Google ends free Apps for Business service (Wired UK)

I kick myself for not signing up for Google Apps earlier. I wanted a custom email address using my website's domain name and the easiest option is signing up for a free Google Apps for Business account. The 7-year-old service provides Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and file storage for businesses. Until now, you could sign up for a free account as an individual, or pay a few pounds per month for a business account. On the Google Enterprise blog 6 December, the company announced that it's killing off those free accounts.

Google Apps was born when Google first experimented with student email accounts for San Jose State University in 2006. Since then, the service has grown into a full-fledged business suite of email, calendar, word processing and spreadsheet apps, along with backups of email and control over multiple accounts. Businesses often use Google Apps to set up corporate email and collaborate on private documents.

The search engine giant cites demand for more features from its business customers as the main reason to dump the free version, which is used by individuals and small businesses with 10 or fewer users. "Businesses quickly outgrow the basic version and want things like 24/7 customer support and larger inboxes," writes Clay Bavor, Director of Product Management, Google Apps on the company's blog.

Google says that "millions of businesses" are using the service, which has prompted it to cash in on all those users. Getting rid of free accounts could also mean that Google is working on more services and functionality for its cloud-based office suite, which competes with Microsoft's desktop-based software Office.

If you signed up for a free account before 6 December 2012, your account will stay free. There are now two options for Google Apps: Apps for Business with or without Vault. Without Vault, a service that gives you email archiving and control over multiple email accounts, you'll pay ?3.30 per user per month, up to ?33 per user per year. If you want Vault, it costs ?6.60 per user per month. Schools can still sign up for a free Google Apps for Education account.

Businesses with 10 or fewer employees can either pay up for Google Apps, or individually sign up for a regular Google account (which is what you get with a Gmail account). That could be a boon for Google+, since you automatically get an account for the still-growing social network when you create a new Google account. Sadly, that Google+ account doesn't come with a custom e-mail address.

Source: Wired.com

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/10/google-apps

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