What's Hot: Reader Review

Microsoft Exchange is the dominant enterprise email and messaging platform, but IT professionals such as consultant Chad Mauthe sometimes find the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining an Exchange environment to be overkill for small environments. While developing a hosted messaging service for his clients, Mauthe reviewed several other alternatives and decided to use SmarterTools' SmarterMail 5.x mail server.

"I've been using the SmarterMail mail server for more than a year, and it does just what I need," says Mauthe. "I mainly picked it over Exchange due to its minimal cost, straightforward licensing, ease of management, and an equivalent feature set." In addition to security features such as antispam, antivirus, and intrusion detection and prevention, SmarterMail provides email archiving.

For Mauthe, installation was painless, and the technical support on the SmarterTools website got him up and running without having to call someone. He mentions that SmarterMail can synchronize with Outlook and mobile devices (including BlackBerry), but it doesn't always work smoothly. "I don't think I've perfected [how to use] the mobile synchronization features yet, so it could be me."

In Mauthe's opinion, SmarterMail would be a robust solution for many companies with small messaging needs; a recent deployment involving four domains and approximately 30 users went off without a hitch. "You get a lot of features that Exchange offers for a lot less money," says Mauthe. "I ended up spending just a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand, or more."