See what Zimbra Collaboration offers: email, calendar, chat, and office tools with on-premises or private cloud deployment, plus editions, pricing, and pros…
Zimbra Collaboration is an email, calendar, and file-sharing suite designed to give organizations an alternative to Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace, with a particular emphasis on deployment flexibility and data control. It can run on-premises, in a private cloud, or in a hybrid setup, rather than requiring data to live in a specific vendor's public cloud.
The product's history stretches back to 2005, when its original developer, LiquidSys, rebranded as Zimbra, Inc. It changed hands several times over the following decade, passing through Yahoo, VMware, and Telligent Systems, before being acquired by Synacor, a technology company headquartered in Buffalo, New York, in 2015, where it remains today.
Zimbra reports serving more than 200 million users over its history and is used by more than 6,000 organizations across 127 countries, with a strong concentration among financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and other regulated organizations that prioritize data sovereignty.
At its core, Zimbra bundles email and calendar with shared scheduling for teams, alongside Briefcase, a file management module with granular access controls for storing and sharing documents centrally. Chat functionality ranges from basic messaging to more advanced team collaboration with file sharing.
Zimbra also includes an integrated office suite for real-time document creation and editing, letting organizations avoid a separate subscription to a third-party productivity suite. Security capabilities include S/MIME encryption, two-factor authentication, mobile device management, and compliance-oriented archiving and eDiscovery.
Access is available through a web client, an offline-capable desktop client, and mobile devices via ActiveSync, along with integration for organizations still using Microsoft Outlook, supporting gradual migration paths away from Exchange.
Zimbra is sold in two main editions: Standard, covering core email, contacts, calendar, basic chat, and baseline security, and Professional, which adds Outlook connectivity, mobile push notifications, and archiving and discovery tools.
Licensing is sold per mailbox, typically in blocks of 25, through either annual subscription or perpetual licensing, with separate support tiers (Standard business-hours support, Premier 24/7 support, and Elite enhanced support) priced on top.
Publicly available reseller pricing suggests subscription costs of roughly $25 per user per year for Standard and roughly $35 per user per year for Professional, though actual pricing varies by reseller, support tier, deployment size, and negotiated terms, so organizations should request a current quote from Synacor or an authorized Zimbra partner.
Zimbra Collaboration is used as an email, calendar, and file-sharing suite, serving as an alternative to Microsoft Exchange or Google Workspace, especially for organizations with data sovereignty needs.
Zimbra has been owned by Synacor, a technology company headquartered in Buffalo, New York, since it acquired the product in 2015.
Yes, Zimbra can be deployed on-premises, in a private cloud, or in a hybrid configuration, giving organizations control over where their data resides.
Standard covers core email, contacts, calendar, basic chat, and baseline security, while Professional adds Outlook connectivity, mobile push notifications, and archiving and discovery capabilities.
Zimbra is licensed per mailbox, typically in blocks of 25, through subscription or perpetual licensing, with reported subscription pricing of roughly $25 to $35 per user per year depending on edition, though actual quotes vary by reseller.
Yes, Zimbra includes an integrated office suite for real-time document creation and editing without requiring a separate third-party subscription.
Zimbra is typically used by organizations with strict data sovereignty or compliance needs, including financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and other regulated enterprises.
Yes, Zimbra supports mobile access via ActiveSync and offers mobile push notifications on the Professional edition.