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Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

9to5google.com

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Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#121

Post by bmarquez »

samueldr wrote: post #93

I figure all play store purchases and similar content are now taken hostage. Are there any ways to migrate those licenses to a "google account"? Or am I being forced to pay to keep using licenses I already paid for? Oh, and what about my YouTube channel?

YouTube channels can be converted to a "brand account" then you can link it to a different email address.

Play store purchases are probably lost (I'm in the same boat). I have no intention of repurchasing my Android apps so I guess its an easy permanent switch to iOS at this point.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#122

Post by wodenokoto »

herodoturtle wrote: post #91

What are some (paid) alternatives to using G-Suite for emails? Context: We're a small but relatively old SaaS company. Been happily using G Suite's free tier since day 1 - only for email. This announcement is a tad disappointing, but as other commenters have said, 10 years of a free product is pretty great. We'll likely upgrade to Google's paid tier, but out of curiosity, since we're switching to a paid service, we m…

If you’re not using the productivity suite (docs, drive, sheets and whatnot) why not go with the little guy and use Fastmail? $5/user with 30gb or 100gb per user for $9/month

Their support replies faster than google :)

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#124

Post by tyingq »

signal11 wrote: post #73
mgraczyk wrote: post #49

I'm a Google employee who just found out about this. I'm not annoyed that I have to pay, it's been ~13 years of free service and I don't think Google is obligated to continue providing this to me. The annoying part is that Google doesn't provide any migration tool, but there are migration tools for Google Edu accounts so that graduating students can migrate their data to personal Google accounts. The software is evid…

Is there an equivalent of Microsoft’s Home Use Program (HUP) for Google Workspace? HUP gets you Microsoft 365 (Office apps, OneDrive, ad-free email with a 50GB quota and one custom domain) for your family, with 30% off list price for people using Microsoft solutions at work — which is most office workers, assuming their employers have opted in. It’d be nice to see something similar from Google.

The 365 Family plan is $99/year, total (not per person), for up to 6 people, and you can use your own domain.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#126

Post by dekoruotas »

herodoturtle wrote: post #91

What are some (paid) alternatives to using G-Suite for emails? Context: We're a small but relatively old SaaS company. Been happily using G Suite's free tier since day 1 - only for email. This announcement is a tad disappointing, but as other commenters have said, 10 years of a free product is pretty great. We'll likely upgrade to Google's paid tier, but out of curiosity, since we're switching to a paid service, we m…

In my case for a personal email account I'll try DNS email forwarding:

https://improvmx.com/

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#127

Post by acegopher »

halostatue wrote: post #113

Does anyone have any recommendations on _easy and inexpensive_ ways to migrate an entire family off this (6–7 users)? The value we get is _not_ worth ~$500 US per year. I don’t need a full business suite. I mostly need the email and calendar. I’d need to poll other people whether they use Google Drive or not.

Same here. Was an early GMail for Domains user with my entire extended family (10 users). Have had problems with many features not working because "Workspace" (for example, adding a user to Google Home devices). Only did GMail for Domains for the custom address, would just be on GMail otherwise. Hate that there has never been a migration path, and will lose 13+ years of app purchases, pictures, email, youtube history, etc. without a migration tool.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#128

Post by jasonsync »

A long, long time ago I registered a domain name for a close group of friends, and the 4 of us have been happily use the free Gsuite for email @thedomain ever since.

From what I can tell we'd will have to start paying CAD $31.20 per month for 4 users. Seems pricy for our use case?

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#129

Post by msmoke »

I hope they make a tool to migrate accounts into individual Google accounts. I've been using G'Apps to back a family domain and will be moving to Fastmail which will leave anyone whose made purchases on the Play store or the like in the lurch. Hopefully no one has but I'm expecting some awkward conversations over the next few months.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#130

Post by evilduck »

aingisni_del wrote: post #87
SteveNuts wrote: post #83

Google is really on a killing spree lately. Can any insiders give us insight into whether the people at the top of Google are aware that they have a strong reputation in the community for killing things off?

Do you really think they care about that reputation? It's simply binary: Product makes money, product does not make money. Did you think Google was giving away free stuff for "the community"?

Loss leaders are a thing. I've had a free GSuite account on my personal domain which effectively acted as free job training and contributed to choosing them as an email provider for two companies I've worked for and clearly contributed to vastly more revenue than it would cost to host my personal GSuite account for my next 10 lifetimes. Over the last decade I've slowly but surely stopped recommending Google for anything they offer. It's been a slow attrition but I've wound up at zero.

They've very effectively taken a good chunk of their best evangelists and turned them into detractors. I have no idea if they've done the math and decided that was worth it, but I sure hope they have and it's not just total incompetence from one of the biggest players in the industry.

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