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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

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

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Sponsored
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
11th
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 January 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.4%, down from 21.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 8.1%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
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

"The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple."
"There are several features that I consider valuable."
"The deployment capability is a great feature."
"The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning."
"The basic features are okay and I'm satisfied with the Defender."
"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."
"Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features."
"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 functionality is better."
"I like the flexible configuration set, e.g. both the content-based and the IP reputation anti-spam are supported, but you may choose to disable the mechanism you don't like."
"It has provided us with an easy way to avoid invasive mail."
"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."
"This solution is very efficient."
"A scalable, stable solution with good technical support."
"It helped us to achieve process compliance with over 90% effectiveness."
"Cisco Secure Email is part of Cisco's extensive efforts and investments in technology, especially in the realm of cyber security. The product is one among many security solutions offered by Cisco."
"The most valuable features are Advanced Malware Protection, URL filtering, and of course Reputation Filtering."
"The malicious URL scanning, as well as the anti-malware features, have been really useful for us in our environment."
"It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. It has ensured we don't have business email compromises, and it has also ensured that our brand Galaxy is unique all year round."
"The most valuable features are protection against ransomware and spam."
"The solution is very configurable. It has enabled us to configure some specific filters to stop emails that general configurations didn't stop. It's a powerful solution. It can analyze a lot of emails simultaneously, with no problems of capacity or system load."
"I can customize the configuration and policies."
"It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure."
 

Cons

"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"They have moved features from one console to another. Things have been moved around in the interface and it takes me time to find where certain features are."
"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."
"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."
"Configuration requires going to a lot of places rather than just accessing one tab."
"In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities."
"I would like this solution to be more integrated into other applications that Check Point has so that it could be managed quickly and safely from the Infinity Portal."
"While we often take advantage of Check Point's cloud part, including Infinity or Harmony, I would like to see products that directly deal with mobile or native environments or other operating systems that we have within the organization."
"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."
"User experience can be improved."
"There's definitely room for improvement when it comes to adapting to different languages in one environment."
"They should upgrade support services and make a more user-friendly database."
"The cost is high when putting through Check Point Blade in your Gateway."
"AI-based threat detection could be enhanced to improve security."
"Better dashboards and more interactive overviews would be nice, but the current functionality is sufficient."
"It would be nice to have an easier way to check on the health of the system, how stressed these appliances are. Sure, you can do it, but it would be helpful to have an easier way to do it, maybe even at a glance."
"There are some concerns in the way the architecture is set up, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The initial setup was complex because I have two sites with physical clusters."
"Scalability has certain shortcomings and needs to be improved because there are service providers who provide better scalability.v"
"The Forged Email Detection feature needs improvement, particularly with domain. The sensors are not that good and the rules sets are unclear."
"If you are not a technical guy, it is hard to maneuver, but as soon as you work on it, it gets better and better. If there was a better way to know how to do things or how to find things, it would be good."
"I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a user-base subscription."
"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."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"The product is very expensive."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"I rate the pricing as an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"For licensing, my company makes yearly payments, which is expensive."
"This is a simple system with a very low cost and basic functions, which surely is ideal for a small company."
"The cost is competitive with other security products on the market."
"Reasonably priced solution."
"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."
"You're going to get what you pay for. If you're not willing to pay the price of Cisco, you're not going to get a product that's as good as Cisco. I don't think Cisco is overpriced, because for the last two years I've been comparing it to Microsoft and Cisco has been cheaper and given us more features."
"Cisco Secure Email is not expensive, and licensing costs are yearly."
"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."
"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."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."
"Pricing depends on your environment and which model you want to buy."
"It is a super big router that costs a few hundred thousand dollars."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Security Firm
28%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
6%
Educational Organization
27%
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?
I don't have detailed specifics on pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost.
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: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.