Zimbra is a Yahoo Company and open source server software for email and collaboration. Zimbra goes beyond just email, contacts, group calendar and task sharing. It adds an instant messaging, file storage as well as web document management to the collaboration suite experience. But still some people are confused that – Is zimbra mail really better than Microsoft Exchange?
So, in this article I am just clearing your confusion that Yes! Zimbra is much better than Microsoft Exchange and clearing also the fact that how it can be? First I would like to tell you that Zimbra is more flexible than Microsoft Exchange and working with different types of mobile devices and with operating systems.
Zimbra is better than Microsoft Exchange in terms of:
• Better administration as Zimbra online administrator is flexible, light and simple to use across multiple domains.
• Flexibility as Zimbra can be use on any platform (Apple, Windows, Linux), with any mobile device (Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, flip phones).
• Solid security as in Zimbra full integrated antispam and antivirus capabilities protect your users.
There are some common features between Zimbra Collaborative Suite and Exchange like iPhone support, Windows Mobile support and Outlook 2007 support etc but there are other features also that are only in Zimbra. You can see below:
| Applications | Zimbra | Microsoft Exchange |
| Apple iSync support | Yes | No |
| Universal desktop client | Yes | No |
| Flip phone J2E client | Yes | No |
| Instant messaging | Yes | No |
| Document management | Yes | No |
| Briefcase/wiki | Yes | No |
| Email grouping | Yes | No |
| SOX compliance out of the box | Yes | No |
| Integrated antispam, antivirus | Yes | No |
| Web Interface Marginal | All major browser supported | Outside of IE |
| Integration with other system | Full SOAP | Marginal |
Zimbra a mail/collaboration suite solution is easier to extend, easier to maintain and the best thing is that it supports internet standards and the support is more reactive. If you want to make your own alterations then you get the source. Here, the web interface is richer, the IMAP server is richer, the company is less evil, and releases come multiple times per year instead of once per multiple years, run on non-Windows servers and gets better performance with the same hardware. You can enter your own feature requests and the company actually pays attention. Zimbra is very much user friendly and it is very easy to understand their features than anything. It is easier for a beginner to learn scope of work, their feature and also they can effectively and efficiently manage the services as well as the admin control panel.
We can also add that Zimbra is committed to the community that listens and care of you when you ask for features. Recently, Zimbra was featured in the Wall Street Journal and the article shows clearly that users are asking and looking for a better option. Zimbra has over 4 Million paid mailboxes and also many Open Source version mailboxes where as Microsoft has 140 Million mailboxes in about a year. But the questions arises here that how long they have been around? How long have they been the alone in the market space? Now that folks have a choice, they are running to Zimbra.
Zimbra is not only a email solutions but it also a complete collaboration suite such as document management system, Calendar Management system, task management system, advance search option with just a single click. With the use of Zimbra, you can share your mail, document, calendar, address book with your internal user.
Now, I hope your all confusions for Zimbra have been cleared in your mind.