Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Sophos Email comparison

Microsoft and Sophos are both solutions in the Email Security category. Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Sophos is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 8.5% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Sophos’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Sophos Email based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Email Security solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs. Sophos Email Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs. Sophos Email

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.9%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is 8.5%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Email is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown

IT Director at a energy/utilities company with 11-50 employees

Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.

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Teodor Dumitru

0 at PTC

Offers valuable alert features

In my experience, everyone is using Azure or solutions from Microsoft. Word, Excel, and Outlook are present for a majority of companies. There is very little on the Google platform for email. The solution's discussion is more about budget and whether you are going to choose the on-premises or the cloud version. Microsoft is huge and a top-three vendor that really only competes with AWS and maybe Oracle. Certain features like scalability really are not relevant because the company's reputation is more than enough. Age in the market and investments in security are more important. You can rest assured that Microsoft has a particular team dedicated to each feature or issue. They are always improving and always delivering. Certain features of the solution will be valuable based on your role. For example, I am part of the security team so threat management is interesting to me. An an engineer or email team might be more interested in policies, configuration, or the administrative exchange. Nothing is perfect but the solution is very good. When you don't have opponents, it is easier to achieve a good rating. I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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NaveedAli

Senior manager IT infrastructure at Machine Learning 1 Limited ·

Provides good identity proxy features, but sandboxing and spam control features could be improved

Sophos gives you a feature set to manage your on-premises firewall on the cloud. I just integrated my on-premises firewall into the cloud, and I can manage the tool through the cloud as well if needed. I recommend using Sophos Email as a proxy. For email gateways, I advise choosing mature products with rich feature sets, like Trend Micro or CrowdStrike. The solution's integration with other tools is very simple. I easily integrated Sophos Email with my Active Directory. My organization needs a WAF with a limited feature set, which we use through Sophos. Purchasing additional WAF will be costly, but I get sandboxing and WAF features free of cost with Sophos, which is included in the license. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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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 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe."

"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."

"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is data backups that we can provide through ticket requests."

"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."

"The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple."

"The deployment capability is a great feature."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pros

"The solution uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, so you don't need train it to detect something. The detection and response times are short. It's an excellent product."

"The product's most valuable feature is third-party integrations."

"It is easy to configure, easy to use, easy to add exclusions, easy to track, and easy to add anything else if you want."

"We like the holding facility that is available for potentially suspicious URL's. This allows a real-time review to be performed before the email reaches a users inbox."

"It is an easy solution."

"You can use the product to create special accounts."

"The threat management feature includes policies and alerts that are valuable."

"We use the solution to receive emails. We do not use the calendar function as our clients are slow adaptors to the latest features."

More Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) pros

"Sophos Email is in the cloud and integrated with its firewall."

"I cannot guarantee any email by its name. It can be spam. Sophos Email helps to double-check whether an email is spam or not. It has a dashboard which gives an overview of the alerts."

"It's easy to use and the configuration is straightforward."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

"The feature of Sophos Email that we find most effective for detecting suspicious emails is primarily based on their signatures."

"I found the user interface friendly."

"The speed and stability were fine."

"The best thing about it is the logs."

More Sophos Email pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in terms of reporting."

"There is room for improvement with the UI."

"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."

"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."

"We are always looking for others tools to increase automation on tasks. There can be better integration with other solutions, such as PowerPoint and email."

"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 cons

"Our company faces difficulty with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) because it's too big, clunky, and difficult for a small client to implement quickly and easily."

"The tool's classification for bulk email is cumbersome."

"The reporting needs a little bit of improvement."

"Having orchestration features added to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, particularly automation and remediation, would be quite useful."

"We would like the solution to have more in-built intelligence in the way that it reviews potential security risks, rather than our team constantly having to update the policies."

"Online Protection has an issue in that it doesn't provide an option to stop impersonation."

"It doesn't protect against everything. We do need protection for, for example, endpoints."

"The product's end-of-life cycle could be extended."

More Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) cons

"The product could include all the essential features and capabilities, similar to the on-premise, server-based version."

"The installation of Sophos Email could be easier. It's a bit difficult because setting up the email virtually requires some bit of technical knowledge."

"It was sometimes hard to find the settings in the solution's interface."

"The tool’s stability should be improved."

"The main drawback is regarding the technical support."

"The solution's technical support is slow and unresponsive. You need to book time in order to get support."

"Lacks visibility into spam emails."

"Sophos Email has few improvements to implement, including the handling of incoming emails in the systems. It needs to add additional feature that helps in enhancing the scanning processes of these emails. While adding these features, it should work towards improving the current features also."

More Sophos Email cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."

"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."

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

"It's a user-base subscription."

"The solution saves money so we have seen a return on investment."

"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."

"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."

"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing and cost advice

"The price of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection is reasonable."

"The pricing for the solution depends on what you are trying to achieve with the use of the product, but I know that it is not a cheaply priced product. Yearly payments have to be made towards the licensing fees of the solution."

"The solution's pricing is subscription-based rather than a yearly licensing cost. Pricing is based on the size of the environment and company and can be expensive."

"The tool's pricing is excellent."

"Microsoft Exchange Online Protection is a good solution at an affordable price. It is a good investment."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is very expensive, I rate the pricing a six. For licensing, we can make monthly or yearly payments. Right now, we pay 5 USD per month to secure a person's license."

"Regarding the price, it's comparable to other service providers. We've also looked at Check Point's offerings, and the pricing doesn't seem to be an issue."

"It is a low-price solution."

More Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) pricing and cost advice

"Most of our clients are on a perpetual license. If there is a budget issue, they can choose a subscription. However, most of the clients choose the perpetual license."

"The tool's pricing is medium."

"Sophos Email is neither cheap nor expensive."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten."

"Licensing is paid on a yearly basis."

"Sophos Email is a little expensive for us, but it's necessary. We have a subscription and renew it every three years."

"The pricing is affordable, so I’d rate it around a four out of ten on the pricing scale. We pay about fifty pounds a month, including hardware so that costs may differ without it."

"Sophos Email is priced lower than its competitors."

More Sophos Email pricing and cost advice

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

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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Government

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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.

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What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detec...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?

The initial setup was easy. The configuration process is very straightforward.

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What needs improvement with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?

The product's end-of-life cycle could be extended. When it gets upgraded, we should receive some incentives. For exam...

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What is your primary use case for Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?

The main use case is to block suspicious links in emails. However, some functionalities like SIPP attachment are not ...

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What do you like most about Sophos Email?

The solution's identity proxy feature is very good and reliable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Email?

The pricing is affordable, so I’d rate it around a four out of ten on the pricing scale. We pay about fifty pounds a ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos Email?

However, the setup was tricky, particularly with the DNS routing between Microsoft Exchange Online and Sophos cloud s...

See all answers

Comparisons

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 13% of the time

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

Compared 7% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Secure Email vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Business vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Competitors

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Secure Email vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

Compared 10% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

Compared 7% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) Competitors

Fortinet FortiMail vs Sophos Email

Compared 7% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Sophos Email

Compared 7% of the time

Perception Point Advanced Email Security vs Sophos Email

Compared 5% of the time

Barracuda Email Protection vs Sophos Email

Compared 4% of the time

Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Sophos Email

Compared 3% of the time

More Sophos Email Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

November 2024

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 report

Download Microsoft Defender for Office 365 product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP)

November 2024

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) report

Download Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Email

October 2024

Download Sophos Email product report

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365

Microsoft EOP, MS Exchange Online Protection

Sophos Email Security

Learn More

Microsoft

Video not available

Sophos

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 Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a comprehensive email filtering and security service designed to protect organizations from spam, malware, and other email-based threats. It provides advanced threat protection, anti-malware and anti-spam filtering, and data loss prevention capabilities.

With EOP, organizations can ensure the security and integrity of their email communications. It uses multiple layers of filtering and scanning to detect and block malicious content, including phishing attempts, viruses, and ransomware. EOP also leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to continuously improve its threat detection capabilities.

In addition to its robust security features, EOP offers advanced anti-spam filtering to reduce unwanted and unsolicited emails. It uses a combination of reputation-based filtering, content filtering, and sender authentication techniques to identify and block spam messages.

EOP also includes data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities to prevent sensitive information from being leaked or shared inappropriately. It allows organizations to define policies to detect and prevent the transmission of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers, via email.

Furthermore, EOP integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Online and other Office 365 services, providing a unified and integrated email security solution. It can be easily managed through the Exchange admin center, allowing administrators to configure and monitor security settings, review reports, and manage quarantined emails.

Sophos Email is a comprehensive email security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats and data loss. It offers robust protection against malware, phishing attacks, and spam, ensuring that only legitimate emails reach users' inboxes.

With advanced threat intelligence and machine learning algorithms, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks in real-time. Additionally, it provides encryption and data loss prevention capabilities to safeguard sensitive information.

The solution is easy to deploy and manage, with a user-friendly interface and centralized control. Sophos Email offers seamless integration with popular email platforms, ensuring uninterrupted communication while maintaining security.

With its comprehensive features and proactive approach, Sophos Email is a reliable choice for organizations looking to enhance their email security.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Del Monte Foods, Terra Verde, spicerhaart, RIVERLITE, Dataprise, SureBridge, Reed's School, Sayfol International School

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs. Sophos Email

October 2024

Free Report: Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs. Sophos Email

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs. Sophos Email and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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