Google Apps, the popular and cheaper alternative to Microsoft Exchange was a huge hit with small Businesses and Education Industry, in its earlier day it use to offer Apps for Business for free for up to 200 users, Google was phasing out support for its free Google Apps for businesses over the last couple of years. The party finally ends today – Google is now pulling the plug on its free Google Apps offering to new small businesses.
Google posted about the change on it’s official Blog
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.
