Rackspace's latest adjustment to its email hosting pricing structure has drawn sharp criticism from a partner that has relied on the provider since 1999. The company's recent updates see the standard plan set at $10 per mailbox monthly. Additional options include the Rackspace Email Plus add-on for an extra $2 per mailbox per month, covering file storage, mobile sync, Office-compatible apps, and messaging, and the Archiving add-on for another $6 per mailbox per month, providing unlimited storage.
Not long ago, in November 2025, Rackspace's pricing was significantly lower at $3 per mailbox monthly for the Standard plan, with the Email Plus and Archiving add-ons costing $1 and $3 per mailbox monthly, respectively, as observed via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
The reaction has been particularly strong among Rackspace’s reseller partners. A recent blog post from Laughing Squid, a web hosting service and Rackspace reseller, highlighted the "astronomical" 706 percent pricing hike they face, with only six weeks of advance notice.
Laughing Squid's founder, Scott Beale, expressed to Ars Technica that the hike was "devastating" for their business. The last significant price increase from Rackspace had been a 55 percent rise in 2019, Beale noted.
"The price increase has a major impact on our profitability since email is now our largest expense, and we received only a brief notice," Beale told Ars Technica.
Elsewhere online, reports from Rackspace partners suggest email pricing increases ranging from 110 percent to nearly 500 percent, with new quotes apparently not including volume discounts once offered. Beale also pointed out that Laughing Squid's new quote failed to reflect previously available discounts.