Outlook 2013 vs. OWA 2013

I have had a few customers ask for a comparison table of the differences between Outlook (OL) 2013 and the Outlook Web App (OWA) 2013 experience. So here is a short, quick view into the comparison of OL vs. OWA.

Outlook vs. OWA 2013 Comparison Table

Feature	Feature Description	Outlook 2013	OWA 2013 (online mode)
AD Rights Management Services	Protects messages from unauthorized access.	Yes	Yes
Address Book Defaults	Allows a default address list (such as Contacts, GAL) to be chosen	Yes	Yes (Limited) No offline address book
Auto discover Compatibility	Automatic setup of Exchange account	Yes	N/A
Auto Archive	Automatically moves older items to a local PST	Yes	N/A
Calendar Preview in Meeting Requests	Meeting requests show a preview of adjacent or conflicting appointments	Yes	No
Conversation Actions	Ignore and Clean Up/Delete buttons	Yes	Yes
Conversation View	Improved Conversation Threading	Yes	Yes
Cross Forest Mailbox Move Support	Auto reconfigure using auto discover	Yes	Yes
CSV Contacts Import/Export	Import/ Export CSV files in a standard format	Yes	No
Distribution Group Management	Management of memberships of Exchange Distribution Groups	Yes	Yes
Distribution Group Expansion	Expand DGs before sending to see all members	Yes	No
Enhanced Out of Office	Set external/internal message and from/to date range	Yes	Yes
Export PST	Allow PST files to be created and data exported	Yes	No
Federated Sharing Compatibility	Integration to allow access to remote calendar, share local calendar	Yes	Yes
Group Schedule View	Combine Multiple Calendars in One View	Yes	Yes
Import PST	Allow PST files to be imported to the mailbox	Yes	No
Instant Search	Fast searching using pre-built search index	Yes	Yes
Integrated E-Mail Archive	Online Archive Access	Yes	Yes
Mailbox Delegation	Assign permissions to other users (also called delegates) to allow them to sign in to the user’s mailbox or send messages on behalf of the user	Yes	Limited - Full Access Only
MailTips	Server side mail tips for OOF, Large DG, permissions to send or comments	Yes	Yes
Multiple Exchange Accounts	Multiple accounts with different servers or domains	Yes	No
Offline Address Book	OAB access and download	Yes	No
Lync	Start conversations video, call IM	Yes	Yes (IM)
Outlook Contact Card Photo and Voice Description	GAL Photos and UM Name along with availability	Yes	Yes
Reply to embedded email messages	Ability for users to reply to email messages sent as attachments	Yes	No
Quick Actions	Macros to perform multiple or common actions at once	Yes	No
Quick View	Allows viewing of compatible attachments without leaving Outlook	Yes	Yes
Resend Message	Resend button allows you to resend an email	Yes	No
Retention and Archive Policy Management	Set and view retention policy for folders	Yes	Yes
Distribution list moderation	ability to moderate distribution lists	Yes	No
Right-Hand Preview Pane	Message preview shown to the right of messages	Yes	Yes
Roaming Autocomplete List	Stored Nicknames on the server	Yes	Yes
RSS Aggregator	Subscribe to RSS Feeds from Outlook	Yes	No
Scheduling Assistance / Availability Service Integration	Real time calendar view for meeting and room bookings	Yes	Yes
Server-side Junk E-mail List	Modification of server side junk email allow/block list	Yes	Yes
Server-side rules	Modification of server side inbox rules	Yes	Yes
Reading pane at the bottom of the window	Option to display the reading pane at the bottom of the Outlook	Yes	No
Unified Inbox	Combined view of Inbox across multiple email accounts.	No	N/A
S/MIME Support	Allows the possibility of sending and/or receiving email encrypted	Yes	No
Voting Buttons	Allows approval of moderated messages or voting on user generated emails.	Yes	No

 

OWA Offline Mode Limitations

As of Exchange 2013 and IE 10 or higher and other supported browsers, OWA does have ‘Offline’ capabilities. However, there are some limitations:

• Email from the last 3 days, up to 150 total items will be available offline.
• Your calendar will contain the previous month and the next year of appointments.
• Calendar reminders will exist for a limited period of time. If a computer is offline for a long period of time calendar reminders would no longer appear.
• Archives are online only, and as such do not exist offline.
• While contacts from your Exchange Server account are available offline, the auto-complete cache does not work.
• Searching and sorting may not fully function
• Attachments will not be available offline

Types of experience based on browser and Windows version

• Best: All OWA App features will work
• Good: Most features will work
• Light: The browser will display the light version of OWA.

Desktops and laptops: OWA features available by Windows operating system and browser combination:

Web browser	Windows XP and Windows Server 2003	Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008	Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
IE 7	Light	Not available	Not available	Not available
IE 8	Good	Good	Good	Not available
IE 9	Not available	Best	Best	Not available
IE 10	Not available	Not available	Best – plus offline access	Best – plus offline access
Chrome 24 or later	Good – plus offline access	Good – plus offline access	Best – plus offline access	Best – plus offline access
Firefox 17 or later	Good	Good	Best	Best
Safari 5 or later	Light	Light	Light	Light

 One major drawback is the fact that previous versions of OWA had a built-in spell checker. In Exchange 2013, OWA now relies on the web browser for spell checking, which IE prior to v10 does not provide.

See this page for additional information: https://officepreview.microsoft.com/en-us/support/supported-browsers-for-outlook-web-app-HA102824601.aspx

 

Differences between ‘Light’ and ‘Premium’ versions of OWA 2013

Feature	Light	Premium
Spelling checker	Not available	Available
Reading pane	Not available	Available
Accessibility for blind and low-vision users	Available	Not available
Notifications and Reminders	Not available	Available
Weekly calendar views	Not available	Available
Compose messages by using HTML	Only plain text is available in Outlook Web Access Light	Available
Calendar options	Limited to the following features: Show week numbers Set the first day of the week Select days of the week Set day start and end times	Available
Arrange By	Limited to a subset of choices, depending on the folder type	Available
Right-click menu	Not available	Available
Drag-and-drop	Not available	Available
Resource mailbox management	Not available	Available
Voice mail options	Not available	Available
Favorites	Not available	Available
OCS integration	Not available	Available
Public folders	Not available	Available
Share a calendar	Not available	Available
Open a shared calendar	Not available	Available
Monthly calendar views	Not available	Available
Conversation view	Not available	Available
Scroll between pages	Available	Not available
Retention Policies	Not available	Available
Users can create and edit personal distribution lists	Not available	Available
Users can create and edit server-side rules	Not available	Available
RMS protection	Not available	Available
RBAC - Change user settings	Not available	Available
RBAC - Administrator settings	Not available	Available
Web-ready document viewing	Not available	Available
Nickname cache	Not available	Available
Message tracking	Not available	Available
Advanced search	Not available	Available
MailTips	Not available	Available
Exchange control panel	Not available	Available
Attach message to a message	Not available	Available

 

I hope this helps by consolidating some of the information out there on the internet into one listed table.  

 

Mike

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Yes, Exchange 2013 is part of the Wave 15 applications.

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2013
  Mike, Can I assume you used Wave 15 of OWA for this analysis?

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 24, 2013
  Hello, Good = Most features will work. OK...But what means "most features will work"? What are the missing features? Thx

• Anonymous
  October 25, 2014
  Today’s (Cloud) Tip…Outlook Web Access (OWA) vs. Outlook Some customers will use OWA while others will

• Anonymous
  January 27, 2017
  Do you intend to update this for Outlook 2016?

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2017
    Unfortunately I have no plans at this time. Thank you for the interest. Maybe I can tinker with it.

• Anonymous
  February 22, 2017
  I am really happy to glance at this web site posts which includes plenty of valuable facts, thanks for providing such data.

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2017
    You are welcome. Hopefully I can get more posts going once again.

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2017
  This design is wicked! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost...HaHa!) Wonderful job.I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.Too cool!

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2017
    Thank you for the feedback.

• Anonymous
  April 10, 2017
  Under Tools, this page is titled as "Compare Outline Online and Outlook 2013/2016" yet all the references only mention Outlook 2013 and OWA 2013. Where is the comparison to Outlook 2016?

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2017
    Hmm...I'm not seeing that reference. There isn't supposed to be any references to 2016 as this was published before 2016 was available. And unfortunately, I don't have a comparison for 2016 versions.

• Anonymous
  April 28, 2017
  I loved this article. I look aat your posts fairly often and you are reguarly writing some interesting stuff.I shared this on Twitter and my audience loved it.

  • Anonymous
    May 04, 2017
    Thank you for the feedback.

• Anonymous
  January 28, 2018
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  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2018
    I've been asked for an updated version, however, now that Click to Run and O365 is being updated so quickly, it's very difficult to keep up with all of the changes.