http://www.nextbigwhat.com/google-apps-free-for-new-domains-... : This is a nice workaround. Try it out. You can still use it for free using the existing account.
Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
361–370 of 475 posts
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#362This is unfortunate indeed. The free Google Apps offering was a substantial value. What viable alternatives are there?
Seems most of the people recommending alternatives are only thinking of email. I use gapps for my family, and we take a huge advantage of having a domain-specific calender and docs.
Chat is another service that is being ignored here.Which needs the other party to be using it.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#363Could someone explain me why a business providing a service should ? give it for free ? are google engineers working for free ? is google running its servers for free ? so yes , google is rich , but so is your electricity company , most gaz companies and most supermarkets. Do they give you stuffs for free ? "freemium" model is dead , in the future you'll pay for every service you use on the web.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#364The free Google Apps was perfect for families: give each kid a nice kid@familyname.com and no problem with the silly 18 year limit that gmail has. The shared calendars work great in our family too. It's certainly not worth $50 per year because the little ones get maybe 1 email a month from grandma. Since Google does not allow kids on gmail, where should families go now?
I never thought about using Google Apps like this. It actually sounds pretty cool to be honest. If my whole family was using it, then I'd probably consider paying $50/year for the service.
But would you pay $50/family-member? (Which is presumably a significantly bigger amount of money.)
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#365Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…
+1 for this. I've run my own mail server for 15 years, since I got my first permanent connection. I host on the end of it as I have a large distrust of "the cloud". It is cost effective for me as it has increased my merchantable skill portfolio. I've ended up designing some mail systems (50k+ users) for some large ISPs in the past thanks to my accumulated knowledge. Debian is probably the easiest to get off the groun…
I've thought about doing this. Last time I tried to set up a mail server on a cheap VPS I didn't have enough memory, ClamAV was the biggest culprit. But I think the new 512 RPis would work quite well.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#366$50 for only THREE 9's? NO THANKS. :p
It sucks that they've removed the free version; it's definitely a step up from managing multiple individual gmail accounts or creating a shared account of some sort. (I use one for one of the side jobs I do; it's a pain in the ass.)
However, $50/year for premium is really friggin good, considering that the cheapest alternative is $10/mo ($100/yr) for hosted Exchange 2010 alone.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do this. It's not easy, but it's not as bad as most of the comments here would lead you to believe. If you have the wherewithal to run things on a server it's definitely within reach, albeit probably not a cost-effective way to spend your time. Let me make a few recommendations. I'm not a sysadmin by trade but I know a few things you can do that will improve your lot in life running mail. - Postfix and Dovecot. The…
+1 for this. I've run my own mail server for 15 years, since I got my first permanent connection. I host on the end of it as I have a large distrust of "the cloud". It is cost effective for me as it has increased my merchantable skill portfolio. I've ended up designing some mail systems (50k+ users) for some large ISPs in the past thanks to my accumulated knowledge. Debian is probably the easiest to get off the groun…
I am failing to see what the big stink is about "giving up one's privacy" when using "the cloud." Yes, there are some shady providers that might put their hands in the cookie jar at their convenience. That sucks. Google isn't one of those providers, though. What advantage would they gain from reading people's mail at a whim?
Regardless, one's privacy is already compromised the moment they sign up for Internet service; that information can be made available to the right people after one subpoena.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1 for this. I've run my own mail server for 15 years, since I got my first permanent connection. I host on the end of it as I have a large distrust of "the cloud". It is cost effective for me as it has increased my merchantable skill portfolio. I've ended up designing some mail systems (50k+ users) for some large ISPs in the past thanks to my accumulated knowledge. Debian is probably the easiest to get off the groun…
I've thought about doing this. Last time I tried to set up a mail server on a cheap VPS I didn't have enough memory, ClamAV was the biggest culprit. But I think the new 512 RPis would work quite well.
You don't need that much memory if you're setting up a simple IMAP server; you could probably do it on a super cheap instance on AWS, Rackspace or similar.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#369Google under Larry Page is obsessed with short-term revenue. They did the same with AppEngine, Maps and now Apps. Not to mention that I cringed throughout this announcement. They are doing it because it benefits users? C'mon, just tell us you love the money, nothing wrong with that.
It might be a sign that advertising revenue is not growing as expected. My guess.
Re: Google Apps stops accepting free sign-ups
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a pretty pessimistic view. Customers are self-interested too: they want free content and services, but they also want absolute privacy, to ad-block everything, and generally cut off any possible revenue stream. This seems like it leads to a sort of local maxima where you produce the minimum quality required to drive users, with as little cost as possible. By cutting off ad-supported free users, Google is atte…
by cutting off free users they just opened themselves to getting undercut by a smaller company that can offer fewer, cheaper, targeted options. I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year. I'll just set up my own email system at this point, call it a learning experience and never be exposed to the rest of whatever was in Google Apps.
> I just wanted an email for my domain and that's not worth 50 bucks a year.
How much do you make per hour? How many hours do you expect to spend per year maintaining your own email system?
How much would you pay to stop one hacker, one time, from reading your private email?
Are you going to bother to set up two-factor authentication, or just wing it?
For a lot of people, $50 a year would make total sense.