Email communication is crucial to organizational success, no matter whether it’s a small business or large enterprise. Though every email solution in the market has distinct benefits, organizations need to select one that goes well with their business requirements. Zimbra Collaboration Suite and Microsoft Office 365 are two solid email solutions with a huge customer base across the globe. They have a user-friendly interface; but vary in a few aspects that you need to know before making the final call. Having said that, the blog post makes a comparison between Zimbra and Office 365 to help you choose the one that meets your needs. Take a look.
Zimbra Vs Office 365: What’s in it for me?
Both Zimbra and Outlook business email solutions are popular in the market. There’s more to these services than just email servers. To make a better-informed decision about whether Zimbra or Microsoft Office 365 works best for you, you must first have a clear understanding of what these services entail. Having the right information will also help you decide whether it is viable for you to move from Zimbra to Office 365 and vice-versa. To help you get a clear idea of what you stand to get from each of these services, here is an overview:
- Zimbra: Zimbra or Zimbra Collaboration is an enterprise-level solution for team collaboration. The service comes with various crucial collaboration tools, including Zimbra cloud email, calendar, and file-sharing features. Zimbra offers a secure online social networking space, customer support, as well as online knowledge bases, and other valuable documentation to get you going right from day one.
- Office 365: Office 365, now known as Microsoft 365, is a cloud-based productivity platform created to support business management and remote collaboration. Microsoft 365 offers more than just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook 365 webmail; it combines the best productivity tools with robust cloud services, device management, and cutting-edge security into a seamless user experience.
Key Features of Zimbra Collaboration Suite
Zimbra is a trusted service for business use. It gives businesses the ability to manage databases, workplace intercoms, incoming and outgoing emails, and data storage. A variety of messaging and collaboration capabilities are available through Zimbra Collaboration, including the facility to set up your own cloud with a mailbox that integrates with your email, courtesy of the Zimbra email server. Zimbra hosting also offers users the ability to share files, applications, voice, tasks, address books, and calendars, and stay in touch with team members by using the click-to-call feature, chat, and visual voicemail capabilities. It also supports instantaneous document and folder sharing. You can even integrate Zimbra with third-party programs like Oracle and SAP as well as Facebook, Twitter, and Socialcast. Zimbra offers full cross-platform support, which comes pre-integrated with desktop versions of Windows, Mac, and Linux. Here are some of the major features of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite:
- Advanced User Interface: The Zimbra collaborative suite has been linked with the most up-to-date features to control webmail, instant messaging, group scheduling, document editing, and sharing, among other things.
- Access from Anywhere: When using Zimbra, there are no geographic restrictions. The email accounts are simple to use on all devices, including Android, Outlook, Webmail, and other email programs. Additionally, reading emails from any IMAP or POP email account, such as Hotmail, AOL, and others, is simple.
- Bulk Emailing: Zimbra offers options for bulk emailing. Without experiencing any speed issues, one can easily send over 2000 emails per hour.
- Security: Zimbra has a complete security system that protects your data from outside threats, including an enterprise firewall, intrusion prevention system, anti-spam, and antivirus filters. Additionally, the data backup facility guarantees business continuity even in the event of a major catastrophe.
- Third-party integrations: Supports integration with powerful and popular third-party tools and applications.
- Advanced features: Search expertise with advanced Q&A tracking and reporting. It allows you to use content reputation and quality scoring, badging, and points to evaluate content.
Key Features of Office 365
Given that 365 is a cloud-based service, everything is accessible in your browser from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. Almost everything your staff members require in performing their tasks is readily available on Office 365, providing 24/7 access to anywhere across the world—not just at your office or on a single computer. Additionally, you can install the complete offline versions of Office products with some specific Office 365 bundles. As it stands, you may start up a program like Word and continue working as usual even if you don’t have a connection to the internet. Once your internet connection is restored, all modifications to your files are synced automatically, keeping all your team members on the same page. Here are some of the major features of Microsoft 365:
- Real-Time Co-Authoring: Office 365 enables online collaboration and real-time tracking of changes made to shared documents by your team.
- Communicate with your coworkers: The Skype in-app integration in this feature of Office 365 is highly effective. You can use it to instant message your team members and share the screen with them during meetings, ensuring timely contact with your coworkers.
- Excel Power Map: It serves as a tool for data analysis, visualization, and sharing when enhanced with Power BI. Power Map, which has the built-in ability to filter data using three different filters: List, Range, or Advanced, enables you to convert rows of data into a 3D interactive map.
- Microsoft Planner with Workflows: Planner offers a straightforward method for developing project workflows and allocating the specific tasks in the flow over to people. It operates in a cascading fashion. The Planner feature automatically assigns the completed segment to the next employee after an employee checks off that he or she has finished the designated section.
- Smart Inbox with Self-Decluttering Features: It automatically sorts emails into priority order by evaluating mailbox activity. Unimportant emails will be placed in your “clutter” folder, where you can review them whenever it’s convenient for you.
- Microsoft MyAnalytics: This tool aids in tracking and examining how you use your time at work. It keeps a thorough record of your work activities, identifies growth opportunities, and gives you the resources you need to manage your time more effectively.
Zimbra vs Microsoft Office 365 Comparison
Code Customization
Zimbra is an open source software that means organizations can have more control over email operations as there is always a possibility to customize code to suit diverse business requirements. Office 365, on the other hand, is a closed source software as only Microsoft is permitted to perform any changes to the code as and when required.
Platform or Device Support
Zimbra supports android, iOS and all leading web platforms; however, doesn’t support Windows devices as of now. Office 365, on the other hand, supports iOS, Windows and leading web platforms, but is only compatible to limited android editions starting from Kitkat 4.4. Having said that, the choice between the two largely depends on the number of business users with each of the devices.
Pricing
Zimbra wins the competition when it comes to pricing, as users can first go for the trial version called the Open Source edition before proceeding for the paid Network edition. In Office 365, there isn’t a provision of any “freemium account” and users need to pay a minimum monthly subscription fee of $4 from day one to access the gamut of services.
Related read – Comparison between Zimbra vs Gmail
Features
Office 365 includes the Microsoft suite of desktop applications, hosted versions of Microsoft’s server products such as Exchange, Sharepoint and Lync. Zimbra, in addition to email and calendar also offers a host of features such as file sharing, document management, simplified admin controls and an award-winning, AJAX based user interface. On top of that, Zimbra also offers useful features such as cross-platform sync, platform search and email sorting, that Office 365 doesn’t.
Scalability
Zimbra has a close-perfect score on every aspect of deployment and scalability, whether it’s about file management suite requirements, user policy management, on premise options, cloud readiness and security. Office 365, on the other hand, is specifically designed as a cloud solution with decent cloud storage and mailbox sizes.
The Bottom Line
Zimbra and Office 365 are two of the most secure email solutions ever created, and it’s a difficult call to pick one without knowing the intrinsic differences. All in all, Zimbra and Office 365 are ideal for mid-size to large enterprises that seek a collaborative solution to enhance mobility, security, and productivity. Though Zimbra can be hosted as an on-premise or cloud solution; Office 365 is more ideal for organizations looking to strengthen their cloud strategy and still transitioning. Whether you require assistance with Zimbra or Office 365, i2k2 Networks has got you covered. For details, fill out our contact form. You can also call us at +91-120-466 3031.