How to get free single-user Google Apps accounts

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/google-appengine/pVZfdeky-ow/TO1SmipM2Y0J

by nathanhammond • 14 years ago

103 34 14 years ago

groups.google.com

Alaskan005• 14 years ago

Until they disable them again? Save yourself some time and aggravation. Either pony up or find a more reliable provider.

daeken2• 14 years ago

At $50/year, ponying up is an absolute no-brainer. ~$4/month? That's effectively free.

balac• 14 years ago

only assuming you have no other monthly / yearly subscriptions, those $5/months add up.

vidyesh5• 14 years ago

Its $50/user/year.

aclimatt2• 14 years ago

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...)

RobotCaleb• 14 years ago

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.

aclimatt2• 14 years ago

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.

josteink• 14 years ago

I'm glad I signed up early. I have 11 users now, for $0, and I still think my limit is 25.

That said, $50 a year is not really that much considering the service provided.

wreckimnaked• 14 years ago

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.

vidyesh5• 14 years ago

+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.

cynix• 14 years ago

I signed up when it first became available, and my limit is 500. The good old days…

Nursie2• 14 years ago

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!

markokocic• 14 years ago

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.

singlow• 14 years ago

AFAIK you do not need to pay for aliases - only mailboxes.

JagMicker• 14 years ago

$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?

yebyen3• 14 years ago

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?

martinced• 14 years ago

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.

evanmoran• 14 years ago

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.

g-garron2• 14 years ago

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."

Maybe, Google may continue to offer this services to start ups. They can ask for 0.05 or less share per startup using their services for free. That will not be free anymore, but is a viable model. I think.

patrickaljord2• 14 years ago

> - 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.

indiecore• 14 years ago

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.

stickfigure• 14 years ago

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.

tedchs• 14 years ago

More details in Google's blog post: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2012/12/changes-to-goog...

eunice• 14 years ago

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.

How to get free single-user Google Apps accounts

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