Is it possible that a players rank will also show up when he joins?
When I try to use PlaceholderAPI it shows up like this: http://prntscr.com/a37pez

Where are you setting the join message?

In the essentials config.yml?

I'm confused what you mean by placeholderapi then.

Well that's me being hopeless, but is there anyway to get the rank prefix in it using essentials?

Im using essentialsxchat there are the ranks displayd in joinmessages. without the chat module not.

EssentialsX doesn't support PlaceholderAPI replacements, so it can't be used with PlaceholderAPI placeholders. There currently isn't a way to include prefixes or ranks in the custom join message.

Discussion for placeholders and other chat enhancements in Essentials should be moved to #2391. Currently it does not support this, as md mentioned.