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 3rd 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 ISPso 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 – antispam:
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
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 market) NA $2096 $2864 $3616 $4368 $5094 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 VOIPour 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 Yes Yes
MAC OS X Platform Yes No
Linux Platform Yes (Fedora, SuSe, CentOS) Yes (Redhat Linux Enterprise)
Anti-‐virus
Integrated McAfee Avast!
Optional AV plugin Yes Yes (with command line
scanning feature only)
Anti-‐spam
Relay Protection Yes Yes
Anti-‐bombing Yes Yes
Intelligent Spam Identification Integrated SpamAssassin™ Integrated SpamAssassin™ SURBL blocking Integrated SpamAssassin™ Integrated SpamAssassin™
Content filtering Yes Yes
Anti-‐spoofing Caller ID & SPF Yes SPF only
Grey-‐listing No Yes
Real-‐Time Blacklists Yes Yes
Custom Blacklists Yes No
SMTP Greeting Delay Yes No
Directory Harvest Protection Yes Yes
Outlook Groupware With Kerio Outlook Connector
(free plugin) With Merak Outlook Connector
Shared / Public Mail folders Yes Yes
Shared / Public Contacts Yes Yes
Shared / Public Calendaring Yes Yes
Real-‐Time Reminders Yes Yes
Shared / Public Journals Yes Yes
Shared / Public Notes Yes Yes
Shared / Public Tasks Yes Yes
Resources planning Yes No
Multiple accounts No Yes
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
and calendar Yes No
Shared / Public Contacts Yes No
Shared / Public Mail folders Yes No
Shared / Public Calendaring Yes No
Real-‐Time Reminders Yes No
Resources planning Yes No
WebMail
Shared contacts / address
books Yes Yes
Distribution Lists Yes Yes
Notes Yes Yes
Shared / Public Tasks Yes Yes
Spell Checker Yes Yes
Mail filter Yes Yes
Multi-‐lingual Yes Yes
Drag-‐and-‐drop functionality Yes Yes
Out of Office responder Yes Yes (Common autoresponder)
Customizable Yes Yes
Resources planning Yes No
Mobile devices
Direct over-‐the-‐air sync with Treo and Windows Mobile devices
Yes Only using third party client
software Over-‐the-‐air syncronization of
email, calendar, contacts and tasks
Yes Only using third party
software/services, plugin is not needed only with some symbian phones
Remote Wipe / Smart Wipe Yes No
Native Mac Clients
Apple Mail.app Yes No
Apple Address Book sync Yes No
iCal sync Yes No
Resources planning Yes No
Remote Administration
GUI application Mac/Win/Linux Yes, through webadmin
interface
Message Handling
Multiple domains Yes Yes
Mailing lists Yes Yes
Retry failed messages Yes Yes
Aliases / Quotas Yes/ Yes Yes/Yes
Remote POP3 download Yes Yes
Domain Remote POP3
download Yes Yes
ETRN Download Yes Yes
User Authentication
Internal database Yes Yes
Apple Open Directory Yes No
Microsoft Active Directory Yes Yes
Disable access to POP3 to
single user level No Yes
Disable access to IMAP to
single user level No Yes
Disable access to Outlook
Connector to single user level No Yes
Disable access to Webmail to
single user level No Yes
SMTP plain / SSL Yes/Yes Yes/Yes
POP3 plain / SSL Yes/Yes Yes/Yes
IMAP4 plain / SSL Yes/Yes Yes/Yes
WebMail plain / SSL Yes/Yes Yes/Yes
NNTP plain / SSL Yes/Yes No/No
HTTP plain/SSL (webserver)
No/No Yes/Yes
SIP No Yes
IM No Yes
Change listening ports Yes Yes
Listen on multiple ports Yes No
Migration Tools
Exchange Yes Yes
Other
Graphical HTML Statistics Yes No
Schedule Archiving Yes Yes
Schedule Backup Yes Yes
Purge old messages Yes Yes
