by Jason Snell
End of the road for Google Apps for Domains
In an email to administrators this morning, Google said it “will now transition all remaining users to an upgraded Google Workspace paid subscription based on your usage.” As such, Workspace’s only free plans are for Nonprofits and Education (Fundamentals).
After getting free Gmail, Drive, Docs, and other apps for the past several years, companies/people will need to start paying for those Google services and the ability to use your own custom domain (instead of just gmail.com).
I’ve been using Google Apps for Domains for 15 years, all for free. I knew the free ride would end eventually, and as of now, it has. But I love using Gmail (and Mimestream) and don’t mind paying $6/user/month for my extremely small user base in order to keep the ball rolling.
Still, it’s a weird feeling to pay Google for a product. Even one I’ve been using for 15 years.