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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft 365

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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

    Microsoft Exchange

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Editions & Modules
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details*When billed annually.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft 365
    We have tried using an in-house Microsoft Exchange server as well but ultimately moved to using Microsoft 365 because it decentralized our email and gave all the users access to Microsoft Excel and Word programs at the same time. It also gives each user 1 terabyte of cloud …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    Microsoft 365 is a complete package. If your work is business more than creative than it 100% suits your needs. The pieces it offers, the desk top apps available on demand, and the integrations are far reaching and hard to match with other products. It's clear they've been used …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    Please consider our consideration of alternatives dates back seven years ago, so the alternative offerings today are likely to be rather different.

    We did consider continuing with Exchange on site, but deemed the increasing cost and complexity to justify adopting [Microsoft 365 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    • Significantly cheaper and easier than maintaining and licensing an Exchange server locally and basically zero labor time with upkeep outside of account management is a massive time saver.
    • I've never been a big fan of G-Suite. Their email works but often is clunky to administer …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    It's still a Microsoft product, but the Online model is far superior to the on-prem offerings. Especially with Microsoft focusing on their online platform over their on-prem servers. Migration from these on-prem services is fairly simple and Microsoft has done a great job to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    The full O365 suite is much more connected but I was not part of the selection process.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft 365
    Having all of the offerings and services in one easy to use administrative interface makes administration of our Microsoft suite of applications much easier. We are not able to get that same integration with separated applications. Gmail is not very intuitive if you're coming …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Google Workspace has excellent spam filtering, but poor customizability without resorting to third-party software or hacks/workarounds. Microsoft 365 has its own problems. We are currently using both Microsoft Exchange and Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) to handle mailbox …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Both items are used by me on a daily basis. Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint don't seem to have a lot in common to me. When working with the Exchange platform, it's all about scheduling events in the calendar and sending emails. I was able to find the most crucial …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    1) The cost per user is almost the same (around $3 USD more than Google Workspace) but the Office tools that Microsoft includes are the best in the market. The end-users are really adapted to them and the other tools like Google Sheets and Google Documents are really bad. 2) …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    In comparison to Amazon SES, Microsoft Exchange was significantly more flexible and customizable. Amazon SES seems more complicated from an administrative standpoint. It became more difficult for us to consider migrating to a new platform since our workers were more comfortable …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    It has better ease of integration with the servers and company data. It has a relatively better cost compared to all the tools available. The privacy features and capabilities are something best in class.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Office 365 is not recommended for shared use so we are using Microsoft Exchange. This helps to have access to multiple users and easy access to emails and calendars to provide support round the clock.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft Exchange offered far more flexibility and customization than Google Workspace. From an administration perspective, it seemed easier to work with Exchange than with Gsuite/Google Workspace. Our employees were more familiar with Microsoft and their comfort level made …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    I myself am a front-end user of both products. I don't really see too much of a comparison between Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint. When using the Exchange platform it is more about calendar appointments and email communication. Using share Point I was able to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft is more sturdy and feature-packed than GSuite. Especially with the Office integrations, even though the UI doesn't stand up against them, it offers way better features and is just more convenient to use for what we require at our organization.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Office 365 is pure ease. You get excellent compatibility with the entire Microsoft Office suite, as well as affordable access to Microsoft Office applications. All of this is supported by Microsoft's extremely dependable cloud. It's a great option for small businesses that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    It gives the impression of being a more professional and more robust tool. Despite the large amount of data, it always manages them at its best, without performance problems.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Most IT professionals understand Microsoft Exchange... getting a Linux expert or Google expert can be more challenging. Choosing Microsoft Exchange meant having access to a vast array of talent that understood the system if something went wrong, versus having to learn another …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft Exchange has the most features in one package, and also has the best integration with the rest of our tool set.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft exchange works within its own systems. We recently changed over to Microsoft Teams and are still learning to use it. The compatibility could be better streamlined for a smoother user experience. However, email is fairly defaulted across corporate-provided accounts. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Office 365 is very comparable as far as features are concerned. Easy to migrate from exchange to 365 when the organization is ready to move to cloud administration/email. Also can run in hybrid mode which is what our organization is doing now. Gives us control on Exchange …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft Exchange differs from Office 365 mostly by having a server of your own to host everything. 365 requires you to fully rely on Microsoft to keep their services up and running. Having our own Microsoft Exchange environment allows us to dive in to any potential issues we …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    We actually started with an ISP to provided cloud based email services as a side benefit. But then as our needs to manage huge amounts of emails & attachments grew, we then looked for an alternative. Since we were already using Microsoft Servers, switching over to Microsoft …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Frankly we never tried anything else so I do not have anything to enter here. The largest competitor would probably be Google/Gmail/G Suite and a lot of start up and smaller companies do use it successfully. Since it is all off premises, Gmail does have some traction for …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Easy to use for the features you get without having to configure a server.
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft Exchange is a clear front-runner in the industry, and it's really not even close. All other software really appears to be a "knock-off" in comparison, and they may not even be all that bad. Exchange is not expensive, and does everything we could ask for and then some. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    There used to be more competition for the email space on-prem. Products like Lotus Domino and Novell Groupwise were major competitors quite a few years ago. Unfortunately, neither of these products exists any longer and Microsoft has dominated this space for a few years. Now, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Office 365 has hosted Microsoft email that is powered by Exchange but which is run completely in the Microsoft cloud and paid for by monthly subscription. Microsoft Exchange, on the other hand, is hosted on-premise and inside your own network. They both work the same way and do …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    There is nothing I've seen in any organization I've been part of in over 20 years that's been used in place as the corporate solution for email. The standardization of Exchange across nearly all major corporations and government agencies is near complete I not really aware of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Exchange on premise is a better value when you have over 75 employees and will be a better bargain over 3-5 years than the subscription service is over that same period. If you have less than 25 employees though then its not usually a better deal unless you users have very …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Exchange is more private than Google Apps, however, it does seem costly for Windows licensing fees and a little outdated but it does remain a strong solid program and does perform excellently when used by our corporation. Google Apps doesn't allow rules for mail like exchange …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    195 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    179 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    198 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    68 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    134 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    142 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    52 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Secure Email Gateway
    Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Exchange
    Feature
    Microsoft 365
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Exchange
    7.3
    84 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Anti-malware00 Ratings6.567 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings8.079 Ratings
    Data Loss Protection00 Ratings8.368 Ratings
    Threat Detection00 Ratings6.566 Ratings
    Sandboxing00 Ratings7.444 Ratings
    End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings6.767 Ratings
    Management Tools00 Ratings8.080 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Small Businesses
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Sophos Email
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Workspace
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Sophos Email
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft 365 Business Premium
    Score9 out of 10
    OpenText Core Email Threat Protection
    Score7.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (262 ratings)
    9.0
    (102 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.7
    (30 ratings)
    8.5
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (54 ratings)
    9.9
    (12 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft 365Microsoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Microsoft 365 would be well suited for medium to large enterprises. This is where there are several hundreds or thousands of people. Since most everyone has used one of the applications the learning curve would be reduced. Another reason would be the ability to implement security measures to prevent access to sensitive data. This could justify the cost of an Enterprise license.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Creating and receiving emails is simple. Managing contacts is a nice feature, especially connecting to Active Directory. Calendar management is also helpful and sharing access to others' calendars for scheduling meetings is useful. And reserving resources such as rooms or equipment is also useful. Personal and shared mailboxes are good features, as well. Tasks are a little lacking, but other than that, the features are thorough.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Chat with teams and the integrations with the other apps, and many more smaller ones, like to-dos, news, and the recent Outlook integration.
    • Easy embedding on SharePoint to broadcast all the content created in the different tools.
    • The office package is still robust with the good things from the past and new additions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
    • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
    • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
    • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Slack is 1000x better than teams. Why put a 250 limit on a chat? Our company hasn't moved fully to channels and it's making us lose transparency. Plus, the teams channels we do have nobody is going to. 90% loss in visibility and engagement.
    • Teams for web meetings. I think the UI/UX should match Zoom which is the standard for all our customers. They don't like it when we use Teams.
    • Chats and Channels need to somehow be on one screen automatically without having to choose that view because majority of our company hasn't opened Teams Channels and only stays in chats.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
    • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
    • Security remains a major concern.
    • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
    • Hardware and license costs are high.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Email and calendars in a business setting are requirements. And Microsoft continues to be the standard of business applications. Microsoft 365 makes Microsoft Exchange easy to use. Everything is in the cloud. Let Microsoft take care of the hardware, the software, and the security. You just enable your business users with the functionality they need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    Microsoft 365 is the gold standard for performing project tasks in a professional environment, enabling the quick transfer and exchange of files and ideas for team members who work locally and remotely. Its suite of tools is familiar and has evolved to being cloud based, allowing for files to be updated in real time from near and far.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange has come a long way over the years and has nowhere near the technical overhead required for support as it did back in 2003/2007 and prior. The integrations with Teams, Defender, Sharepoint, Copilot and many other products make it a solid and well-rounded tool used for many day-to-day tasks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    Everything works and I use it all the time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange Product The best cloud-based enterprise-grade archiving platform with a host of features that enable files to be securely archived and retrieved with advanced search options. This tool is very easy to use and has a User-friendly interface. It is a highly reliable platform that allows all employees to automatically store their data without any limitations. It offers a cost-effective solution with customized policy management. We are happy that the customer support team is always fast and concerned, and the product's uninterrupted service experience. It is very good that it stores data in real-time without losing it, even in the event of a disaster. The cost-effective solution and integration with other tools are seamless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We have a lot of nonprofit users, so they have a good ROI.
    • I like the constant updates without having to purchase the software repeatedly.
    • I used to purchase each Office (insert year here) often, so the software was up to date and had the newest options and connectors. I think my return on investment would have been much better if Microsoft had updated those versions to keep them current; after all, we did pay for them.
    • Microsoft 365's offering a monthly fee or a discount for a year helps, and you can look at it as a free backup if you have everything set to back up to One Drive. (Cloud-based document filing you can access anywhere ( with an internet connection)—you Can't beat that!)
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • It has been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
    • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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