A partner that has relied on Rackspace for email since 1999 described the company’s new email hosting rates as “devastating.”
In recent weeks, Rackspace revised its email hosting pricing. The standard plan now costs $10 per mailbox per month. Businesses can also add the Rackspace Email Plus option for an extra $2/mailbox/month (for “file storage, mobile sync, Office-compatible apps, and messaging”), and the Archiving option for an additional $6/mailbox/month (for unlimited storage).
According to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, as recently as November 2025 Rackspace charged $3/mailbox/month for its Standard plan, $1/mailbox/month for the Email Plus add-on, and $3/mailbox/month for the Archival add-on.
Reseller partners of Rackspace have been particularly outspoken about the effects of the new pricing.
In a blog post on Thursday, web hosting provider and Rackspace reseller Laughing Squid said Rackspace is “increasing our email pricing by an astronomical 706 percent, with only a month-and-a half’s notice.”
Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale told Ars Technica he received the “devastating” notice via email on Wednesday. He said the last time Rackspace raised Laughing Squid’s email prices was in 2019, when they went up 55 percent.
“The price increase has a major impact on the ability to make money due to the fact that email is now our largest expense, and we were only given a month-and-a-half notice,” Beale told Ars.
Online reports say Rackspace partners have been quoted email price increases of 110 percent to nearly 500 percent. The reports state the new, higher per-mailbox quotes don’t include volume pricing discounts. Beale noted that Laughing Squid’s quote does not include discounts the company previously received.
