Amazon Web Services vs. Microsoft 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon Web Services
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing services. With over 165 services offered, AWS services can provide users with a comprehensive suite of infrastructure and computing building blocks and tools.
$100
per month
Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Pricing
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Editions & Modules
Free Tier
$0
per month
Basic Environment
$100 - $200
per month
Intermediate Environment
$250 - $600
per month
Advanced Environment
$600-$2500
per month
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAWS allows a “save when you commit” option that offers lower prices when you sign up for a 1- or 3- year term that includes an AWS service or category of services.*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Considered Both Products
Amazon Web Services
Chose Amazon Web Services
We didn't really evaluate any other services, but we have researched the capabilities of other vendors and have decided that the offering that AWS is far superior to any other vendors.
Chose Amazon Web Services
Initially, we were with GoDaddy hosting but made a switch to a dedicated server with Bluehost. Our reasoning was that we would get more value from a dedicated server, however, as our SAAS grew we realized cloud computing was the way to go. We ended up choosing AWS over Digital …
Chose Amazon Web Services
AWS is usually the most affordable between GC, AWS, and Azure. If I was using a Windows machines only environment, I would go with Azure and for any other setup I would go with Amazon Web Services. For the record, AWS has been around longer than the others too.
Microsoft 365

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Amazon Web Services
7.9
68 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime9.064 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic scaling8.865 Ratings00 Ratings
Elastic load balancing9.461 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-configured templates6.857 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring tools7.365 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images5.858 Ratings00 Ratings
Operating system support7.363 Ratings00 Ratings
Security controls8.566 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation8.417 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Small Businesses
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Score 8.7 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(80 ratings)
8.3
(239 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(10 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(11 ratings)
7.5
(8 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.2
(24 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
One of the scenarios I can think of is to Deploy a web application that may experience fluctuating traffic. AWS EC2 and Elastic Beanstalk allow for quick deployment and easy scaling accommodating traffic spikes without downtime. Next thing is to analyze large datasets for business insights. AWS services like EMR (Elastic MapReduce) and Redshift enable efficient processing and analysis of big data with minimal setup. Now for one of the scenarios where is less appropriate is if we want to host a simple static website, for basic sites using a dedicated hosting service like GitHub Pages or Netlify may be simpler and most effective than AWS
Read full review
Microsoft
I usually recommend Microsoft 365 to my clients to keep them away from the Exchange server (sorry!) Our business has a lot of issues with exchange email functions and copy machines. I always recommend they download the desktop version and use the online version as needed. You never know when you will be without an internet connection, but you can usually trust your laptop will have a decent charge, and you can still be productive! Let it sync when the powers are back on - or your connection is alive.
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Pros
Amazon AWS
  • Starting an instance and accessing it for testing purpose, demo or production deployment its always easy.
  • All the things which are available over AWS are pretty well managed and easy to use.
  • You might find everything you required for an product and other development over AWS.
  • Its suitable for both either an enterprise or an startup
  • Various resources and documentation are available in case you struck somewhere.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • keeps me extremely organized. It is so easy to link calendars, emails, and documents.
  • keeps me well connected. It is so easy to send a quick message on teams or send an email to a group (for example, my particular team within the company).
  • easy to use. Everything is straightforward, making it easy to find an answer to a question. There is even a search option to figure out how to do something within Microsoft.
Read full review
Cons
Amazon AWS
  • If there is one thing I think AWS needs improvement on, it is the administration dashboard. It can be a nightmare to use especially when trying to access billing. This could be made better, honestly, as there should be a simplified way to access simple admin features.
  • While AWS was fairly easy to integrate into our solutions, it is not as easy to use without some IT knowledge. The dashboards are complicated and designed for someone who is computer savvy. If you are just want to keep track of billing, for example, you may need to take a course or spend a few hours with someone being walked through the admin console.
  • AWS does tend to be slow at times. If you do not have a fast internet connection, it can take time to access services that are hosted on AWS. This is not always the case but we have had clients complain about this if they are trying to access a service from multiple points (IP addresses). The only real fix we found was to make our files cache to another server and only keep current data accessible to clients.
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft 365 really needs to work on protection part. In complex environment it is not reliable as compared to its competitors like Proofpoint. There are many instances where it fails to perform effectively.
  • In SharePoint Online the versioning feature of the document needs to be improved by Microsoft. Sometimes when we have to roll back to the previous version it does not work as expected.
  • In Teams messaging and app permission policies can be improved. There are some settings where we have to add a lot of things manually.
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
We are almost entirely satisfied with the service. In order to move off it, we'd have to build for ourselves many of the services that AWS provides and the cost would be prohibitive. Although there are cost savings and security benefits to returning to the colo facility, we could never afford to do it, and we'd hate to give up the innovation and constant cycle of new features that AWS gives us.
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Microsoft
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
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Usability
Amazon AWS
Amazon Web Services is a great tool when it comes to middle size organizations like us. It provides multiple tools and functionalities in low costs. The best feature we have to pay as we go. No financial burden on company for the unused instances. It also comes with greater level of security such as two level authorization such as multi factor authorization.
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Microsoft
While Microsoft 365 is an amazing toolset, its still a Microsoft product. Sadly, I think the quality control regarding updates has dropped a lot the last few years. Also, I think things like the new Outlook are no improvement. In my opinion, so many features are missing. Still they proceed to push this. Microsoft knows their suite is one of the only of its kind broadly used and because of that, in my opinion, they can pull whatever they want on the users and do that without issue.
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Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
Availability is very good, with the exception of occasional spectacular outages.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Performance
Amazon AWS
AWS does not provide the raw performance that you can get by building your own custom infrastructure. However, it is often the case that the benefits of specialized, high-performance hardware do not necessarily outweigh the significant extra cost and risk. Performance as perceived by the user is very different from raw throughput.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
The customer support of Amazon Web Services are quick in their responses. I appreciate its entire team, which works amazingly, and provides professional support. AWS is a great tool, indeed, to provide customers a suitable way to
immediately search for their compatible software's and also to guide them in a
good direction. Moreover, this product is a good suggestion for every type of
company because of its affordability and ease of use.
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Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
The API's were very well documented and was Janova's main point of entry into the services.
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Microsoft
Everything works and I use it all the time.
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Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Amazon Web Services is well suited when we have a huge amount of data to store, process, manipulate and get meaningful information out of. It is also suitable when we need very fast data retrieval from the database. They provide a superior product at a fair price which allows us to further our goals and push the limits of what we are capable of as a team / company.
Read full review
Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
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Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • AWS has lowered our employee cost, because you don't have to hire Network/Server Admins to manage infrastructure.
  • Increased productivity by incorporating Continuous Integration with AWS and our development life cycle.
  • Increased customer confidence by being able to provide HIPAA level security in our development and production environments
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Microsoft
  • Positively, it has increased productivity and efficiency in creating templates and being able to systemize some of the protocols we are working on putting into place.
  • It has been a positive as well as most individuals and companies that we associate with also use MicroSoft 365 and therefore there is no need to have formats change in our documents when they open them up using another type of program.
  • Getting work done quickly.... One and Done!!!
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ScreenShots