[kljensen]

$9/mo fixed cost is a big step up from a pure pay-as-you-go. (But, also the cost of two cups of coffee at Starbucks, so still a bargain for the service provided.)

[erikpukinskis]

They still have a free version though, which is probably $9/mo worth of service that you get for free, so you can ramp up under that umbrella.

[mrspandex]

I really wish they would allow the $9 fee to be paid automatically if my app reached quota rather than making me plan for it. The beauty of appengine for me was that I didn't have to think about scaling. I guess I'll now have to pay for that privilege.

[StavrosK]

Yes, but if your instance count goes over 1 for a time, your site will spend an equal amount of time down, presumably.

[dake]

You can limit the amount of instances. If you set it to 1, your site will be slower, not completely down. Just like a normal hosting box.