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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)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (9th)
Trustwave Secure Email Gateway
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
14th
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 April 2026, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 18.3%, down from 29.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trustwave Secure Email Gateway is 1.2%, 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 36518.3%
Trustwave Secure Email Gateway1.2%
Other80.5%
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 insights provided with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are helpful because it comes with the E5 license, and by default, we can use a lot of capabilities."
"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."
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"The feature I like the most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is that it typically runs in the background—you do not know it is there until you need to access it."
"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 feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 that I like the most is probably the email features specifically, because those are the ones that a typical end user will accidentally click on a link not knowing what it is, and it'll catch it, and then it'll feed it over to Defender and stop the attack from happening before it actually can."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 facilitates efficient management and updates through the cloud. We do not have to worry about incompatibilities. It just works."
"One of our clients didn't have the budget to invest in a SOC team, but we deployed the solution for them, and they now run a SOC with only one analyst."
"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."
"The product's most valuable features are spam protection and artificial intelligence."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is not up to the mark in comparison with Wiz or Palo Alto."
"The product must provide better malware detection."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
"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."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"Specifically, within Microsoft Defender for Office 365, I want it to improve the DLP capabilities."
"Specifically, within Microsoft Defender for Office 365, I want it to improve the DLP capabilities."
"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

"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"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 license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"The product is expensive."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"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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886,932 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
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.
Ask a question
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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: February 2026.
886,932 professionals have used our research since 2012.