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Cisco Secure Email vs SonicWall Email Security comparison

 

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

Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (6th)
SonicWall Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
30th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 5.2%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Email Security is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Secure Email5.2%
SonicWall Email Security0.6%
Other94.2%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

BD
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
Threat intelligence with fast attack detection enables comprehensive email protection
In some cases, detection is missed, leading to false positives where genuine emails are flagged as spam. This could result in users not opening genuine emails. We have highlighted this to Cisco because sometimes phishing or marketing campaigns, which are genuine, are incorrectly flagged as spam. The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
Swapnil Kulkarni - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at Ador Powertron Ltd.
Has consistently supported security needs for mid-sized teams with affordable deployment
I do not work with Cloud Secure Edge, CSE, or SMA apart from SonicWall NSA. I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security. The customizable policy configuration does not help to tailor email security overall because our systems are not integrated with SonicWall Email Security. We are not using reporting and analytics because it requires completely different software. While all required features are available in SonicWall Email Security for SMBs and startups, we lack analytics features. They provide an option to purchase a complete separate product for analytics, but despite initially having purchased the paper license, due to technical limitations or changes, we cannot use that product. Now they require additional fees to access the analytics feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"It provides good IT assistance."
"The most valuable features are protection against ransomware and spam."
"Capital expenditure is a significant consideration, and the impact on major expenditures prompts a careful analysis before onboarding the new product."
"The system enables end users to manage their own whitelists/blacklists."
"The most valuable features are Advanced Malware Protection, URL filtering, and of course Reputation Filtering."
"The tool's most valuable feature in preventing security breaches revolves around the area of malware protection that the product provides."
"The advanced phishing protection and the integration with the awareness tool that Cisco has embedded into the solution to bring awareness to the customers about the dangers of phishing attacks and other things that come from email are the most valuable features."
"Setup was easy. It took about 30 minutes."
"The product is easy to manage in terms of configurations."
"The anti-spam aspect of the solution is its most valuable feature."
"This solution provides very good email security that protects us against spamming and malware."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall Email Security is the blocking of emails using keywords. If there are any particular keywords in the subject, that we want to block from receiving from a particular person we can do it. Additionally, the blocking of emails is easy. we can release that one and we can block some of the keywords also like that."
"Beside a few issues with specificity in the email protection controls, this product is very good at handling email security."
"There are no wasted extras and the interface is really simple."
"The most valuable features are the anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-virus, and anti-spoofing."
 

Cons

"We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."
"They can do it better with web links, with the URLs. They have a technology called Outbreak but it doesn't work as well as we would like."
"Cisco Secure Email can be improved from the administrator's point of view. Usually, you have to work with different areas, and they can try to make it easy for the administrator to use different functions."
"We cannot manage multiple devices from a single UI."
"The management features of the product are not up to date."
"Scalability has certain shortcomings and needs to be improved because there are service providers who provide better scalability.v"
"There could be additional DLP functionality for it."
"I would like to see features like AI since it is currently an area that the product lacks."
"The pricing could be improved."
"The protection level for email security isn't 100%. I'm still getting some spam and junk mail."
"A lot of spoofed emails are still coming to the end-user, so the configuration for this option needs to be improved."
"The pricing could be improved."
"The platform's control panel needs enhancement."
"I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security."
"SonicWall Email Security could improve by making the file blocking and the release feature easier to use"
"Updates could be released more frequently."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market."
"Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."
"Cisco Secure Email is expensive, but we get what we pay for."
"There were no other costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"As per market availability, this solution is more expensive than other vendors."
"Cisco Secure Email is not expensive, and licensing costs are yearly."
"The platform offers a yearly license."
"I rate the application’s pricing a five out of ten."
"We have a two-year license subscription and the price is very high."
"The overall price of SonicWall Email Security should be reduced and there should be an option to purchase one or two licenses more instead of their current policy of bulk increases only. There should be more flexibility in the licensing model. Each license cost approximately $33 annually."
"The cost is cheaper than Sophos. I would rate it as five out of ten."
"Our customers purchase the solution's yearly license."
"When compared with Cisco, it is very well priced. Cisco is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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 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 user interface of the Email Security Gateway ( /products/security-gateway-reviews ) should be improved. It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated i...
What do you like most about SonicWall Email Security?
According to our customers, the product's most valuable feature is the ability to detect spam and reduce phishing emails.
What needs improvement with SonicWall Email Security?
Policy deployment could be time consuming and represents an area for improvement in SonicWall Email Security.
 

Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
Dell SonicWALL Email Security Platform, SonicWall Hosted Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Star Kay White, Locala Community Partnerships
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. SonicWall Email Security and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,315 professionals have used our research since 2012.