Google app engine / Google Apps domain charging - google-app-engine

I have managed to get my new Google App Engine APp hosted on my domain. TO do this I had to sign up to a "free" google apps account.
The google apps account is asking for money and I have a free 30 day trial. Will my domain name that Google App Engine is using stop working when this 30 day trial is up?
Do I have to pay $5 a month or whatever it is just to have my google app engine app hosted on a domain?
Thanks

You do not have to pay.
You can get a free single-user Google Apps account. See "Serving Your App on a Custom Domain" at https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain?hl=en

Yes,
To serve your app on a custom domain, you must first associate that domain with a Google Apps account.
From
https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain

Yes you do need a Google Apps Account, and No you don't need to pay for it.
When you sign up for a new AppEngine account you should go for an option to create a new Apps Account, where you will be given an apps account with one user. This will be free. See this: http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-apps-free/26926/

NO, You can use a cname to go your app engine domain (www.example.com --> example.appspot.com)
But, this does not work for a naked domain, like example.com Your provider (most providers) can redirect all your domain traffic to your app_id.

As of now it seems that you have to sign up for a business account and get a $50 credit for 1 year, after which time Google will have a better solution.
See this thread for sympathetic dissatisfaction.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/google-appengine/pVZfdeky-ow/TO1SmipM2Y0J
(Wish the Google support person told me that before I deleted the business account I already had...)

I know that it's an old question, but the marked answer is not right anymore. Google is pushing everybody who want a custom domain to pay for business account.
However there is one workaround:
Go to AppEngine -> Application Settings -> Add domain -> Sign up for Google Apps
Start a free 30 day trial - Do not add the billing options
Setup your domain
Add the domain to your app engine project
When the 30 day trial expire the domain will still work.

Related

App Engine SSL - Apps not allowing SSL

Overview of problem. Site was running on a Free version of Google Apps for over a year as a simple web page. We started developing it we deleted the old Google Apps and and migrated it to our primary App Engine account to avoid billing issues of two+ accounts. We couldn't get App Engine to recognize the Custom Domain even though it was in the Domains tab of our Google Apps Account. In searching I found Google limits using domains on App Engine (http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182081 scroll down to App Engine) I had to recreate a separate Google Apps account to verify ownership of the domain. Site is up and operational now outside of SSL. The issue is that when I go to https://admin.google.com/CPanelHome#DomainSettings/subtab=domains and type the app id to enable SSL on the domain Apps account it routes me to create an App Engine app instead of to billing. Because the app is running on the primary App Engine account not the Domain account.
It seems someone must have ran across this and solved it. How do I enable my primary Google Apps account to verify ownership of the domains and allow App Engine to use it? I have a lot of domains that will be hosted on App Engine and a lot of integration between the sites that would really need to be all under a single account to facilitate.
I noticed in searching that Google is offering a free year of Google Apps for customers using App Engine to host a application. Is Google expecting every domain to have a full Google Apps account and host on separate App Engine accounts? If so that would really limit our ability to use App Engine.
After waiting for three days for an answer I am moving on. I believe I tried every way imaginable to accomplish getting multiple domains on a primary Google Apps account to be verified and have SSL enabled. I went so far as to try it with a domain that has never had any Google services. Just in case there were some settings that were causing issues from left over configuration.
So the resolution of this at this time is Google expects you to have a full Google Apps account per domain to enable SSL, or Google App Engine on it. I believe they will be removing the Free Google App Account in the near future. This effectively means that hosting on App Engine will get expensive as a Google App Account is $50/year, and if you use a CloudSQL instance it will be at minimum $9/mo. That is on top of the bandwidth and usage fees.
I have already deactivated billing and disabled the apps on those accounts and have moved them over to a VPS. This is the third year I have spent a lot of time trying to get basic sites using SSL established on Google. While this year it is possible to do it, in the end you pay an arm and a leg for it.
I love Google and really want App Engine to be viable. But I just don't think they will pull it together. All my friends have went with Azure, RackSpace, and the granddaddy Amazon. It really makes me sad that Google is so far from viable and even worse that Azure just works.
If anyone at Google wishes to contact me feel free to do so. If there is something I missed feel free to open this and give directions on how to host multiple domains on a single App Engine / Apps account with SSL. I would greatly appreciate it.

Add domain to Google Appengine w/o using Google Apps for Business

I've tried to add a custom domain for my app, my own domain, instead of default example.appspot.com.
But just figured out that Google don't allow to use Google Apps for free anymore. Only Google Apps for Business.
Actually I don't need anything provided by Google Apps for Business, just need to use my own domain for my GAE project. But seems that now there no way to use custom domain w/o signin for Google Business account? and paying $50 a year. Is it correct? Is there any other way to add custom domain to GAE?
UPDATE: see comment from #JW.
I just discovered today (as of 2014-04-11) a new custom domain
settings page is available from Google Developers Console:
Go to https://console.developers.google.com/project Click on your
project On the left click "App Engine" Click "Settings" There you go!
You can configure custom domain without the need of Google App
account!
Register for Google Apps for Business and apply for $50 credit.
Starting June 15 and for a limited time, Google will offer a USD
$50.00 App Engine credit for Google App Engine developers who have
recently purchased a new Google Apps for Business domain account for
their App Engine application.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lSDA5Jol0Bosaop3RKZ9YqlSyzVLsCtAv8gYupBheR4/viewform
From https://stackoverflow.com/a/23006209/8137:
I just discovered today (as of 2014-04-11) a new custom domain settings page is available from Google Developers Console:
Go to https://console.developers.google.com/project
Click on your project
On the left click "App Engine"
Click "Settings"
There you go! You can configure custom domain without the need of Google App account!

When i bind a domain with GAE I need to use Google Apps. Do it mean i will be charged after trial?

when I sign in Google Apps, it says 'Google Apps for Business will expire in 31 days'
EDIT:
As of 12/6/12 Google no longer offers the "free" edition.
Changes to Google Apps for businesses
You can, however, still create a new Apps account by going through the App Engine Admin Console
If you create a new Apps account going through the App Engine Admin Console you'll still be able to create a Standard Apps account for free but you'll only be able to get 1 user per account rather than the 10 you get today.
Google App Engine Group Discussion
Original Response:
There is a Google Apps free edition -- it's called "Standard Edition". Everyday they make it harder and harder to find, though.
Here's the help article that discuses changing from Business to Standard:
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60229
Steps to downgrade
You can downgrade to Google Apps during the 30-day Google Apps for Business free trial by cancelling the trial. If you'd like to downgrade your Google Apps for Business subscription after the end of the free trial, the timing and financial aspects depend on your billing plan.
No it is not like that what you are thinking, you can even signup for Google Apps for Free. It is a free version. You can signup into it with the following link.
http://www.google.com/intl/en_in/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html
Even if you have already signed up for Google Apps for business you can degrade it to free version by navigating into your admin panel and follow the steps in the URL.
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=60755

Does hosting an appengine app on custom domain force me to be a google apps customer?

I have a domain I bought (via godaddy.com) - let's call it xyz.com
I have an gae app - let's call it xyzweb.appspot.com
I added a masked redirect at godaddy dns management console and now xyz.com gets redirected to xyzweb.appspot.com (even though the address bar shows xyz.com)
This stops working well in some cases like when I give a direct url redirect like href='/static/url/tohelppage.html' or when I attempt to redirect for OAuth authorization. So I read other posts on what I need to do and the most referred one was https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain.
Based on that page it appears that it is necessary to sign up for a new Google Apps account with the new domain name?
So I Have to pay for Google Apps separately beyond what I am paying for Google AppEngine?
And also manage a separate apps domain and its services? I already have google apps domains and this seems more overhead to run a small app on gae.
Could you please help me understand if I've understood this right? And if there is a way to avoid the additional overhead of an extra google apps account?
The way that I do this, is I set up a basic google apps account (which is free), and I link the GAE app to my google apps account. Then you can set google apps to alias "www" to the appengine app, and now your appengine app works on www.yourdomain.tld
It's explained more here, which I know you already looked at, but it explains it well. Try reading it again.

Connecting domain to google app engine without google apps

Actualy, It's a couple of questions:
Is it possible to somehow avoid registering google apps if I just want to connect google app engine applications to non-naked domain (www.example.com for example:)
If described above is impossible, than do I have a right to register Google Apps Education Edition. And how can I proof that I'm non-profit if I'm not US resident?
If I need to connect a couple of domains to a couple of google app instances must I use a couple of google appss as well?
Here is a couple of answers:
No, Google App Engine uses Google Apps to manage domains. See the Deploying your Application on your Google Apps URL article.
Yes, if you are a School or University as explained here. If you aren't, why don't you just go for the Standard Edition?
Yes, for a couple of domains and a couple of GAE instances, you'll need a couple of Google Apps AFAIK. But this shouldn't be an issue as the Google Apps Standard Edition is free. No. As pointed out by Nick, you can add multiple domains to an Apps account as aliases, then map them to different App Engine apps.
Edit: The 3rd answer has been updated with the input provided by Nick Johnson in a comment.
With the the (new?) developer console it is possible add domains to apps for free without using Google Apps. But you will not be able to use HTTPS without registering the domain with Google Apps.
So the answer to the first question is "Yes" (presuming TLS is not required). The second question is not relevant. And as for the third question, multiple domains can be linked with the same application (without using Google Apps).
Select your project in the developer console (https://console.developers.google.com/project)
Navigate the side menu to access App Engine domain settings (App Engine -> Settings)
After verifying your domain (which may take some time) you can add the domain to the app.
I can't currently find Google-blessed documentation to support this. But I am currently serving an App Engine application on a domain that is not registered with Google Apps.
Another option commonly used is to use a reverse proxy to map customer domains to your AppEngine app. I'm using this because I can't add them as Google Apps domain aliases on my primary domain, since some customers run Google Apps by their own.
Details here: http://devblog.ronoaldo.net/2013/09/mapping-multiple-domains-to-google.html

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