We compared Cisco Secure Email and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Cisco Secure Email offers advanced protection against phishing attacks, reputation-based filtering, and robust tracking functionalities. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stands out for its thorough email scanning, ease of use, and anti-phishing capabilities.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email should improve global malicious email defense, data loss prevention, and integration with third-party solutions. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can improve integration with non-Microsoft solutions and offer better documentation for its advanced security features.
Service and Support: Cisco support is generally considered knowledgeable and helpful, but a few users reported slow response times and difficulty navigating the support process. Microsoft customer service has received mixed feedback. While some customers find it responsive and prompt, others believe it could be more advanced and attentive.
Ease of Deployment: Cisco Secure Email is generally straightforward and seamless to set up. It provides a modular and adaptable environment, but new users may need training. The setup for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is generally considered effortless. Users appreciate its seamless integration with Office 365 and the minimal maintenance it requires.
Pricing: Opinions on the pricing of Cisco Secure Email are mixed. Some find it expensive but worth the investment, while others find it reasonably priced and competitive with other vendors. Some reviewers found Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to be reasonably priced, and others consider it expensive. Defender is typically sold in a bundle, so it’s challenging to compare the cost to other solutions.
ROI: Cisco Secure Email's return on investment is influenced by factors such as use case, organization size, and industry. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps users prevent ransomware and malware while enhancing email security and providing cost savings through its subscription-based service.
Comparison Results: Cisco Secure Email is highly regarded for its intelligence threat detection, reputation filtering, and robust tracking abilities. The solution’s areas for improvement include data loss prevention and third-party integration. Defender is praised for its thorough email scanning and integration into a single console. Defender users desire a more centralized interface and improved spam and malware detection.
"This solution provides some benefits, like comfortable access to TAC support. You get prompt support when working directly with Cisco."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services."
"It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes."
"I can customize the configuration and policies."
"It integrates with Active Directory and we can limit specific users to using specific applications."
"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 is a user-friendly product."
"Defender for 365 is a comprehensive cloud-based solution. The value of the cloud is that you aren't alone. Threat intelligence and analytics are shared in the cloud. We don't have to find the solution alone. If you face an unknown threat with traditional solutions like Trend Micro and Symantec, you need to open a case and send your information to them to analyze forensically and identify the source of the attack."
"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."
"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."
"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"The good part is that you don't have to configure it, which is very convenient."
"At the moment we are satisfied with this product. It's a stable, scalable, and resilient solution for us."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"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."
"The pricing needs to be reconsidered or enhanced."
"It is not user-friendly, and it is quite complicated. So, it should be more user-friendly."
"Cisco Email Secure's pricing needs to be less. We have vendors who provide cheaper solutions with the same features."
"The user interface is a bit complex."
"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."
"I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features."
"We have occasionally had hardware problems because we are using an appliance-based solution, but that might change. We may consider going to virtual systems."
"The GUI is sometimes slow to fetch the device report and could be improved."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"We are always looking for others tools to increase automation on tasks. There can be better integration with other solutions, such as PowerPoint and email."
"The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect."
"Microsoft wants its well-paying customers to finish testing some of its half-baked products, find bugs, and report bugs back to Microsoft's team, which is a little frustrating for those who have to manage it and roll it up to thousands of people across the organization."
"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."
More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 56 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is ranked 1st in Email Security with 41 reviews. Cisco Secure Email is rated 8.4, while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Email writes "Has effortless spam control, improves security posture, and frees up our IT department's time". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 writes "Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support". Cisco Secure Email is most compared with Trellix Collaboration Security, Fortinet FortiMail, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Proofpoint Email Protection and Trend Micro Email Security, whereas Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Barracuda Email Security Gateway and Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration. See our Cisco Secure Email vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 report.
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We monitor all Email Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.