Synology has two sets of e-mail servers and clients.i) Synology Mail Server and Mail Station
ii) Synology MailPlus Server and Synology MailPlus
According to the Synology Package Center listing,
“Synology Mail Server offers an easy solution that turns your Synology NAS into a mail server, allowing Synology NAS users to receive and deliver mails.”
“Synology MailPlus Server provides a cost-effective mail solution for enterprises requiring high-level security and stable performance. The high-availability architecture provides single server fault tolerance to maximize service uptime.”
There are differences between them. In this article, I will compare Synology Mail Server and Synology MailPlus Server so that you can decide which is the best for your use case. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents:
- Browser Mail Client Comparison
- Mobile App Support
- Multiple Domain Support
- Productivity Apps Integration
- Full-Text Search Support
- Antivirus Support
- Malicious Link Detection in Emails
- Update Scheduling for Antispam and Antivirus Definitions
- Greylist Support
- MCP (Message Content Protection) Support
- Threat Monitor
- Mail Delivery Features
- Mailbox Quota
- Mail Migration
- High Availability Clustering
- User Policy Support
- Delegation Support
- Log Management
- Mail Search
- Usage Analysis
- Final Thoughts
- References
Number of Users and Licensing Requirements
Only 5 users can use Synology MailPlus Server for free to send and receive emails. If you want to configure more users to use Synology MailPlus Server, you will have to buy user subscriptions from Synology.
Synology Mail Server, on the other hand, is free to use for an unlimited number of users. So, you don’t need to buy user subscriptions to use the Synology Mail Server.
Browser Mail Client Comparison:
To access Synology MailPlus Server from a web browser, you need the Synology MailPlus client. It has a modern user interface with many features, and it’s highly customizable.
A screenshot of the Synology MailPlus browser client is given below.
In the same way, to access Synology Mail Server from a web browser, you will need the Synology Mail Station app. It uses the traditional Roundcube client to access emails from the Synology Mail Server.
A screenshot of the Roundcube browser client used by Mail Station is given below.
Mobile App Support:
Synology offers Synology MailPlus app for Android and iOS devices. You can use it to connect to your Synology MailPlus Server and send and receive emails from your Android and iOS devices. It’s a very feature-rich email app.
Synology does not offer any app for Android/iOS devices that you can use with Synology Mail Server.
Multiple Domain Support:
Synology MailPlus Server supports multiple domains. You can host multiple email domains on a single Synology NAS with Synology MailPlus Server and configure each one of them independently as you wish.
Synology Mail Server does not support multiple domains.
Productivity Apps Integration:
Synology MailPlus Server and Synology MailPlus integrate nicely with other Synology productivity apps like Synology Office, Synology Contacts, Synology Chat, and Synology Calendar.
Synology Mail Server and Mail Station do not integrate with Synology productivity apps.
Full-Text Search Support:
Synology MailPlus Server supports full-text search. Once enabled, Synology MailPlus Server will index all the email contents so that you can search them with keywords from the Synology MailPlus web client.
Synology Mail Server and Mail Station client do not have full-text search support.
Antivirus Support:
Synology MailPlus Server supports ClamAV (open-source) and McAfee (proprietary) antivirus engines. McAfee antivirus is not free, by the way. You will have to install the Antivirus by McAfee and buy subscriptions to use McAfee antivirus with Synology MailPlus Server.
Synology Mail Server supports the ClamAV antivirus engine only. There is no McAfee antivirus support.
Malicious Link Detection in Emails:
Synology MailPlus Server supports the Google Safe Browsing database. Synology MailPlus Server uses it to detect malicious links in emails.
Synology Mail Server does not support the Google Safe Browsing database.
Update Scheduling for Antispam and Antivirus Definitions:
On Synology MailPlus Server, you can schedule automatic updates for the Antispam and Antivirus definitions. This way, you will always have an up-to-date version of the Antispam and Antivirus definitions for your Synology MailPlus Server.
Synology Mail Server does not support automatic updates for the Antispam and Antivirus definitions. You will have to update them once in a while manually. That’s a bit more manual work.
Greylist Support:
Greylist temporarily rejects suspicious emails. Once rejected by the greylist, when the sender resends the same email, the email is delivered to the recipient. Greylist is used for spam detection.
Synology MailPlus Server supports Greylist spam detection. Synology Mail Server does not support Greylist spam detection.
MCP (Message Content Protection) Support:
Synology MailPlus Server support MCP (Message Content Protection). With MCP, you can set certain criteria to match emails and set a threshold value for the matched emails. You can also set actions that you want to perform once an email exceeds the MCP threshold.
Synology Mail Server does not support MCP.
Threat Monitor:
Synology MailPlus Server includes a threat monitor. It nicely visualizes all the threats that the mail server detected against the inbound and outbound emails in charts.
Threat Monitor is not available in Synology Mail Server.
Mail Delivery Features:
With Synology MailPlus Server, you can configure a custom SMTP banner and external postmaster. You can also relay control inbound and outbound emails, control sender policy, and connection policy.
You can’t configure these email delivery features with Synology Mail Server.
Mailbox Quota:
Synology MailPlus Server supports user and group quota. Synology Mail Server does not support user and group quota.
Mail Migration:
You can import emails from third-party email services like Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo, and other IMAP mail servers to Synology MailPlus Server.
You can’t do such things with Synology Mail Server.
High Availability Clustering:
You can set up two Synology NAS to form a High Availability Synology MailPlus Server cluster. One NAS will act as a primary mail server, and another will act as a secondary mail server. The primary mail server will sync all the emails with the secondary mail server. If the primary server fails, the secondary server will send/receive emails. You will also have a backup of all the emails on the secondary mail server.
Synology Mail Server does not support High Availability Clustering.
User Policy Support:
Synology MailPlus Server supports user policies. You can set up different policies for different sets of users. This makes Synology MailPlus Server users very easy to configure.
Synology Mail Server does not support user policies.
Delegation Support:
Synology MailPlus Server supports delegation, giving ordinary users administrative ability to configure some or all parts of the Synology MailPlus Server.
Synology Mail Server does not support delegation.
Log Management:
Synology MailPlus Server lets you archive logs, transfer logs to remote syslog servers, and rotate existing log files (so they don’t get very big).
Log management is not possible with Synology Mail Server.
Mail Search:
Synology MailPlus Server lets you search for emails depending on your desired criteria. Synology Mail Server does not have such a feature.
Usage Analysis:
You can analyze inbound and outbound emails sent by different email addresses or domains with Synology MailPlus Server. You won’t be able to do that with Synology Mail Server.
Final Thoughts:
Synology Mail Server is a free email server for your Synology NAS. It does not have a lot of fancy features. But if you need a basic email server for your work or business, it is for you.
Synology MailPlus Server is an enterprise solution for your business. It is a modern and feature-rich email server for your Synology NAS. It integrates nicely with other Synology apps and services. If you need all the features of Synology MailPlus Server and you don’t mind spending money on user subscriptions, I would highly recommend it.
References:
[3] Synology MailPlus Server – Add-on Packages | Synology Inc.
