Amazon WorkMail vs Microsoft Exchange comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Email Applications category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 9.5% mindshare in EA, compared to Microsoft’s 11.3% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon WorkMail

Read 12 Amazon WorkMail reviews

3,018 Views
2,297 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Microsoft Exchange

Read 92 Microsoft Exchange reviews

3,048 Views
2,143 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Amazon WorkMail

Microsoft Exchange

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Microsoft Exchange and Amazon WorkMail are major contenders in the enterprise email solutions market. Microsoft Exchange seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive integration and administrative capabilities, despite persistent issues with deployment and support.

Features: Microsoft Exchange offers robust mobile capabilities, tight integration with third-party apps, and excellent security measures for lost or stolen devices. Its powerful suite of administrative tools and seamless integration with various Microsoft applications make it user-friendly and efficient in corporate settings. Amazon WorkMail integrates smoothly with AWS services, emphasizing security, machine learning capabilities, and automatic email management features, granting versatility in creating custom solutions.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Exchange users face challenges with storage management, complex deployment processes, and inadequate technical support for certain integration issues. Amazon WorkMail could improve region availability, support response times, and end-user interface intuitiveness; price sensitivity in certain regions is a noted issue.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Exchange offers flexibility with availability across on-premises, hybrid, and public cloud environments, but often requires complex setup and maintenance. Customer service is seen as average with mixed experiences in support responsiveness. Amazon WorkMail, primarily cloud-based, offers simpler deployment but suffers from region-specific limitations and integration complexities, with generally average responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Exchange pricing varies based on deployment model, offering cost-effective solutions for enterprises with a balance between subscription models and perpetual licensing. ROI is seen as favorable, especially for organizations leveraging Office 365. Amazon WorkMail provides free tier options beneficial for startups, but is considered expensive in certain regions, posing challenges for smaller businesses. Its pricing model is flexible but perceived as costly compared to the full Microsoft Office suite offerings for some users.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon WorkMail vs. Microsoft Exchange Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon WorkMail vs. Microsoft Exchange

June 2025

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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

Amazon WorkMail

Ranking in Email Applications

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Email (2nd)

Microsoft Exchange

Ranking in Email Applications

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Wireless Email (1st), File Archiving (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkMail is 9.5%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.3%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Applications

Featured Reviews

Michael Olayemi

Senior Software Engineer at Checkit

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.

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Harry Murdani

Manager, IT Security at Averis Sdn Bhd

Helps with email services and communication with internal and external contacts

Everything is useful. The only useful thing Microsoft Exchange could do is give us more of a discount on pricing because it's so expensive. Regarding the calendaring functions of Exchange, there is a problem when scheduling an event for the whole day. When you click the whole day event, the scheduling doesn't really work. For example, if I schedule a meeting with you and block your whole day, instead of just putting a time from morning to afternoon, other people can still block your time, which results in double booking. It's kind of a bug that allows people to double-book. So, the scheduling isn't working properly yet. We also faced challenges with backup services. You need to use a third-party backup solution to back up the whole Exchange server properly. You can't use the native Windows backup services. It's like they're forcing me to buy another product, which means additional costs. The backup solution and the double booking issues. If Microsoft Exchange can fix these two things, then it will be very good.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use the tool for transactional emails and marketing."

"The most valuable thing is that emails sent through SES have a delivery rate of greater than ninety percent."

"Amazon WorkMail integrates with Route 53 and other AWS services, providing a seamless experience when using AWS infrastructure."

"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."

"The product is very user-friendly."

"There is no need for me to set up security."

"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 SES is very easy to configure."

More Amazon WorkMail pros

"The initial setup is very simple."

"The integration of Microsoft Exchange with other tools allows for seamless collaboration and increased productivity within teams."

"I like the logistics and the Microsoft protocol of reaching Outlook anywhere."

"The interface is user-friendly."

"On-premises Microsoft Exchange is good because it protects data privacy."

"It is easy to use and we can allow many users because now our users are scattered They over a wide area. We can use it from anywhere. That is the main benefit for us."

"Microsoft Exchange is comparable to the Outlook client. Both are Microsoft products, and most people are familiar with Outlook. This is why the best feature of Microsoft Exchange is the ease of use. It is more compatible with the client software, especially for Microsoft Outlook. There are a lot of features available that are required for businesses users."

"Microsoft Exchange is highly stable for the end-user systems. When we move to Office 365, it will be even more stable even. There's less administration required and it's very robust. We are really quite happy in using that."

More Microsoft Exchange pros

Cons

"Amazon WorkMail's user interface could be more intuitive and user-friendly."

"Email service is definitely a requirement from an enterprise standpoint. Many organizations have their own on-premise email services, which take a lot of memory, backup, and other resources. If we can have a completely managed backup solution where we have a tiered backup or a tiered archival to be able to retrieve emails, it would be great. I would like to be able to retrieve emails in real-time (hot retrieval), over the 90-days period (warm retrieval), and over the one-year period (cold retrieval). It would be useful to have tiered backup and retrieval. It would help us in managing emails better and have a better backup solution. So, backup is something that we require."

"When we first set up an email on Amazon SES, they had to verify it, which was not fast enough."

"WorkMail is not available in all the regions."

"The product should improve technical support."

"There is room for improvement in the support. It's just that customer support, though good, takes time to resolve issues."

"There is room for improvement in the scalability."

"The only issue is the price, which is far too expensive."

More Amazon WorkMail cons

"Microsoft needs to make some modifications to meet the current needs of the environment. For example, they need to add more cell service features because people work from home during the pandemic, and certain elements should be available as a mobile service."

"Exchange took time to be deployed. It requires extensive configuration and setting up servers and managing internal network access."

"The product or service could be improved in terms of Microsoft Outlook client compatibility."

"The solution should be easier to deploy."

"The solution could be more secure."

"Sometimes the client part generates some trouble. It can be very slow, though this might be related to our company's installation and configuration rather than the product itself."

"Microsoft Exchange could improve by being more secure. We are always looking to have more security."

"They could improve on the search function, it takes too much time."

More Microsoft Exchange cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's very cheap. The cheapest among all the services available."

"WorkMail does require a license, it is, per user."

"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."

"The pricing is expensive."

"The product is quite cheap."

"The solution is expensive to maintain because it requires frequent updates and ongoing server maintenance."

"There are different prices depending on the customer's use cases and amount of users. The price of the solution could improve."

"The price of Microsoft Exchange could improve. In Egypt, the price keeps increasing."

"Microsoft Exchange is an inexpensive application."

"We renew the product license with Microsoft every three years. The cost is included within a bundle of services. It's an enterprise agreement with Microsoft."

"There is an annual cost to use Microsoft Exchange, and the price could be less expensive."

More Microsoft Exchange pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

University

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

How does Zimbra Collaboration compare with Microsoft Exchange?

Zimbra is a free, open source collaborative software suite. The features I like best are the ease of integration and the email, calendar, and collaboration server with web interface. In addition, I...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange?

The initial setup was straightforward and fast.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Exchange?

Microsoft Exchange is costly, and its licensing model can be expensive over time as more users require licenses.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Workspace vs Amazon WorkMail

Compared 76% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs Amazon WorkMail

Compared 14% of the time

ProtonMail vs Amazon WorkMail

Compared 2% of the time

SendGrid vs Amazon WorkMail

Compared 2% of the time

MailChimp vs Amazon WorkMail

Compared 1% of the time

More Amazon WorkMail Competitors

Zimbra Collaboration vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 18% of the time

KerioConnect vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 17% of the time

Open-Xchange vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 16% of the time

HCL Domino vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 12% of the time

HCL Notes vs Microsoft Exchange

Compared 9% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon WorkMail

June 2025

Download Amazon WorkMail product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange

June 2025

Download Microsoft Exchange product report

Also Known As

Amazon SES

Exchange, MS Exchange

Overview

Amazon WorkMail is a secure, managed business email and calendar service with support for existing desktop and mobile email client applications. Amazon WorkMail gives users the ability to seamlessly access their email, contacts, and calendars using the client application of their choice, including Microsoft Outlook, native iOS and Android email applications, any client application supporting the IMAP protocol, or directly through a web browser. You can integrate Amazon WorkMail with your existing corporate directory, use email journaling to meet compliance requirements, and control both the keys that encrypt your data and the location in which your data is stored. You can also set up interoperability with Microsoft Exchange Server, and programmatically manage users, groups, and resources using the Amazon WorkMail SDK.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Built to deliver the enterprise-grade security and reliability that businesses require, Microsoft Exchange provides email, calendar and contacts on your PC, phone and web browser.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting

Buyer's Guide

Amazon WorkMail vs. Microsoft Exchange

June 2025

Free Report: Amazon WorkMail vs. Microsoft Exchange

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