Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security comparison

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Download the complete report

Helped 844,944 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

Microsoft Defender for Offi...

Ranking in Email Security

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (11th)

Perception Point Advanced E...

Ranking in Email Security

17th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Internet Security (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 13.1%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Perception Point Advanced Email Security is 2.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja

Head of Department of Network Communications at Eko electricity

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.

Read full review

Jijin Joseph

Technical Director at Channelnext

Gives in-depth analysis reports to end users for any malicious content found in emails

Our users would like the solution to scan outgoing emails. So, if my system is compromised, and I have malicious content in my system, then there is a possibility that I send malicious email to my colleague. There is a dependency on AWS cloud.This means if the cloud service is down, which may impact the perception point's email delivery.So it would be great if there is any HA for the solution. I would like a user-friendly configuration, like APIs. This solution is API-friendly configuration by following the steps provided. It would be great if it could be automate it, like the Avanan.Also, it would be good if Perception Point Advanced Email Security could have an MSP model. During the early stages of working with this solution, there were some constraints and issues.

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

"We use Microsoft Defender for its ability to integrate with existing business technologies, which is beneficial for protecting business areas."

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 facilitates efficient management and updates through the cloud. We do not have to worry about incompatibilities. It just works."

"The product's scalability is good."

"Defender enables us to secure all 365-related activity from a single place. It gives us visibility into everything happening in Outlook, protecting us against phishing and other email-based threats. Defender helps us detect any suspicious behaviors."

"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 is a stable solution."

"The stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is fantastic."

"The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pros

"We haven't had a client, who uses their protection, have an email security breach. That is the best thing about what they do. We don't have to think too much. Their product just works and keeps bad emails away."

"It has modules to detect malware and that is a strong point. It has a very nice way of showing you, directly in the product, a lot of details about certain pieces of malware. It goes very deep and even shows you the assembly code. It also does detonations on files and shows you the results in different operating systems. That is very useful."

"The solution’s effectiveness when it comes to detection is very good. It is stopping malicious emails and tagging emails noted as spam. So, we are able to disseminate those emails, get what we need, and block clearly malicious emails. It saves us a lot of valuable time. It keeps our users safe, e.g., the majority of emails that they would have gotten in the past don't even make it into their inbox."

"The most valuable feature is the technical support services."

"It really works well on SharePoint when you upload a file or save a file. Advanced Email Security scans if it is malicious and identifies issues. It can do some forensics on its console, which is nice."

"The solution’s effectiveness when it comes to detection is very good. It has a very good mechanism. It scans our emails. It identifies any threat or phishing attempts and phishing campaigns as well as any bad reputation, servers, or links, then it blocks them. This is what I find to be very good about this system."

"The Perception Point Incident Response team acts as an extension of our SOC team. This is very important for us. This is a benefit provided for their main product of scanning our emails. If Perception Point can give me IR, this is really good versus other products that do not provide this kind of service. Perception Point's service is great. They are very professional. That reduces the time that my internal SOC has to deal with my internal IT person. They just send an email to the IR team at Perception Point, who continues the investigation and blocks any emails, if necessary. This is very good because it can reduce a lot of time and effort from my team. It is like an extension of my SOC, but external."

"Perception Point Advanced Email Security has a correct price point and offers very good email filtering capabilities."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pros

Cons

"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."

"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."

"I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost."

"Configuring the default strategies and policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps generates a lot of noise and false positives."

"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."

"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."

"The visibility into threats is not up to the mark, as I do not have control. I rate my experience with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as six out of ten due to troubleshooting and pricing concerns."

"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 cons

"From a forensics point of view, it could improve a bit more from a threat intelligence aspect. So, if I find a malicious email, they could have more investigations about sources, headers, where it comes from, if they have seen it in other campaigns before, etc. I would like a little bit more from a threat intelligence point of view so I can understand who else might be affected and attacked as well as the vectors of attack."

"They can do better on the spam. Today, Perception Point is not our only solution. We have two solutions, and they are the second in line because the spam filtering is not yet the best."

"They need more customer engagement. The product works very well. The IR works very well when we contact them. However, day-to-day, they should have more in communication with their customers explaining new products and features. There is possibly something that if I would know about it, then I would buy and use it. Maybe I need it. They need to improve their communications."

"To improve the solution, maybe a portal for end users to consult their emails would be helpful. The end user could access the portal and see their emails or events. They could also refresh the names."

"Dashboard is an area of concern in the solution where improvements are required."

"They just don't do a good job of promoting themselves. They seem like a typical busy IT company who is just working on fixing problems and making technology better. However, they are not fantastic at marketing themselves to existing partners, which is not a bad thing. It is just something for improvement."

"Its websites for analysis need to be a bit more approachable for people who are less technical. Technically, it is a fire-and-forget solution. So, you want to be able to implement this solution for a lot of companies who don't have security operation teams (SOCs) behind them. You need to have something where a secretary can jump onto this console and release whatever she needs to release. Therefore, it needs to be written in a very specific non-technical language."

"They could provide additional data loss prevention features as we encounter different kinds of attacks in today's scenario."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."

"The product is expensive."

"Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."

"For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."

"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."

"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."

"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing and cost advice

"We were able to get reasonable pricing that matches the ROI we want, so I think that it is the correct price point."

"The price of this solution was within our budget and I think that it will suit most SMBs."

"If a user only wants protection for email, then the price of the product is okay, but if they opt for the collaboration options offered by the product, then it becomes a little expensive."

"There is room for improvement for them with an MSP partner. The pricing is good and fair. Our customers don't complain. The only thing is that it's a little bit old school. They don't have a system that automatically checks the number of users that our customers have so we can just update the licenses ourselves through a website. It is still done manually. They have a person who checks invoicing monthly to determine if there have been any changes. A nice improvement would be if they could get automated licensing counts."

"They are not the most expensive vendor. There are much more expensive vendors. They are not cheap, but they are not the most expensive. They are somewhere in the middle."

"Pricing is lower in comparison to Proofpoint."

"The pricing was fair in comparison with the other solutions. We have received good value for what we paid."

"The pricing is not cheap, but I can see the value. In security, if you are trying to save by giving up quality, that's a very bad decision."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

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 various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the indi...

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 do you like most about Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

The most valuable feature is the technical support services.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

In Brazil, the dollar price affects the cost. Perception Point Advanced Email Security is about 50 percent less expensive.

What needs improvement with Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

To improve the solution, maybe a portal for end users to consult their emails would be helpful. The end user could access the portal and see their emails or events. They could also refresh the names.

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Comparisons

Compared 14% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 7% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Competitors

Avanan vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 16% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 12% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 11% of the time

IRONSCALES vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 9% of the time

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Download Microsoft Defender for Office 365 product report

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Download Perception Point Advanced Email Security product report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security report

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.

With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.

This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.

Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.

Microsoft

Perception Point Advanced Email Security is a comprehensive solution designed to protect organizations from advanced email threats. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, it offers multi-layered defense mechanisms to detect and block sophisticated attacks such as phishing, malware, and ransomware.

With its advanced threat intelligence capabilities, it can identify and neutralize zero-day threats in real-time. The solution also provides robust data loss prevention features, ensuring sensitive information remains secure. Its user-friendly interface allows for easy management and monitoring of email security, while its seamless integration with existing email platforms ensures a hassle-free deployment process.

Perception Point Advanced Email Security is a reliable and efficient solution that safeguards organizations against the ever-evolving landscape of email-based threats.

Perception Point

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.

Information Not Available

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security