TOOLNAVIA / BUYING GUIDE
Cloudways Flexible Email: $1.50 Mailbox or $0.10 per 1,000 Sends?
The short answer
Cloudways Flexible hosting and business email are separate purchases. A Cloudways server can start around **US$11/month**, but **Rackspace Email is not automatically included**. Cloudways currently charges **US$1.50 per mailbox per month** for Rackspace, while the Elastic Email add-on starts at **US$0.10/month for 1,000 application emails**. Those prices are not alternatives for the same job: Rackspace creates inboxes; Elastic Email delivers automated application messages.
At a glance
- Best for
- Cloudways buyers who need to budget human mailboxes and application transactional delivery separately.
- Price model
- Flexible server from about US$11/month; Rackspace US$1.50/mailbox/month; Elastic Email from US$0.10/1,000 emails
- Check first
- Rackspace and Elastic Email solve different jobs; prices and package volumes can change; DNS setup is required.
Rackspace is for people who need inboxes
Each Cloudways Rackspace mailbox includes **25GB storage**, webmail, secure IMAP/SMTP, aliases and forwarding. Five staff mailboxes therefore model to US$7.50/month and ten to US$15/month at today's rate, before future price changes.
Because the add-on is billed by active mailbox, an alias or forwarder does not necessarily require another mailbox. Plan the actual humans/shared inboxes that need storage and login access.
Elastic Email is for application delivery
Elastic Email on Cloudways is designed for transactional or application-generated mail such as order updates, password resets and notifications. It is sold by monthly sending volume rather than mailbox count. Current packages start at 1,000 emails for US$0.10/month and scale upward by volume.
The low per-message entry price does **not** mean Elastic Email gives an employee a 25GB inbox. It solves outbound delivery, authentication and logging, not mailbox storage or ordinary inbox use.
Many sites may need both products
A WooCommerce company can use Rackspace for support@ and billing@ while using Elastic Email for order receipts and password resets. That separation reduces competition between staff correspondence and application traffic and makes each service's logs/capacity easier to understand.
Cloudways' own email-add-on guide explicitly distinguishes mailboxes from transactional email. Buying only one add-on because it is cheaper can leave half the requirement unsolved.
DNS setup is part of the purchase
Rackspace requires domain DNS records so incoming mail routes to the new mailboxes; Cloudways notes DNS changes may take time to propagate. Elastic Email requires server binding and domain verification, including the necessary DNS authentication records, before messages will work.
A hosting migration should therefore include a mail/DNS checklist, not just a server move.
Base Cloudways price should not hide the email add-on cost
The Cloudways Flexible server price and email add-on prices belong in one operating budget. For example, one US$11 server plus five Rackspace mailboxes models to US$18.50/month before tax/add-ons; adding Elastic Email depends on the chosen send-volume package.
Independent Cloudways reviews make the same broad point that traditional email hosting sits outside the core managed-cloud product. The exact add-on prices and features still come from Cloudways.
Decision rule
Choose **Rackspace Email** when the requirement is human mailboxes, long-lived inbox storage and ordinary IMAP/webmail access. Choose **Elastic Email** when the requirement is application-generated transactional delivery, domain authentication and delivery logs. Use **both** when a business needs staff inboxes and application mail. Use another dedicated email provider when collaboration/compliance features outside Rackspace's scope dominate.
Before checkout, confirm current Cloudways server pricing, mailbox count, Rackspace price and the Elastic Email volume tier. Toolnavia's exact Cloudways Flexible offer is approved, market-confirmed and enabled; the commercial link uses the matching [Cloudways Flexible route](/go/cloudways-managed-hosting-flexible-official-usd).
