Fastmail vs Rackspace Email (2026): which should you pick?

Fastmail

• People leaving free, ad-funded email for a paid private service
• Using your own domain for personal or family addresses
• Small businesses that want email without a full office suite

Rackspace Email

• Businesses that want hosted email with admin tools and migration help
• Companies already working with Rackspace on Microsoft 365

Fastmail

• There is no free plan. After the 30-day trial every account is paid, and Fastmail does not refund unused subscription time.
• The Basic business plan has 6 GB per user and leaves out custom domains, Scheduled Send, Snooze and third-party mail apps.
• Storage beyond the plan allowance is a paid add-on, up to 300 GB per user.
• Listed prices are tax-exclusive.

Rackspace Email

• No price could be read: the old product page returns an error and the current Email page would not load, so check with Rackspace.
• Rackspace's site now leads with enterprise cloud and Microsoft 365, and presents Rackspace Email as one of several productivity options.
• Rackspace documents setup for Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone and Android mail apps; it names no native app of its own.

Fastmail

Custom domains and extra addresses

Use domains you own for your addresses, buy one through Fastmail, or pick one of its free domains. Fastmail says each account can create hundreds of additional addresses.

Masked Email

Creates stand-in addresses so that sign-up forms and logins never see your real one. A Masked Email API lets password managers create them too.

Offline apps on every platform

Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, plus a browser app. Offline, you can read, draft and search mail and manage calendars and contacts.

Snooze, Scheduled Send and pinning

Snooze messages until they are needed, schedule sends for later, pin important messages to the top of the inbox and mute threads you do not want to follow.

Calendar and contacts

A built-in calendar with shared calendars and event invitations that can also display Google and iCloud calendars, and a contact list with VIP-only notifications.

Open protocols and import

Mail is reachable over JMAP, IMAP and POP, contacts over CardDAV and calendars over CalDAV. An import tool moves mail, calendars and contacts from another provider.

Rackspace Email

Control panel administration

Admins add mailboxes and aliases, create group lists and set folder cleanup, storage and webmail settings in one panel.

Spam and virus filtering

Rackspace lists spam filtering in the panel and describes premium spam and virus protection as part of the service.

Archiving

The control panel can archive all incoming and outgoing email for a domain.

Free migrations

A self-service migration tool and assisted migrations from other providers are offered at no charge, according to Rackspace's documentation.

Multi-factor sign-in

Webmail administrators can set up multi-factor authentication for their users.

Fastmail

• Basic$3

  per user / month, billed yearly ($36); $4 billed monthly

  Business plan with 6 GB of storage per user, shared addresses and shared calendars. Custom domains, Snooze and third-party mail apps need Standard.

• Individual$5

  per month, billed yearly ($60); $6 billed monthly

  One private inbox with 60 GB of total storage, custom domains, Masked Email, offline support and access from third-party mail apps.

• Standard$5

  per user / month, billed yearly ($60); $6 billed monthly

  Business plan with 60 GB per user, addresses at a custom domain, shared addresses and calendars, Scheduled Send and third-party app access.

• Duo$8

  per month for 2 people, billed yearly ($96); $10 monthly

  Two private inboxes with 60 GB each, plus addresses, calendars and an address book the two can share.

• Professional$9

  per user / month, billed yearly ($108); $10 billed monthly

  Everything in Standard with 150 GB of storage per user and an email retention archive for legal compliance.

• Family$11

  per month for up to 6 people, billed yearly ($132); $14 monthly

  Up to six private inboxes with 60 GB each at a flat rate, with controls for managing users' storage, privacy and security.

Rackspace Email

Pricing could not be confirmed. See rackspace.com.

Fastmail

• Annual discount

  Save $12 a year on Individual with yearly billing

  Individual costs $60 for 12 months, the equivalent of $5 a month, against $6 when billed monthly. Paying yearly saves $24 on Duo, $36 on Family and $12 per user on the business plans.

• Other savings

  Lower rates on 2- and 3-year terms

  Paying for 24 or 36 months up front brings Individual to $114 or $168, the equivalent of $4.75 or $4.67 a month. The other plans have the same two- and three-year options.

Rackspace Email

No public discounts listed.