Google Workspace vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

Google and Zimbra are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Google is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Zimbra is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Google holds a 20.1% mindshare in EA, compared to Zimbra’s 8.0% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Zimbra users who would recommend it.

Google Workspace

Read 104 Google Workspace reviews

6,650 Views
5,054 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Zimbra Collaboration

Read 29 Zimbra Collaboration reviews

2,311 Views
2,195 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Workspace

Zimbra Collaboration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Zimbra Collaboration and Google Workspace are competing in the organizational communication and collaboration sector. Google Workspace has an edge due to its extensive feature set and seamless integration.

Features: Zimbra Collaboration offers integrated email, chat, and calendar with a focus on customization and open-source flexibility. Google Workspace includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet, delivering real-time collaboration and seamless cloud integration.

Room for Improvement: Zimbra Collaboration could enhance integration capabilities and user interface design. It may also need a more robust mobile app and improved integration with third-party services. Google Workspace could improve offline capabilities, the meeting scheduling interface, and customization options for larger enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zimbra Collaboration allows for customizable deployments with strong support for on-premises setups, appealing to organizations wanting infrastructure control. Google Workspace offers a streamlined cloud-based deployment with minimal setup time and 24/7 support, ideal for organizations focusing on remote work and scalability.

Pricing and ROI: Zimbra Collaboration is more cost-effective with lower setup costs, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Google Workspace, though pricier, provides a comprehensive suite that justifies its cost for companies needing extensive digital tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

September 2025

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Helped 869,832 peers since 2012

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

Google Workspace

Ranking in Email Applications

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

104

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (1st), Cloud Storage (8th), Content Collaboration Platforms (4th)

Zimbra Collaboration

Ranking in Email Applications

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 20.1%, down from 24.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 8.0%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Google Workspace	20.1%
Zimbra Collaboration	8.0%
Other	71.9%

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Sunil-Nair

IT Manager at Universal Carpets & Rugs

Email collaboration and accessibility have improved team productivity

The valuable features include the email service, email updates, and Google Drive. People are given email access to Google Drive. The team can share manual files and work accordingly. They can access different teams from anywhere, collectively putting files, sharing them, and managing them. Additionally, the manufacturing product does not require any downgrades. It works fine and continuously for the last three or four years. Users can access their emails from anywhere in their browser without a laptop or can directly access from Gmail. This is helpful for salespeople.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Being able to back up our data on Google Drive is a critical and valuable feature for our customers. It is just in sync. Imagine you change a file on the desktop, and it gets updated directly to your Google Drive. Our laptop is completely in sync with Google Drive. Google Meet, Google Sheets, and Google Docs are also amazing products. They're very versatile and easy to use as compared to Office 365. I am using Google Sheets and Google Docs, which first save the work on my memory or ROM, and then on my RAM. It gives me better productivity through Google Sheets and Google Docs."

"The real-time editing feature is valuable."

"The tool helps me keep a backup of old emails. Like everyone else, I love the Google search engine for searching emails on webmail. The Google Workspace connector for Outlook works well, so I have no issues with that."

"The solution is easy to use, and you don't need a lot of knowledge for it."

"We find Google Drive and mail useful for our services."

"The valuable features of this solution are ease of use, performance is great, and collaboration. It is very easy to share and joins documents."

"I like everything that Google does. They have good products."

"From a security point of view, Google will alert you if anything strange is happening. They will flag it for you so you are aware."

More Google Workspace pros

"The most valuable feature of Zimbra Collaboration is the cost."

"The product is easy to set up."

"The backup and storage management features of Zimbra Collaboration are valuable."

"Zimbra Collaboration has a good web interface."

"Zimbra Collaboration's best feature is its compatibility with Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol, which allows users to use Outlook on Windows or MacOS."

"Zimbra Collaboration's sharing features are most valuable."

"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."

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

More Zimbra Collaboration pros

Cons

"G Suite is not as powerful as Microsoft Office Suite, so sometimes we have to change to Excel and PowerPoint."

"If your storage requirements in day-to-day work are large, then it will incur an additional cost since free storage is limited."

"It takes a long time to import the data from G Suite into another platform."

"The stability should be addressed."

"What needs improvement in Google Workspace is the Google Drive app, in particular, making the process of finding the shared and most used files and folders easier. The first time you get an invite to view a file or folder in Google Drive and you view that folder or file, it's pretty easy, but the next time you try to access it again, sometimes, it's a bit difficult to find what was shared with you. An additional feature I'd like to see in Google Workspace is the option to un-send messages in Gmail. Microsoft has a message recall feature, and this isn't available in Gmail, so it's the feature I'd like to be added to Gmail."

"Google Workspace lacks the ability to copy and move files from one folder to another easily."

"We noticed that sometimes when we forward emails to somebody, it is being relocated as part of the communication somewhere else. The traceability and other features should be improved."

"We would like to use something within Google Workspace for project management, but we didn't find it there."

More Google Workspace cons

"The installation is not straightforward, it can take two days for the full implementation."

"In the next release, Zimbra Collaboration should include a security feature to allow access for mobile device administrators."

"Zimbra Collaboration's video conferencing could be improved."

"File sharing permissions with Nextcloud integration need improvement."

"Zimbra Collaboration could improve the migration from a basic solution to a more containerized solution. For example, the installation should be able to extend to the containers and manage them with some solution, such as OpenShift or Kubernetes."

"There are some security issues."

"The solution could use more integration with third-party tools."

"The solution could improve by making it easier to use."

More Zimbra Collaboration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price per client within the business is too high."

"The price of G Suite Enterprise is reasonable compared to HotSpot. I'm not going to say G Suite Enterprise is affordable. It's valuable, you find value in paying your gas bill or your electricity bill, because of what it allows you to do."

"Approximately $6 per user, per month."

"The pricing is very high, although I cannot tell if this is the result of the Indian vendors artificially inflating it."

"I give the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most affordable."

"We have purchased an annual subscription."

"The main challenge regarding startups with identity services is you could be on a platform that works well but the services are expensive. For example, Microsoft Azure costs approximately $30 per user which is expensive. You end up choosing a different platform, such as G Suite Enterprise because it is priced reasonably and is less expensive than other solutions."

"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is low."

"Zimbra Collaboration offers a good price-to-feature ratio."

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

"We pay yearly licenses for Zimbra Collaboration."

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

"The solution is not expensive compared to other products."

"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."

"The solution is competitively priced."

More Zimbra Collaboration pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	63
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Workspace?

Easy-to-build forms are allowing me to get feedback and information from my internal teams as well as from the customers very efficiently with the result data in structured manner.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Workspace?

The pricing for Google Workspace is moderate. I would rate it a five out of ten, indicating it is neither cheap nor expensive. The current cost is approximately seven to ten euros per user per mont...

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What needs improvement with Google Workspace?

I don't see many areas of Google Workspace that could be improved or enhanced because everything I have been using has been effective. Regarding the user interface, when calling a member in the org...

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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 Zimbra Collaboration?

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

See all answers

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

The solution is competitively priced.

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon WorkMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Google Workspace

Compared 17% of the time

Office 365 vs Google Workspace

Compared 17% of the time

ProtonMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive for Business vs Google Workspace

Compared 2% of the time

More Google Workspace Competitors

Microsoft Exchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 24% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 23% of the time

KerioConnect vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 9% of the time

HCL Domino vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 5% of the time

More Zimbra Collaboration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

October 2025

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Zimbra Collaboration

September 2025

Download Zimbra Collaboration product report

Also Known As

G-Suite Enterprise, G-Suite, Google Apps for Business, G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G-Suite Basic, G-Suite Business, Google Vault

No data available

Overview

Similar to G Suite, all Google Workspace plans provide a custom email for your business and include collaboration tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more.

As we’ve evolved G Suite into a more integrated experience across our communication and collaboration tools, we’ve rebranded to Google Workspace to more accurately represent the product vision.

Google

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

There are over five million businesses that use Google Apps for Business worldwide. Some key customers include The Roche Group, National Geographic, American Red Cross, City of Los Angeles, Flight Centre, and Konica Minolta.

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

Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

September 2025

Free Report: Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

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