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Amazon WorkMail vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

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

Amazon WorkMail
Ranking in Email Applications
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (2nd)
Zimbra Collaboration
Ranking in Email Applications
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkMail is 9.9%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 6.2%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon WorkMail9.9%
Zimbra Collaboration6.2%
Other83.9%
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

GM
Owner at Marinov
Centralized email accounts have streamlined routing, security checks, and long-term organization
While using Amazon WorkMail over time, I haven't encountered substantial disappointments, but there have been usual glitches with the web interface. For instance, while the service is generally 99.5% perfect, I experience issues like the folder structure I set up sometimes not remembering the state of expanded and collapsed nodes after refreshing the page. This lack of persistence in which nodes are collapsed or opened can be frustrating. However, since it's a minor technical issue, I doubt the average user would notice it. If Amazon WorkMail were not discontinuing, I wouldn't think there is much to improve or enhance about it. It is standard enough and easy to use, and any glitches are minor, not worth evolving or disrupting its current functionality. As for whether the user interface is intuitive and if I'm satisfied with its flexibility and customizability, there are some minor features lacking, but I don't feel a need for changes since it works as designed. The most crucial aspect is that I can set up my address book with the complex organizational structure needed for the accounts connecting to AWS. The lower-level functionalities suit me well enough. Other services often have customizable views of email representations with senders, subjects, and even snippets of content. While my external application on mobile can show customizable lines with my email list, Amazon WorkMail does not offer that feature. I don't really need it, but it would be a nice addition for power users.
Muhammad Talha Baig - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable thing is that emails sent through SES have a delivery rate of greater than ninety percent."
"The product is very user-friendly."
"It is very stable. I haven't faced any issues."
"The most valuable feature of the Amazon WorkMail for me is the SMC server. It makes my work much easier, especially since I often work with Spring Boot. There are many built-in APIs in Spring Boot that help with messaging. What I appreciate about it is that it simplifies the process. I don't need to write much code; I define the credentials in my properties or environment variables. The Java Message API, an internal API from Spring Boot, does most of the work. I set up the properties and connected them to the SMC server, and I can send emails."
"We have cut our costs in half."
"The best feature is that Amazon SES provides verified email messages."
"We use the tool for transactional emails and marketing."
"Amazon WorkMail integrates with Route 53 and other AWS services, providing a seamless experience when using AWS infrastructure."
"The web interface is powerful and easy to use."
"The solution is easy to implement."
"The most valuable feature of Zimbra Collaboration is the cost."
"The logs, troubleshooting, and tracking we have found to be the most valuable features, and when we have any issues with lost messages these features are useful because it is very easy to track and log."
"The pricing of the solution is excellent; it's a newer solution with a modern interface and dashboard, the interface itself is very responsive and easy to navigate, the initial setup is very simple and straightforward, the stability is good and keeps getting better with each new update, and the solution really does scale very easily."
"The Zimbra Collaboration's most valuable feature is web access."
"One of the most valuable features involves the solution's automatic backup, which I find to be pretty simple and straightforward, and obviates the need for additional software."
"Most valuable to us is the fact that it's open source, so it's possible to do a lot of customization."
 

Cons

"If we can have a completely managed backup solution where we have a tiered backup or a tiered archival to be able to retrieve emails, it would be great."
"There is room for improvement in the scalability."
"When we first set up an email on Amazon SES, they had to verify it, which was not fast enough."
"WorkMail is not available in all the regions."
"Now, I'm not very happy because they are discontinuing the service, and I will have to find a new one to migrate everything, including all my filters and routing rules."
"The solution is quite low-level and lacks some advanced features. For example, it doesn't provide tracking capabilities, such as knowing how many users opened an email, which is crucial for email marketing. You would need to integrate these analytics with other tools to get them. I need to know if there has been a bounce and how customers interacted with the email."
"I would like to see detailed reports on email success and failure rates."
"The only issue is the price, which is far too expensive."
"The support was lacking in my experience."
"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."
"We have had an issue with security."
"There are security and performance issues which is one of the concerns of using an open-source product."
"The new patches are, at times, not so good, so we don't install them, causing the tool to be not so stable overall."
"Because of the lack of this functionality, we are planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange."
"The solution’s forums don't have much information or documentation on administration tasks."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"WorkMail does require a license, it is, per user."
"The solution should improve its price."
"It's very cheap. The cheapest among all the services available."
"I rate the solution's pricing as one out of ten. It is close to being cheap. Sometimes, the tool offers a generous amount of free messages, up to 40,000, which is great for startups like ours. This means that we don't accumulate any costs for some months because we stay within the free usage tier. When we exceed the free allocation, the costs are reasonable, and no hidden charges exist."
"The solution is competitively priced."
"We do not pay for licenses to use this solution."
"Zimbra Collaboration offers a good price-to-feature ratio."
"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."
"If you choose the network edition, it is a little pricier. They have the open-source edition too which is only community supported."
"I use Zimbra Collaboration's community version. We may move to the enterprise version since prices are affordable."
"The solution is not expensive compared to other products."
"Zimbra Collaboration is expensive, and there is no perpetual license option."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon WorkMail?
While using Amazon WorkMail over time, I haven't encountered substantial disappointments, but there have been usual glitches with the web interface. For instance, while the service is generally 99....
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon WorkMail?
When assessing the security features offered by Amazon WorkMail, such as encryption protocols, I check the security protocols on my phone using an external application that displays them immediatel...
What is your primary use case for Amazon SES?
My usual use cases for Amazon WorkMail started from my interest in all the AWS services, which are numerous, like hundreds, and how I could set up an online document service, something like Google ...
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...
 

Also Known As

Amazon SES
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
NEC Biglobe, City of Ventura, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Hola Publishing, BIG, Sleepwell, LaFayette College, Xmission, DNA, Ring Line, Future Group, TIGC
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkMail vs. Zimbra Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.