MailSite Fusion v9

MailSite
Score: 2.86 out of 5
Tested on: Windows 2008
Pricing for 100 users, first year: $995; $2,985 including antivirus and antispam (Kaspersky antivirus and Mailshell antispam); Subsequent years: $995; $2,985 including antivirus and antispam

MailSite Fusion provides basic mail service on Windows platforms. We found several glitches with Windows 2008 support, and were also disappointed that it doesn't have a MAPI connector for Microsoft Outlook. This made MailSite Fusion the odd-man out in our testing: the only product that wouldn't be a good direct replacement for Exchange. We had a difficult time getting MailSite Fusion installed, and were also disappointed in the lack of real-time visibility into the status of messages and internal queues.

MailSite Fusion does have some bright spots. We found a relatively strong emphasis on security in the SMTP part of MailSite Fusion package, including denial-of-service protections and other settings designed to minimize the impact of malicious users.

Another interesting thing about the product is that it internally incorporates Sieve, a non-procedural language designed for mail filtering. This gives both the system manager and the end user the capability to look at and control the flow of mail through MailSite Fusion. While other products often have the ability for end-users to create filters in Sieve or a proprietary format, MailSite Fusion is unique in making these easily available through the message flow. Sieve is most commonly used for out-of-office vacation messages, but it can also be part of an automatic foldering system, auto-responders and content filtering.

MailSite Fusion licensing model raises concerns. The product is sold on a subscription basis. So if you decide you're happy with a stable and mature version and want to drop support, you can't: your mail server will stop working. On the other hand, a 20-user version of MailSite Fusion is free for the asking (although some advanced groupware features are not included in the free version).

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