Rackspace Email
Rackspace Email is a business email hosting service providing professional email with webmail access, mobile sync, and spam filtering. It's a straightforward email hosting alternat…
What is Rackspace Email?
Rackspace Email is a business email hosting service providing professional email with webmail access, mobile sync, and spam filtering. It's a straightforward email hosting alternative.
Common Use Cases for Law Firms
- Host professional firm email addresses on Rackspace infrastructure
- Provide reliable email with built-in spam and virus filtering
- Alternative to Google Workspace/Microsoft 365 for email-only needs
How We Detect It
Market Overview
Among personal injury law firms, Rackspace Email has been adopted by 391 firms (1.1% adoption rate) as a email infrastructure solution. Adopters score 32.2 SI on average, +3.6 points higher than firms without it, suggesting Rackspace Email correlates with broader technology investment. The heaviest adoption comes from the Conversion-Focused Firms segment (1.5%), followed by Awareness-Only Firms (1.2%). The most common co-occurring tools are WordPress (found on 62.7% of Rackspace Email adopters) and Google Analytics (54.7%).
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Adoption by State
ME
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VT
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NH
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WA
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MT
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ND
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MN
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WI
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MI
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NY
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MA
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RI
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OR
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ID
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WY
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SD
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IA
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IL
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IN
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OH
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PA
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NJ
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CT
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CA
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NV
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CO
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NE
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MO
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KY
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WV
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VA
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MD
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DE
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DC
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AZ
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UT
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KS
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AR
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TN
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NC
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SC
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NM
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OK
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LA
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MS
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AL
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GA
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AK
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HI
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TX
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FL
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0
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Adoption by Segment
which segments use Rackspace Email most
Commonly Paired With
co-occurrence
Rackspace Email Best Practices
1
If your firm is still on Rackspace Email in 2026, document a migration plan to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace — Rackspace's email product is in managed decline. Rackspace sold its hosted email business to Zix (later acquired by OpenText) in 2022, and the product has been in maintenance mode since. New feature development is minimal, and the integration ecosystem — CRM sync, calendar sharing, eDiscovery tools — is increasingly limited compared to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Rackspace Email works for basic email; it's a poor foundation for a modern PI firm that needs tight integration between email, calendar, case management, and compliance tools. Use your next contract renewal as the forcing function to get a migration quote from a Microsoft 365 partner.
2
Ensure your Rackspace Email is authenticated with SPF and DKIM records — the default configuration may not include these. Many small law firms on Rackspace Email have never configured email authentication. Without SPF and DKIM records in your domain's DNS, email sent from your firm's addresses is more likely to land in spam at recipient mail systems like Gmail and Microsoft 365. Log into your DNS host (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare) and verify that you have a Rackspace SPF record (v=spf1 include:emailsrvr.com ~all) and DKIM records. Rackspace's support portal provides the specific values. If they're missing, add them — this single change improves deliverability for every email your firm sends.
3
Add a third-party spam and malware filter in front of Rackspace Email rather than relying solely on its built-in filtering. Rackspace Email's built-in spam filtering is adequate for commodity spam but lacks the advanced threat protection (phishing detection, malware sandboxing, business email compromise detection) of dedicated security gateways. Point a Barracuda or Proofpoint Essentials gateway at your Rackspace mailboxes — the security gateway becomes your MX record, filters inbound mail, and forwards clean email to Rackspace. This adds enterprise-grade protection to infrastructure that was not designed for it, and you can migrate away from Rackspace later without changing your security stack.
4
Use Rackspace's webmail interface as a documented backup access method, not as your primary email client. Attorneys who use Rackspace's webmail as their primary email interface are missing integrations that a desktop or mobile client provides: calendar sync, contact sync, CRM integration, and email archiving. Configure Outlook or Gmail (via IMAP) as the primary client and use the Rackspace webmail only when traveling without a configured device. This is also an important continuity note: document the webmail URL and login process for your staff so that if a computer fails or an attorney is remote, they can access email immediately without IT involvement.
Alternatives to Rackspace Email
1
Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($6/user/month) or Business Standard ($12.50/user/month) — The most natural migration path for firms currently on Rackspace Email. Microsoft 365 includes Exchange email, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive — a complete professional communication and collaboration stack. The Business Standard plan adds desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and is essentially mandatory for firms that need offline access to documents. Microsoft 365's integration with legal case management systems (Clio, NetDocuments, iManage) is deeper than Rackspace's. Migration takes 1-2 business days with minimal downtime using Microsoft's migration tools.
2
Google Workspace Business Starter ($7/user/month) — Google's alternative to Microsoft 365, with Gmail as the email client. Google Workspace's strength for PI firms is its integration ecosystem: Gmail connects natively to thousands of legal tools, the interface is familiar to staff who use personal Gmail, and Google's spam filtering is among the industry's best. The limitation: Google Workspace's file management (Google Drive) requires adjusting to a browser-first document workflow, and Microsoft Office format compatibility (reviewing redlined briefs, editing Word documents) requires more attention than in Microsoft 365.
3
Fastmail ($5-9/user/month) — Privacy-focused email hosting popular with professionals who want a clean, fast email experience without the overhead of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Fastmail is based in Australia (relevant for data residency), doesn't scan email for advertising purposes, and provides excellent IMAP compatibility with any client. For small solo or two-attorney PI firms that only need email (no Office apps, no cloud storage) and have a strong privacy orientation, Fastmail is a genuinely good option. The limitation: minimal legal software integrations compared to Microsoft or Google.
Rackspace Email Power Moves
1
If you can't migrate away from Rackspace Email immediately, move your domain's MX records to a security gateway first — this protects you independently of what email platform sits behind it. Pointing your MX records to Barracuda, Proofpoint, or Mimecast as the inbound gateway means email security improves immediately, even before you migrate the mailboxes. When you eventually move mailboxes to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, you simply update the gateway's delivery target — your security configuration stays intact. This approach lets you decouple the security improvement (which you can do this week) from the full migration (which requires planning).
2
Export your Rackspace email archive before your contract lapses — this is your firm's communication history and is not automatically transferred. When firms migrate away from Rackspace, many discover too late that their email history wasn't exported before the contract ended. Rackspace does not retain data after account closure. Before migrating or canceling, export your email archive to PST files (Outlook format) or use a migration service that transfers mail directly to your new platform. For a PI firm, this archive includes client communications that may be relevant to pending matters, bar complaints, and fee disputes. Treat the export as a critical migration prerequisite, not an afterthought.
3
Use the Rackspace migration window as an opportunity to implement email authentication and a professional email signature policy simultaneously. Most firms that migrate email platforms keep the same practices they had before. Use the migration as a forcing function: set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC on your new platform from day one, deploy a standardized email signature template for all attorneys and staff, and configure an email retention policy that matches your state bar's requirements. The migration disruption is an opportunity to establish practices that are far harder to implement incrementally when everyone is already using the system.
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Top Firms Using Rackspace Email
by sophistication index
| # | Firm | Segment | Attorneys | SI Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Retention Innovators | 6 | 93.093 | A+ |
| 2 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 1 | 90.390 | A+ |
| 3 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 41 | 82.582 | A+ |
| 4 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 12 | 80.080 | A+ |
| 5 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 63 | 79.880 | A+ |
| 6 |
|
Retention Innovators | 1 | 79.079 | A |
| 7 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 17 | 78.078 | A |
| 8 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 1 | 78.078 | A |
| 9 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 1 | 78.078 | A |
| 10 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 22 | 78.078 | A |
| 11 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 1 | 77.077 | A |
| 12 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 5 | 77.077 | A |
| 13 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 4 | 77.077 | A |
| 14 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 42 | 77.077 | A |
| 15 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 6 | 77.077 | A |
| 16 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 15 | 77.077 | A |
| 17 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 4 | 76.076 | A |
| 18 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 8 | 76.076 | A |
| 19 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 3 | 76.076 | A |
| 20 |
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Conversion-Focused Firms | 20 | 76.076 | A |
