Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Office 365 vs Symphony 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

Office 365
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
143
Ranking in other categories
Content Collaboration Platforms (2nd)
Symphony
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Social Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Office 365 is designed for Content Collaboration Platforms and holds a mindshare of 6.9%, up 5.9% compared to last year.
Symphony, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Social Software, holds 8.3% mindshare, up 5.5% since last year.
Content Collaboration Platforms
Enterprise Social Software
 

Featured Reviews

Gary Cook - PeerSpot reviewer
Access to advanced features boosts productivity despite pricing concerns in developing regions
I need to do maintenance for Office 365 very seldom, once a year. In the maintenance process for Office 365, we have about 12 people involved. For the maintenance side of Office 365, only one person is involved. Looking at Office 365's pricing, I would give it a 4 on a scale from 1 to 10. My overall rating for Office 365 is an 8 out of 10, but for the product itself, I would give it a 10. I would definitely recommend Office 365 to other businesses, probably a 9 out of 10 for recommendation. This is only because of its price and the fact that they do not take into account developing countries such as South Africa, where they should give us more favorable prices or local prices. We do not have a partnership with Microsoft, which is a sore point for us. We have reached out to Microsoft South Africa, and they are very hard to contact and largely uncooperative. We are a B-Level 2 and a B-Level 1, which are local affirmative action ratings that companies get. Level 1 is the highest, and Level 8 is the lowest. We hold amongst the highest BEE ratings, but we have not found Microsoft South Africa to be forthcoming or very open. We should have a partnership with them, and we run Power BI as we are a Power BI shop now. I strongly would want to see a box within Office 365 for our team to have ChatGPT through OpenAI as well. We use Excel as a data source for many tasks and find that it integrates really well with Python. We write a lot of Python code and use Excel as a data sheet many times, and we operate through SQL and other zero elements as well. From an Office 365 viewpoint, we find that with Copilot and Python and Excel's provision for Python, it is very useful.
Nenad Pejcic - PeerSpot reviewer
Makes tasks like network planning and performance monitoring much easier
I have experience with solutions from other vendors like Nokia, Huawei, and Tyson. The main pros of Symphony, in comparison, are the modules that provide a comprehensive overview and the automation features for planning data. These aspects are notably beneficial and stand out. On the downside, the major cons revolve around user customization. Unlike other vendors where you can create your reports and customize navigation, Symphony's user optimization in the SCAP module is limited. This lack of flexibility is a significant drawback, especially when compared to other solutions. Overall, while certain modules like those related to SolarWinds are straightforward and comparable, Symphony falls short in terms of user customization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"​Great impact on project management and team collaboration."
"OneNote is the feature I use the most. We also frequently use the Power Apps features."
"Many of the features in Office 365 are good, but I think Excel is a very good tool."
"I like all of the features."
"Reliable without any glitches."
"It is stable."
"Cloud-based management is valuable and software deployment is positive."
"The way the ERP presents information for the user is very good."
"The entire product is good."
"The solution is user-friendly, and it is very good security-wise."
"The overall functions are good."
"Symphony and Laravel are the most comfortable frameworks for any developer. It is also lightweight."
"I found the RAM Commander module in Symphony to be the most valuable."
 

Cons

"Integration with other platforms can be improved."
"Performance-wise, Office 365 needs a lot of bandwidth. The problem is, the solution requires very high bandwidth and internet usage. Meaning, the desktop application consumes a lot of internet data. Sometimes, when the connection is slow, it won't work and it won't load. This is an area for improvement for Office 365."
"I would like to see the macro functionality in Excel made simpler."
"It would be a fantastic opportunity if their solution could be used in combination with VoIP software, allowing you to combine VoIP software and Office 365 on a single platform."
"Integration between Outlook calendar and Google Calendar would be a good improvement since many of our team use Android phones and personal Gmail accounts as their main calendar application."
"It seems like every other week when we log into the administrative portals, it doesn't matter which one, it could be the active directory portal, it could be the exchange admin center or SharePoint admin center, it seems like Microsoft is consistently updating with new versions of the admin centers, which can be frustrating."
"I rate the support of Office 365 a four out of five."
"Office 365 could allow for smoother collaboration with other companies, which is the main reason we use it. The B2B connection is something we need, like global adverse lists between two tenants or multiple users. That's what we're missing at the moment."
"The solution needs to improve CI."
"Compared to established vendors, it lacks user flexibility and customization, especially in the PM module."
"To improve the situation, enhancing the functionality for integrating with other applications and addressing ticketing issues is crucial."
"The solution is very expensive, and its pricing could be improved."
"The area that needs to be improved is modular asset management. When we are uploading the assets in bulk, it is not aligned."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis, or we prepay them."
"​The pricing/licensing is easy to manage."
"The price of Office 365 is very expensive."
"I think that we pay $9.99 USD per user, monthly."
"The pricing is good for all the features that we receive, e.g., Skype for Business."
"Licensing, billing, and accounting are available from the management interface."
"We have a license to use this solution. We have an E3 license which covers many different solutions."
"Most of the time, we purchase Microsoft Exchange licenses, which are less expensive and provide only an email platform and 50 gigabytes of email storage for free."
"It is fairly an expensive product, but works for us."
"Symphony is expensive."
"It's a costly product, but the number of available features justifies it."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Content Collaboration Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
56%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
63%
Computer Software Company
5%
University
4%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Office 365?
For pricing, I think it's fairly priced, I would rate it 8.
What needs improvement with Office 365?
The areas of Office 365 that have room for improvement are what should be better in this solution.
What is your primary use case for Office 365?
A typical use case for Office 365 is how I primarily use this solution.
What do you like most about Symphony?
Symphony and Laravel are the most comfortable frameworks for any developer. It is also lightweight.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Microsoft Office 365, Office 365 Enterprise, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 F1
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Me & the Bees Lemonade
BNP Paribas, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Citi, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase
Find out what your peers are saying about Dropbox, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Content Collaboration Platforms. Updated: May 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.