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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

#991

Post by MoreCookies »

Much the same as others' experience here, I have a legacy account that has been used for nothing other than email on a custom domain, and in recent years with only one user account.

GSuite hosts my primary email address for many years and I feel like I'm being extorted to keep it. What next? Will they some day be telling regular GMail users that their accounts will be deleted unless they pay for 'GMail+'?

I feel like Eleanor in "The Good Place". I can completely appreciate that Google doesn't have to provide indefinitely free email for my custom domain, but I also feel like the other options are completely unfair. Google only seem interested in offering business plans. I'm an individual, not a business. I'm not a non-profit organisation, but I'm an individual who is not using my account for profit. There needs to be a 'Medium Place' - or in this case some way of keeping hosted email with a custom domain.

I'm not against paying something, but the long term price they're seeking to extort from me is about four times as much as would be fair and reasonable for email hosting. I'd be happy with all of the non-mail services stripped out - call it a 'Legacy Mail Plan' or something. Moreover, I'd even be happy to pay for it, if it were say $15/$20 a year. I don't need a million extra services and features for my non-existent business.

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

#992

Post by callesgg »

jakemauer wrote: post #958
slawekrewaj wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no need to nuke all Google accounts. You can switch to the free edition of Cloud Identity - https://support.google.com/cloudidentity/answer/7319251?hl=e... You will still need to find the replacement for gmail etc though

All I see when I go to the Cloud Identity part of the Admin Panel's "Get More Services" page is a happy little coffee cup unhelpfully stating "You're getting the best out of Google. We will notify you when new subscriptions become available." So I guess I'm not able to use that then.

Yes, you need to "upgrade" to "workspace" first then the "Cloud Identity" option becomes visible and after that you can "downgrade" to "Cloud Identity".

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

#993

Post by pacerdawn »

l33tman wrote: post #485
theossuary wrote: post #226

I'm definitely getting screwed over by this. I've hosted close friend's and family's email for a decade now on an old G Apps instance. We only ever used it for email on a custom domain. It was most useful because I could reset passwords for them if they forgot it. Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do. Microsoft's Family offering is way better (not saying much considering Google doesn't have one). Right now…

You're complaining that a service you use all the time for a decade for free now might cost the equivalent of a cup of coffee per month? I'm all about Google being evil and all that, but spending valuable aggression on this seems a bit excessive.. The Google Takeout system gives you all of your email in a format you might be able to import into another system?

Think about it this way:

Google: "Come enjoy this limited version of our service, it's absolutely free!"

Consumer: "Excellent. I was going to go with this other service, but since this one is free I will take advantage of it!"

Years later...

Google: "Ok, now that you have many years of data in our system, it's time for you to start paying!"

Consumer: "Wait... what?"

Yes, it's been free. But Google offered it for free and now people have years of data in it. Data which could have been in another service had Google not offered this one for free to begin with. It's kind of like a bait and switch. Get people in, get them to sink most of their life into it, and then start charging.

Also, it's not like a lot of people were out looking for this kind of solution. The fact that it was free brought in a LOT of people who otherwise wouldn't have done it, and are now tied down to it.

That's why a lot of people are mad, and to me it is justifiable.

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

#996

Post by MoreCookies »

Aloha wrote: post #588
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…

Look, I'd gladly pay something but 60 dollars per month, every month? I'd be happy to pay 120 dollars a year for the service I'm getting now. Like one of the parallel commenters, I have given out accounts on my domain. I dont really need any more service than I have now, I don't need the full google workspace, I just want gmail on my custom domain, thats all really. The most annoying parts of this, google, the compan…

This is exactly how I feel. I'm not against paying for hosted email, but that's not what they're trying to charge us for. They're trying to charge for hosted email + a million other 'Workspace' features we don't want or need.

If Google introduced a "Legacy GSuite Mail' plan at say $20/yr to retain all existing mail functionality and accounts, and disabled every other Workspace feature, I'd gladly pay for that.

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

#998

Post by dspearson »

angrygsuiteuser wrote: post #997

My family uses it, but now we have to pay after they said "free forever". That's how much their word is worth.

I received the email on Monday. I, too, was in the boat of having friends & family using it. It was a mistake to trust their promises, but this was from back in the day of "do no evil." They said free forever, now ask me for >$1000 a year.

The insane thing is that almost everyone affected by this is likely to be highly technical, and in positions in which they have a say in how corporate spend happens.

I migrated away this week. I had to explain to my friends and family about this bait-and-switch, and have them all using Google Takeout. C'est la vie. I had not self-hosted mail infrastructure since I was a teeanger, but here I am again. Thanks, I guess?

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

#999

Post by fbnlsr »

dspearson wrote: post #998
angrygsuiteuser wrote: post #997

My family uses it, but now we have to pay after they said "free forever". That's how much their word is worth.

I received the email on Monday. I, too, was in the boat of having friends & family using it. It was a mistake to trust their promises, but this was from back in the day of "do no evil." They said free forever, now ask me for >$1000 a year. The insane thing is that almost everyone affected by this is likely to be highly technical, and in positions in which they have a say in how corporate spend happens. I migrated awa…

I'm in the same boat as you, as my whole family has been using a custom domain for 15 years.

What did you migrate your users to? Did you manage to transfer emails/calendars?

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

#1000

Post by Cybr »

angrygsuiteuser wrote: post #997

My family uses it, but now we have to pay after they said "free forever". That's how much their word is worth.

This is straight up extortion. Either you start paying for a "free forever" service, or you lose access to every account you registered using Google OAuth with your custom domain email address.

You can migrate your domain and email, but you CAN'T MIGRATE your Google OAuth, and without that you lose access to all your accounts ON OTHER THIRD PARTY SITES.

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