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Microsoft Exchange vs ProtonMail 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 Email Applications
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Wireless Email (2nd), File Archiving (3rd)
ProtonMail
Ranking in Email Applications
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Email Applications category, the mindshare of Microsoft Exchange is 11.5%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ProtonMail is 6.4%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Applications
 

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.
AP
Trust and anonymity play a key role in secure communications
I am uncertain about the two-factor authentication feature. I have had integrations with other Proton services and have used Proton VPN once, though it has limited features. Simple Mail, which was acquired by ProtonMail, has been very useful for me. The pricing is moderate. I have not used any paid services from ProtonMail. It is not very costly, but I have not used any premium services. I am a customer of ProtonMail. I would rate ProtonMail an eight out of ten due to their transparency and the utility of their simple login feature. My job and company name should remain hidden.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The availability group settings are better, so it has inherent scalability. In 2010, they added several sensible rules."
"Exchange has helped us with encryption."
"The initial setup is quite a straightforward process. I don't think it is a very complicated solution. Plenty of things could be more complex, but the ordinary, general settings are quite simple."
"Exchange's interface is good. All of our engineers like it and are accustomed to using it."
"With the cloud coming in, scalability is not an issue even for Microsoft."
"Communication is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"It ensures high availability and resilience, allowing seamless recovery from potential failures and making it a reliable option for business-critical operations."
"It is stable."
"What I appreciate most about ProtonMail is that they are trusted, which is why I choose them."
"The auto encryption of attachments is valuable."
 

Cons

"The solution is stable, but it could improve. It's crashing if there is a big mail database. The Zimbra solution is better in this area."
"In terms of Microsoft Exchange, I think maybe what can be done is to make it more user-friendly."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"Microsoft could improve on Exchange's hybrid deployment or HCW. They need to improve on that because I was having many issues with HCW in our environment at times."
"In terms of what should be improved, they should probably move to a cloud option like Office 365. We would like to get this functionality without the need to deploy complex hardware and software solutions. This should be the next thing, making Exchange more related to Office products, which are more cloud-oriented, less on-premise or desktop-oriented solutions, like the direction Google is strongly moving towards."
"More AI features would be good."
"Microsoft Exchange could improve by adding artificial intelligence."
"Microsoft could make it easier to combine comments in the GUI. It isn't easy to do certain things in Exchange, primarily if the administrator isn't used to the command line, so I think the customer interface could be improved."
"One improvement could be the integration between ProtonMail and Proton Pass, allowing sharing of specific secrets via email."
"I think it is good but I feel that only tech-savvy people use ProtonMail. It is not that popular among other people."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate Microsoft Exchange a four out of ten for pricing because it is quite cheap, and many companies use the solution."
"There are different prices depending on the customer's use cases and amount of users. The price of the solution could improve."
"It would be nice if it used less resources to run on-premise."
"The price of Microsoft Exchange could improve. In Egypt, the price keeps increasing."
"The price of Microsoft Exchange is reasonable."
"The platform has a reasonable price."
"It is not expensive."
"It's working very well. There is no problem, but the price is not the best."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Educational Organization
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ProtonMail?
The pricing is competitive, offering good value on the average plan. It’s approximately $100 for annual billing.
What needs improvement with ProtonMail?
In terms of what can be improved in ProtonMail, I think it is good but I feel that only tech-savvy people use ProtonMail. It is not that popular among other people. Therefore, we do not use it for ...
What is your primary use case for ProtonMail?
My use cases include using ProtonMail for Drive occasionally for storing files. After some time, I stopped using that feature. Primarily, I use it for sending emails when I want to maintain anonymi...
 

Also Known As

Exchange, MS Exchange
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport, Scitec Nutrition, British Airways, InnoGames, Osteology Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, NTC Contracting
Wall street journal,The New york times, The Gurdian, Forbes, Fox News
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Exchange vs. ProtonMail and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.