Content of comparison Initial Description Merak Mail Server became our strong competitor in many countries. They increased supported functionalities to have not only an ISP mailserver, but suitable for SMB too for a very competitive price. They are developing mailserver since 1999 and claim they have more then 80,000 server installation with tens of millions of users in 37 countries around the world. (Source: IceWarp website) Our advantages KMS is multiplatform o Customer can use Win, Linux or Mac o Cross platform administration o Really the same version for all platforms (Easier transition) Strong support for Mac o Support for many Apple technology Addressbook synch, Ical support, Entourage support. Mobile devices support o More devices supported directly without 3 rd party clients (iphone, Android, Blackberry, etc) Documentation and localization o Merak has many mistranslations in dialogs and GUI o Merak lacks detailed manuals and online help Their Strong points Support for ISPs o Possibility to buy and deploy only requested features (for example groupware, antispam or webmail). It lowers price for larger installation, typically ISPs. On other side much more complicated license model. They support greylisting o We support SpamEliminator and if it is used correctly you will not benefit a lot from Greylisting. Greylisting is a feature which slows down email delivery and cause problems to customers, that s the main reason we haven t implemented it yet. We are discussing its possible implementation. VOIP and IM support o They implemented IM (jabber) and SIP in their product. We are still in phase of planning and implementing these features Screenshots Admin console user management
Admin console antispam:
Webmail client: Webmail client calendar
Usability / Services As mentioned above, some localization contains mistranslations, wrong formatting etc. Lack of translated manuals. Admin console localized into 13 languages Webmail localized into 17 languages Support using Kayako service ticketing system, phone support mentioned only on Czech website. Linux and Windows versions differ, sometimes new version is published earlier for Windows platform. On Linux doesn t exist separate Administration console. Requirements: Windows since NT4 (without webmail on such old OS) up to vista, no 64bit version Linux: RedHat only mentioned to be officially supported Price and Licensing
Pricelist is very structured and complicated. Product is sold in 3 main versions Standard, Professional, Enterprise and custom, where is possibility to choose modules like webmail, antispam, antivirus etc. Pricelist on US website contains some items more (like 2000 and 5000 user license) Users 10 20/25 50/60 100/110 250/260 1000 USD (US NA $2096 $2864 $3616 $4368 $5094 market) CZK (CZ market) NA 27586,- (25) 37366,- (50) 64561,- (100) 132622,- (200) 165517,- (1000) GBP (UK market) NA 749,- (25) 1021,- (50) 1293,- (100) 1566,- (200) 2115,- (1000) EUR (FR market) NA 1310,- (25) 1790,- (50) 2260,- (100) 2730,- (200) 3690,- (1000) * Note: Prices of Enterprise version (all modules included) Subscription is counted individually. Customers / Partners notes IceWarp offers individual approach to each customer, it means they are changing application code individually. Summary summary (why to buy KMS features, price, other issues) o 10-20 sentences o It is important part which will shortly show to anyone comparisons results o Reasons Kerio win against this competitor (This will require assistance from sales.) o Reasons Kerio loses to this competitor (This will require assistance from sales.)
Private section Ideas to improve product / suggestions Greylisting (as many customers mentioned) Lowered price for ISP s, choice of limited services. Add support for IM Add support for VOIP
Brief comparison of main features our advantages / sales points over competitor at least 10 points up to ten sentences each Basic comparison overview Our strenghtness is in equal development on all three platforms, stable product, well tested and great techsupport Installation / Deployment Installation is pretty easy and fast. I encounter only few problems, mainly due to a late delivery of source material. Antivirus protection No one is offering dual antivirus. Integrated McAfee is better classified then Avast! Antispam protection Similar technologies, similar results Outlook Groupware Merak s solution is based on IMAP and separately synchronized groupware data. It looks like our old KSP. It is topic for discussion if we need to support older clients than OL 2002. Entourage Groupware None support form IceWarp Other Groupware clients WebMail They are using AJAX technology. It looks very fresh and modern. The speed of Webmail is really the same. Mobile devices Native clients (Windows x Mac) Remote administration Message Handling User Authentication Migration Tools Other (special server features) (optional fields)
Table of Features Product Kerio MailServer Merak Mail Server Version 6.6 9.3.2 Windows Platform MAC OS X Platform No Linux Platform (Fedora, SuSe, CentOS) (Redhat Linux Enterprise) Anti- virus Integrated McAfee Avast! Optional AV plugin (with command line scanning feature only) Anti- spam Relay Protection Anti- bombing Intelligent Spam Identification Integrated SpamAssassin Integrated SpamAssassin SURBL blocking Integrated SpamAssassin Integrated SpamAssassin Content filtering Anti- spoofing Caller ID & SPF SPF only Grey- listing No Real- Time Blacklists Custom Blacklists No SMTP Greeting Delay No Directory Harvest Protection Outlook Groupware With Kerio Outlook Connector (free plugin) With Merak Outlook Connector Shared / Public Mail folders Shared / Public Contacts Shared / Public Calendaring Real- Time Reminders Shared / Public Journals Shared / Public Notes Shared / Public Tasks Resources planning No Multiple accounts No Note: Merak Outlook connector uses IMAP for email synchronization and itself synchronizes groupware data only. Note2: Sharing in Merak means to share whole mailbox, not individual folders separately. Entourage Groupware Synchronization of contacts No and calendar Shared / Public Contacts No Shared / Public Mail folders No Shared / Public Calendaring No Real- Time Reminders No Resources planning No WebMail Shared contacts / address books Distribution Lists Shared / Public Mail folders
Shared / Public Calendaring Real- Time Reminders Notes Shared / Public Tasks Spell Checker Mail filter Multi- lingual Drag- and- drop functionality Out of Office responder (Common autoresponder) Customizable Resources planning No Mobile devices Direct over- the- air sync with Treo and Windows Mobile devices Over- the- air syncronization of email, calendar, contacts and tasks Only using third party client software Only using third party software/services, plugin is not needed only with some symbian phones Remote Wipe / Smart Wipe No Native Mac Clients Apple Mail.app No Apple Address Book sync No ical sync No Resources planning No Remote Administration GUI application Mac/Win/Linux, through webadmin interface Message Handling Multiple domains Mailing lists Retry failed messages Aliases / Quotas / / Remote POP3 download Domain Remote POP3 download ETRN Download User Authentication Internal database Apple Open Directory No Microsoft Active Directory Disable access to POP3 to No single user level Disable access to IMAP to No single user level Disable access to Outlook No Connector to single user level Disable access to Webmail to No single user level Services
SMTP plain / SSL / / POP3 plain / SSL / / IMAP4 plain / SSL / / WebMail plain / SSL / / NNTP plain / SSL / No/No HTTP plain/ssl No/No / (webserver) SIP No IM No Change listening ports Listen on multiple ports No Migration Tools Exchange Other Graphical HTML Statistics No Schedule Archiving Schedule Backup Purge old messages