Rackspace Email Plus – Review 2021

Formerly often called Rackspace Hosted Exchange, Rackspace Email Plus is a low-price email hosting reply for customers that want solely barely greater than only a mailbox however much less, than a full productiveness suite like those that include two of our Editors’ Choice winners Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Google Workspace Business Standard.

Still, its e-mail-solely options do nicely sufficient. Each mailbox comes with 25GB of storage, 30GB of on-line sharing, desktop file synchronization, entry to on-line doc and spreadsheet editors, and cellular sync for e-mail, calendars, and contacts.

Rackspace Email Pricing and Plans

Rackspace presents its e-mail internet hosting companies throughout two tiers. First is the Rackspace Email tier, which prices $2.99 per consumer per thirty days. This stage consists of integration with Microsoft Outlook, a spam and virus filter, and 25GB value of e-mail space for storing.

The tier we examined, Rackspace Email Plus, prices $3.99 per consumer per thirty days and provides file storage, assist for ActiveSync, and a primary set of productiveness apps that work with the Microsoft Office suite. Email storage stays at 25GB however the file storage bucket is one other 30GB. There’s additionally an Archiving choice, which is not a tier unto itself however an extra function you may add to Rackspace Email Plus. It brings e-mail archiving to your administration arsenal for an additional $6.99 per consumer per thirty days.

That’s an excellent total worth, although not fairly nearly as good as our lowest-price contender, IceWarp Cloud. That platform begins at $2.50 per consumer per thirty days and whereas it does not supply extra e-mail storage at that tier, it does embrace 20GB of file storage. Above its Lite tier, IceWarp rapidly beats Rackspace in each e-mail and file storage.

Getting Started

Rackspace is pretty easy to arrange. You should add your area for starters. The firm is pleased to host your area in case you like, or you may present your personal. Be ready for the usual rigmarole of verifying possession and establishing your DNS and MX information. Once you have achieved that, you can begin including customers. There are three tiers of customers, which you’ll combine and match as wanted. The first is solely a primary mailbox—POP3 and IMAP entry with restricted storage that solely prices $1 per thirty days. The subsequent tier up is appropriate on your typical workplace consumer, and the main focus of this overview. Beyond that, Microsoft 365 is obtainable as an add-on for customers who want it.

Once you have created a number of mailboxes, you may end the remainder of the setup course of by creating any aliases you need (alternate names on your mailboxes). You may also create group lists, which allow you to e-mail a number of recipients with a single deal with. Also helpful are a block listing and protected listing just like IceWarp’s blacklist and whitelist. It’s potential to handle your organization’s listing as nicely. The remaining choices focus on webmail, very primary retention settings, and entry rights.

I felt that the Rackspace management panel appeared a bit dated and lacked the facility provided by extra higher-developed, low-price choices corresponding to IceWarp and Zoho Mail. It would have been good, for instance, to have the power to outline extra particular guidelines that govern spam. For the worth, Rackspace Email Plus is a step behind on this space.

Email Client and Collaboration Tools

The webmail and calendar apps are pretty primitive, however do assist primary Office doc and spreadsheet codecs. They’re positively not even near being absolutely suitable with Microsoft Office, and the spreadsheet lags considerably behind Google Sheets, too, which has close to parity with Excel other than a number of minor areas. The Rackspace platform does supply actual-time collaboration just like Google Workspace’s, however whereas you should use its instruments in a pinch, most individuals are going to want Microsoft Outlook or their favourite e-mail consumer.

In phrases of e-mail and calendar, Rackspace principally will get the job achieved. There are not any bells and whistles, however you may examine your messages, arrange an appointment, and ship out invitations as you’d anticipate. I strongly suspect that the majority clients might be utilizing the service for its IMAP/POP3 assist and disrespect the online app besides throughout journey or emergencies. Rackspace does assist a synchronization instrument referred to as ActiveSync that retains your e-mail, contacts, and calendar synced to the cloud. It is not as fancy because the at all times-on high quality of Exchange, however it works, even when it is older know-how.

Perhaps essentially the most helpful worth-add is the file-sharing capabilities. 30GB is nothing to sneeze at, and if you might want to bolt on an inexpensive various to a product like Dropbox, you may do worse. That mentioned, it is onerous to disregard Rackspace’s limits when in comparison with one thing just like the terabyte of cloud storage obtainable to every consumer as a part of the OneDrive element in Microsoft 365 Business Premium (although it does outstrip the most cost effective model of Google Workspace, which presents solely 10GB of storage).

Rackspace Security and Third-Party Integration

Rackspace has a stable monitor report for shielding information. The firm is SOC licensed and has made its SOC 3 Report obtainable to obtain (the opposite two can be found after signing a nondisclosure settlement). One disappointing bit, nonetheless, is that the corporate will solely signal a HIPPA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for Microsoft 365 accounts. That guidelines out Rackspace Email and Email Plus as viable choices you probably have delicate medical information to cope with.

The cloud drive is protected with 256-bit encryption, which is beefy in comparison with most. Information in transit, after all, is protected by way of Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Mailboxes are additionally defended by antivirus and anti-spam elements, which is customary follow in right now’s market.

Surprisingly, Rackspace does not combine with anything. There is not any API (utility programming interface) and no clear plans to introduce one. To be sincere, an API is not needed for what Rackspace presents—primary e-mail internet hosting with a number of frills, which is precisely what some of us want. If you do want integration, Rackspace most likely figures you may go for its Microsoft 365 plans.

A Fair Value with a Microsoft Focus

Rackspace’s primary e-mail tier might be the perfect worth in case you’re simply searching for low-profile e-mail inboxes. Email Plus tries to be a center floor between these searching for one thing entry-stage and clients that want the corporate’s Microsoft 365 providing. But it comes up brief once you evaluate it to different merchandise in the identical worth bracket. Still, with the ability to combine and match primary e-mail with Microsoft 365 is an enormous profit, and may very well be a draw for companies seeking to increase their core use of Microsoft Office with out giving everyone a full Office license.

Overall, although, there are simply too many different good choices on the market to advocate Rackspace as a primary cease. Zoho Mail is a effective low-price decide, whereas Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Google Workspace Business Standard are our Editors’ Choice honorees and nicely value their price in case your finances permits.