Google kills free version of Apps for business
Goes back on 2007 blog saying Standard edition 'will continue to be offered for free'
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Google has killed off the free version of its Apps for business product.
Google Apps offers gmail, Google Drive and a calendaring service, plus Google’s in-browser word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics app. All the apps work in a browser.
At launch, the service was free to organisations with fewer than 20 users (IIRC). In the halcyon days of 2007, when Google launched the $US50/user/year Premium edition, it said the following about the suite back in February 2007:
“Google Apps also won't forget its roots anytime soon. The Standard and Education Editions will continue to be offered for free, and we'll keep working on all three flavors of Google Apps with the help of feedback from all of you.”
From that quote we can deduce that "anytime soon", for Google, lasts five years and ten months.
The Chocolate Factory has offered up the following paragraph to explain its decision:
“When we launched the premium business version we kept our free, basic version as well. Both businesses and individuals signed up for this version, but time has shown that in practice, the experience isn't quite right for either group. Businesses quickly outgrow the basic version and want things like 24/7 customer support and larger inboxes. Similarly, consumers often have to wait to get new features while we make them business-ready.”
Google’s solution is to make all new business customers for Apps pay. Existing customers will still enjoy free access to the suite and individuals can still sign up for free accounts.
Office 365, Google’s main rival in the online apps market, currently offers only paid plans. Both companies offer free trials. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Not so good for Charities
If some UK charities can afford to pay their directors six-figure salaries with, rarely necessary, jaunts all over the world and expensive vehicles, why should companies be made to give them free services and products?
Do charities insist that their lunch is free, that they don't pay heating bills etc?
There are free alternatives that any charity can easily use if they wish.
Oh and by the way - I work for a charity that pays no wages at all, costs me about £2000 a year to belong to, is deemed essential by the government but still has to pay the government a large amount of money every year in taxes and duty.
"Existing customers will still enjoy free access to the suite and individuals can still sign up for free accounts."
Thumbs up there, I was expecting "you have 1 year to make arrangements or cough up".
Re: Not so good for Charities
Here, here. But before they start to cut costs, let me finish the project I'm working on at the moment.
Large charities seem to behave as though though they're there just to keep their staff in work, and not worry about their original intent. They raise money from the public, spend it on lobbying the government so that they get even more money from the tax payer.
Give money to small charities where possible. Only large charity that isn't in cahoots with the government appears to be the RNLI.
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