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

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

#131

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?

I wouldn't really rank this one under "lately" since it's been a legacy version for a decade. The writing was on the wall for this a long time ago.

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

#133
post #81

> As of December 6, 2012, Google stopped offering the free edition to new customers. 10 years of a free product is not bad

Yes, and Hacker News calling it "killing for existing customers" is ridiculous. No service or access is being "killed" here - they are simply asking to start paying for it like everyone else.

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

#134
Holy shit, this is pathetic. I should be grateful for the years I’ve spent on a grandfathered plan, but it’s mostly the same as a plain old free gmail account (for anything I use and the hundreds of small businesses I helped setup on it) and that’s not going anywhere. I’m slightly above annoyed for my own personal setup (just using it for email, guess I’m going to have to look into setting up forwarding instead) but for the hundreds of small businesses I setup and have been enjoying it and relying on it (and often wouldn’t be using it if it was let free) I have no idea what to say to them. Most of them are so small $6/month simply isn’t worth it for the low volume of email they get and now they’re also going to have to deal with migration.

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

#135

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.

I started using Zoho mail about a year ago in a very slow effort to migrate away from google services. I'm paying $75/yr for their 10GB plan, but they offer other options as well.

https://www.zoho.com/mail/zohomail-pricing.html?src=hd

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

#136

I have a hard time remembering the last time something positive came from G. - a former Internet darling company that could do no wrong.

Their maps and turn-by-turn navigation are still the best.

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

#139
I knew something like this would probably come, but it doesn't make it any better. Complete BS.

16 years ago me and my friends signed up for "GMail for your domain". That's it. We wanted to use GMail, which was by far the best email available at the time, and have email addresses at our own domain instead of @gmail.com. That's it.

Since that time several of us have been using our GFYD/GSuite/Workspaces accounts as our primary Google accounts. We're not a business. We don't use any business features. We just use them as our personal Google accounts. We use them for YouTube, Photos, everything. Our entire digital identities are bound to these accounts.

Yet, over the years, these accounts are just worse than free personal Google accounts. Because we are not a business, there is absolutely no benefit to these accounts whatsoever other than the custom domain. In fact, we can't even use the new version of Google Pay. It only works with free accounts! We all had to switch to other payment platforms to split bills. Ironically, we'll have to use one of those non-Google platforms to split the Google Workspaces bill as well.

And now we're being forced to pay for something that everyone else gets for free. I'd be less angry if we got some kind of benefit above and beyond normal free Google accounts. I'd be less angry if the price wasn't a ridiculous per-user rate. I'd be less angry if we weren't forced into this against our will. This is not what we signed up for 16 years ago. I'd be less angry if they offered some way to escape. Let use merge/transition our accounts with personal Google accounts. Let us have personal accounts with custom domain, iCloud offers that feature now.

Nope. Just looks like most of our accounts are going to get deleted or are going to have to pay $6/month for nothing.

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

#140
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, I'd pay $10 per month for my family. But I'm not paying $50 or $60 per month. The only difference over the free Google Workspaces is the domain name.

A more reasonable approach would’ve been to offer custom domains as part of Google One, whose pricing is far more family-friendly. Eg, Google One provides 100GB of storage (shareable with your family Google accounts) for £16/year. Just let those who want that to link it to custom domains — Apple (iCloud+) and MS (MS 365) already offer this.

That would be a great solution. I would imagine many "legacy free" users are old GMail for Domains users who just want the same Google One functionality of @gmail.com addresses but with a custom domain.
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