Google Workspace vs Zimbra Collaboration comparison

Google and Zimbra are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Google is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2, while Zimbra is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Google holds a 21.0% mindshare in EA, compared to Zimbra’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Zimbra users who would recommend it.

Google Workspace

Read 104 Google Workspace reviews

6,971 Views
5,507 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Zimbra Collaboration

Read 29 Zimbra Collaboration reviews

2,523 Views
2,397 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Google Workspace

Zimbra Collaboration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Zimbra Collaboration and Google Workspace are competing in the organizational communication and collaboration sector. Google Workspace has an edge due to its extensive feature set and seamless integration.

Features: Zimbra Collaboration offers integrated email, chat, and calendar with a focus on customization and open-source flexibility. Google Workspace includes Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Meet, delivering real-time collaboration and seamless cloud integration.

Room for Improvement: Zimbra Collaboration could enhance integration capabilities and user interface design. It may also need a more robust mobile app and improved integration with third-party services. Google Workspace could improve offline capabilities, the meeting scheduling interface, and customization options for larger enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zimbra Collaboration allows for customizable deployments with strong support for on-premises setups, appealing to organizations wanting infrastructure control. Google Workspace offers a streamlined cloud-based deployment with minimal setup time and 24/7 support, ideal for organizations focusing on remote work and scalability.

Pricing and ROI: Zimbra Collaboration is more cost-effective with lower setup costs, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Google Workspace, though pricier, provides a comprehensive suite that justifies its cost for companies needing extensive digital tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

July 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

Google Workspace

Ranking in Email Applications

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

104

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (1st), Cloud Storage (8th), Content Collaboration Platforms (5th)

Zimbra Collaboration

Ranking in Email Applications

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Google Workspace is 21.0%, down from 24.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zimbra Collaboration is 8.5%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Sunil-Nair

IT Manager at Universal Carpets & Rugs

Email collaboration and accessibility have improved team productivity

The valuable features include the email service, email updates, and Google Drive. People are given email access to Google Drive. The team can share manual files and work accordingly. They can access different teams from anywhere, collectively putting files, sharing them, and managing them. Additionally, the manufacturing product does not require any downgrades. It works fine and continuously for the last three or four years. Users can access their emails from anywhere in their browser without a laptop or can directly access from Gmail. This is helpful for salespeople.

Read full review

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

"The solution's technical support is very good."

"personally prefer to use G Suite applications, such as Gmail, Slides, and Sheets, because they give you the freedom to share the document you're editing and co-work with other colleagues simultaneously."

"The valuable features of this solution are ease of use, performance is great, and collaboration. It is very easy to share and joins documents."

"The email is excellent."

"The solution is very stable."

"We value the collaboration levels that are offered. Having everything integrated in a single platform is a dream come true for us."

"The solution is easy to use, and you don't need a lot of knowledge for it."

"Good performance, even on relatively slow connections; no local apps required."

More Google Workspace pros

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

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

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

"Zimbra Collaboration is a good tool for video calls...Zimbra Collaboration's initial setup phase was easy."

"Network NG Modules are valuable to us."

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

"The product is easy to set up."

"Zimbra Collaboration has a good web interface."

More Zimbra Collaboration pros

Cons

"Some people complain that Google Mail is inflexible. It was advanced 10 years ago, but other solutions are cleaner and clearer."

"The price could be reduced."

"The downloading options need improvement, particularly in converting and viewing data formats like PST and inbox formats easily."

"Not all tools are available in the one facility."

"Google Meet is a very good product, but it's not up to the mark if you compare it against other products like Zoom or Microsoft Teams."

"Less customizations than there used to be."

"I found that there is no desktop application for this solution, and that's a major fault of this application."

"G Suite could offer something a little more solid in terms of chat — something that is a little more like Slack and integrates with everything. But, unfortunately, the chat is very basic there. It doesn't offer that many features and feels like it doesn't belong there."

More Google Workspace cons

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

"I can confidently say that Zimbra is good enough for 2,000 client users. But, at the same time, if my client needs more than that and we have two options—Zimbra or Microsoft—I'm going with Microsoft because many admins will speak to Microsoft's ability to handle that many."

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

"The new patches are, at times, not so good, so we don't install them, causing the tool to be not so stable overall."

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

"The product must be more customizable."

"Zimbra Collaboration does not have a solution roadmap as aggressive as the new collaboration mail solutions. Additionally, they can have a better interface and integration with single sign-on."

"File sharing permissions with Nextcloud integration need improvement."

More Zimbra Collaboration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"2,500 Rupees per month per user."

"I can't recall the exact pricing per user for Google Workspace, but I know it's not that expensive. I'm in a mid-sized company that's able to maintain and afford Google Workspace, so it has competitive pricing, and I would rate its price as four out of five."

"The main challenge regarding startups with identity services is you could be on a platform that works well but the services are expensive. For example, Microsoft Azure costs approximately $30 per user which is expensive. You end up choosing a different platform, such as G Suite Enterprise because it is priced reasonably and is less expensive than other solutions."

"The pricing of Google Workspace, so far, has been reasonable."

"We pay a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."

"Careful consideration should be given to the different licensing options and provisions should be made for additional applications that may be required for your particular business."

"You pay for Google Workspace based on your usage and the apps you use, but in my case, it's free, but if I used it a lot more, I'd probably need to pay. 15GB is enough for me, but I see myself upgrading and paying the additional charges for more storage regularly."

"It's low in cost as compared to Office 365. There is an annual licensing cost."

More Google Workspace pricing and cost advice

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

"We pay yearly licenses for Zimbra Collaboration."

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

"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."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the price a four"

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

"If you choose the network edition, it is a little pricier. They have the open-source edition too which is only community supported."

More Zimbra Collaboration pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Workspace?

Easy-to-build forms are allowing me to get feedback and information from my internal teams as well as from the customers very efficiently with the result data in structured manner.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Workspace?

The pricing for Google Workspace is moderate. I would rate it a five out of ten, indicating it is neither cheap nor expensive. The current cost is approximately seven to ten euros per user per mont...

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What needs improvement with Google Workspace?

I don't see many areas of Google Workspace that could be improved or enhanced because everything I have been using has been effective. Regarding the user interface, when calling a member in the org...

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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 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

Comparisons

Amazon WorkMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 26% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Google Workspace

Compared 21% of the time

ProtonMail vs Google Workspace

Compared 10% of the time

Office 365 vs Google Workspace

Compared 10% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Google Workspace

Compared 2% of the time

More Google Workspace Competitors

Microsoft Exchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 26% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 21% of the time

KerioConnect vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 14% of the time

IceWarp vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 9% of the time

HCL Domino vs Zimbra Collaboration

Compared 4% of the time

More Zimbra Collaboration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Workspace

August 2025

Download Google Workspace product report

Buyer's Guide

Zimbra Collaboration

July 2025

Download Zimbra Collaboration product report

Also Known As

G-Suite Enterprise, G-Suite, Google Apps for Business, G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G-Suite Basic, G-Suite Business, Google Vault

No data available

Overview

Similar to G Suite, all Google Workspace plans provide a custom email for your business and include collaboration tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, and more.

As we’ve evolved G Suite into a more integrated experience across our communication and collaboration tools, we’ve rebranded to Google Workspace to more accurately represent the product vision.

Google

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

There are over five million businesses that use Google Apps for Business worldwide. Some key customers include The Roche Group, National Geographic, American Red Cross, City of Los Angeles, Flight Centre, and Konica Minolta.

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

Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

July 2025

Free Report: Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration

Find out what your peers are saying about Google Workspace vs. Zimbra Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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