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Amazon WorkMail vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

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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
9th
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 November 2026, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkMail is 11.1%, up from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 6.0%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon WorkMail11.1%
Zimbra Collaboration6.0%
Other82.9%
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 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."
"There is no need for me to set up security."
"The encryption of emails, both in transit and at rest, has benefited our security strategy as it is a layer of security that provides us better confidence for customers and also internally tracks the security aspects."
"The most valuable thing is that emails sent through SES have a delivery rate of greater than ninety percent."
"The best feature is that Amazon SES provides verified email messages."
"It is very stable. I haven't faced any issues."
"We have cut our costs in half."
"Despite being an end-user service on AWS, the backend is complex enough to enable many useful features, I invested time in configuring it, and it worked flawlessly for six years."
"VMware Zimbra is an enterprise-class E-mail, calendar, and collaboration solution, built for both public and private clouds."
"Good email solution and it's open-source."
"The stability is good and keeps getting better with each new update."
"Despite sticking with Gmail for over a decade in terms of business, Zimbra have impressed me with some other aspects as well; if the time comes, I would prefer Zimbra to my current solution."
"The most valuable feature of Zimbra Collaboration is email functionality."
"The Zimbra Collaboration's most valuable feature is web access."
"The most valuable feature of Zimbra for our team's productivity is its efficiency in handling email communication."
"The product is easy to set up."
 

Cons

"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."
"Amazon WorkMail's user interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."
"WorkMail is not available in all the regions."
"I would like to see detailed reports on email success and failure rates."
"The product should improve technical support."
"We are losing clients because the price my clients pay for email alone is nearly equal to the price they pay for an entire Microsoft Office license, which includes email."
"Email service is definitely a requirement from an enterprise standpoint. Many organizations have their own on-premise email services, which take a lot of memory, backup, and other resources. 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. I would like to be able to retrieve emails in real-time (hot retrieval), over the 90-days period (warm retrieval), and over the one-year period (cold retrieval). It would be useful to have tiered backup and retrieval. It would help us in managing emails better and have a better backup solution. So, backup is something that we require."
"It would be great if a group chat feature were created to allow for a team environment."
"There are some bugs we found that could be fixed."
"They should enhance its online meeting features."
"We have had an issue with security."
"The support was lacking in my experience. However, recently the support I received was good. Perhaps they have improved."
"Server deployment and the GUI for emails should be better."
"Zimbra Collaboration is expensive, and there is no perpetual license option."
"The log files need to be improved; they need to show us more information because a lot of detail is lacking and that's not very helpful or insightful."
 

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."
"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."
"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."
"The price of the solution is low."
"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."
"We do not pay for licenses to use this solution."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the price a four"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
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: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.