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Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
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Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Check Point Anti-Spam and E...
Ranking in Email Security
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.8%, down from 20.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 9.4%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Jamie LeClair - PeerSpot reviewer
File-sharing options and ease of collaboration or meetings allow for quick collaborations and chats
I work in my company's IT department, so I use all of the products under Office 365 daily, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams, and all the other components in the product. My company can't make it through a day or go by without using the products offered under Office 365. Some of our manufacturing workers may use Office 365 a lot less, but it is still necessary for things like Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. I found Microsoft Teams to be the most valuable feature of the solution, along with all of the products and features offered under Office 365. My organization has remote workers, and we can't run the company without meetings organized with the help of Microsoft Teams.
Dushyant Trivedi - PeerSpot reviewer
Effectively secures data centers against various threats, including spam emails and provides policy-based control
It is a stable solution. We implemented the solution in HA. This is because the solution is highly available and can withstand hardware failures and software upgrades. Once the solution is implemented, there is no need for any further downtime for the Check Point server. Because once we change any policy, we can break the High Availability (HA) session and define the new policy on the Check Point Security Gateway (SGW) in isolation. This allows us to test the new policy without affecting the production traffic. Once the new policy is tested and active, we can then activate it on the HA pair and bring the HA session back up. This process ensures that we can make changes to the policy without any interruption to the user experience. It is a really stable solution. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
Kostas Karidas - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps prevent security breaches but fails to improve in the area of AI
I have not noticed any impressive advanced threat protection mechanisms in the tool. I don't know if there are any AI features in the product. I don't know if there is any other technology embedded in the solution. Cisco Secure Email successfully mitigated potential email threats. My company has seen plenty of scenarios where Cisco Secure Email successfully mitigated potential email threats, spam emails, and fraudulent domains. The product is good for dealing with spam emails, and it can take care of more than 100 spam emails per day. A huge number of spam emails are monitored with the help of Cisco Secure Email. I would not recommend the product to other businesses because you need to have some kind of expertise in configuring and knowing a bit about the tool's GUI. The tool also lacks in the area of AI mechanics. If I would like to have an overview and review another solution, I would go for another product other than Cisco Secure Email. I can definitely suggest others to look at the product and review it, but I would also recommend that they compare it with the other solutions in the market. I wouldn't prioritize Cisco Secure Email over other tools. Either the support partner of the product or I take care of the tool's maintenance phase by looking into the configurations and doing some fine-tuning. I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have."
"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."
"Defender helps us prioritize threats across our organization."
"It gives us visibility into threats and, for endpoints, it helps us to prioritize threats. We used to have a lack of visibility, but now our time to detect and respond has decreased."
"The initial setup was easy."
"Our customers are satisfied with Defender for 365 because Microsoft products are easy to use and customize to meet the client's needs. Everything is in one place, so we can adjust policies as needed for phishing, DLP, ATP, or any other security features that our clients want to apply."
"The product is not resource-intensive."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 facilitates efficient management and updates through the cloud. We do not have to worry about incompatibilities. It just works."
"One of the standout features of the product is a significant reduction in false positives, achieved through the implementation of artificial intelligence for detecting malware, phishing attempts, and spam emails."
"Since the engine is made to block by IP, domains, and reputation, we minimized the spam threats that end up in the user's mailbox."
"It refreshes the dynamic database regularly to ensure IP addresses that no longer misbehave are not blocked by mistake."
"By drastically reducing the volume of spam and unwanted emails, employees can focus more on their work rather than sorting through cluttered inboxes. This leads to improved productivity and efficiency within the organization."
"The policies and port blocking are the most valuable features. We have a significant amount of spam emails passing through our network."
"It has provided us with an easy way to avoid invasive mail."
"This solution helped us lock down and have our infrastructure easier to manage."
"Using Check Point has helped us to safeguard our environment and help to protect against spam, as well as other types of attacks against our network."
"It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware. I can only go by what people have told me and what I've seen, but I have not seen spam in a year and a half to two years in my own company mailbox. And there are not a lot of catches where it's catching something that should have gotten through, either."
"The added value of it is that every migration to a new version is initiated by the Cisco version itself, so that is a bunch of work that you don't have to do on the Cisco ESA system on-premise. As it becomes a safe platform, you don't need to invest anything in your own data center or in your upgrade path."
"The strong point of the solution is that we hardly get any spam emails because of Cisco Secure Email."
"There are a lot of filters for scam emails and things like that work out of the box. You can also use the antivirus features. I like its features."
"It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes."
"There were detailed logs available. That was a seriously good feature... It turns out these were actually spoof emails that came into our environment. I got to know about them from the log system."
"Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services."
"It's a bit easy to handle Cisco Secure Email; it's not that difficult. For the logs, which are in PDF format, it's not hard to read them. We don't need Wireshark much to analyze the logs."
 

Cons

"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails."
"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"About eight months ago, we started to measure the quantity of phishing and spam that we have been receiving, and it has been increasing a lot. That means that protection for our email is not as good as we were expecting."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"There needs to be an improvement in integrating the product to work across multiple operating systems, and to have better support for non-Microsoft file types."
"One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get a lot of information on integrations with such apps for security and authentication."
"The anti-spam features could be upgraded to be able to detect unnoticeable spam."
"The support language is only English."
"One thing which annoys me with the Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade is its customer support portal which still lags in service even after so many developments."
"The solution could be improved by reducing false positives."
"Mobile solutions should be added to Check Point because business email is also used by users on mobile devices."
"A possible improvement for the solution would be to be able to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to improve the accuracy of detecting spam and malicious emails that are constantly arriving."
"The technical team could improve services by ensuring when there are changes they inform enterprise users of effective upgrades."
"The high-end protection of email servers from any advanced foreign agents and malware is not 100% there currently."
"I have some frustrations with the user experience in the interface, specifically with regard to making a list of people for whom I want to allow email access."
"The reporting functionality needs to be improved."
"The discontinuation of physical hardware solutions is a significant area for improvement in Cisco Email Security Appliance. This decision has posed challenges as virtual appliances are now the only option, which may not be suitable for all industries. The uncertainty regarding the future of the hardware aspect of the solution is a notable concern."
"The solution does not have a strong outbound service. It should also integrate DLP."
"There could be additional DLP functionality for it."
"The graphical user interface is not user-friendly like other vendors. I find it very difficult at times to find some options on the UI."
"The UI is definitely one area of improvement because it doesn't match other interfaces and the navigation can be a little clunky."
"I would like more functionality and how to use it for Level 2 type staff. The biggest issue is it needs to be easier to use and navigate."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a user-base subscription."
"The product is very expensive."
"For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."
"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"The cost is competitive with other security products on the market."
"For licensing, my company makes yearly payments, which is expensive."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
"Choosing the correct set of licenses is essential because, without the additional software blade licenses, the Check Point gateways are just a stateful firewall."
"I rate the pricing as an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"This is a simple system with a very low cost and basic functions, which surely is ideal for a small company."
"Reasonably priced solution."
"It is expensive. I would rate it 2 out of 10, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the cheapest."
"We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."
"It is a relatively expensive option compared to other alternatives."
"The pricing for the Cisco Email Security Appliance involves recurring costs for licenses based on the contracted time frame, such as one year, three years, or five years. Renewals are required after the license expires."
"Cisco Secure Email and the support are priced well. It's not cheap, but there are other solutions that offer less and cost so much. For example, Microsoft is more expensive than Cisco."
"In my previous organization, avoiding four instances of CryptoLocker within an estimated six month period is approximately $600,000 in lost time and effort. Our five year cost was about a million dollars, and the four outages that we had equated to 65 percent of that five year cost."
"It is an expensive product. I rate its pricing an eight or nine."
"It's adapted to the market. It's similar to other vendors. We at least don't have many problems regarding that because Cisco is adaptable on that side. When we present the solutions to the customers, we tend to achieve the goals that the customer has in terms of the budget for such implementations."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Security Firm
26%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft needs to broaden its global support presence by establishing teams of subject-matter experts in all regions.
What needs improvement with Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade?
The solution could be improved by reducing false positives, optimizing performance, improving the user interface, and...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade?
The primary use cases for Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade are anti-spam, anti-malware, anti-p...
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The licensing is expensive and a bit complex with the new approach Cisco has taken. It is considered more complicated...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The primary areas for improvement are the pricing and the complexity of deployment. The pricing is considered expensi...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
SF Police Credit Union (SFPCU)
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.