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Fortinet FortiMail vs Mimecast Email Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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...
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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 (11th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (6th)
Mimecast Email Security
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Office 365 Protection (5th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Email Security
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

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.
Frank Rawson - PeerSpot reviewer
It gives clients peace of mind and helps them educate their users about threats
A few years ago, our team found the implementation to be somewhat challenging. It has gotten easier as we've grown more experienced. The difficulty depends on the expertise of the person doing it. I don't work with Mimecast every day, so it might be more difficult for me than it is for one of my techs who regularly does Mimecast implementations. It requires some specific in-depth product knowledge and an understanding of email solutions. The deployment time varies. In South Africa, it depends on who you use to deploy it. If you use one of Mimecast's local partners, it can take up to two weeks because of their process. However, it's only about four to eight hours of work. After deployment, there isn't much maintenance aside from supporting and educating your customers. Users require constant education on how to use the Mimecast client and release an email that has been blocked.

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 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."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable features are safe attachments and safe links."
"Defender helps us prioritize threats across our organization."
"The product is not resource-intensive."
"Defender is a SaaS platform, so it offers more flexibility. Managing the permissions is easier. The solution's automated detection and response features are scalable."
"The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"The spam filtering is great."
"The user quarantine feature in the solution is good...It is a stable solution."
"It can block a lot of fake emails."
"We found the initial setup to be mostly straightforward."
"Fortinet FortiMail has a lot of valuable features. It works great. It also has an antivirus feature. Support for Fortinet FortiMail was also great when my team wanted to block some geographic IPs, but couldn't figure out how to do it. The support team provided clear communication on how to resolve that issue. Another valuable feature of Fortinet FortiMail is SPAM filtering which tells you how many spammy emails you've received. Based on my current use cases, I'm happy with Fortinet FortiMail."
"The integration with FortiSandbox is good, and something that we utilize often."
"The most valuable features of this solution are anti-spam, sender reputation, and antivirus."
"A full-featured email gateway solution that contains security threats reliably."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The piece that is most valuable from the Mimecast standpoint will be the sandboxing feature."
"The most valuable feature is the DMARC Analyzer."
"Its administration console is very easy to use. The administration console is absolutely important because you interact with the platform through it."
"The biggest advantage of Mimecast Email Security is its spam filtering. Its filtering feature is interesting."
"Email security is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"The solution is scalable."
"The platform's most valuable features are journaling and email archiving, effectively stopping phishing attacks."
 

Cons

"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"Configuration requires going to a lot of places rather than just accessing one tab."
"It would be better if it were more scalable. It depends on the architecture, but we would like to make it more scalable for both data centers."
"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."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"There needs to be an improvement in integrating the product to work across multiple operating systems, and to have better support for non-Microsoft file types."
"The only thing they should improve is the licensing model. They should stop changing it. A year ago, the five features I mentioned were included in one product. Now, three of them are bundled into one product, and you have to pay extra for the other two. I don't mind paying extra, but I don't want them to change it every year or every six months. I need to know what I'm looking at and not worry about it next year."
"The tool needs to improve its pricing policy. Also, it needs to be more user-friendly. I would want it to improve email security as well."
"The sandboxing features are not well done in Fortinet FortiMail, making it an area of improvement."
"I believe there is room for enhancement in content and web security features."
"The product should work on licensing and provide more detail once the license is selected for the customer."
"Online support sometimes takes up to a week to get back to you."
"The infrastructure could be improved."
"The solution could improve by making the UI more user-friendly and increasing spam and threat detection capabilities."
"The support could be faster because we've been receiving complaints from customers, they say that when they raise a ticket, it doesn't take 24 hours to respond, sometimes the support responds after three days. This is a lot of time."
"I'd like to have better support from the product in the future."
"The price could be better, it should be reduced."
"They should improve the cookies management feature."
"The installation is not so straightforward."
"Mimecast needs to reduce the number of false positive emails; a big pain point for us."
"The solution should include more AI features instead of Mimecast's more general static configuration tooling."
"As a user, the user interface of the management console could be upgraded, for example."
"While it's quick and easy, the initial setup could be more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"There is a license required for this solution and it is on an annual basis. I am satisfied with the price."
"Fortinet Fortimail has reasonable pricing."
"The fees for Fortinet FortiMail can be complicated. However, overall the pricing is fair."
"It is reasonable."
"This is a good solution and value for the money."
"The product's licensing part depends on the number of mailboxes and the hard disk needed by customers. The cost of the license depends on the number of mailboxes and the number of emails."
"Price-wise, you get what you pay for in Fortinet FortiMail. Apart from the licensing costs, no additional expenses are attached to the solution's pricing."
"It is a fairly priced product, considering what it does. The product offers good value for the money users spend on it."
"The solution is expensive."
"Compared to the other solutions in the market, Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection's pricing is fine."
"The product price is moderate. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
"We pay monthly fees to our provider."
"Compared to the other products in the market, it is neither cheap but nor very expensive. I would rate it somewhere in the middle, 5 out of 10."
"I'm always going to say the price needs to be lower, but it's reasonable."
"The licensing costs are per-user for the product that you get with them."
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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
50%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction 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 Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
The interface of this solution is very easy to navigate and user-friendly. There is no delivery in email and other co...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
The pricing is higher for Mimecast, particularly for the Indian market, where it is considered expensive.
What needs improvement with Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
Mimecast needs to reduce the number of false positive emails; a big pain point for us. A lot of emails were missed de...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
FortiMail
Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Azizi Developments, Affinity Credit Union, Aftercare, Al Abbar Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiMail vs. Mimecast Email Security and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.