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Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Trustwave Secure Email Gateway comparison

 

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...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (9th)
Trustwave Secure Email Gateway
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
15th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 14.8%, down from 28.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trustwave Secure Email Gateway is 1.5%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 36514.8%
Trustwave Secure Email Gateway1.5%
Other83.7%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.
FA
Cloud & Systems Admin at Service Management Group, Inc.
Offers clear vision on the clear side of what is being blocked and easy to use but a bit old-fashioned GUI
I would rate my experience with the initial setup a four out of ten when one is difficult, and ten is easy. It's difficult initially since it's an on-premise solution. So it's a bit difficult. So the initial assessment took a few days, and then the deployment was a couple of days. It is on-prem. That is also one of the improvements you need to make on the cloud. Most of the people like things to be on the cloud. You don't have the burden of setting up things on-premise.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."
"It has significantly decreased my time to detection and response."
"The coolest feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is its ability to look for phishing emails."
"Technical support is very good. They are knowledgeable and respond quickly."
"It has helped us in improving our security posture; it detects any kind of attack or abnormal behavior in accessing the system and sends an alert to the administrator who can check, understand, and review on time to ensure that all activities are legit."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment."
"The most valuable feature is the integration; it's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products, and another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"The product's most valuable features are spam protection and artificial intelligence."
"I like that it doesn't hold emails for any reason; it sends out notifications to the user as well as administrators. So we have a clear vision on the clear side of what is being blocked and in time as well."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment."
"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."
"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get a lot of information on integrations with such apps for security and authentication."
"In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published."
"The technical support services and stability need improvement as well."
"There is room for improvement in GUI because it is a bit old-fashioned."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The product is expensive."
"I know that the product is incredibly 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."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"It's a user-base subscription."
"The product is very expensive."
"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."
"The pricing is in the middle. Compared to other products, it should be five out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"It is a cost-effective product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My experience with pricing, setup, and licensing is that it's actually quite reasonable even on the licensing side as a standalone product. It's very competitive compared to what competitors are ch...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
I think Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can be improved by creating more educational pieces about not just looking for malware. We are seeing a lot more malware-less emails that Defender for Offi...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 include email hygiene.
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Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Trustwave SEG
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Trustwave Secure Email Gateway and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
907,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.