Zimbra by Synacor Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 6.6 out of 10

Score

6.6 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Zimbra by Synacor are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

User-Friendly Web Interface: Users have consistently praised the highly user-friendly web interface of Zimbra, surpassing even thick clients like Outlook. Several reviewers have mentioned that they find the interface intuitive and easy to navigate, resulting in a positive overall experience.

Simplified Administration: Administrators appreciate that Zimbra is relatively easy to maintain and administer compared to other locally hosted environments such as Exchange. The simplified management process and reduced complexity are highly valued by multiple users.

Powerful Scripting Interface and API: Many users have expressed their satisfaction with the availability of a powerful scripting interface and RESTful API in Zimbra. They highlight how this feature allows them to write scripts and automate account management tasks, leading to enhanced efficiency and productivity.

Reviews

10 Reviews

Zimbra: An Alternative to Major Cloud Email Platforms

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

January 10, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Zimbra Email & Collaboration as an email solution for years in my previous company. It is a robust solution capable of competing with the best. Initially, we used the open-source version in an on-premise mode, achieving significant cost savings. Later, we transitioned to a SaaS service with network functionality. In both scenarios, it met expectations.

Pros

Collaboration among users
Solution customization
Service accessibility

Cons

Zimbra's mobile application leaves much to be desired; it is its weakest point.
This forces the use of third-party applications on smartphones, which only offer a more or less complete integration with the ActiveSync protocol.
Zimbra allows for an on-premise scenario, which is not for everyone, especially considering that the trend nowadays is to outsource email; in any case, it also offers this alternative.
The cost of Zimbra as a SaaS solution comes too close to that of more widely adopted competing options.
Zimbra lacks a robust integrated chat system, which its competitors offer.
It lacks AI integration.

Likelihood to Recommend

I consider Zimbra Email & Collaboration a viable alternative to the major American cloud email platforms. In a scenario where data protection and privacy are critical, especially in an on-premise environment, Zimbra is a very suitable solution. It is also capable of offering a comprehensive set of tools and additional features (tasks, calendars, contacts, briefcase) in an integrated manner.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

18 years of experience

Zimbra Email & Collaboration is great

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

February 21, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilize Zimbra Email & Collaboration for all our email services. For a freeware option, it has a lot of great capabilities. If you're familiar with how to set up a web server, and you don't want to pay the amounts that you have to for gmail/M365, or other providers, then this would be a great product.

Pros

Customizing email layout
sending emails
receiving emails
spam filtering customizability

Cons

Spam filtering options
custom fonts
email read receipts

Likelihood to Recommend

Because Zimbra Email & Collaboration has a free option, you have to set it up a lot more for your company. When M365/google or others are just plug and play and a lot easier to set up for most organizations. It makes sense from the stand point of trying to save money and then wanting a great email provider.

Verified User

Vice-President in Information Technology (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Our experience using Zimbra Email & Collab - it's so-so

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

October 14, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Zimbra from Reseller Platform, it's a white label of Zimbra Email Collaboration. It's used for a whole organization to coordinate, collaborate, and broadcast a message to entire / specific department in the group. It solves our problem that have a large team ( >100 people ) but don't want to use G Suite because it's too pricey.

Pros

Nice UX, its easy to navigate
Advanced Sharing Access into a resource
Has an integration with 3rd party

Cons

After Sales Support, hard to reach
Mobile isn't as friendly as desktop

Likelihood to Recommend

Zimbra Email & Collaboration service is well suited when you are in a small to large teams, somewhere around 20 - 100. It covers the purpose of team collaboration, it has many rich features, it supports many integrations with another 3rd party. It's more than just an email provider, but less than something like G Suite.

Mochammad Zachri

Project Manager in Information Technology at PT Indie Marketindo Ceria (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Complete tool for message box and collaborations

Rating: 10 out of 10

May 27, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Great tool for professional use, very easy to use, with easy navigation. Interacts very well with several other applications, including Webex. Very efficient structural organization of the agenda and timetable. Excellent accessibility and availability. Very good for sharing between teams and people. 100% collaboration. It has a tab to include tasks that is very useful and makes my life much faster.

Pros

Very simple and functional navigation
Fast collaboration
Integration with other applications.

Cons

Time-consuming Technical Support
Increase the capacity for integration
The mobile app sometimes takes time to load some views even with fast internet and equipment

Likelihood to Recommend

Nowadays, it is a very welcome tool because it helps perfectly with team collaboration [and] sending files quickly. [It provides] great availability because it is easy to access from anywhere in the world. Some integration options with some other applications also help. The tools of agenda, tasks and calendars are very useful and easy to use and that today make all the difference when we want agility.

Bruno Soares

Help Desk Technician in Information Technology at Central IT (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Zimbra is a secure, reliable application that can be customized to suit the provider

Rating: 8 out of 10

June 12, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Zimbra is our current messaging software, I use it daily to send and receive emails among colleagues, suppliers, and customers. This has turned out to be a very useful and efficient application when communicating within the company. Each employee has their respective corporate mail which is for personal and exclusive use to receive confidential and confidential labor information. The application is easy to use and has a graphical interface similar to others in the same segment, making it easy to become familiar with.

Pros

Filter emails with specific information required.
Very good storage capacity.
Has a mobile version and another web.
It has a friendly and modern graphic interface.
It is compatible with all operating systems.

Cons

In the mobile version, it is not possible to attach files, it only allows to send messages with text.
The mobile version is too basic and lacks functions that if you have the web version.
Lacks the facility to communicate with an online chat.

Likelihood to Recommend

As I mentioned before, Zimbra has two versions - one web and another mobile. The mobile version is ideal for quick and short messages that only contain letters, as they can be read on any cell phone, the web version is ideal for the office where the messages are more careful and complete and should contain more information.

Zimbra is not good to use as an online chat tool.

EDUARDO SANDOVAL

Account Executive in Sales at TIGO COLOMBIA (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Do you have questions about your email manager? Read about my review of Zimbra

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 15, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Zimbra as our mail platform, contact management and to share some files within our group of companies. Zimbra supports one of the most important applications, which is our email system. It manages our companies on the same platform. The global and personalized management of contacts has facilitated the management of our users, regardless of the location they are in. Additionally, it gives us different ways of connecting to the mail and to the information, which allows more versatile management options, since our platform is heterogeneous.

Pros

The management of incremental mail backup. It is very simple, and the administrators of my company recover information quickly.
The management of the distribution lists is structured. This allows easy distribution of mass information.
The web application is very complete and intuitive.

Cons

The password change is not activated when you access by IMAP, Pop3 or Exchange sync. You have to know that the password change is required and you must go to the website to do so.
The management of mail rules should have more checking options.
There should be more applications compatible with Zimbra, the ones that appear in the Zimlets.

Likelihood to Recommend

<div>It is ideal for companies that wish to have their own control of their mail service and the management of their messages and contacts because it allows a complete administration of these systems. When it comes to a group of companies who want to manage different domains, the ideal is to have your own mail platform. ZImbra is also suited when you have to save costs. Although you pay for licenses, you have the possibility to pay as you go and therefore do not have to invest in this service for a long time. It is also suited for when companies, such as Venezuelan ones that have limitations to make payments or investments in USD or EUR, have a much harder time using expensive cloud systems.</div><div>

</div><div>

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Eliz Marvic Melicio Carvajal

Coordinador de desarrollo de software in Research & Development at Ingeniería de Consulta Incostas (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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Zimbra is a powerful email server

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 23, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are currently using the Zimbra email service throughout the company. Zimbra allows us to efficiently manage our email server with a number of open source technologies, with built-in anti-spam, shared calendars and shared address books. We are able to easily collaborate, invite to meetings, and conference at the touch of a button. It stores all of our contacts and shows us who is busy and when we can seamlessly integrate new meetings and conferences. We have definitely achieved significant savings in the time required to manage IMAP, webmail, etc.

Pros

Zimbra offers advanced functionalities, beyond the IMAP protocol and better performance compared to similar mail services.
Zimbra offers the option to work from anywhere and device, with a very nice interface, from a desktop, mobile or tablet, compared to other similar services that are more complex to use.
Zimbra has the possibility of modifying the source code to customize its functions and services, an added value that other platforms do not have.

Cons

You can optimize the module to create and share content on the web to improve the publishing interface.
Zimbra must improve the management of user groups for different machines within a domain.
The password manager is sometimes complicated and requires the creation of new passwords.

Likelihood to Recommend

One of the most outstanding capabilities of Zimbra is the low cost in the administration and implementation of the system. Zimbra creates a copy of the email and attachments per server, instead of an email per user. It supports anti-spam and existing infrastructures, has an efficient text comprehension system in emails, can review the content from any computer, at any time and with a web interface is very easy to operate.

Alexander Palma Ibarra

Coordinador de Proyectos in Engineering at IC CORPORATION VENEZUELA (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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My Experience with Zimbra

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

August 27, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Zimbra is being used across our whole organization. It solves the problem of communication. At a moment's notice I can communicate with my entire team. They can receive my mail on their phones, tablets, laptops and desk tops, no matter where they are in the building. I also use it for getting paper records to essential team members by scanning them to their email.

Pros

One example of something that Zimbra does particularly well is the capacity available to attach large files, up to 25MB. For me, this is a strength as it allows me to email medical records files instead of printing them. This saves my department the cost of ink, paper and shipping.
The calendar sharing feature of Zimbra is also a strength because with it, the IDT team are all on the same page. This is critical for maintaining compliance with CMS regulations regarding MDS assessments. I utilize our shared calendar to perform quarterly audits of the IDT team.
I particularly like the auto search when entering the contact who will be receiving an email, this saves key strokes and time.

Cons

I am quite satisfied with the features that I currently use. I am an advanced user, not an expert.

Likelihood to Recommend

Zimbra is well suited as a communication tool. I also use it for data storage and data sharing. It is easy to create distribution groups and make changes to the signature line. I'm hard pressed to come up with any scenarios where it is less appropriate.

Sam Massanopoli, RHIT Superstar

Health Information Manager at Peak Resources (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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Zimbra - Powerful and reliable collaboration suite

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 31, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Zimbra to increase collaboration using e-mail communication, file sharing, task control, invitation for events, etc, for everybody in our company using multi domains and several dedicated servers. We have distinct user types and with Zimbra we can address specific necessities of each one.

We use Zimbra in an University and email are fundamental here. Zimbra allowed us a way to increase the collaboration between teachers, students, and even our workers, allowing them to share files, their agenda, and any information to improve their work.

Pros

You can share your mail folders, contact and task lists, work together on a text file, all that defining what kind of level of share a person can have, from view to full control of it.
Great search engine that allows you to search even inside some types of archives (pdf, txt, etc). And in the paid version, you have a working backup system.
Supports external connectivity like IMAP/POP.
Multi language support and possibility to expand it using plugins are also available.
Supports several platforms and you can use the one that you are most familiar like Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Suse, etc.
Support external authentication (LDAP).

Cons

User web interface could be more friendly, but it is enough for daily use. It could be renewed and has to consider some usability concerns. Improving usability would significantly improve users' satisfaction.
Message backup recovery is not a simple activity.
As an administrator, some of the features work better using the command-line interface.
The webclient uses ajax requests in almost every event. Because of that you may need a fast internet connection to have a good experience. You can switch to HTML version but it will limit what you can do.

Likelihood to Recommend

Zimbra is well suited to environments that need a collaboration suite to improve users' and teams' integration and productivity. You can rely on Zimbra Collaboration Suite features to work together in different projects without messing things up. Keeping everything organized is very important in these situations.

If you have a large environment you will probably feel that Zimbra administration can be difficult. You have to use a lot of command-line integration to configure it properly and to maintain routines. So be prepared to do that. If you want more friendly administrative tools Zimbra may not be totally suitable to your needs.

Vinicius Lima

Computer Technician in Information Technology at Superintendência de Tecnologia da Informação - Universidade de São Paulo (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

Zimbra - used to be great, still good, could be great again.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

July 29, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Zimbra for all faculty/staff email accounts. We use it for individual email accounts as well as a large number of shared email accounts for departments or programs. We find the shared accounts to be especially useful for how we do business. We primarily use the web interface instead of a desktop client like Outlook. Most employees that use mobile access on their devices access Zimbra with the iOS or Android built-in Exchange/ActiveSync clients.

Pros

Zimbra's web interface is second to none. It is better for most than even thick clients like Outlook. It provides a consistent experience across platforms so we don't have to worry about Mac vs. PC for how it works.
It is relatively easy to maintain and administer, and far less complex than other locally hosted environments like Exchange.
It has a powerful scripting interface, and a RESTful API that makes it easy to write scripts to manage accounts.

Cons

Zimbra needs to get their act together with their multi-server environment. It is long past when they initially announced their "Project Always On", which would allow accounts to be hosted on multiple mailbox servers at a time for high availability.
The need to work on their bugs. The product releases have been significantly buggier since the 7.x era. Upgrading from 7.x to 8.0.9 introduced a lot of problems. Later releases fixed some, but caused others.
Our experience with technical support staff from Zimbra is not what it used to be. They used to have one of the best technical support groups, but our experiences with them in the past two years haven't been as positive.

Likelihood to Recommend

Zimbra is great for an email system for a medium or large organization with appropriate IT staffing. The system is easy to use for end-users, and has a fantastic web interface. Unfortunately, it is overly complex, when considering staffing requirements and price, when compared with Office 365 or Google Apps for smaller organizations. For other education customers, it is hard to compete with Microsoft and Google providing their services for "Free" now though.

Paul Chauvet

Information Security Officer in Information Technology at SUNY New Paltz (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

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Reviews and Ratings

Zimbra - Powerful and reliable collaboration suite

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 31, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

You can share your mail folders, contact and task lists, work together on a text file, all that defining what kind of level of share a person can have, from view to full control of it.
Great search engine that allows you to search even inside some types of archives (pdf, txt, etc). And in the paid version, you have a working backup system.
Supports external connectivity like IMAP/POP.
Multi language support and possibility to expand it using plugins are also available.
Supports several platforms and you can use the one that you are most familiar like Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Suse, etc.
Support external authentication (LDAP).

Cons

User web interface could be more friendly, but it is enough for daily use. It could be renewed and has to consider some usability concerns. Improving usability would significantly improve users' satisfaction.
Message backup recovery is not a simple activity.
As an administrator, some of the features work better using the command-line interface.
The webclient uses ajax requests in almost every event. Because of that you may need a fast internet connection to have a good experience. You can switch to HTML version but it will limit what you can do.

Likelihood to Recommend

Vinicius Lima

Computer Technician in Information Technology at Superintendência de Tecnologia da Informação - Universidade de São Paulo (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile