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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 (16th), 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) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 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 2.9%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft 365 Business2.9%
Kiteworks2.7%
Other94.4%
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

"As a file-sharing application, it's an absolute 10 out of 10."
"We can see when people are sending things. We can definitely see who is sending to whom. From the administrative logs, we can see who is sending to an outside entity, and those logs are retained for quite a while."
"I can identify from which region our users are uploading or downloading files."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to allow end-users to manage their own information and data with minimal administration. That's the best feature from my perspective."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth."
"We could see whether the customer with whom we shared a file had downloaded it, which was not available with GitHub."
"Scalability is impressive."
"It’s a great product that you should seriously consider and take the first step by training."
"The return on investment is very high for companies whose work is based on communications."
"Microsoft offers many features; when one buys a Microsoft license, he pays for everything inclusively, including Windows, Office, databases, BI and other Microsoft solutions, and everything is visible."
"The solution so far has been excellent."
"Everything gets integrated. Different services that they provide are well integrated into the entire system, which is the biggest strength of Microsoft products. Everything works together. If I create a Microsoft Teams theme, I get a SharePoint site and planner. Everything, including permissions, is scoped, which is really nice."
"The flexibility of having a subscription for the Office software, rather than having any upfront costs is the best part of this solution."
"All of the individual features and components are good, although the one that I like best is Microsoft Teams."
"I like that there's no maintenance involved."
"The most valuable aspect is that it is on the cloud and we can access it from there, which allows us access from anywhere."
 

Cons

"We have experienced a few hiccups and bugs when using the admin console and from a user perspective."
"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."
"I would like to see immediate releases of fixes because now it takes at least a week. If that time span can be reduced to one day or two days, that would be very helpful for users so that things are sorted and transactions work smoothly."
"It could be more stable. In the next release, it would be better if it was more stable with improved performance."
"We have experienced some issues with stability due to bugs."
"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."
"There is one particular thing that is a nuisance."
"There is no offboarding process for end-users in Kiteworks. It's a manual process. There is no automated syncing with LDAP and checking to see if the account is still active. It's a manual process to get people out of here, which isn't the best way."
"The parts of the product that can be improved are the Forms and Flow features. They can be more intuitive and productive."
"For the end-user, it's always nice if the product is cheaper, especially for home use."
"I would like to see more integration options."
"Sometimes we feel that it is a little bit slow to connect to the public cloud."
"It would be better if they seamlessly integrated with Macs. Because I have two laptops, and whenever I open one file in Windows laptop, and then I open the same file in my Macbook, the user interface is not consistent. Certain functions can run on Windows, but another function cannot, but it runs on the Mac."
"They should have a consolidated app, rather than have different applications with a different app."
"It's a bit complex in itself when you get into items such as security or compliance."
"The tool is slow sometimes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Kiteworks is reasonable."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is very expensive because we are buying with Malaysian Ringgit and it's sold in US dollars."
"You need to purchase the license."
"The solution is expensive and the price could be lowered. For example, if I want to purchase a personal Office 365 subscription, they have pricing that does not have the flexibility to choose a wide range of storage sizes, you are limited to a lower amount. If you then switch to the Business version to receive the larger storage offering it is too large and expensive. If they would allow customers to choose the storage size on-demand it would be beneficial and a big improvement."
"Microsoft 365 Business could be cheaper."
"It is probably not cheap, but you can't really compare it with anything else."
"The cost of the subscription is fair."
"Currently, my office pays for it, but if you want to get a license of your own, it is a bit pricey. It should be cheaper."
"It's an expensive solution."
"It has a subscription-based model, so we need to procure as many licenses as required as part of an enterprise agreement. It is a little bit expensive. It is definitely a bit more expensive than other solutions that are on-premises. It is also expensive as compared to the cloud-based solutions from other companies. However, when we look at the ease of use of the product and the adoption by the users, its cost can definitely be considered as comparable to other products. The features that we get in this solution are not available in solutions from its competitors."
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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
18%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business115
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.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.