To understand the difference between outlook and exchange it is important to first know the difference between a email client and mail server.
What is a mail server?
A mail server is system that stores and manages your send and received mails over a network.We can assume a mail server as postman who collects all the mails and deliver them to their designated location.A mail server user standard IMAP and POP3 protocols to send and receive messages.
List of Mail Server
Mail servers falls in two categories
- Outgoing-Outgoing mail servers are know as SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
- Incoming-Incoming mail servers are of two type
a) POP3– Post office protocol servers.They store send and receive mail on pc’s local drive.
b) IMAP-Internet Message Access Protocol.They store send and receive mail on server.
Some SMTP Mail Servers
1) Agorum Core.
2) Apache James.
3) IBM Lotus Domino.
4) Sendmail
Some POP/IMAP Servers
1) Agorum Core.
2) Apache James.
3) IBM Lotus Domino
4) Bongo
What is a mail client?
A mail client can be defined as an application that enables configuring one or more email addresses to receive,read,compose and send emails from that email address.Email client provides a central interface to send,receive or compose email at one place.Email client is also know as email reader.
What is microsoft outlook?
Microsoft Outlook is a Email Client used to send and receive electronic messages over a network using standard email protocols and is more than just email clients.It is a desktop email client which is a part microsoft office suite of softwares and programs which allows you to manage your emails,contacts,calendar,address book, tasks,appointments etc.
List of some of the popular mail clients
though there are n numbers of mail clients out there but some of the popular mail clients are:
1) Microsoft Outlook
2) Apple Mail
3) Mozilla Thunderbird
4) Inbox by Gmail
5) Mailbird
What is microsoft Exchange?
Microsoft Exchange Server is microsoft’s email, calendaring, contact, scheduling and collaboration platform that runs on windows server operating system.To put simply it is a software that runs on server and manage all your mails.Over the period of time exchange server has evolved and is now a part of office 365 as software as service(SAAS)offering in the microsoft cloud.
conclusion
Although both the application work together some the key differences are
1) Microsoft Outlook acts as a front end to manage mails,contact,addresses etc where as Exchange server acts as backend for the same.
2) Outlook is mail client where as Microsoft Exchange is a server.