Google Apps Free/Standard

Posted by Paul on August 8, 2012

A lot of small businesses are switching to Google Apps to manage their email at the moment, benefits include:

• Google Apps Standard is free
• You get a very generous amount of space which increases as time goes on
• You can access your email through a Gmail interface
• You can access your email through Thunderbird/Outlook
• Email you send is unlikely to get marked as spam

However, Google do make it hard to find the Free/Standard version - they'd rather you went for the paid version which does have some further benefits, but if you're after the free version, the link is here:

http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html

[Update 10/12/2012]
Google have stopped offering the free version altogether.

Here's the email:

Hello from Google,

Here's some important news about Google Apps—but don't worry, there's no need for you to take any action. We just want you to know that we're making a change to the packages we offer.

Starting today, we're no longer accepting new sign-ups for the free version of Google Apps (the version you're currently using). Because you're already a customer, this change has no impact on your service, and you can continue to use Google Apps for free.

Should you ever want to upgrade to Google Apps for Business, you'll enjoy benefits such as 24/7 customer support, a 25 GB inbox, business controls, our 99.9% uptime guarantee, unlimited users and more for just $5 per user, per month.

You can learn more about this change in our Help Center or on the Enterprise Blog.

Thank you for using Google Apps.

Clay Bavor
Director, Google Apps