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Kiteworks vs Microsoft 365 Business comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Kiteworks
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (15th), Email Security (27th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (7th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (9th)
Microsoft 365 Business
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
252
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Kiteworks is 2.7%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft 365 Business is 3.1%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft 365 Business3.1%
Kiteworks2.7%
Other94.2%
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

KT
Associate Consultant at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Streamlined global file sharing with user-friendly interface and self-service capabilities
I'm not a network expert, however, there must be some room for improvement. Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss. If users receive such notifications, they can understand any disruptions are due to issues with their network or bandwidth rather than the site or Kiteworks. Additionally, I work from offshore India, and I told my client manager to communicate with the Kiteworks forum salesman regarding one feature. I noticed the Kiteworks login UI is very basic, lacking customization. Allowing more HTML tags to add hyperlinks or user-friendly information on the home page would be very useful.
Jitender Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Principle Consultant at Akaal Cyber Solutions
Comprehensive cloud tools have unified identity security and device management for my clients
I would suggest a lower cost for my clients because Microsoft 365 has many other licenses that provide different types of features. Microsoft 365 Business covers most of their requirements, and for the other parts, they use other third-party tools for cybersecurity. Although Microsoft 365 Business offers some cybersecurity features, it does not offer everything, such as endpoint detection response and mitigation. For those, clients need to buy a higher version of a license, such as Enterprise E1 or E5. I think Microsoft 365 Business can be improved if it adds more features such as endpoint detection or more features from Microsoft Defender, including cloud app security. With cloud app security, the application status or application logs can be monitored. Currently, cloud app security is not part of Microsoft 365 Business. You have to purchase a standalone license for that. If that can be added, it can increase the volume of purchases for Microsoft 365 Business.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It’s a great product that you should seriously consider and take the first step by training."
"The top two features are the two-factor authentication, which is pretty good. It's easily understood by the users. And their API is rather robust. We have numerous integrations that work off the API."
"Kiteworks is easy to manage and maintain with a user-friendly interface and I recommend it to anyone that requires a file-sharing system that supports SFTP."
"The best part of this solution is that we can generate multiple reports about how the data is transferred and about user information or IP."
"I like Kiteworks or Accellion because it's continuously upgraded. I also know that it probably works with a lot of clients."
"The solution removes the limitations with file attachment size that is found with regular email."
"The most useful feature of this solution is to share files with external parties and we can use this functionality to share files internally too."
"The most valuable aspect of Kiteworks is undoubtedly the private content network. This feature is particularly beneficial for us. Furthermore, it serves as a centralized platform that enables us to track and manage our information exchange."
"This product is reliable."
"Installing on multiple devices/platforms."
"The integration of all Microsoft products into the cloud gives us a lot of flexibility on a daily basis, and the whole company integrates in a unified way."
"The deployment is very easy."
"It works as expected."
"The best thing about the product is the ecosystem of it, and as most of our users are using Windows and it's a product of Microsoft, we find we get amazing performance."
"It is easy to use."
"From a small business perspective, there's lots of advantages to going with 365, because not only are you getting the standard tool set to actually just run a standard business, but you're getting add-on Apps/features that open up opportunities that you might not have thought of and the realization that you don't have to pay another entity because you can do it yourself."
 

Cons

"Kiteworks could benefit from enhancing the proposal knowledge base section, specifically regarding the type of work involved. Currently, the knowledge base seems insufficiently dedicated to this topic, making it challenging for new users to access the relevant administrative law. Improving the visual aids and providing clearer explanations could alleviate this issue."
"There is one particular thing that is a nuisance."
"It would be nice if Kiteworks could provide a free version of the platform so that it could be used for a certain number of file transfers. We could be charged a fee if we exceeded the number of allotted file transfers."
"In my experience, their technical support can be a little slow."
"File location could be improved."
"There are always issues when there are bugs or upgrades. The challenge with upgrading is getting more storage from the customer. Every time we have a new version, it requires additional storage. This means that the customer would need to procure more storage for their server, which they don't like because it means additional cost to them. So, I think my request would be that the version upgrades don't require any significant storage requirement."
"I noticed the Kiteworks login UI is very basic, lacking customization. Allowing more HTML tags to add hyperlinks or user-friendly information on the home page would be very useful."
"It could be more stable. In the next release, it would be better if it was more stable with improved performance."
"The support from Microsoft has not been very good in my experience and it is expensive."
"Sometimes, it tries to be a little bit too clever in preempting things that you want to do. The settings can be pretty complicated. It has the desktop version and the cloud version. You can have settings in the cloud version that are impacting your desktop version, but you don't know because you can't see the settings like rules and other things. So, they need to think about the experience. It should be the same if you log in to the cloud or if you log in via desktop."
"One of the only aspects that I do not like about Microsoft is that they release solutions into the market without testing them and rely on users to test them."
"It's pretty difficult to make a cost estimation, in cases where we need additional features."
"I submitted a good few support tickets early on because some of it was a bit overwhelming."
"This solution could be more secure."
"I am very disappointed that this version does not include the Microsoft Project tool, which is essential in our area of work to plan projects."
"It would help, if, in the beginning, there was an onboarding process to show how to set it up properly or how to set up the things properly, or how to have the support they need or the guidance on how they should deploy it. In some cases, there are things that are not so crystal clear."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe it's a little costly, but given the faith that we put into it from a security perspective to maintain the integrity of our patient information that is being transferred through this system, that's a small price to pay. So, on the surface, it might look like a lot of money, but depending on the need for security, which is where we feel it shines, it's okay price-wise."
"It is not really expensive. I mean, to me it's obviously expensive, but it's worth it."
"They changed it midstream. We were being charged a certain flat rate for SFTP traffic. For whatever reason, at the beginning of the year, our pricing changed, and we are now being charged more for using a feature of the product than we were when we first bought it. That has been our experience with billing. It turned out to be more expensive than when we started with it."
"The license management is changing and confusing. If I could make one change to it, it would be better license management through the API."
"The price of Kiteworks is reasonable."
"The solution is very expensive because we are buying with Malaysian Ringgit and it's sold in US dollars."
"There is an annual license required for this solution. For a smaller organization, it could be expensive."
"I have one of the business licenses, and then I have a few of the lower-cost ones at six bucks a month. We're a small organization of half a dozen people."
"Depending on which plan you purchase, there are a plethora of applications available to you."
"The program is inexpensive."
"Its cost is fine because I have a lot of devices in my account."
"They are always a bit pricey. They should reduce their prices or make it free because we already have other solutions, like Google Suite, which are cheaper or free."
"The solution costs approximately $20 per month per user."
"The price of the subscription for the solution could be less expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business116
Midsize Enterprise44
Large Enterprise104
 

Questions from the Community

What is Kiteworks?
Kiteworks is a secured file sharing platform that enables users to collaborate with different parties across a robust offering of secured protected channels. Users have the option of virtual privat...
What needs improvement with Kiteworks?
I'm not a network expert, however, there must be some room for improvement. Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss. If users receive such notifi...
What advice do you have for others considering Kiteworks?
Scalability is impressive. It can be highly available, resilient, and scalable infrastructure. I can confidently give it a nine. It suits any level of organization, whether a small setup with two a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Business?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that pricing is reasonable, but it depends on the plan, as some advanced security features require higher-tier licenses.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Business?
I have one concern regarding Microsoft 365 in Outlook; if I am using the new Outlook version and I have sent an email to someone using the Classic Outlook, I am not able to recall it, as to recall ...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft 365 Business?
Since I joined my organization, I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for almost two years. Microsoft 365 Business is used for applications like Teams, Outlook, Excel, and Word, which are common...
 

Also Known As

Accellion
Microsoft 365 E3, Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 F1, MS 365 Business
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United States Securities and Exchange Commission, National Health Service, Husch Blackwell LLP, NYC Health + Hospitals, Viatris, MITRE Corporation, Chubb, Kraft Heinz, KPMG, Kohler, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Purdue Pharma, AVL
Urban Agriculture Co., The Detroit Wallpaper Co., TransBlue Facility Management, Garner Food Company
Find out what your peers are saying about Kiteworks vs. Microsoft 365 Business and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.