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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Rackspace’s public U.S. retail price for its legacy hosted email service is now $10 per mailbox per month, effective March 2026. Email Plus is listed at $12 per mailbox in total, while Email Archiving adds $6, bringing the combined price to as much as $18 per mailbox monthly. The widely reported 706% increase, however, does not apply to every Rackspace customer: it was reported by reseller Laughing Squid after its negotiated pricing changed.
For customers and agencies, the practical question is whether Rackspace’s support and mailbox features justify the new cost—or whether to renegotiate, move to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or select an independent email provider.
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The short version
- Rackspace Email is publicly listed at $10 per mailbox per month.
- Email Plus costs $12 total, not $12 on top of the base plan.
- Email Archiving adds $6; Email Plus with Archiving can therefore total $18 per mailbox monthly.
- The reported 706% increase is reseller-specific, not a universal Rackspace bill increase.
- Rackspace said the change is intended to support expected service levels but has not publicly provided a detailed cost breakdown.
Rackspace’s current pricing page advertises 25GB mailboxes, unlimited aliases, webmail, Outlook and mobile access, spam and virus protection, shared calendars and contacts, and 24x7x365 expert support. It also advertises no long-term contract, although minimums may apply to some cloud-office products.
What changed in March 2026?
| Product | Public price signal | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Rackspace Email | $10/mailbox/month | Hosted business email, webmail, Outlook and mobile access |
| Rackspace Email Plus | $12/mailbox/month total | Additional file storage, ActiveSync/mobile synchronization, Office-compatible apps and messaging |
| Email Archiving | $6/mailbox/month add-on | Encrypted retention and unlimited archive storage |
| Email Plus with Archiving | $18/mailbox/month total | Email Plus combined with archiving |
Rackspace told Ars Technica that the increase would take effect in March 2026. Individual customers reported invoices dated March 1, but those reports should not be treated as an authoritative universal effective-date notice. Ars reported that Laughing Squid received roughly a month and a half of notice; that notice period may not have applied to direct customers or other resellers.
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What does the 706% figure mean?
A 706% increase means the new price is approximately 8.06 times the old price:
Percentage increase = (new price - old price) / old price × 100That calculation is different from Rackspace’s public retail reset. For example:
- A reported move from $3 to $10 is a $7 increase, or about 233%. The new price is 3.33 times the old price.
- A reported old package of $3 base email plus $1 Email Plus and $3 archiving cost $7. The comparable new package—$10 base email, $2 more for Plus relative to the base structure, and $6 archiving—can total $18. That is about a 157% increase, or 2.57 times the old total.
- A reseller receiving an unusually deep historical discount can experience a much larger percentage increase even if the replacement price is the same $10 retail rate.
The earlier $3, $1 and $3 figures came from a November 2025 Rackspace listing preserved through the Internet Archive, rather than a currently available historical Rackspace price sheet.
The final invoice can also differ because of currency, taxes, minimum charges, reseller fees, volume tiers, add-ons and whether the reseller absorbs part of the upstream increase. Customers should compare their actual old and new totals—not a headline percentage.
Why resellers have been hit especially hard
Resellers do more than pass through mailbox licenses. They may provide support, manage hundreds of domains, honor fixed-price hosting contracts and maintain margins based on long-standing volume discounts. Laughing Squid said the change made email its largest expense and that its previous reseller pricing was no longer available on the same basis, according to Ars.
That creates a difficult choice: absorb the increase, raise customer prices, reduce support, or migrate users. The effects are most serious for:
- Long-standing resellers with favorable negotiated rates.
- Agencies managing hundreds or thousands of mailboxes.
- Small businesses dependent on a hosting company for email administration.
- Customers using archiving or Email Plus.
- Businesses whose clients are covered by fixed-price support agreements.
- Organizations that need time to move calendars, contacts, archives, mobile devices and application mail.
Why did Rackspace raise the price?
Rackspace’s public explanation was limited. The company said the increase would help it continue delivering expected service levels and described Rackspace Email as a secure, reliable, business-class solution. It did not publicly disclose a mailbox-level cost breakdown, a universal partner pricing schedule or a detailed explanation of why reseller discounts changed.
There are plausible industry pressures: spam and abuse prevention, deliverability monitoring, security, storage, retention, mobile and desktop compatibility, and customer support all add costs. Large productivity platforms can spread those costs across much larger user bases. Providers may also prefer reselling Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace instead of operating a standalone mailbox platform.
Ars Technica reported that Rackspace had stopped hosting Microsoft Exchange after the company’s costly 2022 ransomware incident and discussed whether the pricing change reflected a broader shift away from legacy email hosting. That is analysis, not a confirmed explanation from Rackspace. There is no verified public announcement that Rackspace is discontinuing Rackspace Email; its current site continues to market the product and offers a 14-day trial.
Calculate your own exposure first
Build a comparison using mailbox count, not merely employee count:
- Active mailboxes and dormant accounts.
- Current and proposed per-mailbox prices.
- Email Plus and archive seats.
- Minimum monthly charges.
- Taxes, currency and reseller service fees.
- Contract, renewal and cancellation dates.
Using Rackspace’s public prices, 100 mailboxes would cost approximately:
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- $1,200 per month for Email Plus.
- $1,600 per month for base Email plus archiving.
- $1,800 per month for Email Plus with archiving.
These are arithmetic examples, not quotes. Confirm the applicable country, currency, contract and account terms directly with Rackspace or your reseller.
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Questions to ask before accepting the new price
- What exact price applies to each mailbox and add-on?
- What invoice date starts the new rate?
- Do negotiated volume discounts remain?
- Are Plus and Archiving included or billed separately?
- Are there account minimums or reseller service charges?
- What are the cancellation and renewal terms?
- How can historical mail and archives be exported?
- Which archive format and retention metadata are preserved?
- What migration assistance is included?
- Does pricing differ by country, currency or account type?
Stay, renegotiate or migrate?
Stay with Rackspace Email
Staying can make sense when continuity, existing support and a simple mailbox model matter more than the increase. It may also be cheaper than paying migration labor or rebuilding unusual POP/IMAP workflows. The trade-off is that public pricing is now materially higher than the reported 2025 standard price, while the future treatment of reseller economics is unclear.
Move to Rackspace-managed Microsoft 365
Rackspace continues to sell Microsoft 365 products through its cloud-office storefront. This may preserve a Rackspace relationship while providing Exchange-style calendaring, contacts and broader collaboration tools. It is not a like-for-like mailbox replacement: licensing, identity administration, groups, compliance and migration are more involved, and mailbox-only customers may pay for unused applications.
Move to Google Workspace
Google’s official pricing page displays Business Starter at $7 per user per month, Standard at $14 and Plus at $22 under annual or fixed-term pricing. Flexible-plan pricing can differ, and promotional displays may change. The editions list 30GB pooled storage per user for Starter, 2TB for Standard and 5TB for Plus, according to Google’s pricing page and its edition guidance.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWorkspace is most suitable for organizations already using Gmail, Drive, Docs and Calendar. Compare commitment terms and included features carefully; it is a full collaboration suite, not simply cheaper hosted email. Shared mailboxes, aliases, delegated access, archives and retention need a feature-by-feature review.
Choose an independent mailbox provider
Independent providers may better suit customers who need mailbox-only service and lower per-mailbox costs. Ars reported that Laughing Squid offered PolarisMail as a lower-cost alternative. Community discussions also mention MXroute, Fastmail and Greatmail, but prices, support, capacity and features vary and should be verified directly before moving business-critical accounts.
This route can reduce subscription costs but may provide fewer collaboration tools. Evaluate deliverability, abuse handling, support responsiveness, migration tooling, archive capability and capacity—especially before moving hundreds or thousands of users.
Migration checklist
Changing MX records does not migrate historical mail. A low-risk move normally follows this sequence:
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- Inventory domains, DNS providers, mailboxes, aliases, forwarders, catch-alls, groups and shared addresses.
- Document calendars, contacts, autoresponders, rules, mobile devices and desktop clients.
- Identify websites, scanners, CRMs, accounting systems and other SMTP senders.
- Map archives, retention policies, legal holds and export requirements.
- Provision destination mailboxes and verify domain ownership.
- Import historical mail and recreate supported calendars, contacts and groups.
- Lower DNS TTL ahead of the planned cutover.
At cutover
- Update MX records.
- Review and replace SPF records.
- Enable destination DKIM and update DMARC as needed.
- Test inbound and outbound messages from multiple domains.
- Test mobile, Outlook or webmail access.
- Test website and third-party application email.
After cutover
- Monitor delivery failures, spam placement and authentication reports.
- Confirm aliases, forwarding, shared addresses and autoresponders.
- Keep Rackspace active during a validation period.
- Export or retain archive data before cancellation.
- Cancel only after historical data, compliance records and application sending have been verified.
There is no universal migration procedure: the exact process depends on the destination platform, data volume, protocols, archive system and retention obligations.
Quick Recap
Common mistakes
- Assuming 706% applies to every Rackspace customer.
- Comparing mailbox-only prices with Microsoft or Google suite prices without valuing included tools.
- Counting employees rather than billable mailboxes, users, aliases or shared accounts.
- Ignoring archives and legal-retention requirements.
- Forgetting SMTP credentials used by printers, websites and business software.
- Changing MX records without importing old mail.
- Failing to update SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
- Canceling Rackspace before delivery and data validation.
- Treating a 14-day trial as a complete migration test.
- Assuming the domain registrar or website must move with email.
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