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 10.6% mindshare in EA, compared to Zimbra’s 7.1% 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

3,412 Views
2,832 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Zimbra Collaboration

Read 28 Zimbra Collaboration reviews

2,273 Views
2,159 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: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange vs. Zimbra Collaboration

December 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

6.6

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 January 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 10.6%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 7.1%, 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 (%)
Microsoft Exchange	10.6%
Zimbra Collaboration	7.1%
Other	82.3%

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

"We've been using Exchange as an email platform. Our clients require multi-country, multi-regional email collaboration with controlled mail flow. The most valuable feature is the capability of message tracking and the protection of user data."

"The email management system is very easy to set up, configure, and use."

"Microsoft Exchange has good performance and is user-friendly."

"The integration of Microsoft Exchange with other tools allows for seamless collaboration and increased productivity within teams."

"Exchange has helped us with encryption."

"It's so much of a part of what I do every day that I don't give it a lot of thought. It just works, for the most part, until it doesn't, in which case I call tech support."

"It is stable."

"It integrates well with other tools."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

"The solution is easy to implement."

"The web interface is powerful and easy to use."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

More Zimbra Collaboration pros

Cons

"The cost could be cheaper."

"I'd like the archiving process to be faster."

"It is costly, so it depends on how much you want to pay."

"It doesn't work very well on a virtual machine. We had to move it around. There are also issues when you try to move it between computers."

"Microsoft Exchange's customer support could be faster and more knowledgeable."

"An improvement would be to combine Exchange and Teams so that emails, calls, and chats can be integrated into one window."

"Microsoft Exchange could improve security. They can elevate a lot of security features."

"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."

More Microsoft Exchange cons

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

"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."

"The product must be more customizable."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"The tool should improve its multi-cloud feature."

More Zimbra Collaboration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is fair."

"It is not expensive."

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

"We are currently using enterprise licenses for the solution. They are different pricing models available. There are individual, cloud-based, and enterprise licenses all with different pricing models. The larger the number of users, the lesser the price. For small to medium companies like us, we feel it is expensive."

"We renew the product license with Microsoft every three years. The cost is included within a bundle of services. It's an enterprise agreement with Microsoft."

"The product is quite cheap."

"Microsoft Exchange itself does not require a license, but users who will have mailboxes will require a license. It depends on the number of users to choose which license. If you exceed 2,000 mailboxes, it's preferable to get the enterprise license."

"I have Outlook 365 Professional, and Exchange comes in the bundle with other solutions, such as Word and OneDrive. I pay for the use of the bundle monthly and I can imagine if you are a company with many licenses the pricing model would be a lot different."

More Microsoft Exchange pricing and cost advice

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

"Zimbra Collaboration is less expensive than Microsoft Exchange. Zimbra works for small companies because it is not expensive. Zimbra Collaboration has more security tools than Microsoft Exchange. If you are choosing between Zimbra Collaboration and Microsoft Exchange, you have to take into account the cost of security tools with Microsoft Exchange. When you purchase Microsoft Exchange, you will also have to purchase tools for security, which adds to the cost. The migration from Zimbra Collaboration to another email solution is very simple and easy. Migration from Microsoft Exchange to another email solution is very difficult. Microsoft doesn't allow migration that easily. In fact, you have to pay for tools to do that. You have to buy some expensive tools to migrate."

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

"The solution is competitively priced."

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

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

"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 price of the solution is low."

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

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.

See all answers

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

Microsoft Exchange is costly, and its licensing model can be expensive over time as more users require licenses.

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 20% of the time

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 13% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 9% of the time

Google Workspace vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 9% of the time

ProtonMail vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 7% of the time

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Open-Xchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 22% of the time

KerioConnect vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online 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

December 2025

Download Zimbra Collaboration product report

Also Known As

Exchange, MS Exchange

No data available

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

December 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: December 2025.

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