SmarterMail is a Microsoft Exchange alternative that natively supports MAPI. With MAPI support, Smarter Mail can do anything that Microsoft Exchange can do -- at a fraction of the cost.

SmarterMail has a web interface that adds more modern features like tasks, messaging, and video conferencing, increasing team collaboration without plugins. Also included are built-in spam filtering, DDoS protection, and enterprise-level antivirus at no extra cost.

On an admin level, there are plenty of tools to look at, from reporting, password management, remote access, and mailbox migration from services like Gmail, Exchange, Yahoo!, and Office. SmarterMail adds support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, allowing your choice of mobile clients: iOS Mail, Gmail, Spark Outlook Mobile, etc.

The setup was pretty straightforward - if you have set up this program before. You're going to need a domain like majorgeeks.com. (But go to Goddaddy and get you're own; we're fond of this one. ) Configuring IIS is part of the installation. Once installed, you reach the server from any browser at https://localhost:9998, and you're off to the races. If you haven't set up a mail server before, Smart Tools has a fairly extensive help section and community forum that should get you going quickly.

The free version supports one domain and ten emails. The pro version pricing starts at $499.00