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IT Coordinator at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Real User
Integrates with anything and on-premises availability helps avoid extra charges
Pros and Cons
  • "It's pretty easy to manage."
  • "It is costly, so it depends on how much you want to pay."

What is our primary use case?

It is to run our mail server.

What is most valuable?

It's really just been the same for a decade now. I don't think they've really updated anything in a long time.

I like that we can still use it on-premise. Then, we don't have to pay the extra subscription fees for the cloud.

It integrates with anything really, to be honest, besides other Microsoft products.

There are AI-based features, but we don't use it.

What needs improvement?

We don't use Exchange for a lot of stuff, so there's not a lot to improve.

The interface could look a little more nicer, but other than that, it's fine. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for more than ten years. 

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't had to scale it at all. We've been running about the same amount of people for a long time.

It is used by around 100 end users. Just one person is required to maintain it for a hundred users, so we outsource that to an MSP.

They're helpful and easy to deal with.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We bought it years ago.  

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Microsoft Exchange to others because it's pretty easy to manage. However, it is costly, so it depends on how much you want to pay.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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MohamedAbdallah - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Section of Projects Development at CAPMAS
Real User
Good functionality, good integration, and helps make email very accessible
Pros and Cons
  • "The exchange functionalities are good."
  • "I'd like the archiving process to be faster."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for email and passing on information between the company's user base.

What is most valuable?

The exchange functionalities are good. It helps ensure information is accessible and can move between people in the company. The exchange of email is very easy.

The integration is very good.

The Microsoft visuals are very helpful. 

We're able to work on SQL servers with no issues. 

What needs improvement?

I can't say there are any missing features. 

I'd like the archiving process to be faster. 

They could offer better performance and enhancements throughout the product. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Microsoft for 15 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. I'd rate the overall stability eight out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable product. A company would have no issues if it needed to expand. 

The solution is mainly used by all end-users. Everyone in the company has it. That's about 1,500 users.

How are customer service and support?

I have never reached out to technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have never worked with other similar products. 

How was the initial setup?

Others work on the deployment and configuration process. I did not take part in the implementation process. 

I have five colleagues that handle all aspects of Microsoft maintenance, including any needed maintenance for Exchange. One is an admin on Exchange. The others handle other Microsoft products.

What other advice do I have?

I am using the latest version of the solution. 

I'm an end-user. As an end-user, the solution works well to the point I don't really know it's there. My company is a Microsoft customer. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Exchange
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Exchange. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.
CJ Aulisa - PeerSpot reviewer
Contact Center Consultant at okiBoe Group
Real User
Top 20
Pleasant desktop interface, great support, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "I find the desktop version of Microsoft Exchange looks better than the online version. You can make it a white background. You might be able to make the online background white, but I have no idea how to do that. I know how to do it only on the desktop version"
  • "The desktop version of Microsoft Exchange receives emails a little slower than the online version."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Microsoft Exchange for emails. For example, here's my email address, call me, or email me and I'll email you. I don't use it for any marketing emails.

What is most valuable?

I find the desktop version of Microsoft Exchange looks better than the online version. You can make it a white background. You might be able to make the online background white, but I have no idea how to do that. I know how to do it only on the desktop version

What needs improvement?

The desktop version of Microsoft Exchange receives emails a little slower than the online version. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Microsoft Exchange within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't run into any scalability problems. However, I've run into several large multinational companies that I know do run into issues, and they have to merge two separate something together.

How are customer service and support?

Microsoft support is very good. I did recently have an issue the other day.  The solution was asking me for my password, and I put it in and it didn't recognize it, and I was getting really frustrated. I called Microsoft support, spoke to a person, they had me download a tool,- for data checking, and it fixed it. Whatever it did, it fixed the problem. I had a good experience. 

They are responsive and helpful, if you're only one user and not their biggest customer, they still give you good support.

How was the initial setup?

I have implemented the solution for my system and it is easy. I have not done so for a company. I just download it and run it, that is all.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have Outlook 365 Professional, and Exchange comes in the bundle with other solutions, such as Word and OneDrive. I pay for the use of the bundle monthly and I can imagine if you are a company with many licenses the pricing model would be a lot different.

What other advice do I have?

I do not see Microsoft having any competition in the market. They appear to be dominating.

I rate Microsoft Exchange a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Partner Account Manager at Siav
Real User
Top 10
Facilitates agenda sharing, and integrates very well with Dynamics
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to share information, appointments, and agendas easily is the big value of Microsoft Exchange."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I use Microsoft Exchange for mailing, managing agendas, sharing contacts, and accessing the company directory. It integrates with Dynamics and project management tools to facilitate sharing information, appointments, and agendas.

What is most valuable?

The ability to share information, appointments, and agendas easily is the big value of Microsoft Exchange. It facilitates agenda sharing, and integrates very well with Dynamics, allowing seamless sharing of contacts and company directories. 

As a user, I find it easy to use, with digital signature and certificates being straightforward. It also automatically updates, which is very convenient.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Exchange for ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From my perspective, as a user, it is stable and reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In the past, when I was a technician, we experienced scalability problems with older products, however, I don't think today's products have that kind of problem.

How are customer service and support?

I don't have direct access to Microsoft support. We have internal IT support that provides assistance.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

At my previous company, we used Exchange as well.

How was the initial setup?

I found Exchange already installed on my PC. It's a simple link, and I got access through the web.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We use GitHub and various other tools, however, primarily Exchange.

What other advice do I have?

I'm quite satisfied with the solution and the automation it offers. It is easy for me to understand and is quite stable.

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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CTO at Numo Capital Holdings
Real User
A highly scalable solution that offers multiple functionalities to its users
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very stable tool...It is a very scalable tool."
  • "In terms of Microsoft Exchange, I think maybe what can be done is to make it more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution in our company for emails, calendars, requests, and tasks.

What is most valuable?

The exchange of emails is its most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

I'm a user for the time being. I'm not an administrator who is managing the server. I was an administrator fifteen years ago. But today, I'm just a simple user using the solution for emails.

We had an antivirus like Sophos to secure our network. In terms of Microsoft Exchange, I think maybe what can be done is to make it more user-friendly. Also, Microsoft should make it more like a web version.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Exchange for a very long time. Currently, we are on the cloud version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a very stable tool.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a very scalable tool. In my last company, the solution had more than five thousand users. Now, thirty users use the solution. Considering the upcoming year, there are no plans to increase its usage.

How are customer service and support?

I am not seeking any help from technical support because we speak with our own technical staff.

How was the initial setup?

As a user, we don't get involved in the setup process. We need to connect it using the email address. It takes a minute to deploy it. I can do the deployment by myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend others planning to use the solution to use it. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1598538 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Technology at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Integrates well, easy to use, but stability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft Exchange is a powerful solution. It can easily integrate with Active Directory and other business applications. It does not require any training, it is flexible and simple to use. When comparing Microsoft Exchange to other solutions, such as Lotus Note, it is more straightforward for business."
  • "From a reliability perspective, they need to improve the search engine, it is not very powerful."

What is our primary use case?

We use Microsoft Exchange on a daily basis for our business. However, we are moving to Office 365, which means that this will be available on the cloud. This is also a part of the Microsoft enterprise agreement. We receive a lot of other support applications along with Exchange. For example, Teams is included and integrates seamlessly, and we can do many functions, such as schedule meetings.

How has it helped my organization?

We use Microsoft Exchange on a daily basis and it helping our business, we are able to integrate easily with many of our business applications.

What is most valuable?

Microsoft Exchange is a powerful solution. It can easily integrate with Active Directory and other business applications. It does not require any training, it is flexible and simple to use. When comparing Microsoft Exchange to other solutions, such as Lotus Note, it is more straightforward for business. 

What needs improvement?

From a reliability perspective, they need to improve the search engine, it is not very powerful.

The security is not the best, it is not able to filter some of the spam and malware emails that pass through no matter what security protocols that we have set. Recently we had two incidents where we had to stop the business for one day. I am not sure if it is a problem with our implementation, or is it a problem with something else. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Microsoft Exchange for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There are some difficulties with the Microsoft Exchange application. For example, it sometimes gets frozen and we have not determined the cause. When frozen we need to close it, and then again open it again. It takes a while to reload the application if the volume is high and when I have many emails. They need to improve on stability.

Many solutions have bugs and glitches and I do not think Microsoft can help it, it is a huge package and there are updates frequently. However, if one was to implement all the standard policies the bugs would be fewer. If I do not implement a certain standard Microsoft Exchange policy, then it should stop me. It should not allow me to do certain operations that would put me at risk. There should be fewer manual controls to prevent improper configuration.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. We have approximately 300 users using the solution and there are some companies that have 10,000 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

The support for Microsoft is very good.

How was the initial setup?

The installation process was straightforward. There were not that many difficulties.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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. Typically, the larger the number of users, the lesser the price. For small to medium companies like us, we feel it is expensive. However, for a large company, where they have thousands of employees the cost is distributed. We do not receive this kind of benefit because of the small company size. They should provide more discounts for the small companies because we do not complain or create too many problems for Microsoft.

For large companies that have 10,000 employees, the problems are huge and different. They use a lot of Microsoft support. Small companies that have less than 300 people should get a discount, we do not qualify for their volume discount that starts at 500 people. They should not put these kinds of restrictions on giving discounts. I expect Microsoft to come up with some different options for small to mid companies in the future.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have evaluated Microsoft Office 365.

What other advice do I have?

Overall when taking into account implementation, user experience, the flexibility of the solution it has always been very good. There are more benefits than drawbacks.

I rate Microsoft Exchange a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1030338 - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at a security firm with 1-10 employees
Real User
A reliable tool for archiving and organizing a large database
Pros and Cons
  • "Now, we manage to serve almost 99% of the information."
  • "When we started using Exchange on the cloud, we had a lot of initial problems relating to our main database and we also experienced issues with the accidental deletion of inboxes, amongst other things. In fact, many of the files we had moved to the cloud had disappeared. There also seems to be a problem with the retention of information."

What is our primary use case?

We mostly used Exchange for sending emails and for document management. We also used Exchange to get information from a user's profile but we didn't use Exchange for filing.

    What is most valuable?

    Personally, I'd say Outlook is a good feature. We used it for scheduling appointments, for storage and archiving, so we could easily find old mail and documents, even ECF documents. A lot of people like using Outlook as a personal archive. 

    What needs improvement?

    When we started using Exchange on the cloud, we had a lot of initial problems relating to our main database and we also experienced issues with the accidental deletion of inboxes, amongst other things. In fact, many of the files we had moved to the cloud had disappeared. There also seems to be a problem with the retention of information. For example, if you delete something, you may have a problem restoring the entirety of the inbox, so if somebody leaves and you want to backup your data, you need to download it to your local servers. This is a big area for improvement. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Currently, we are using Office 365, but we used Exchange for more than 20 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    As I mentioned earlier, we have a very big database which can lead to some problems. Due to the algorithm, we tend to experience a lot of issues restoring and fixing problems. For example, we would have to retrieve all of the mail from our database and load it into a new database. We only had that problem in the beginning because of the algorithm, not because of Exchange. Now, we manage to serve almost 99% of the information. 

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We get our support through a third party. We have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsft but we don't receive customer service directly from them. Our third party company receives support from Microsoft, and when we have a problem, we deal with them; however, I've only used them once or twice. Other than that, my own systems engineer solves our problems.

     As we had more than 40 users, we had four or five people who handled maintenance.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was complex. When we set up Exchange on one server, it was very simple. Keep in mind, you need to be an expert to install the Exchange server because of all of the connections, the TLS-ing, connecting to the internet and ISP; it just wasn't simple at all. 

    Microsoft may tell you that deployment is as easy as " a click of the mouse", but this is not the case. 

    If done at the same time, deployment takes roughly five hours. After that, if we are migrating from an older version of Exchange to a newer version, it takes a very long time. In other words, migration takes much, much longer than the initial installation, which takes roughly four to five hours. When it's working, it's very stable; however, this was not the case 15 years ago, but in the last 10 years, it's been okay. When we experience a problem, it is strictly due to the algorithm. 

    What other advice do I have?

    It depends on what the user's needs are. A lot of people can now use Gmail or they can use Exchange on Office 365 with a license, there are a lot more options available nowadays. If you're thinking about installing Exchange on-premise, on behalf of a client, a lot of people have now moved to the cloud, to Azure or something similar. If a client asked me to purchase a 365 license, including the Exchange server, I might decline. If they want to hold meetings or something similar, I'd suggest that they use a professional service like Gmail for businesses. It's a much cheaper option because a lot of people that work with Microsoft office end up buying one or two 365 licenses which include Exchange, so they use it. 

    Because I have a lot of experience using Exchange, I would rate it between eight and nine out of ten. It's not a perfect ten, but for our purposes, it was perfect.  

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    Zülfikar Erdem - PeerSpot reviewer
    IT Support Specialist at Wagner Kablo A.S.
    Real User
    Top 20
    Easy-to-install platform with valuable collaboration features
    Pros and Cons
    • "The technical support services are good."
    • "The platform could be more user-friendly."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use the platform to facilitate email traffic, file transfer, security services, and rule policies.

    What is most valuable?

    Microsoft Exchange is a user-friendly product with efficient features for mail services and DNS registration.

    What needs improvement?

    The platform could be more user-friendly.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We have been using Microsoft Exchange for three years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The service is stable. I rate the stability a nine out of ten.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have 132 Microsoft Exchange users in our organization. It has a good scalability.

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support services are good. The team answers the tickets immediately.

    How was the initial setup?

    The product is easy to install and deploy. The development steps included creating DNS records, followed by synchronizing with the Active Directory and facilitating user logins.

    What about the implementation team?

    We implemented the platform with the help of our in-house team.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    Microsoft Exchange is an inexpensive application.

    What other advice do I have?

    The product, Microsoft Exchange, has significantly impacted our team's collaboration by utilizing hybrid directory functionality. We can integrate it with Teams, Calendar, and SharePoint providing simultaneous access for the users. It has effective calendar functionality improving scheduling efficiency. It offers various security-level templates, allowing administrators to tailor security policies based on specific organizational needs.

    It is a stable service. It has a knowledgeable technical support team as well. I rate it a nine out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Exchange Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: April 2025
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Microsoft Exchange Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.