Google has stopped accepting new free sign ups for Google apps for business from 6th December, this update won’t affect your account as you are already a customer. Mr. Clay Bavor the director of product management at Google Apps updated this news in official Google enterprise blog. Many people started commenting on this action that Google is intended to increase its profit by changing the free service to paid but according Google it just want to enhance the support for business and increase the productivity.
Why Google Stopped New Free Sign-ups for Google Apps?
According to Google stopping new free sign ups to Google apps will help it to focus more on business customers to fulfill business needs. Mr. Clay Bavor clarifies in enterprise blog that-
“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.”
How Much Does It Costs For Google Apps For Business?
Google Apps are only available in premium version for business purpose. No matter whether you have small or large scale business you have to choose premium version for $50 per year. This package includes 25 GB inbox, 24/7 customer support via phone and a 99.9% uptime without any scheduled downtime. Google continued to offer Google Apps for Government for $50 per per year, Google has not made any changes to Google Apps for education purpose, it will remain free service for schools and universities.
Then How to Get Google Apps for Free for Business?
Though Google has stopped receiving free sign ups, there is a trick available to get Google Apps for free for your business, to execute this you simply need a free Gmail account. Just go through the steps below.
- First of all navigate your browser to appengine.google.com and login with your Gmail account (Keep your mobile with you as it verify your account by SMS or voice call)
- Click on “Create Application” button and specify some dummy text for application identifier and application title. Click on “Create a new Application” button once done with it.
- Now click on the “Dashboard” link from “Application Registered Successfully” and further on “Application Settings” link.
- Click on “Add Domain” button and the new page gets open, We are doing all this stuff to just get a link that allows us to get Google apps for free for business.
- Finally click on the link “Sign up for Google Apps Standard” as shown in the image below.. A new page will be opened where you get Google apps for free. Don’t try this link directly as it won’t work!.
What are the Free or Less Expensive Alternatives to Associate Your Domain Name with Email?
Of course there are many free and less expensive alternatives available for business use. You can go for domains.live.com which is easy to setup than free GoogleApps. Other alternatives for email hosting for your domain are Zoho, Yahoo Small Business, Godaddy Email hosting and BigRock.
