Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs Fortinet FortiMail comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Fortinet are both solutions in the Email Security category. Cisco is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.3, while Fortinet is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.7. Cisco holds a 1.1% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Fortinet’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

Cisco Secure Email Threat D...

Read 16 Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense reviews

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2,890 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiMail

Read 68 Fortinet FortiMail reviews

9,237 Views
8,406 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Email Threat D...

Fortinet FortiMail

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Fortinet FortiMail and Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense are prominent contenders in the email security category. Fortinet FortiMail seems to have an advantage in cost-effectiveness and support, while Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense excels in advanced features and integration for a comprehensive security approach.

Features: Fortinet FortiMail offers advanced spam detection through FortiGuard Antispam Service, supports multiple domains, and allows inbound and outbound inspection. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, on the other hand, provides robust east-west traffic analysis, a user-friendly interface, and integrates with Threat Grid for sandbox analysis.

Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiMail could improve user management, enhance reporting, and refine third-party integration. Users encounter challenges with deployment and false positives occasionally. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense could improve integration with other Cisco and third-party tools, enhance search functionality, and offer more flexible billing options. Phishing protection and competitive pricing are also noted areas for enhancement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiMail mainly deploys on-premises, receiving mixed feedback on technical support. While some users find support rapid, others experience delays. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense offers flexibility with cloud, hybrid, and private environment deployment and is generally recognized for competent technical support despite some reports of long response times.

Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiMail stands out with no per-user pricing and is seen as cost-effective, although it can be considered pricey by some. Its positive ROI results from reduced spam and increased efficiency. Cisco's solution is viewed as expensive with additional support costs but provides a justification for its premium due to its comprehensive feature set and trusted spam and phishing reduction.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Fortinet FortiMail Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Fortinet FortiMail

September 2026

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Helped 919,894 peers since 2012

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 Threat D...

Ranking in Email Security

22nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fortinet FortiMail

Ranking in Email Security

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 2.7%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiMail	2.7%
Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense	1.1%
Other	96.2%

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Glenn-Camilien

Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Provides robust email security features but requires improved modernization and complexity management

Modernization is an area that could be improved for Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, as some features have lagged behind newer competitors, potentially offering more advanced analysis capabilities. The initial setup is not straightforward and requires expertise and time to master configurations such as spoofing and DLP. More control over backend functionalities and simplifying rule management could enhance user experience. The product's complexity at times results in redundant rule sets that are difficult to untangle, highlighting the need for streamlined management systems and a more user-centric approach to system configuration. Furthermore, the pricing might deter new users who could opt for alternative, more cost-effective solutions.

Read full review

Abhimanyu Das

Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl

Targeted email filtering has reduced spam and phishing and now saves significant investigation time

The best features of Fortinet FortiMail include its techniques and tactics, which are highly effective compared to other solutions such as Microsoft 365. Although Fortinet FortiMail may not be as advanced in some aspects, it is well recognized for its strong performance in handling spam and phishing. It performs thorough mail scanning and also offers a sandboxing feature that enhances protection. Fortinet FortiMail has had a positive impact on my organization by significantly reducing unwanted email activities such as spam and phishing. It provides accurate detection and generates results that often exceed what can be achieved through manual analysis. Since deploying Fortinet FortiMail, I have observed a reduction in investigation time by at least 20 to 30 percent.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense's best features include user management of graymail, enhancing security awareness by allowing users to manage cold calls, sales-based items, and ensuring email compliance."

"The ability to see east-west traffic is its most valuable feature. Traditionally, email defense focuses on north-south, inbound-outbound, egress-ingress traffic. With Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, it's able to quickly identify, track, tag, and categorize emails that are internal. That can typically give us visibility into if there's an internal compromised account (for example). Someone can then use that internal compromised account to email additional accounts with either malicious software or links, but internal within that Office tenant. Effectively, that email message never leaves the tenant. Any of the mail gateways really do not have any method or way of seeing this traffic since it's not leaving the environment."

"Overall, it's certainly a very good idea to integrate another layer on top of Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection."

"Secure Email Threat Defense's scalability is good."

"This solution is easy to use."

"The advanced threat analytics and URL filtering in threat detection are good features that are working well."

"I would say it's very comprehensive, with multiple antivirus OEMs, virus encrypt features, encryption, and more."

"On ease of use, it rates very high. It's something that I was able to get into without really looking at any documentation. I wanted to see what it felt like before I started looking at any documentation on how to use it, and it was very easy to use. It works very smoothly. The user experience is very intuitive. They did an amazing job on that."

More Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense pros

"The biggest implementation my team has done for Fortinet FortiMail was for more than five thousand people, and the most valuable feature was its anti-spam feature."

"Fortinet utilizes specialized processing units, which network faster and sample more efficiently compared to others."

"Fortinet FortiMail's most valuable features are its performance and security."

"The filtering is really effective to protect any mail environment of any company."

"The stability and performance of the solution have been great, and we have not had any problems since we have been using it."

"It is a scalable solution."

"Both logging and reporting are very good, as well as the antivirus profiles, content emails, content profile, and application profile."

"Fortinet FortiMail is a very good product and reliable, and we find it easy to sell it."

More Fortinet FortiMail pros

Cons

"The solution is a bit expensive. It could be cheaper."

"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox can improve by adding advanced phishing, then the solution would become the best in the market. However, this could increase the price even more. Additionally, if CES with domain protection could be added it would be an even better solution."

"The tool gives false positives and it needs to be more accurate. I would like to see AI as a new feature."

"The search area has room for improvement. When you go to the next page, it remains at the bottom of the current page that you're on. Also, under the reports section, it allows you to see any "convictions," but if you want to search for those convictions you have to remember when they all came in and go back and edit the search accordingly. You cannot click on the list of convictions to actually see if you had a spike at a certain time."

"The product's complexity at times results in redundant rule sets that are difficult to untangle, highlighting the need for streamlined management systems and a more user-centric approach to system configuration."

"The behavioral analysis capability of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is not particularly helpful for identifying new, evolving threats within my company, as it keeps flagging legitimate emails as malicious."

"Customers will benefit greatly from monthly billing because the majority of customers today use the cloud, be it Office 365, or Google Cloud."

"The learning curve shows that in the beginning, there are numerous false positives. For one month, we had to reclassify the false positives manually until the system learned."

More Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense cons

"I think the security of the product could improve."

"I would like it if the solution could be more affordable."

"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."

"The solution doesn't scale easily."

"The main area for improvement is the pricing."

"I have little to say about possible improvements, but the configuration for content blocking could be better."

"Issues with the current email search functionality."

"ortiMail has some latency issues and sometimes takes time to receive emails."

More Fortinet FortiMail cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The feedback from vendors and customer is that it is expensive."

"It is expensive compared to other vendors."

"The solution’s pricing is manageable."

"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox does not have any competition with Sophos, Trend Micro, or other vendors of the world. However, there is a pricing premium for the solution. One has to look at it from that angle that while they are buying Cisco, there will be a premium, and Cisco justifies that premium value. That's why they're charging a high price."

"My company has a three-year license for Fortinet FortiMail, including the support, but I'm not so sure of how much the solution costs because I'm not part of the procurement team. What's more important to me is the functionality and stability of Fortinet FortiMail. In terms of Fortinet FortiMail licensing, the cost is calculated based on company requirements. For example, it's based on the features you need for your environment, on capacity, how many CPUs you have, etc."

"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 tool is very expensive."

"The annual cost is $55,000."

"Fortinet FortiMail has an annual license agreement."

"Fortinet FortiMail is a little bit expensive."

"The fees for Fortinet FortiMail can be complicated. However, overall the pricing is fair."

"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."

More Fortinet FortiMail pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Secure Email Threat Defense?

Comparatively with other products, the pricing of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is normal. As a technical guide, I am not very aware of the pricing details.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Secure Email Threat Defense?

We have deployed Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense in two customer environments. It is still in development as a new product. Some customer requirements, such as sending logs to a Syslog server, ar...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Secure Email Threat Defense?

We are working with Cloud Mail Gateway and on-premise mail gateways. We have worked with Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail?

The setup cost is a little bit costly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?

I think they should improve Fortinet FortiMail on-premises by enhancing its user interface. Additional features they could have in the future would include advanced analytics capabilities. I do thi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiMail?

I do have a partnership with Fortinet. I have been both a partner and reseller.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Email vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Compared 18% of the time

Check Point Anti-Spam and Email Security Software Blade vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Compared 14% of the time

Kiteworks vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Compared 3% of the time

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Cisco Secure Email vs Fortinet FortiMail

Compared 7% of the time

Mimecast Advanced Email Security vs Fortinet FortiMail

Compared 6% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Fortinet FortiMail

Compared 6% of the time

Fortra's Clearswift Secure Email Gateway vs Fortinet FortiMail

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Fortinet FortiMail

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiMail Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

October 2026

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense report

Download Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiMail

October 2026

Download Fortinet FortiMail product report

Also Known As

Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, Cisco CMD, Cisco Cloud Mailbox Defense

FortiMail

Overview

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense offers robust email security with features like east-west traffic visibility and seamless SaaS deployment. It enhances cloud email protection by integrating Threat Grid sandboxing and AMP for malware defense, supported by Cisco Talos threat intelligence.

Enhancing email security for Microsoft 365 and cloud emails, Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense acts as an email gateway, blocking phishing, malware, and business email compromise. Users benefit from a centralized management console, efficient graymail administration, and strong filtering capabilities. Despite its strengths, it requires improvements in integration, spam detection accuracy, and enhances phishing protection.

What are the most important features of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense?

East-West Traffic Visibility: Offers insight into email tenant interactions.
SaaS Application Deployment: Simplifies deployment processes.
Threat Grid Sandboxing: Provides advanced malware protection.
AMP Integration: Enhances malware defense capabilities.
Anti-Spam and Antivirus: Powered by Cisco Talos threat intelligence.
Cloud Mailbox Features: Includes robust email filtering and management.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Provides protection against advanced threats.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces reliance on help desk services.
User-Friendly Management: Streamlines email administration tasks.
Improved Email Filtering: Ensures effective threat blocking.

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is highly applicable in industries requiring stringent data protection, such as finance and healthcare. It serves cloud-based environments by closely monitoring email activity to prevent unauthorized access and breaches. Tailored deployment options cater to both on-premise and cloud architectures, allowing flexible integration in existing workflows.

Cisco

Fortinet FortiMail is a robust email security platform offering anti-spam, antivirus, and anti-phishing capabilities. It integrates with Fortinet products to ensure seamless protection against email threats in on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, enhancing secure communication for businesses.

Fortinet FortiMail is designed to protect against a range of email threats including spam, phishing, and malware, ensuring email safety for organizations. It operates as both a gateway and server, allowing for secure filtering of incoming and outgoing emails. The integration with Fortinet’s suite of security tools provides a comprehensive approach to managing threats effectively, while user-friendly interfaces and detailed reporting systems aid in threat monitoring and management. Frequent updates are implemented, though scalability and web console enhancements are necessary for improved performance.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiMail?

Anti-Spam: Provides reliable filtering to block unwanted emails.
Antivirus: Ensures protection against harmful viruses.
Anti-Phishing: Prevents phishing attempts through advanced detection.
Sandboxing: Enhances threat detection to manage email security efficiently.
Integration: Seamlessly works with other Fortinet products for unified security.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiMail?

Comprehensive Security: Offers robust protection against multiple email threats.
Ease of Use: Features a user-friendly interface for better accessibility.
Detailed Reporting: Provides insights into threat management activities.
Reliable Performance: Delivers consistent updates for maintaining email protection.

Fortinet FortiMail is implemented by companies across industries seeking to secure their email communications. In healthcare, it protects sensitive patient information, while in finance, it safeguards transactional data against phishing attacks. Retailers utilize FortiMail to prevent data breaches from fraudulent emails, demonstrating its versatility in diverse sectors.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Luiss University, Lone Star College, T-Systems, Magyar Telekom

Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Fortinet FortiMail

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Fortinet FortiMail

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