In May of 2022, licensees of iMail Server were informed that Progress, the owners of iMail Server, were discontinuing support for the Windows mail server product as of November 2024. From now until that date, iMail Server will only receive "critical fixes as needed", meaning that no new development or actual improvements to the product will be made, though security fixes and other bug fixes will be made.
That leaves current licensees in a bit of a bind: they can continue to use iMail Server and grab every "critical fix" as it's released, then continue to use the product after its end of life without the hope of getting any updates, or they need to find an alternative and begin the process of moving customers to that solution.
SmarterMail is the Perfect iMail Alternative
As we noted on our website, where we compare iMail Server and SmarterMail , SmarterMail is a perfect alternative because SmarterMail offers several advantages over iMail, including:
- SmarterMail surpasses iMail Server in features
- SmarterMail beats iMail Server in cost
- SmarterMail offers support for every desktop and mobile client
- SmarterMail offers NATIVE MAPI support for Microsoft Outlook
- SmarterTools offers free technical support for current licensees
There are other benefits, however, that are more relevant for iMail Server users and that demonstrate our commitment to SmarterMail as well as our dedication to the community of users and administrators already using all SmarterTools products.
Continual Investment, Continual Improvement
Let's take a quick look at some release statistics for SmarterMail over the last three years:
- 2021 – 26 releases
- 2020 – 18 releases
- 2019 - 20 releases
That's an average of 1 3/4 release a month. On the other hand, iMail Server has had 5 versions released in the last 5 years. This, alone, demonstrates how SmarterTools continues to support, improve, and develop the SmarterMail product, and is one of many reasons why it is one of the most popular mail servers on the market.
This chart shows our cumulative progress with SmarterMail throughout 2021 alone, with the darker green area covering the cumulative tasks that were completed over the course of the year. It's easy to see that the SmarterMail product continues to grow, just as our number of users around the world continues to grow.
We are committed to providing new features to end users, and new tools to administrators, with an active release schedule. This allows us to provide users with the features and benefits of Microsoft Exchange, while administrators get the benefits of SmarterMail in terms of its ease of use and simple management, especially when compared to Exchange. Business owners get both, PLUS the added benefit of paying much less – in licensing costs and overhead -- than they're used to with Exchange and other products.
Active, Vibrant Community
We are also committed to our community of users. In 2021, we had over 4300 posts to the SmarterTools Community, which included over 650 new "threads", or topics, being created. And while these aren't just posts about SmarterMail, or by SmarterMail users, a significant portion are. Our users are passionate about SmarterMail, (well, they're passionate about all 3 of our products), and we're committed to not only giving them a place to discuss SmarterMail, but we also actively participate in those discussions. "Community" is something we hold in high regard, and we have always created spaces for our users to interact with each other and with the SmarterTools teams.
We're Here to Help
It's never easy when a company you've come to trust decides to end the lifecycle of a product you've used for years. Unfortunately, we've all had to deal with similar situations. That's the bad news.
The good news is that there are always companies who are there to help, and SmarterTools is one of those companies. We'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have about SmarterMail and help plan your transition from iMail Server over to SmarterMail. We've participated in, or helped plan, migrations from virtually every mail server software out there, from enterprise installations spanning multiple servers, to small business migrations with fewer than 10 accounts. And, of course, know the ins-and-outs of SmarterMail. So, we can give you the benefit of our expertise and knowledge.
Get Started Today!
So, why not download SmarterMail and give it a try? We offer a fully functional version you can use to get SmarterMail set up with a single domain and up to 10 mailboxes, and it's totally FREE. This will allow you to get a feel for SmarterMail, look at all the features it has, and even put it through some of its paces, free of charge, before you start the process of moving all your domains and customers over.
If you run into issues, or have any questions at all, just give us a call (877-323-4678), send us an email, or start a live chat with one of our team members. We're here to help.