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Amazon WorkMail vs Microsoft Exchange Online comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon WorkMail
Ranking in Email Applications
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (3rd)
Microsoft Exchange Online
Ranking in Email Applications
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkMail is 10.7%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online is 15.5%, up from 13.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

Michael Olayemi - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides free messages and helps to keep customers updated
The solution is quite low-level and lacks some advanced features. For example, it doesn't provide tracking capabilities, such as knowing how many users opened an email, which is crucial for email marketing. You would need to integrate these analytics with other tools to get them. I need to know if there has been a bounce and how customers interacted with the email. I would only suggest that Amazon WorkMail relax the rules for using Amazon SES in production. When you create an account, it starts in Sandbox mode, which means you can't use it in production right away. You must go through a process, message Amazon, and request to move it to production. Since Amazon is a big company, I feel customers shouldn't need this permission to use the service in production.
Babatunde-Olugbode - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good user interface and seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft services
I like its user interface. I don't struggle or face any challenges while using it. The design interface is simple. I haven't had any trouble managing it for a long time. Even if I encounter a challenge or two, I can always reach out to Microsoft for help. So, overall, it's been a very positive experience. Having everything under one account was valuable. I just had to go through cybersecurity for licensing and download everything. With one account, you can download Office and use Online features directly from your Exchange. There are security solutions in place, and we take customer data very seriously. For example, if I accidentally create a forwarding rule or send an email with an image attached, I get a notification immediately. Compliance-wise, it's quite good online. We can do many things. Even if I can't click on something or upload a specific file type, it'll still be stored for compliance or investigation purposes. So, subscribing to these features. The benefits are widespread and effective communication. We use Microsoft Teams for meetings within and outside our organization. Additionally, Teams can be used for chat, allowing us to track communication and see user activity. Those are the key points that have proven to be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It is highly available and scalable. It is also highly reliable. I don't lose any of the messages or emails. If there is an issue where the email sent operation failed, Amazon as a platform ensures that the send operation is retried, and the email reaches its destination. This way, it is highly reliable."
"Amazon WorkMail integrates with Route 53 and other AWS services, providing a seamless experience when using AWS infrastructure."
"The product is very user-friendly."
"It is very stable. I haven't faced any issues."
"The most valuable thing is that emails sent through SES have a delivery rate of greater than ninety percent."
"We use the tool for transactional emails and marketing."
"The most valuable feature of the Amazon WorkMail for me is the SMC server. It makes my work much easier, especially since I often work with Spring Boot. There are many built-in APIs in Spring Boot that help with messaging. What I appreciate about it is that it simplifies the process. I don't need to write much code; I define the credentials in my properties or environment variables. The Java Message API, an internal API from Spring Boot, does most of the work. I set up the properties and connected them to the SMC server, and I can send emails."
"There is no need for me to set up security."
"Exchange Online is consistent. It's easy to deploy and scale out to all of our organizations."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its integration with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams for shared calendars."
"The features of Microsoft Exchange Online are very intuitive and well-built, keeping the user experience in mind. The usability and the accessibility are the best aspects of this solution."
"The solution is easy to use and the cloud version has taken a lot of challenges away from the user."
"Exchange Online's best feature is its webmail platform."
"The most valuable feature is being able to assign an individual a task."
"Exchange Online plays a significant role in our business. It controls all our emails, so we'd be in a lot of trouble if we didn't have that. It's an essential product."
"The most valuable feature as it encompasses all aspects of collaboration, communication, reporting, and storage."
 

Cons

"WorkMail is not available in all the regions."
"When we first set up an email on Amazon SES, they had to verify it, which was not fast enough."
"The solution is quite low-level and lacks some advanced features. For example, it doesn't provide tracking capabilities, such as knowing how many users opened an email, which is crucial for email marketing. You would need to integrate these analytics with other tools to get them. I need to know if there has been a bounce and how customers interacted with the email."
"It would be ideal to have detailed data and reporting on email opens, clicks, bounces, and other metrics, as well as integration with other business intelligence tools."
"There is room for improvement in the support. It's just that customer support, though good, takes time to resolve issues."
"The only issue is the price, which is far too expensive."
"Amazon WorkMail's user interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."
"I would like to see detailed reports on email success and failure rates."
"The product needs to embed AI for intelligent searches and analytics."
"I feel that there is a need for improvement in the product, considering that there are some concerns with the tool's integration capabilities."
"For non-technical people, some configurations might be a little bit difficult. We can use it on our laptops or our portable devices like mobiles and others gadgets, but we have had repeated problems with syncing. That is, when using different gadgets and devices, there are issues with syncing. The configuration could definitely be improved."
"In terms of machine controls, it was very confusing, and some of the administrative parts will be done from the control, but in online writing mostly we can handle everything."
"The solution is expensive."
"In the next release, I would like to see more features added to the security of the solution."
"For example, recently there were some spam incidents that Microsoft does not currently mitigate because they have another paid solution to do so. It would be nice to integrate the security and the anti-spam (i.e. the fake links, etc.) along with the Exchange Online default."
"What I don't like about Microsoft Exchange Online is too much integration because now it has many services connected to it. In the beginning, it was just email, and now it's also Teams and Visio, and many other services which I don't like. Microsoft Exchange Online should focus on one service. The product now lost focus, and this is its area for improvement. I would also like more freedom in choosing to use just one service, for example, just Microsoft Exchange Online, which means I don't need Teams or any other Microsoft product or service there. Right now, all services are either in the Microsoft Office suite, or there are more products or services integrated with Microsoft Exchange Online, and I'd like to just focus on one."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution should improve its price."
"I rate the solution's pricing as one out of ten. It is close to being cheap. Sometimes, the tool offers a generous amount of free messages, up to 40,000, which is great for startups like ours. This means that we don't accumulate any costs for some months because we stay within the free usage tier. When we exceed the free allocation, the costs are reasonable, and no hidden charges exist."
"WorkMail does require a license, it is, per user."
"It's very cheap. The cheapest among all the services available."
"They have raised their prices, and obviously, it hits our customers. Some of them are deciding to step back from Office 365. For customers who have bought the annual subscription, they are moving to the monthly subscription."
"We have a three-year license for $25,000."
"We bought some licenses, and some are within our package or partnership with Microsoft."
"We have an enterprise agreement for licensing."
"Initially, we had issues with the licensing agreement, but we worked it out with Microsoft."
"The pricing is really high. It's higher compared to other services."
"The license for the solution is cheap, but it could be more affordable in the long term."
"There is a license for Microsoft Exchange Online and I have information on that, but there have been so many changes to the licensing and it's a completely different story nowadays. Microsoft has been pushing users to buy a package of products under one license. Users are becoming more dependent on Microsoft rather than independent, that you can't decide anymore, and from my point of view, that is bad."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon WorkMail?
We use the tool for transactional emails and marketing.
What needs improvement with Amazon WorkMail?
Amazon WorkMail's user interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly. Integration with Gmail using both SMTP and POP3 would be beneficial.
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon WorkMail?
Currently, I don't have any advice about using Amazon WorkMail. Since I only use AWS and am unfamiliar with its competitors, I can't recommend it.
What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange Online?
The benefits are widespread and effective communication. We use Microsoft Teams for meetings within and outside our organization. Additionally, Teams can be used for chat, allowing us to track comm...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Exchange Online?
The pricing for Microsoft Exchange Online is quite reasonable, in my opinion. Many licensing options are available so that we can choose based on the customer's needs. For example, if a customer on...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Exchange Online?
In terms of areas for improvement, I think Microsoft could enhance security. Right now, there are limited options for security within Exchange Online, and much of it relies on third-party security ...
 

Also Known As

Amazon SES
Exchange Online, Exchange Online Plan 1, Exchange Online Plan 2, MS Exchange Online
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Blue Star Infotech, Scitec Nutrition, Resolution Films, British Airways, Empire Cinemas, InnoGames
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkMail vs. Microsoft Exchange Online and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,192 professionals have used our research since 2012.