Jan 18, 2026
3 min read
Retailer Rackspace says it plans to charge 706 percent more.
Rackspace's new pricing for its email hosting services is "devastating," according to a partner who has used Rackspace as an email provider since 1999.
In recent weeks, Rackspace has updated its email hosting pricing.Its standard plan is now $10 permailbox permonth.Businesses can also pay for the Rackspace Email Plus add-on for an additional $2 per email.mailbox permonth (for file storage, mobile sync, Office-compatible applications and messaging) and the Archiving add-on for an additional $6 permailbox permonth (for unlimited storage).
As recently as November 2025, Rackspace charged $3/mailbox/month for its standard plan and added $1/mailbox/month for the Email Plus add-on and $3/mailbox/month for the Archival add-on, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Rackspace's reseller partners have been particularly vocal about the effects of the new pricing.
In a blog post Thursday, Web hosting service provider and Rackspace reseller Laughing Squid said Rackspace is "increasing our email pricing by a whopping 706 percent, with just a month and a half notice."
Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale told Ars Technica that he received the "heartbreaking" news via email on Wednesday.The last time Rackspace raised Laughing Squid's email prices was 55% in 2019, he said.
"The price increase has had a significant impact on profitability because email is now our biggest expense and we only have a month and a half of messaging," Beal told Ars.
Online, Rackspace Partners cited email price increases from 110 percent to nearly 500 percent.The report said the new higher price per mailbox does not include volume pricing discounts.Bill noted that Laughing Squid's quote did not include any discounts the company had previously received.
