Then it becomes very difficult to justify the cost purely for the online Docs services.
 
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