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Fortinet FortiMail vs Fortinet FortiMail Cloud comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (6th)
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (7th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Email Security
Cloud Email
 

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.
Andras Solt - PeerSpot reviewer
Reasonable pricing and good spam filtering but does not offer robust gatekeeping
It's mainly suited for mid-size companies, not for bigger companies like us. We are more than 1,000 people. In fact, we're over 2000 users, so that's why we investigated some other products, and Clearswift, for example. We likely won't increase usage. We're looking at GFI in a year or so.
AbdulHannan - PeerSpot reviewer
A reliable email security solution with deep integration capabilities and exceptionally strong support
During our deployment and in our day-to-day operations, we've encountered certain challenges with our email security setup. When a user or administrator needs to locate a specific email, it can be a time-sensitive issue. If an email administrator receives a query from a recipient or end user about undelivered or suspicious emails, the ability to quickly and easily locate the email in question, along with details about why it wasn't sent, is crucial. We've faced difficulties in ensuring that our reporting system is efficient and delivers this information promptly for administrators to address the issue promptly. Another challenge we've experienced is complexity. The email security solution should ideally be user-friendly and intuitive and it should offer straightforward access to settings and features. We encountered situations where our users have found the tool overly complex and difficult to learn quickly. This ease of use and user-friendliness is something we believe could be improved in FortiMail.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the individuals within our organization who are affected."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"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 facilitates efficient management and updates through the cloud. We do not have to worry about incompatibilities. It just works."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features."
"Clean user interface and good sandbox."
"Technical support is great. They are able to look at their patches and offer quick responses. We even have an account manager in the Middle East. They are very good."
"The user quarantine feature in the solution is good...It is a stable solution."
"It has a very high level of security through special licensing with solutions like FortiGuard, sandboxing solutions in the cloud, and URL rewriting solutions."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its interface, allowing users to get around the solution easily. The integration capabilities in the solution are also very easy."
"I am satisfied with both the scalability and the stability of this solution."
"I would rate Fortinet FortiMail ten out of ten overall."
"The most valuable feature is the advanced threat protection."
"The product's initial setup is straightforward and simple, making it an easy-to-use tool."
"This solution is easy to install. The deployment takes about forty-five minutes."
"The most valuable features are filtering and sandboxing."
"The scanners with FortiMail are valuable."
"The deployment is simple."
"The implementation was very professional. There are a lot of features I can get through Fortinet and FortiMail, such as security. FortiGuard is the most reliable and professional mitigation center to handle incidents and risk that I have to face."
"If there is a problem somewhere Fortinet can act on it immediately. That is very important."
 

Cons

"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."
"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."
"Microsoft security solutions work as expected. They are constantly updating the solutions to make them better. At the same time, the changes can impact a customer's environment, and we need to adjust settings. Sometimes we aren't aware of the changes, and nothing is pushed from the backend automatically."
"The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent."
"Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"The GUI is sometimes slow to fetch the device report and could be improved."
"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"The product's cybersecurity features could be better."
"Fortinet FortiMail could improve general user management. There are no password policies for users."
"Sometimes it takes a little bit too long to determine if an email is good or not. If they could shorten that time span, it'd be so much better. It does delay our email, which does not make users happy. That said, I would have to say we have not been blacklisted for quite a while now."
"The solution lacks to provide more visibility when there is a problem, and it needs to be tracked."
"Such kinds of things, raised from the point from the objective actually, we are using Fortinet FortiMail. We don't find any kinds of challenge or difficulties, but Fortinet FortiMail is more efficient and more effective for us. I don't know for other client, but for us, Fortinet FortiMail is very effective Like, for instance, if it is possible, let's say some kind of high threat is actually encountered if it could be possible to SMBs in our smartphone, or mobile apps, kinds of thing, if Fortinet FortiMail is available to monitor the thing using from our mobile phone from our smartphone. If such kinds of things are truly included, it will be more or good for us."
"It's difficult for me to talk about areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiMail because I'm the general manager of the company and I'm an engineer with knowledge about the solution, but I'm not deeply involved in its implementation. As I mentioned previously, Fortinet FortiMail is also being used within the company, and I'm happy with its functionality, but sometimes, attacks pass and avoid the Fortinet FortiMail filters, but those could be very sophisticated attacks. There could still be an improvement in the filtering feature of the solution, though the security of Fortinet FortiMail is okay for me because I believe you can't implement one hundred percent security in any solution. The initial setup for the solution also needs improvement. The setup is supposed to be simple, but then the customer starts to complain that some of the false positive emails are reaching quarantine, so my team has to configure it again. There have been instances when Fortinet FortiMail rejects valid emails because some of the service partners of the customer have not been configured accurately, so the system considered valid mails as attacks to be quarantined, so aside from improving the filters, there should also be an improvement in the categorization of emails in the server. My team has to modify the configuration so that valid emails could pass and for Fortinet FortiMail to correctly filter the SPAM traffic. A feature that could be added to Fortinet FortiMail in its next release is advanced AI, so it can analyze and decide accurately on which mail is valid and which mail is SPAM."
"They should add a lot of threat-intelligence feeds from different sources - not only from one source (FortiGuard)."
"The solution could be improved by providing a virtual machine facility with a complete set of options in the VM setup."
"Its GUI needs improvement."
"The downside of this solution is that it is difficult to implement policies on FortiMail."
"The URL filtering and handling should be enhanced because it doesn't support all languages. I believe that this would be easy to enhance in the future."
"This solution is slow and it should be made faster."
"The dashboard could use improvement."
"I would like to see more advanced sandbox features, where you can actually download to a machine where you can test."
"Networking should be simplified."
"It is slightly difficult to configure FortiMail in the cloud with Exchange on-premise, especially the quarantine mailbox access for end-users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"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."
"Pricing is based on initial license purchase and use volume."
"You need to pay additional fees for premium support."
"I have no information on pricing for the competition because right now, my company is working only with Fortinet, but I can say that in general, the price for Fortinet FortiMail was accepted by the customers easily. The POC is also important when a customer is buying a solution. The customer wants to see how the product runs, and as Fortinet FortiMail is a stable product that runs without big issues, it has a bigger chance of getting chosen by customers over its competitors, even if its price may be a little higher. Pricing for the solution is competitive. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's a little bit higher, but it isn't far from what other solutions charge."
"The pricing is good."
"It is a fairly priced product, considering what it does. The product offers good value for the money users spend on it."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"Pricing is straight-forward and renewable without complicated pricing structures."
"We paid approximately $30,000 for the solution. It is less expensive than some other solutions. We have one license that carries all the features that we wanted."
"The price of this solution could be more competitive."
"It's on a subscribed basis."
"The licensing is for three years. In the beginning, we did not pay monthly, it was paid once for three years."
"A license for our company using FortiMail and FortiCare (filtering and support) was $4000."
"When we're talking about pricing, other products have about the same price. That is normal."
"You only have to purchase one license for multiple participants."
"The pricing depends on various factors, including the type of licenses and subscriptions you have procured"
"I see how manageable and flexible the licenses are."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
51%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Hospitality Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail?
The pricing of Fortinet FortiMail is cheaper compared to Cisco, which was quite expensive.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
The area that could use some improvement in Fortinet FortiMail is the integration process. I would like the integrati...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
Content disarming and analysis are essential features in our email security setup
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
The pricing depends on various factors, including the type of licenses and subscriptions you have procured. The cost ...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
During our deployment and in our day-to-day operations, we've encountered certain challenges with our email security ...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
FortiMail
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiMail vs. Fortinet FortiMail Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.