Microsoft Exchange vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

Microsoft and Zimbra are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while Zimbra is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 11.4% mindshare in EA, compared to Zimbra’s 9.0% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Zimbra users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Exchange

Read 91 Microsoft Exchange reviews

3,291 Views
2,842 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Zimbra Collaboration

Read 29 Zimbra Collaboration reviews

2,972 Views
2,295 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange

Zimbra Collaboration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Zimbra Collaboration and Microsoft Exchange are competing products in the enterprise email and collaboration market. Microsoft Exchange appears to have an edge due to its robust features, while Zimbra Collaboration offers competitive pricing and advantages in support.

Features: Zimbra Collaboration is recognized for its open-source flexibility, which allows extensive customization. It integrates communication tools like email, chat, video, and voice calls, enhancing team collaboration. Additionally, Zimbra is highly compatible with third-party applications, making it versatile for diverse environments. Microsoft Exchange offers a comprehensive suite of productivity features, ensuring excellent email management and scheduling. Advanced security protocols protect user data, and its seamless integration with other Microsoft services enhances productivity with tools like SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

Room for Improvement: Zimbra Collaboration could improve its built-in security modules, which are less powerful compared to dedicated solutions. Its two-factor authentication features could be refined for enhanced security. Additionally, Zimbra can work on increasing awareness among potential enterprise customers. Microsoft Exchange has a complex licensing model that might be streamlined. It also has a steeper learning curve for new users. Enhanced customization options for unique business processes could further improve Exchange.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zimbra Collaboration provides a straightforward deployment process with support options emphasizing quick response times, beneficial for small to mid-sized businesses. Microsoft Exchange offers a more complex deployment process but provides extensive documentation and premium support services, which can be particularly advantageous for large enterprises needing robust support systems.

Pricing and ROI: Zimbra Collaboration offers a lower setup cost, making it attractive to organizations with limited budgets while providing reliable email and collaboration tools. Its cost-effectiveness suits small to medium businesses seeking essential functionalities. Microsoft Exchange, with its higher initial costs, justifies its pricing with a strong ROI from advanced functionalities and a comprehensive feature set that appeals to businesses focusing on long-term value and extensive integrations.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Exchange

Ranking in Email Applications

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (1st), File Archiving (3rd)

Zimbra Collaboration

Ranking in Email Applications

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.4%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 9.0%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Hesham Hussain

Head Of Infrastructure at ValU

A good solution for large enterprises, but is expensive when compared to other solutions

Regarding the decision of increasing the number of users, it depends on the organization's choice, whether to opt for CapEx or OpEx. Both options involve expenses over the years. Building an in-house Exchange solution requires investing in hardware, storage, connectivity, and administrative resources. Office 365 shifts the budget solely to OpEx as a subscription service. Scalability is another factor. Starting a new company favors Office 365 due to cost efficiency. As the organization grows, the choice depends on available resources and technical expertise. An internal Exchange setup is feasible with skilled engineers, while Office 365 suits those lacking in-house resources.

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Muhammad Talha Baig

Business Analyst and Associate Project Manager at SAMI Pharmaceuticals

One of the premium features was customized rooms tailored to the collaboration needs

Zimbra's strength lies in its individuality, and it should focus on leveraging its unique features rather than trying to emulate competitors. My organization has certified Zimbra technicians, so we believe we can utilize Zimbra certification. However, I was recently informed by Zimbra that no such certification exists. I have recently completed the test kit, and after the training, I will gain access to tickets. Therefore, if any clients are experiencing issues, we have a certified technical team available to provide support 24/7. This is how we can cater to our client's needs. I recommend Zimbra to small-scale and enterprise customers. Anyone, even those with 5 users, can opt for Zimbra. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's very well integrated with OneDrive and Teams Calendar."

"It is user friendly."

"For me, the solution is very user-friendly. I've used it a long time and I know where everything is."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange is the email storage is on the cloud. We don't have to delete emails often."

"The product works very well."

"What I love about Microsoft Exchange is the good integration since 2013, particularly its integration with the calendar and other software such as Zoom, TeamViewer, AnyDesk, etc."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange are it is always online and has broad email and file-sharing capabilities."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange is its communication capabilities."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

"One of the premium features was customized rooms tailored to the collaboration needs. Many of the clients customize features such as organization logos and scanners."

"We can control all the data in my IT infrastructure."

"One of the most valuable features involves the solution's automatic backup, which I find to be pretty simple and straightforward, and obviates the need for additional software."

"A lot of other products like Microsoft Exchange offer email or collaboration features, but they are not as fast as Zimbra."

"Zimbra Collaboration has a good web interface."

"The stability is good and keeps getting better with each new update."

"The most valuable feature of Zimbra Collaboration is email functionality."

"The Zimbra Collaboration's most valuable feature is web access."

More Zimbra Collaboration pros

Cons

"From a security point of view, Microsoft should enhance the new features. Technical support could also be better."

"We are not able to use Microsoft Teams due to connection issues. Thus, the product integration with Teams could be improved."

"Microsoft needs to make some modifications to meet the current needs of the environment. For example, they need to add more cell service features because people work from home during the pandemic, and certain elements should be available as a mobile service."

"Microsoft could improve on Exchange's hybrid deployment or HCW. They need to improve on that because I was having many issues with HCW in our environment at times."

"The desktop version of Microsoft Exchange receives emails a little slower than the online version."

"Load balancing is lacking."

"Sometimes we don't get support quickly enough - for example, if there's some global hacker attack, we don't get served as quickly. The skills of the technical staff can also vary, and Microsoft could perhaps improve their training."

"The solution could be more secure."

More Microsoft Exchange cons

"It would be great if a group chat feature were created to allow for a team environment."

"There are some security issues."

"The product must be more customizable."

"I can confidently say that Zimbra is good enough for 2,000 client users. But, at the same time, if my client needs more than that and we have two options—Zimbra or Microsoft—I'm going with Microsoft because many admins will speak to Microsoft's ability to handle that many."

"Zimbra Collaboration does not have a solution roadmap as aggressive as the new collaboration mail solutions. Additionally, they can have a better interface and integration with single sign-on."

"Zimbra should provide a desktop client. Right now, we are using a web browser for accessing our emails. There should also be a desktop client."

"Some issues cause the solution not to function correctly or to cause downtime once a month."

"Zimbra must improve its solution to make it easy so that the users don't have to use webmail to connect to their accounts and log in to webmail every time. This is something that is lacking in Zimbra Collaboration. They should provide a better way to easily connect email applications on the desktop to the Zimbra server. They should also try to have more functionality for storage management, like Microsoft Exchange. Currently, the management of the email data must be done manually in Zimbra Collaboration, which we are finding very difficult. They should provide a way to save emails so that you can have more space on the server and storage. Because of the lack of this functionality, we are planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange. Microsoft Exchange provides a better way to manage storage than Zimbra Collaboration. You cannot have a mail solution without storage management because emails will always increase. Zimbra Collaboration also needs tools for management. More back-office tools are required to manage the whole mailbox and space. You don't only manage emails but also the documents attached to the emails. Therefore, you require tools to select and decide what do you want to save or how do you want to free up space in your infrastructure."

More Zimbra Collaboration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid monthly."

"It's a little bit expensive."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange is reasonable."

"The platform has a reasonable price."

"We can get Exchange in the cloud along with the Microsoft 365 license."

"Microsoft Exchange is an inexpensive application."

"They are flexible when it comes to pricing, unlike most of the other vendors I have dealt with."

"Exchange is better for medium to large businesses because it can be quite costly for SMB, which may not need all the options the product provides."

More Microsoft Exchange pricing and cost advice

"It's very expensive. When we compare the cost with Google Workspace, it's so expensive."

"We are using perpetual licenses. We have deployed it in our local data center, and we buy perpetual licenses on a per-user basis."

"When it comes to the licensing of Zimbra Collaboration, my license covers the servers and I find its terms to be much simpler than those of Microsoft Exchange."

"If you choose the network edition, it is a little pricier. They have the open-source edition too which is only community supported."

"The solution is competitively priced."

"We do not pay for licenses to use this solution."

"I use Zimbra Collaboration's community version. We may move to the enterprise version since prices are affordable."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the price a four"

More Zimbra Collaboration pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

19%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Zimbra Collaboration compare with Microsoft Exchange?

Zimbra is a free, open source collaborative software suite. The features I like best are the ease of integration and the email, calendar, and collaboration server with web interface. In addition, I...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange?

The initial setup was straightforward and fast.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Exchange?

The licensing and pricing are quite costly, which can demotivate customers from opting for features and upgrades. However, the solution provides value for money if one is well-acquainted with Excha...

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What do you like most about Zimbra Collaboration?

The most valuable feature of Zimbra for our team's productivity is its efficiency in handling email communication.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zimbra Collaboration?

The solution is competitively priced.

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What needs improvement with Zimbra Collaboration?

When it comes to administration tasks like configuring specific filters or group signatures, I have to dig into the configuration since there's nothing in the graphical or web interface. The soluti...

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Comparisons

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 18% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 12% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 11% of the time

HCL Notes vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 9% of the time

IceWarp vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 6% of the time

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Open-Xchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 20% of the time

KerioConnect vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 16% of the time

IceWarp vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 6% of the time

Google Workspace vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 6% of the time

More Zimbra Collaboration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange

March 2025

Download Microsoft Exchange product report

Buyer's Guide

Zimbra Collaboration

March 2025

Download Zimbra Collaboration product report

Also Known As

Exchange, MS Exchange

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Overview

Built to deliver the enterprise-grade security and reliability that businesses require, Microsoft Exchange provides email, calendar and contacts on your PC, phone and web browser.

Microsoft

Zimbra Collaboration provides administrators and their end users innovative features that solve the challenges faced by organizations using today's legacy communications infrastructure.

Zimbra

Sample Customers

Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting

NEC Biglobe, City of Ventura, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Hola Publishing, BIG, Sleepwell, LaFayette College, Xmission, DNA, Ring Line, Future Group, TIGC

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

March 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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