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Microsoft Exchange vs Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Microsoft Exchange
Ranking in File Archiving
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Email Applications (3rd), Wireless Email (1st)
Proofpoint Intelligent Com...
Ranking in File Archiving
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (5th), eDiscovery (9th), Compliance Management (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the File Archiving category, the mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 6.8%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform is 2.8%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
File Archiving
 

Featured Reviews

Harry Murdani - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Anita Brüggemann - PeerSpot reviewer
Effectively reduces spam and malicious emails with reliable detection capabilities
It would be helpful to make it easier for end users to filter and see items in the quarantine within the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform. As an admin, I believe it would be sensible if end users could also see the quarantine folder in the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform so they can create their own rules. The reports are all predefined, and I cannot create custom reports, so I am not fully satisfied with their visibility. I would appreciate the ability to generate my own reports.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very well integrated with other Microsoft programs, teams, and so on. They work well together."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Exchange is the collaboration tools."
"The most valuable features are that you can exchange information, tasks, attachments, and enhance the process in a short amount of time."
"Exchange's interface is good. All of our engineers like it and are accustomed to using it."
"It is a very stable tool...It is a very scalable tool."
"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."
"Our experience with the platform has been positive as it has maintained consistent control over spam and malware threats."
 

Cons

"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"In our current situation, the disappearance of sanctions would be a tangible improvement. We are basically cut off from technical support and it's very difficult to obtain any updates."
"Its search functionality can be better. It is currently not really easy. It has the capability to search your mailbox, but it has some restrictions in terms of the number of results that you can retrieve. You can only get around 250 results. If you want to do a deeper search, you need to use different functionalities of the product. The policy that we have for handling emails is that we do not delete emails at all. If I insert the text that I am searching for in the Search field, it only retrieves a limited number of emails. To search for an email from 2010, I need to use different search functions to find what I am looking for. Microsoft can also improve its licensing for its products. Microsoft's licensing is not very easy to understand. It can sometimes be really complex to understand what you need to have in order to comply with Microsoft licensing."
"We would prefer to be able to manage the solution on the cloud."
"We are not able to use Microsoft Teams due to connection issues. Thus, the product integration with Teams could be improved."
"The setup is difficult so could be easier."
"Some users encounter stability issues. I connect with the support team through my local partner, which takes time."
"There are limitations in terms of the number of emails that can be sent in a minute, which makes it a little difficult for the marketing folks."
"The Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform does not provide features that help reduce manual efforts, so additional human resources are still required to manage security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Exchange itself does not require a license, but users who will have mailboxes will require a license. It depends on the number of users to choose which license. If you exceed 2,000 mailboxes, it's preferable to get the enterprise license."
"There is an annual cost to use Microsoft Exchange, and the price could be less expensive."
"It's a little bit expensive."
"Microsoft Exchange is an inexpensive application."
"Licensing fees are paid monthly."
"It is not expensive."
"Since my company is on Microsoft Cloud, we pay for the licenses per user. Compared to volume licensing, I would say the present licensing cost is not expensive."
"We are currently using enterprise licenses for the solution. They are different pricing models available. There are individual, cloud-based, and enterprise licenses all with different pricing models. The larger the number of users, the lesser the price. For small to medium companies like us, we feel it is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange?
The initial setup was straightforward and fast.
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.
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform?
It would be helpful to make it easier for end users to filter and see items in the quarantine within the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform. As an admin, I believe it would be sensible if e...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform?
We use the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform because it has a good ability to detect viruses and malicious emails, and it collects a lot of spam emails. Since we use this platform, the spa...
What advice do you have for others considering Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform?
It is a cloud-based deployment of the Proofpoint Intelligent Compliance Platform. We worked with an internet provider, who is also a security provider, and it took one day to deploy it on the cloud...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Exchange, MS Exchange
Proofpoint e-discovery and Analytics, Proofpoint Enterprise Archive
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
Find out what your peers are saying about Commvault, Veritas, Microsoft and others in File Archiving. Updated: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.