Overview:
Established in 2002, AppRiver is a company that specializes in secure email solutions to ensure that their customers have the best Exchange mail experience. They are also a company that offers Microsoft Exchange Hosting and BES.
Pros: AppRiver’s plans include unlimited mailbox storage, public folders, additional storage for no extra cost, spam and virus filtering, including content filtering and compliance tools, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Goodlink support, and more. They also offer a free 30-day trial, and their special spam and virus protection through SecureTide.
Cons: Unlimited mailbox storage doesn’t actually mean that you can have massive amounts of data stored safely in your mailbox – the company defines this as “practical limits to how large a mailbox can be before performance becomes unacceptable. This also doesn’t mean that mailboxes can be defined as archives.” Also, if you’re going to get a plan with AppRiver, you must spend $50 minimum.
Detailed Provider Information:
Version of BES: (Microsoft, IBM Lotus Domino, Novell Group Wise) AppRiver uses Microsoft Exchange 2003.
Plans and Pricing: AppRiver offers one plan for $12.95 per user, per month. You get unlimited mailbox storage and full SecureTide Spam and Virus protection, as well as all the included features, like full support through ActiveSync for mobile devices and free Outlook 2003.
If you’re looking for a BES, AppRiver offers BlackBerry service for $9.95 a month with $19.95 set-up fee. You can also get Good Mobile service for $14.95 a month with $19.95 set-up fee.
Firewall Protection: Virtual-eMail provides disaster recovery services and have network tools to make sure that your email remains safe.
Anti-Spam and Virus Protection: Anti-virus and anti-spam is offered through AppRiver’s SecureTide Spam and Virus program. It’s advanced email protection at no extra cost.
Set-up Fee: Set-up fees include $19.95 for BlackBerry and Good Mobile services. There are no set-up fees for a hosted mailbox.
Other Devices Supported: AppRiver supports BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Devices.
Customer Service: There is online support through AppRiver’s website as well as through telephone. They offer 24/7 support to their clients.
Backup History Storage: AppRiver performs backups regularly and keeps data
Uptime Guarantee: 99.9%, according to their SLA. You will be credited 5% of the monthly fee for each 30 minutes of system downtime, should that happen. There are exceptions to this rule on the website.
Additional Services: AppRiver provides spam and virus protection and email scanning engine software to keep your email safe, as well as Microsoft Exchange Hosting.
Fee to Change BlackBerry for Current Customers: There is no charge for this service.
AppRiver's service is horrible. There are 20+ minute delays in e-mail delivery. They constantly lose messages. In fact, on occasion we received e-mail destined for *other* customers. Their technical department actually told us that SPF records were obsolete when Yahoo started rejecting are messages! (They have since changed their tune on this).
We originally had dozens of our client websites hosted with them and due to the insane number of complaints and the lack of any action for AppRiver, we are looking to move, but are worried we will get stuck with another crappy company.
I provide service to about a dozen companies and we used to have AppRiver.
Their service is slow (it takes 10-20 minutes to deliver a message - to myself on the server). When I complain, I was told that I shouldn't expect e-mail to be instant!. On top of this, one of my employees saw another company's data (an engineering firm) mixed in with our e-mail folder! We were told it's just a bug - its still happening and this has been several months. There has been several times when we didn't have service and I called and they had no idea they were even down! I suppose small companies that arent that e-mail dependent wouldnt notice - but we do and will probably go back to our own Exchange service (with a Barracuda spamwall or something like that).
Appriver has been wonderful. I had a smooth transition with them. Tech support is great. A live person picks up on the 2nd ring. They are prompt, reliable, and I have experienced no downtime.