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 7.9, while Zimbra is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 10.2% mindshare in EA, compared to Zimbra’s 6.9% 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 95 Microsoft Exchange reviews

3,631 Views
2,977 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Zimbra Collaboration

Read 28 Zimbra Collaboration reviews

2,357 Views
2,263 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange

Zimbra Collaboration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Zimbra Collaboration and Microsoft Exchange are products competing in the communication and collaboration category. Zimbra offers competitive pricing and support, while Microsoft Exchange is favored for its comprehensive features justifying its cost.

Features: Zimbra Collaboration includes open-source integrations, flexible customization, and compatibility with multiple platforms, enhancing innovation. Microsoft Exchange provides advanced calendaring, seamless email hosting, and strong integration with other Microsoft services enhancing the business ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: Zimbra could improve its security modules, enhance mobile application functionality, and expand premium features like two-factor authentication. Microsoft Exchange could offer a more straightforward licensing process, reduce reliance on external security solutions, and provide more customization options for users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zimbra's open-source approach allows for simple deployment with extensive community support. Microsoft Exchange offers seamless integration, consistent updates, and professional resources for installation, making its extensive service network advantageous.

Pricing and ROI: Zimbra is cost-effective with low initial costs and high ROI, appealing to budget-conscious organizations. Microsoft Exchange involves higher initial investment but offers comprehensive features that provide long-term ROI through productivity gains.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

February 2026

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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

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (2nd)

Zimbra Collaboration

Ranking in Email Applications

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 10.2%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 6.9%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Exchange	10.2%
Zimbra Collaboration	6.9%
Other	82.9%

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

SaqibJavaid

Manager IT Support at Naubahar Bottling Company (Pvt.) Ltd. Gujranwala Pakistan

Efficient email management with seamless integration

We previously used Microsoft Exchange but have moved to an MDN email solution due to cost and user growth Microsoft Exchange is a user-friendly and easy-to-deploy solution, which is beneficial for handling emails even without professional support. It is effective in managing email integration…

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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.

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

"It has a feature that allows you to retain an email and recover it as an administrator. When you activate this feature, even if a user deletes an email, the email is still in the system, and we can retrieve it as an administrator. It is a very useful function. We turn this feature on for some of the mailboxes because we need to keep all the records. I like the way emails are classified in this solution. It makes it really easy to take a look at the most important messages. This is a really good functionality. Some of the emails directly exchanged with you are marked as important and shown in one tab, and everything else is in another tab. We usually don't have any issue with Exchange. It can be integrated with different solutions."

"The ability to share information, appointments, and agendas easily is the big value of Microsoft Exchange."

"It's user-friendly."

"The product works very well."

"It gives me benefit in terms of integration with other services such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive. It makes my work much easier."

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

"I like the logistics and the Microsoft protocol of reaching Outlook anywhere."

"It's a very user-friendly application. The mail server is also valuable when compared to other services like SquirrelMail."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

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

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

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

"Zimbra Collaboration is light to manage. It works on the Linux operating system, which is far better to manage than Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Exchange works only on the Windows server. We prefer working on the Linux server for security reasons and ease of management. Zimbra Collaboration also has some integrated tools for security. It some modules to fight malware. These modules are not very powerful but are still doing a great job. Microsoft Exchange doesn't have a basic module. You have to purchase a security solution and add it to the solution. The cost of Zimbra Collaboration is one more reason for liking it. It is also very simple to migrate from Zimbra Collaboration to another email solution."

"Zimbra Collaboration has integrated a lot of their party tools and they have good documentation available."

"Network NG Modules are valuable to us."

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

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

More Zimbra Collaboration pros

Cons

"Its search functionality can be better. It is currently not really easy. It has the capability to search your mailbox, but it has some restrictions in terms of the number of results that you can retrieve. You can only get around 250 results. If you want to do a deeper search, you need to use different functionalities of the product. The policy that we have for handling emails is that we do not delete emails at all. If I insert the text that I am searching for in the Search field, it only retrieves a limited number of emails. To search for an email from 2010, I need to use different search functions to find what I am looking for. Microsoft can also improve its licensing for its products. Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing."

"The pricing could be better, and it could have an easier implementation."

"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."

"I do not have any notes for improvement."

"It's not always the finest solution in terms of integration with products that are not from Microsoft. It integrates very well with Microsoft products but not with third-party products."

"The licensing model could be improved."

"Some users encounter stability issues. I connect with the support team through my local partner, which takes time."

"At the end of the day, the biggest area for improvement is having better and more knowledgeable support technicians."

More Microsoft Exchange cons

"The solution’s forums don't have much information or documentation on administration tasks."

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

"We have had an issue with security."

"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."

"There are some security issues."

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

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

"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."

More Zimbra Collaboration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Compared to the other options in the market, the licensing costs attached to Microsoft Exchange seem reasonable."

"Microsoft Exchange is a very well-priced solution."

"Its price is very affordable, and basically, it is the standard of the industry. We have the Exchange 365 subscription, which includes the usage of Exchange Online. I don't know the specific cost, but it is the retail price of Microsoft 365 E3 licenses. Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. Microsoft changes rules every other day, which makes it difficult for us to understand the licensing not only for Exchange but also for other products. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing."

"The platform has a reasonable price."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange is reasonable."

"It would be nice if it used less resources to run on-premise."

"I rate Microsoft Exchange's pricing a six out of ten."

More Microsoft Exchange pricing and cost advice

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

"The price of the solution is low."

"The solution is competitively priced."

"We pay yearly licenses for Zimbra Collaboration."

"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."

"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."

More Zimbra Collaboration pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	35

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

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?

I am aware of pricing aspects, and I would say it is affordable for what it is.

See all answers

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

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 21% of the time

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 12% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 9% of the time

Google Workspace vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 8% of the time

ProtonMail vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Competitors

Open-Xchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 11% of the time

KerioConnect vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 10% of the time

Google Workspace vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 8% of the time

IceWarp vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 7% of the time

More Zimbra Collaboration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange

January 2026

Download Microsoft Exchange product report

Buyer's Guide

Zimbra Collaboration

January 2026

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

February 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

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