No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Cisco Secure Email vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Cisco Secure Email is valued for security and efficiency, though financial benefits are mixed and hard to quantify.
Sentiment score
5.0
Proofpoint Email Protection offers high ROI with reduced breaches and enhanced efficiency, significantly improving threat blocking and user satisfaction.
The ideal situation would be to have all these portals combined into one unified dashboard.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
After Proofpoint Email Protection, phishing has been completely eliminated, so it is working very efficiently.
Security Engineer at News Corp
Instead of individually logging into five portals, we can log into one and they all connect as if we had logged into all of them.
SOC at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email's superior customer service, marked by prompt, reliable support, is rated highly over competitors like Fortinet.
Sentiment score
7.2
Proofpoint Email Protection's customer service is praised for its effectiveness, responsiveness, and strong technical support, despite occasional delays.
Regarding my interaction with the technical support of Cisco Secure Email, it was zero downtime for the mail production.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Cisco's tech support can be hit or miss, depending on the engineer you get.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support is pretty decent, with a rating of eight out of ten.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
I am familiar with the granular policy control feature of Proofpoint Email Protection, and I find their support excellent for modifying those policies.
Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Even the engineers have been helpful, and if we open a case, they get back to us right away.
Information Security Analyst at a government with 11-50 employees
We always contact them if we need support, whether it's for setting up features or technical support, which is very responsive.
System Administrator at Tutt Bryant Group
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email provides flexible scalability and security enhancements, supporting large setups with positive user experiences and expansion options.
Sentiment score
7.4
Proofpoint Email Protection efficiently scales for businesses of all sizes, offering seamless integration and robust capacity handling in dynamic environments.
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
My thoughts on the scalability level of Cisco Secure Email is nine because of the delay in making a configuration and the slowness in the console.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Proofpoint is scalable for multi-site organizations with thousands of users.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
The solution provides a graphical representation and dashboard view showing how many threats are getting blocked on a daily and monthly basis.
Information Technology Team Lead at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Proofpoint Email Protection is considered to be highly scalable, designed for large enterprises, with a cloud-based architecture that offers an enormous number of options, including multi-organization support and high-volume email handling.
Senior Solution Delivery Lead Cybersecurity at International Olympic Committee – IOC
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Secure Email is valued for stability and reliability, with minimal issues and efficient operation, requiring minimal maintenance.
Sentiment score
8.3
Proofpoint Email Protection is praised for stability, reliability, and effective threat management, with some noting minor UI and server issues.
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
If Proofpoint Email Protection has an outage, we are either not receiving emails or not blocking the right threats.
Senior Security Engineer at Cloudflare
Regarding the stability and performance of Proofpoint Email Protection, I have not experienced any crashes, downtimes, or performance issues.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Proofpoint Email Protection is very stable and reliable, as it remains accessible at all times without issues, ensuring that data is available in real time.
Principal Consultant at Infosys
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure Email faces complex UI, integration issues, high costs, and lacks advanced features, affecting usability and scalability.
Proofpoint Email Protection needs a more intuitive interface, better detection, simplified integration, cost efficiency, and improved support.
The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated into the Email Security Gateway so customers don't have to buy two products for full email protection.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
The older legacy user interface just took a little to work with, and the new unified interface, as it was able to do more and more of the functionality of the old one, the product just got easier and easier to use.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
In addition to the UI improvements, I would appreciate an increase in the speed of the tasks being processed on the pod.
Security Specialist at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
There are pros and cons to that, but I would suggest maintaining a good balance between security protection and operational impact.
Senior Security Engineer at Cloudflare
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure Email is costly yet valued for features, with variable pricing based on factors like environment and user count.
Proofpoint Email Protection is costlier than competitors, but its superior security features justify the premium pricing for users.
Its cost is bundled with other Cisco products.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
The licensing is a mess and needs sorting out.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
Given my other experience with other vendors, I think they are a bit on the high end and a bit on the pricey end for the email security functionality that we were using.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Although it is a bit costly compared to Mimecast, Defender, and Cofense Vision, it is efficient and strong in security, so I do not mind the cost because I will not reduce my security risk.
Senior Solution Delivery Lead Cybersecurity at International Olympic Committee – IOC
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure Email offers advanced protection, integration, and user-friendly management, enhancing security against malware, spam, phishing, and ransomware.
Proofpoint Email Protection offers advanced threat detection, spam and phishing protection, and seamless integration to enhance security and productivity.
It also possesses multiple modules for spam detection, malware detection, and threat intelligence, which are valuable in categorizing emails and determining actions.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It is highly effective in catching phishing and spam emails.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
The integration of Cisco AMP for Advanced Malware Protection with Cisco Secure Email has helped our organization's security posture.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Without Proofpoint Email Protection, most of these emails would have come through, slipped through Exchange, gotten into the user's mailbox, and created a lot of trouble for the organization.
Cyber Security Engineer at IT Naturally
Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by ensuring we are not at risk of a breach through email.
Release lead at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
TAP alerts, where Proofpoint Email Protection scans emails and sends alerts, provide the ability to review suspicious emails and validate them in a sandbox environment.
Infrastructure Analyst at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (9th)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.4%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 6.3%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection6.3%
Cisco Secure Email4.4%
Other89.3%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

KS
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Email security has protected financial data and provides clear tracking for every branch message
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP and other content filters compared to other consoles. It may have been due to on-premises, but it was much noisy at some times while configuring DLP. When we tried to configure a DLP policy, the console became much slower. In that case, we cannot see what had happened in the mail which was blocked at that time. It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies. That is the major issue in the product.
Siva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at Infosys
Email defenses have reduced phishing incidents and protect sensitive data across our enterprise
As things are evolving and threats develop in unpredictable ways, Proofpoint must adopt AI solutions and agentic solutions more aggressively and provide them to customers as part of service offerings. Inbuilt AI solutions would add more value and make Proofpoint a more premium choice for customers. With the help of AI solutions, agentic AI, and generative AI capabilities, the product would be more efficient than it currently is. Filtering false positives is highly challenging because it is impossible for humans to identify which emails are genuine and which are spam. Proofpoint should focus more on this area with back-end agents or other tools. Proofpoint should decide which emails are genuine and which are spam so it is not a challenge for end users. When receiving an email, end users should not have to determine whether to respond or not. Proofpoint should not release such spam emails and should strictly block such spam and spoof emails based on connection IPs. Currently, false positives occur in the product, and while this occurs in every product, it is an area where Proofpoint can focus on improving and reducing false positives. One email is enough for an end user to be deceived and lose money, so addressing this area is critical.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
910,409 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Email?
We are using Cisco Secure Email to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail traffic in our financial institute. We have nearly 900 branches all over India. We have an on-premises mail server in which...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
The downside is I feel the vendor support is a little lacking and should be more responsive. The technical support is not up to the mark.
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
I am leading this security domain, and my L1 and L2s have been using Proofpoint Email Protection and other modules of Proofpoint Email Protection for more than three years.We are currently working ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
910,409 professionals have used our research since 2012.