We use Microsoft Exchange Online for emails.
Used for emails and provides integration with other services for shared calendars
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution is its integration with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams for shared calendars."
- "The solution’s technical support could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is its integration with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams for shared calendars.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s technical support could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Exchange Online for two to three years.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange Online
September 2026
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange Online. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't faced any issues with the solution's stability.
I rate Microsoft Exchange Online an eight out of ten for stability.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is sometimes helpful and sometimes useless. It depends on the agent that is working on your case.
I rate the solution’s technical support a six or seven out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously worked with the IBM Domino mail system. Compared to the on-premises model of Microsoft Exchange Online, the IBM Domino mail system's maintenance and administration upgrades were less complicated.
How was the initial setup?
It wasn't difficult to migrate the solution from on-premises to the cloud. It took us around one week to migrate from on-premises to the cloud because we don't have that many mailboxes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are Microsoft partners. We bought some licenses, and some are within our package or partnership with Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
Earlier, we had the solution on-premises, and then we migrated to the cloud. The solution helped with the planning and time management within our organization by providing everything that Outlook offers to end users, including email and calendar.
The solution does not provide 100% security, and some emails are still detected as malicious by our other endpoint security solution. Microsoft Exchange Online does not require any maintenance from our side.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Managing Director at ProQuanta
A stable solution for managing suites with a collaboration feature
Pros and Cons
- "One of the important features is the collaboration tool used in Office 365. The security and DLP mechanisms are also quite good."
- "The solution’s pricing could be better."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to manage calendars and the entire online and on-premises suite. It is used in large corporate banks.
What is most valuable?
One of the important features is the collaboration tool used in Office 365. The security and DLP mechanisms are also quite good.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s pricing could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Exchange Online as a reseller for three to four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The collaboration speed has some issues, but it is stable.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight-point five out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. When you reach certain volumes, the default limits on the packages essentially allow you to use the full spectrum anyway.
The solution’s packaging makes it difficult to scale to the enterprise level without significantly upgrading the packages and negotiating higher limits on certain things, such as API calls, to accelerate data transfer.
Around 3000 users are using this platform.
I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Microsoft technical support is making some improvements, but it can still be time-consuming to get an answer to a basic question. I often find it easier to troubleshoot the problem myself.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and takes around a week to complete.
Exchange Online deployments can be complex, especially when migrating existing data from on-premises to the cloud. Much planning and preparation is involved, and the process can be lengthy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive and has an annual subscription.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
It's difficult to compare Exchange Online to other solutions because of its unique feature set and collaboration capabilities. For example, Google SaaS is quite limited compared to Exchange Online.
What other advice do I have?
We require a full-time team of four or five engineers across different divisions to look after this solution.
I recommend this solution. You’ll find it difficult to find a better solution with all the same features at the same price point. Most other competing solutions don't have the same feature set for the price.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange Online
September 2026
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange Online. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Lead at CMH
An easy, simple, and secure product with an excellent message-tracing feature
Pros and Cons
- "Message trace is the most valuable feature of the product."
- "The interface is a bit confusing."
What is our primary use case?
The product is used to create email addresses. We can also create groups and distribution lists. The product also provides email forwarding features. We can create rules, monitor the flow of emails, and trace messages. We can use connectors on the platform for email security and email signature.
What is most valuable?
Message trace is the most valuable feature of the product. We can get a customized report on what is happening in our environment. We can trace all the emails, understand what happened, and get information on how they reached the user and the hops before delivery. It is very interesting.
We can also know how many deliveries failed and are pending in the queue and customize our reports how we want them to be. The product is very easy, simple, and secure. It is available everywhere because it is cloud-based.
What needs improvement?
The solution should have a better interface. The interface is a bit confusing. It should be more simple. The product should also improve the email flow. The rules are a bit complicated compared to the previous version. The previous version was much easier, and the latest one is more complicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four to five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my organization, 150 people use the product. I have plans to increase the usage by 10% in one or two years, depending on how much the organization will grow. The product is extensively used in our company.
How are customer service and support?
I had a very good first impression of the technical support team. Technically, the team is very good, very supportive, and very friendly. The team members are well-mannered while talking to customers. They follow up very well and are with us until the case is closed and we are satisfied.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was using Lotus Notes five to six years ago. It was centrally based in our head office. I didn’t contribute to it. Later, when I applied to have my own email solution, I chose Microsoft.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is very easy to set up. We just have to enter the username and password and start using it. We can deploy emails to end users within five to ten minutes. The product is cloud-based.
What was our ROI?
In our business, everything is done by email applications, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Word. So, we get a 60% ROI on the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution. The cost depends upon the plans we choose and the types of applications we want to use. We have a three-year deal with Microsoft to get a good price for the product. They are very willing to revise the price, accompany us for the setup, and give us a framework. They are very impressive to work with. There are no additional costs associated with the product.
What other advice do I have?
I am using the latest version of the solution. Most businesses and users are using Microsoft for email business. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Information Technology System Administrator at Sumathi Holdings
Reliable, easy to access, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "It's pretty reliable. We haven't had any issues with it."
- "The solution is expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We use the Microsoft email suite and we use this solution on a client basis so email can go through it. Everyone is using it currently.
What is most valuable?
We like that it is online and easy to access. We can work for everywhere. You don't have to install anything.
It's pretty reliable. We haven't had any issues with it.
The product is scalable.
Technical support has been very good.
We've witnessed a bit more ROI since switching to the cloud.
What needs improvement?
The solution is expensive.
The stability could always be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'd rate the stability eight out of ten. We haven't had any issues, however, in previous versions, a few months back, we did have an outage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. I'd rate it ten out of ten for ease of expansion. There are 300 users on it right now. We do not have plans to increase usage.
How are customer service and support?
We've used technical support in the past. They have been very good. We have nothing to complain about.
How was the initial setup?
We don't have to do any setup. We just have to log in and start using it. Since it's cloud-based there is no configuration necessary.
We have three people who are able to deploy and manage the solution.
What was our ROI?
We've seen an ROI. When we were on-premises we had much more trouble. The cloud makes it much better. We're saving a bit more money.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive. For the price, we do get value, however, it is a bit too much money.
We pay for the solution on a yearly basis. There are no extra costs on top of licenses.
What other advice do I have?
I'm always on the latest version since it is a cloud-based solution.
I'd recommend the solution to others if they have the budget.
I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Ict User Support Technician at Jju
Good cloud environment, is stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the cloud environment."
- "The deployment is complex and has room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of Microsoft Exchange Online is for emailing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the cloud environment.
What needs improvement?
The deployment is complex and has room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
The deployment takes some time because it is complex.
We required 14 people for the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a three-year license for $25,000.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten.
We have 700 people using the solution.
I recommend Microsoft Exchange Online to other users.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at Cerberus IT Solutions
Quick setup, useful online archiving, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange Online is if you have people that are geographically distributed from each other is good. For example, if you have people in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, having an online solution works best because then you can reach the scale of the data centers that are available by Microsoft. Additionally, if you're only going to have two to three people using the solution the cost is a lot less than having an onsite server and licensing. It is highly beneficial in these areas."
- "The support from the vendor is fine. However, it could be faster, and some of the agents could be more knowledgeable, but it is a large solution, there's a lot of information that the agents have to work with. I can't always expect when I get connected to the first-level agent that they will know absolutely everything. Sometimes there's no replacement for pure experience."
What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Exchange Online is used for emails and it does a fantastic job.
The only reason why you would choose an online solution is the company that you're working at is they do not want to have an onsite server. The companies that want something on-site would choose the on-premise version.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange Online is if you have people that are geographically distributed from each other is good. For example, if you have people in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, having an online solution works best because then you can reach the scale of the data centers that are available by Microsoft. Additionally, if you're only going to have two to three people using the solution the cost is a lot less than having an onsite server and licensing. It is highly beneficial in these areas.
The online archiving option works well. If you have a lot of emails and you want to keep them indefinitely, then you can use the online archive. It's available permanently and you can store quite a bit of email inside it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Exchange Online for approximately four and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is good. I've only had an issue with it once or twice, but that was due to undersea cable damage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Exchange Online is highly scalable.
We have a lot of users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from the vendor is fine. However, it could be faster, and some of the agents could be more knowledgeable, but it is a large solution, there's a lot of information that the agents have to work with. I can't always expect when I get connected to the first-level agent that they will know absolutely everything. Sometimes there's no replacement for pure experience.
I rate the support from Microsoft Exchange Online a three out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the cloud version is similar to the on-premise version. You can have a straightforward or semi-complex deployment. Cloud deployments do not become as complex as the on-premise version, but they can, depending on how it is used.
The deployment of the solution only takes five minutes. It is very useful when deploying from scratch. As soon as you have the domain up and running it is complete and ready to go.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license for the solution is cheap, but it could be more affordable in the long term.
What other advice do I have?
We have one level two or level three engineer that does the deployment and maintenance of the solution. The online version does not require a lot of people to run it.
I recommend this solution to others and they will not regret it. They should not use other solutions.
I rate Microsoft Exchange Online a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Manager, Information Technology at a venture capital & private equity firm with 10,001+ employees
It's easy to deploy and scale, but it can be complex to incorporate different departmental requirements into one platform
Pros and Cons
- "Exchange Online is consistent. It's easy to deploy and scale out to all of our organizations."
- "Exchange Online is consistent."
- "The efficiency could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft Exchange Onlne for communication, collaboration, and some project management tasks.
What is most valuable?
Exchange Online is consistent. It's easy to deploy and scale out to all of our organizations.
What needs improvement?
The efficiency could improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Exchange Online for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Exchange Online must be reliable and available for our operations.
How was the initial setup?
It can be complex to incorporate the unique requirements of each division into a single platform to meet all of the requirements. It's not hard to maintain Exchange Online, but you need an expert on your team and some outside help from the vendor.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Exchange Online seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
A stable solution with a good storage capacity
Pros and Cons
- "It has helped us because we don't have to worry about servers crashing."
- "The mail-blocking feature is not great and could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for the solution is focused on the email team. We are currently in a hybrid environment and have some users on cloud and some on-premises. So we are migrating everybody from on-premises to the cloud by the end of this year.
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped us because we don't have to worry about servers crashing. Everything has been stable since we began migrating to the cloud.
What is most valuable?
We have found the availability of large storage valuable.
What needs improvement?
The mail-blocking feature is not great and could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for approximately three years and are currently using Microsoft Exchange 2013.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, and we have not had any downtime in the last three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and approximately two people are required for deployment and maintenance.
How are customer service and support?
We rate customer service and support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have not previously used other solutions.
How was the initial setup?
I cannot comment on the initial setup as a third party did it for us.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it via a Microsoft third-party vendor.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing cost varies. For example, we have E1 and E3 licenses. Currently, it's approximately E3 $20 per user.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good, but the mail-blocking feature can be improved. I advise new users considering implementing the solution to consider using a third-party vendor for the implementation process.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at BUTEC s.a.l.
Helps reduced IT operations, scalable, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange Online is it helps the IT department with problems."
- "I chose Microsoft Exchange Online to cut this risk on our day-to-day operations for organizational communication with clients."
- "Microsoft Exchange Online can improve message delivery. There are times we receive a message that the email failed to be delivered, and there is no reason given. We sometimes have emails that are flagged as spam that are not. We cannot do anything about it because it's not managed by us, it's managed by Microsoft."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft Exchange Online for email, such as sending and receiving emails. Our critical people are on the cloud and our non-critical people are on the premise.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange Online is it helps the IT department with problems.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft Exchange Online can improve message delivery. There are times we receive a message that the email failed to be delivered, and there is no reason given. We sometimes have emails that are flagged as spam that are not. We cannot do anything about it because it's not managed by us, it's managed by Microsoft.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Exchange Online for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We can experience some glitches but this could be the fault of our ISP and not the Microsoft Exchange Online. Other than this experience it has been stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Microsoft Exchange Online is good as long as you are paying for the approximate usage.
We have approximately 800 people using this solution in our group. We have many types of users, such as managers and architects.
How are customer service and support?
I have not used the support from Microsoft Exchange Online.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Microsoft Exchange Online is very simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of Microsoft Exchange Online is approximately $4 to $36 per user. They do not give a discount which is not good. The solution is expensive if you have 800 to 1,000 users. They should give discounts when you have a lot of users.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Microsoft Exchange on-premise, and it has a lot of glitches and needs a lot of maintenance. I chose Microsoft Exchange Online to cut this risk on our day-to-day operations for organizational communication with clients. We decided to move forward with migrating most of our users from Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange Online, where those critical users would be not in a risk position in case anything happened on the Microsoft Exchange on-premise.
What other advice do I have?
I chose to use Microsoft Exchange Online because of the disaster recovery, and clustering, and to make sure that our users are eligible for the business continuity process.
This solution is good if you have a critical business, you don't want to have any kind of down communication, you are located in multiple regions, your IT team is not large enough to maintain an Exchange on-premise servers or you don't have the large infrastructure to have clusters.
I rate Microsoft Exchange Online a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director of IT ISO at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Quick to deploy, easy to set up, and works with minimal issue
Pros and Cons
- "It does what it's supposed to do with minimal issues, and the solution is very easy to set up and quite quick to deploy."
- "When you migrate from on-prem to cloud, if you choose to or are forced to do the hybrid, they need to devise a way to undo the hybrid."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for email and calendar functionality.
What is most valuable?
It works. It does what it's supposed to do with minimal issues.
It's one of the products that Microsoft has absolutely done its very best with.
The solution is very easy to set up and quite quick to deploy.
What needs improvement?
Right off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that I would change to improve Exchange.
The pricing could always be better.
Right now, I'm writing documentation to upgrade the existing Exchange and Active Directory from 2016 to 2019.
When you migrate from on-prem to cloud, if you choose to or are forced to do the hybrid, they need to devise a way to undo the hybrid. At present, once you establish a hybrid organization between cloud and on-prem, there's no way to undo it. Fixing that would be most beneficial. At the last organization I was at and did a migration, I had 31,000 users, and my largest mailbox was 90 gigs. It took three months to complete the migration.
We had no choice but to put it into hybrid mode due to the period of time. The MX record can only exist in one place. Therefore, you can't route mail from one system to another system. All the mail had to be routed through the on-prem and then synced from the on-prem to the cloud until everything was in the cloud. Then we were able to move the MX record from being on-prem to being in the cloud. Then all mail could be received in the cloud. However, then there was no way to tear down the Exchange organization on-prem. We are still left with a server, server maintenance, licensing, OS upgrades, patching, and everything on the on-prem server. The on-prem server is literally sitting there doing nothing except filtering air in the data center, costing me power, time and cooling. Therefore, fixing that would be awesome.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve used the solution throughout my career - for over 30 years.
How are customer service and support?
Typically, by the time I open a ticket, and they get back to me, I've figured out how to fix it. I don't call them until I'm really stuck.
They're not very good. I have had one of their technicians call me back more than once, and I'll go, "I figured it out, I fixed it." They flat asked me, "Well, how did you fix it?" I'm like, "You're Microsoft. You figure it out." They may not have the best understanding of the system.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used Exchange my entire career. My best friend is currently trying to get rid of Lotus Notes where he's at. He's been working on that for a year now, and it just doesn't seem to want to go away. I've always been with this product. I did a bunch of work with GroupWise and got GroupWise out of the environment and so forth - replacing that with Active Directory. However, that really didn't have a mail component to it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is always something that could be better. We always like to work towards protecting our budget.
I know what the cloud cost per user is. I don't have what the on-premises costs are.
What other advice do I have?
I’m a customer. I don't have any direct relationship with Microsoft.
I’d rate the solution a nine out of ten.
It's an excellent product. It's an excellent mail system. It does exactly what it's supposed to do. If you are under 5,000 employees, I would say that Microsoft 365 is the way to go. If you're over 3,000 or 5,000 employees, I would have some serious conversations about on-prem versus cloud. Once you get over about 3,000 or 5,000 employees that are mail users, the cloud really starts to get much more expensive than on-prem.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: September 2026
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