Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#111

Post by Firehed » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:16 AM UTC

zsiddique wrote: post #16

This might suck for the power user who had his own domain, but I am betting the free version was abused by a lot of business unwilling to pay a few bucks for the service.

What's the difference? The cost to Google is presumably the same, except that the user count might have been between two and ten-ish instead of one.

And now they can't upsell those businesses to paid accounts anymore. Established businesses already have email in place, and switching them over will be a hell of a sell.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#112

Post by napoleond » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:17 AM UTC

I think it's time for a dedicated email service provider with full search functionality and tools to migrate the old inbox from Google Apps. I would gladly pay more than $50/year for a simple, rock solid service like this if it had an excellent web client, real customer support, and cared about my privacy.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#113

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:18 AM UTC

dangrossman wrote: post #79

toomuchtodo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just helped several companies move to Google Apps from Rackspace over the weekend; their web interface is horrible and Google provides a much better experience on mobile (both iOS and Android) than Rackspace ever could.

That only matters if you care about the web interface. Lots of businesses don't, they're all on Outlook. I use Thunderbird (IMAP); I've literally never logged into Rackspace's webmail client.

One of the companies specifically migrated to avoid MS licensing costs (i.e. moving from Outlook to Chrome for the mail interface, Docs on the web/LibreOffice on the desktop).

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#114

Post by pfisch » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:18 AM UTC

zmmmmm wrote: post #75

jxi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand you're upset, but that's probably a really naive view. Maybe it seems to you that there is no DIRECT upside for you personally, but there's always an upside, just like there's always a downside for every good thing that happens. This looks to me just synonymous to killing a high maintenance, low returns project so that they can focus better on either the business version or other stuff. The "indirect" up…

To be clear, I'm not so upset about them killing the free version (although I do think it's sad - all the startups I've been in got our google apps accounts before we even had a bank account - because it was free! I wonder what will happen in the future). I mainly dislike the style of communication here. It really wouldn't be so terrible for Google to say: While it was very popular we found it was quite costly and we…

I absolutely agree with this. If they are going to dick us over I can understand that because they were offering us something free that costs money to run, but just be straight with us.

I don't think the google apps business customers are this dumb. They aren't going to trick us with this kind of obvious double talk. We are just going to think they are being deceptive and be less understanding.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#115

Post by fatbird » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

larsberg wrote: post #95

Ugh. The worst thing is that I've been relying on my personal domain e-mail address _also_ being a valid google address. So I have to either pony up for my family's accounts or move us all and re-create logins on a page or so of "authorized apps." Still, the huge amount of spam that's been getting through (10-15 per day, despite always logging in to the gmail web interface and clicking Report Spam) has been encouragi…

It continues to be free for existing users. They're closing sign up for free usage.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#116

Post by gcb » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

dangrossman wrote: post #79

toomuchtodo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just helped several companies move to Google Apps from Rackspace over the weekend; their web interface is horrible and Google provides a much better experience on mobile (both iOS and Android) than Rackspace ever could.

That only matters if you care about the web interface. Lots of businesses don't, they're all on Outlook. I use Thunderbird (IMAP); I've literally never logged into Rackspace's webmail client.

> That only matters if you care about the web interface

or price. as was the main point of this thread.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#117

Post by toomuchtodo » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

indiecore wrote: post #73

natrius wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of services will let you forward your mail to a normal GMail account. Without an SMTP server, your GMail account will still be visible to your recipients, but it's not so bad.

Yes I'm sure people will appreciate getting email back from @gmail.com

During my time at Fermilab working on an LHC sensor team, I forwarded my Fermilab email to my personal gmail account because their mail servers were so antiquated (100MB quota, no web interface, etc). Filters, multiple Inbox labs, and all my emails I responded to looked like they came from my Fermilab email address.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#118

Post by indiecore » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:19 AM UTC

stevoski wrote: post #101

Yes, the announcement is corporate doublespeak. No, I don't mind the end of free Google Apps. I use Google Apps for my business for five years, and frankly, it is mind-boggling what they have given me for free. Luckily us existing users still get the free service, but if I had to pay US$50 per year per user, I would still consider it exceptional value. US$50 per year for a set of critical, heavily-used services is an…

and they lost a lot of people who are pinching pennies when they start but would be hooked into the system by the time they needed the upgrade.

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#119

Post by capo » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:20 AM UTC

zmmmmm wrote: post #24

I really hate it when companies try to sugar coat a decision that is all downside for their customers. It may be really hard to do, but Google should just come out and say it: there is no upside for this to anyone except Google . It is not about giving you a better experience or making things more straightforward . It is all about Google deciding to maximize their profits at the expense of their users. That's fine, i…

That's a bit of an overreaction. Unless I'm reading the post incorrectly there aren't any bad news in it really: existing accounts stay free, now you have two tiers, paid and free, and with the paid you get real support for the money (and custom email etc).

Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups

#120

Post by lwat » Fri, Dec 07, 2012, 1:21 AM UTC

Steveism wrote: post #29

lwat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could pay for it?

Well, obviously yes I could and so could my clients. But Free is the best kind of price, especially for startups. I have no problem paying for good software and services. I also have no problem seeking out the next option that compares in value. At this point Google Apps is a paid email option that must compete with all the other countless premium email options.

If a dollar a week is too much for what you get from this service then maybe you're doing something wrong, especially for startups where you're not going to have hundreds of employees.