Rackspace Email Price Hike in 2026 Update

  

Mark Regan
Published: February 23rd, 2026 • 8 Min Read

Rackspace has recently increased their email hosting prices significantly (on March 1, 2026): the cost of a standard mailbox will increase from ~ $3 to ~$10/month for some customers this increase will be even more than 200% or 700%!! Due to the dramatic Rackspace email price hike, all users and resellers have expressed dissatisfaction at the price increase, and consequently, many are now looking at moving to alternative email solutions (i.e. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, lower-cost providers such as Gmail, etc.).

If you received a notification regarding the Rackspace email price increase, it is likely that you are feeling “bill shock” since it directly affects your operations budget now. Historically (prior to March 1, 2026), Rackspace has been a solid choice for inexpensive, dependable IMAP hosting; however, starting March 1, 2026, there will be a completely different landscape for the hosted email industry. Keep reading the article, as here we will explain everything about the Rackspace email price increase in 2026 and guide you what to do now.

Financial Reality: Rackspace Email Price Increase 2026

Rackspace’s email price hike in 2026 isn’t a small change, but a major one for all customers, regardless of their size.

Many small & large resellers simply can’t afford to absorb this expense since they’ll now be forced to pay more to use the Remail platform.

For example, if you need to estimate your monthly usage of Remail & see how much it will cost you by using the Rackspace Cloud Pricing Calculator (or the manual costing methods for the next fiscal year), then your “Ouch Factor” will be very high:

The Impact on Resellers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Due to Rackspace Email Price Hike

The reseller community is the most affected by the Rackspace email price increase. Resellers could previously provide email accounts for very competitive rates of $4–5 while also being able to maintain a reasonable margin. The base price per account is now $10, so margins are much less than they used to be. From what we are being told in the field, many resellers have had their monthly contracts increase from $2,400 to $5,100 or more with no more than six weeks’ notice to do so. This lack of lead time has put many IT partners on the side of the road with their customers.

Why is the Rackspace Email Price Hike Happening?

Rackspace continues to justify its decision to raise product prices through its mission of providing superior service and lowering its operational costs, but upon further exploration of the overall market and current trends, increases from the following sources appear to be forcing these Rackspace email price increases:

• Taxes on AI hardware: There has been an enormous global explosion of AI technologies that has generated unprecedented demand for server hardware components like RAM and high-speed SSDs, and due to Rackspace’s nature of being an infrastructure-based company, the company is passing the cumulative cost increases of these items along to their customers.
• Debt Management: The financial reports that have recently been released indicate that Rackspace has $2.7 billion of debt on its balance sheet. A standard way for companies to create an increase in revenues to help stabilize their balance sheet would be to create a revenue increase through revenue growth on their existing product lines.
• Market Consolidation: Rackspace has advised their customers that they may be pricing out their IMAP customers (with lower margins) into either Microsoft 365 or Azure and potentially shifting them into their higher-margin managed services; as such, there may be a change in direction in the market as to how Rackspace strategies.

The Exit Strategy: Choosing Your Next Provider

Rackspace’s email price hike has caused users to seek out alternative email providers. The following are currently available to users seeking out alternatives to those being offered by Rackspace:

• There are both Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are available to users today. Both offer extensive features, including unlimited cloud storage, productivity suites, and enterprise-level security/compliance standards. These platforms have existed for sufficiently long such that they will continue to be considered ‘the standard’ across all email providers globally.

Read: Migrate Rackspace to Office 365

• Gmail and Zoho Mail are good email replacements for people who only want to be able to send and receive email, without spending the enterprise-level costs associated with using Microsoft or Google.

Read: Migrate Rackspace to Gmail

• For larger companies, hosting your own email server through an IMAP server may allow you to eliminate the $10 per user fee from Rackspace.

Regardless of what option you choose, moving to another email system is no longer just about moving everything from one location to another; it’s about how you will move everything around.

Why BitRecover is the Best Tool for the Rackspace Transition:

If you are not happy with the Rackspace email price increase an want to make a switch, then this tool is the best for you:

• Cloud-Based Cloud Migration: No need to download email to your PC first, BitRecover can migrate data directly from Rackspace to over 190 different sources, including Office 365, Gmail, G Suite, and Yahoo.
• Batch Migration for Resellers: If you have 500 mailboxes to migrate, you can’t migrate them one by one! BitRecover Batch Mode allows you to upload a CSV of user credentials and migrate your entire customer list in one automated session.
• Retention of 100% of Data: BitRecover preserves all folders, files, and metadata (including all To, CC, BCC, Subject, and Timestamp fields), whereas manual drag-and-drop options may result in lost data.
• Archiving Options: If you need to cancel your Rackspace subscription and are not ready to select your new provider yet, you can archive your entire mailbox into one of many universal formats, such as PST, MBOX, PDF, EML, or MSG.
• Smart Incremental Backup: If the migration takes multiple days, use BitRecover’s incremental backup feature, which only migrates new emails and reduces the chances of creating duplicate messages and will save bandwidth.

Step-by-Step: Securing Your Data Before the March 1st Rackspace Email Price Hike

1. Audit Your Accounts: Identify which mailboxes are critical and which can be archived and deleted to save costs.
2. Run a Full Backup: Use the tool to create a local copy of all mailboxes in PST or MBOX format. This is your “insurance policy.”
3. Execute the Migration: Use the Direct Migration feature within BitRecover to move active users to your new host (e.g., Microsoft 365).
4. Verify & Decommission: Once you’ve verified the data in the new environment, delete the mailboxes in the Rackspace portal before the March 1st billing cycle begins for Rackspace email price increase.

FAQs: Rackspace Email Price Increase

Q 1: Will Rackspace’s email prices ever go back down?

The email hosting rate is going to remain the same, with prices going up due to hardware and energy prices. The new premium hosted email is likely a new baseline for premium hosted email at $10 a month.

Q 2: Can I get a refund if I cancel my Rackspace subscription early?

Rackspace has not provided any official policies regarding refunds due to the price hike. Most users are on a month-to-month basis, and therefore the best option is going to be to cancel your subscription before the next bill becomes due.

Q 3: Is there a free alternative to Rackspace?

Individuals can use Gmail or Outlook.com accounts for free; however, businesses with custom domains ( i.e., info@yourdomain) will require some sort of hosting service.

Q 4: How does BitRecover perform file transfer with large attachments?

BitRecover has fast processing algorithms and can transfer any size files if the destination provider also supports that file size.

Q 5: Can I use the Rackspace cloud pricing calculator to estimate my upcoming invoice?

Currently, the calculator is easy to use for most users: simply multiply your mailboxes by $10. To this amount you will need to add $2 per user for Mobile Sync (Email Plus) and $6 per user for Archiving.

The Verdict

Rackspace email price hike serves as a wake-up call for everyone. Companies that rely on one cloud provider without a backup plan are exposing themselves to risk.

Many companies are not shocked by Rackspace raising the cost of email hosting, since there have been many issues with cloud vendors recently. Companies need to be proactive in replacing lost or wasted data and to have a plan to do so.

Using our tool, you can transfer your emails so that you can choose the best vendor for your unique needs.