No more Free Edition of Google Apps !
As a free Google Apps user myself, it’s sad news to read that Google has announced that they will be changing their Business Edition Google Apps offering and ending the Free Google Apps edition.
Luckily, existing free Google Apps users won’t be affected so @yourcustomdomain.com free Google Apps service will continue to work. But new personal users are urged to sign up for free Google account with Gmail and Google Drive instead. Although the paid Business Google Apps isn’t all that expensive at US$50 user, per year considering the quality of relatively spam and junk mail free email service.
Starting today for all new customers:
- Individuals wishing to use Google’s web apps like Gmail and Google Drive should create a free personal Google Account, which provides a seamless experience across all of our web services on any device.
- For Businesses, instead of two versions, there will be one. Companies of all sizes will sign up for our premium version, Google Apps for Business, which includes 24/7 phone support for any issue, a 25GB inbox, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee with no scheduled downtime. Pricing is still $50 per user, per year.
Please note this change has no impact on our existing customers, including those using the free version. And as before, Google Apps for Education will be available as a free service for schools and universities. Also, as the first cloud productivity suite with FISMA certification, we’ll continue to offer Google Apps for Government for $50 per user, per year.
