Fortinet FortiMail Reviews

Our main use case for FortiMail is to protect emails. It acts as a security appliance focusing on emails and securing the inbox. It checks the content of the mail itself and the links that accompany the emails most of the time.

We use FortiMail as our email security for our organization.

The price gives a good review of emails. The anti-spam functionality is good and works well.

FortiMail has some latency issues and sometimes takes time to receive emails. Text emails without URLs also take time to forward. Accessing links in received emails can take time.

I have used FortiMail for one year.

It is a stable product. That said, there is some latency.

Customer support has some delays and is not as expected. It needs improvement.

Neutral

I used Cisco secure email before, which was more expensive, complicated, and harder to deploy compared to FortiMail. Fortinet is easier to deploy, troubleshoot, check the logs, and is cheaper.

There is a good return on investment between eight to nine out of ten. Deployment time is fast.

The pricing and licensing are advantageous. The price is between eight and nine.

I evaluated Cisco for email security.

Out of ten, nine points might be a very high score for this solution, however, eight is more reasonable. I'd rate the solution, therefore, eight out of ten.

Fortinet FortiMail is a mail security gateway that you can deploy on cloud to secure your email on Office 365 or Gmail. You can use Fortinet FortiMail on an on-premises model also. Fortinet FortiMail is used to filter malicious or spam emails sent into a user's network.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it has multiple profile sessions, like anti-spam sessions, content filters, and anti-virus. It has integration with sandbox also. You can ensure data leakage prevention through the content filter, and you can control file formats in both inbound and outgoing emails from the organization. An anti-spam technique and zero-day technique are characteristics of the tool, along with the ability to filter emails based on IP addresses or the domain of the sender.

As a customer, I need a stable update in the product that stays for a long time instead of having to deal with frequent updates.

I have experience with Fortinet FortiMail.

It is a stable solution.

In terms of scalability and availability, Fortinet FortiMail supports high availability for multiple appliances or devices. The to has the ability to configure cache rules.

My company has deployed the product multiple times on the cloud and on an on-premises model. Our company has also taken care of the deployment whenever the server or gateway were moved. In general, my company has dealt with a wide range of customers using the tool.

The technical support for the solution is very good. The tool offers multiple levels of support, and most of the tickets can be resolved by the product's L1 support team. It is rare to use L2 or L3 support.

In 2016, I worked with Cisco Secure Email, formerly known as Cloud Email Security. I think FortiMail is better in all areas compared to other tools. I still work with Cisco but focus more on FortiMail.

The product's initial setup phase was very easy.

After the initial configuration of virtual machines or appliances, you create a connector to Exchange or the email server and create a security profile according to customer needs, then create a policy to control all incoming or outgoing emails of your customer's organization.

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.

With the DLP format, you can control the format or hash the emails that go outside your organization. In FortiMail, you can locate a shared directory, you can make a hash for every file on it and send them outside your organization, and can encrypt it if you want on identity-based encryption.

Fortinet FortiMail can be integrated with all email security products, like Exchange and Domino. The product is also integrated with AVI systems covered under Office 365 on cloud. The tool can be used if you want to inspect the emails internally in your organization to control malicious traffic.

I don't remember the tool's framework, but for FortiMail, updates and upgrades are meant to add new features and ensure more stability.

In terms of the value provided by the product, I feel that Fortinet FortiMail provides a good value to customers as it offers good security for emails, especially if you configure it the right way and integrate it with sandbox.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It operates as an alternative mail server, particularly adept at receiving and rescanning messages before they reach the intended recipients.

FortiMail possesses notable strengths, and one key feature is its store-and-forward concept.

It could benefit from enhancing its functionality, especially in terms of advanced filtering. Introducing features such as AI-based and cloud-based filtering could significantly improve mail security. Fortinet should consider developing more robust protection mechanisms, particularly for cloud-based environments. Currently, users often refrain from placing Fortinet in front of Office 365 Exchange unless it's a cloud-based solution. Improving the upgrade process, making it more user-friendly, and simplifying the management of hardware components could enhance the overall user experience and appeal of Fortinet's email security solution.

I would rate its stability capabilities nine out of ten.

Regarding scalability, the challenge lies in the licensing model tied to the hardware appliance. The current setup necessitates choosing between a higher or lower capacity appliance, creating inefficiencies. For instance, if you opt for a smaller appliance designed for up to a hundred users and the client has fewer users, you end up paying for unused capacity. On the other hand, choosing a higher-level appliance for a larger user base may result in unnecessary excess capacity and costs. It would be advantageous if Fortinet could address this issue by offering more flexible licensing options. This way, clients could pay for the specific number of users they have without being constrained by preset appliance capacities. This adjustment would enhance the scalability and cost-effectiveness of Fortinet's email security solution.

Initially, when reaching out to Fortinet's tier-one support, we observed effective resolution of issues. However, at the entry-level, it seems that there's a repetition of updating tickets, and the problems persist. Having worked with Fortinet for an extended period, I've noticed a shift in the support dynamic. Either the personnel at the first level lack a complete understanding of the issues, or they are relatively junior, leading to extended resolution times for even minor concerns. Previously, their responsiveness was quick and efficient, with a maximum of 24 hours for a technical person to address an issue. However, recent changes in their approach may be contributing to the longer turnaround times. The process of logging a technical call and receiving a response has become somewhat extended, even for smaller issues. I would rate it six out of ten.

Neutral

I often recommend exploring alternative products that diverge from the appliance-based approach. One notable option is Marshal from Paradigm, which was previously known as NetIQ. Marshal operates as software deployed on a server, handling inbound scanning, and forwarding emails based on established policies. This on-premises solution ensures that emails undergo scanning before reaching the main server, providing a robust layer of security. Other alternatives include GFI MailEssentials, Mimecast, and FortiGuard. Each of these products has its unique features and pricing structures. I've had positive experiences with Enhanced Security, our own rebranded solution. This cost-effective option is specifically tailored for SME segments, running seamlessly for the past four years. It is AI-based, cloud-based and has demonstrated its compatibility with various email platforms, including online exchange servers, on-premises servers, shared hosting, and Google Suite. Users have found it to be a reliable and efficient choice for email security.

The initial setup of Fortinet is not suitable for everyone; it requires a solid understanding of how email systems function, making it less accessible for entry-level or junior technicians. Proper comprehension of mail concepts is crucial for a successful deployment. Incorrect configurations may lead to misleading outcomes, potentially causing disruptions in both incoming and outgoing emails. 

Upgrading the storage requires a more involved process, as it is not a simple plug-and-play scenario. Users must go through the entire setup again, which can be a cumbersome task.

The pricing is on the higher side.

While FortiMail provides a valuable option for those focused on transparent mail filtering or security solutions, it may not be the preferred choice for users accustomed to the features offered by platforms like Microsoft Exchange. In the SME segment, factors such as functionality, ease of use, and cost play a significant role. Many businesses in this category may find cloud-based solutions more appealing due to lower costs, simplified maintenance, and performance considerations. If an organization operates in the enterprise segment and has a substantial budget, considering Fortinet might be a viable option. However, for the SME segment, I would not recommend it due to the cost involved and the complexities associated with yearly renewals. Implementing Fortinet requires a level of technical expertise, particularly in understanding how mail servers function. Overall, I would rate seven out of ten.

The primary use case for this solution is for filtering emails, internally and for external emails. We have part with Office 365 and the other is hosted inside. We have monitoring and certain policies regarding emails, both in sending and receiving them. 

The deployment Model is on-premises using a virtual machine.

This a user-friendly solution.

Troubleshooting is very simple because you can see where the email was not delivered and why it would be considered as spam. For the IT team, it is important, because when they are asked by management why their email was not sent or why was this email that was sent to me was considered as spam, they have the details that are needed to explain why. 

It is much better than IronPort for Cisco and Websense. 

For now, as per our experience with FortiMail in handling a large number of emails and spams as well, in the past three years, we have been protected and saved from any attacks from the outside. This is one of the main reasons we will continue to use FortiMail.

The dashboard is small, it doesn't have a huge dashboard that you can rely on, you need another application to work with it, which is why they created FortiAnalyzer. This allows you to dig deeper if you want details. For example, it would tell you from which domain, to what domain, and what are the triggers that have been used to classify this email. These are all extra features, it is not an all in one.

Some of the dashboards found in the FortiAnalyzer could be improved. For the basics, the solution covers it. 

An additional feature that could be added is a pop-up screen notifying you that an email has been blocked, without having to double click on it to take you there it could provide you with a summary explaining why it was on hold or why was it spam when you hover over it with your cursor.

I have been using this solution for three years.

This solution is very stable. I don't remember the last time that I had to restart the server.

This is the main mail filter, for our entire company.

They are different, not of the same email. One for Office 365 and the other is Lotus and other mail services.

Not only one service in our system, but it is configured on that one main filter using different platforms, acting as the main suitor for FortiMail.

There are approximately five hundred users, with two administrators and three at the help desk. They can do minor duties such as releasing emails, but not going into why were the emails blocked. They help to release emails that are blocked for users, who cannot release them on their own. We do, however, have limited system privileges for the administrators.

The administrators maintain the solution. The administrators will search for new firmware, find the new releases, and whether it is beneficial or not needed.

This solution is scalable at the start. You don't have any boundaries for upgrading or downgrading.

The Virtual Machine can hold as much as you want, but of course, every Virtual Machine has its capacity. You cannot take the capacity that is needed now, but rather, you have to think forward. For example, maybe now you have twenty emails, but next year we're going to have fifty emails more, and you end up with seventy, so now you reach one hundred.

While every Virtual Machine has its limitations, the limitation of every Virtual Machine is large.

We do not plan to increase usage.

The technical support was good. They are perfect.

The support is open and support is with FortiGate. They always reply and they are always there to support you within an hour, at the maximum. 

Everything will be shown in your inbox. 

We develop our products, and we do our troubleshooting without relying on the support.

If we reach a stage where we can't do anything more, then we contact support. It has been approximately two years since we last contacted them.

Previously we used a different solution. We switched to FortiMail because our old solution was not good, or stable.

We used many solutions before, including Sophos Email, and when you have a good experience with a product you will not go back to the old products or switch to other products unless there are big advantages.

Emails were not accurate, some emails on the first day were in your inbox and another day, they are quarantined, and then other days they were not being delivered.

There were limitations in the configuration and troubleshooting. 

We have always had SLAs, but not with the company, it was with the brand. For example, we had support from Cisco and Sophos between one and three years.

We directly open cases with them. Two cases were not closed. I had completed my troubleshooting and solved the issue, while they were not able to solve it. 

Cisco was too complicated, not user-friendly, and not designed for emails in that complex environment. For an easier environment, they were fine, but, not for a complex environment, with different main servers, and different platforms.

Cisco is also more expensive than others. I don't know why, especially now, with technology in the hands of every brand.

Cisco is not the one and only, but now, it is the last and only.

This is why we are no longer using Cisco. We did have a good experience with Cisco. Everything was tested. I asked the suppliers, the brand owners in the region, to come over to see us. I didn't just go to Fortinet FortiMail directly.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The deployment time varies depending on if you are doing research, or if you are going to post on your site regarding FortiMail. If it is one domain it will take one day, or if it is for ten domains that have to be checked on to see the main flow and to see everything, it can take anywhere from one to three days.

We had only one staff member for the deployment of this solution.

To have it fully deployed and for fine-tuning, it will need ten working days. At some points, there is mail that you receive and not able to detect them, for example, all of the mail you are getting are spam or are getting quarantined or they are not quarantined, they are just trespassing in, you need approximately ten days. It's similar to machine learning, where you can learn your emails and how they flow. 

Simply put, the implementation is one to three days and for fine-tuning, it is ten days.

We used the reseller and the technical people to work with us, but the configurations and the policies are from my recommendation.

The resellers are awesome!

The time needed for troubleshooting before was reduced by at least 80%. This allowed us to focus on other applications as well, not only the web filter, email filter, and applications for the firewall. 

We have taken away some applications that we used to monitor our network with, as they were offered in FortiGate, so we no longer needed them.

Many areas helped us in reduced costs, not only in the administration in these areas, but in replacing other services that we used to buy. For example, If you want to have wireless access points so that people can access on their mobiles, we would have had to purchase a radio-server and an expensive wireless access point which was needed together. 

Access points that would cost between sixty and eighty dollars, you can have them with FortiGate on a switch, allowing you to monitor all of these from the FortiGate. 

You have all of the security, you can create your policies and you can do all the measurement and shaping and applications of vision monitoring. Everything can be done through FortiGate.

These are some of the advantages that FortiGate have over all the others. 

It's multi-platform. 

As long as you work more on the configuration and you dig deep inside the policies, you can reach huge worlds, and the security layers, not seven, layer eight and nine because intelligence and security are there. 

You have all it backs-up with the company. So yes, several things have been changed and replaced.

We are satisfied with the pricing of this solution.

Licenses are based on everyone's needs. If you don't need the full bundle that includes everything, you have options for the small or medium enterprise environments.

I was doing both the evaluating and testing. 

I had researched the internet for the leaders.

I did not go with Gartner as they pay to gain leadership. I went to other sources. I went to reviews, and I opened cases in everyone. I evaluated Barracuda, IronPort Cisco, Sophos, FortiMail and Websense.

I evaluated every one of the five brands and it took five months of testing all brands before we made the decision to go with FortiMail. We chose FortiMail because they passed all of the tests. The POC was for one month.

Emails are dangerous to deal with. You need backdoors for all people, You don't have any control over it because you are not the person who's dealing with emails for the employees.

Everyone is dealing with their own emails. In order to secure your emails, you need to secure your employees and the emails that are trespassing into your environment.

You need to find a solution that not only scans emails, but you also need to have some artificial intelligence for the machine learning for emails.

That's what FortiMail is doing. 

FortiMail is flexible, straightforward, and easy to troubleshoot. This is key, for  IT, they need to troubleshoot easily, and need to know why and how this was done. 

FortiMail is one of the important applications that can provide us what we require, as well as, being able to delegate your troubleshooting and your administration with many players or many, team members in IT. There are some that can do it while others cannot.

You should test before you decide to own a product. Don't rely on people saying, that it's the best product I have. You should know what your business is working with. There are no best practices in IT. There is what the business needs in IT.

The best practices that are there, are by the books, but the business may require different paths than the books and the best practices they tell you. So, always test. Know why and what you need the services for and don't buy everything, because you will not have time to be working on all of them.

If you have things set up straightforwardly, and it is fast to configure, then, yes, these products are good for you. The differences are, the experience and stability of these products, and how far you can go with the policies. This is what I have learned, not only from FortiMail but from all the solutions we're working with.

Never put your business and IT aside. They should collaborate and align together.

Overall, this is a good and reliable application.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

I don't use the solution directly in my company. I am not configuring the devices and only know a little bit of the use cases of the tool.

The most valuable features of the solution that strengthen email security revolve around the fact that it offers great cost-effective email filtering options in a multitenant environment.

The tool does what it is supposed to do, so there is nothing I want in the tool. The product's price is an area with shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using Fortinet FortiMail for ten years.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

Whether there are any plans to increase the number of users depends on the requirements of my customers. If there are additional customers wanting to use the product, then there will be a need to scale up. I integrate the tool for my customers.

The solution's technical support was not always good, so it has some scope for improvement. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

In other network environments, my company uses Cisco, Extreme, and Huawei. In the security segment, my company focuses on Fortinet.

I was not directly involved in the product's deployment phase. I only know the tool's features and can use it. My team did not face difficulties or complain about the tool's setup phase. I believe it worked fine.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution's initial deployment tool took around half a year since we had to migrate from another tool.

The solution's deployment involved six to eight people, out of which there were two engineers, one system engineer, one network engineer, and one customer manager to handle the migration process, while the rest were the operating staff members.

Compared to its competitors, Fortinet's products are available at a higher price range. The free or open source in the market can't compete with Fortinet in terms of functionalities. If one is bad and ten is a good price, I rate the tool's price as a six out of ten.

Though I wasn't directly involved in the selection of the tool in my company, I remember my company chose the tool since it did not want to divert itself with too many vendors. As Fortinet's firewall was already being used in my company, and since our service partner highly recommended Fortinet FortiMail to us, we chose it.

The product helps users handle security challenges as it offers prefiltering options and does relatively good incident reporting. The product also helps diagnose the tool's interface.

The tool's anti-spam feature was easy to use. The tool automatically checks the spam part, which is a fast process.

The tool's user interface and customizability features are fine.

My company maintains the tool for the customers. There are one to two engineers and a handful of operating people who take care of daily businesses and operational tasks.

When we go to our company's customers, we always like to offer a full stack of security tools for an environment and it is an area where we prefer Fortient.

The tool integrates with other Fortinet products in a very good manner. With open-source tools, Fortinet FortiMail's integration is good enough.

I don't know how much AI is involved in the tool.

For people with Fortinet's universe, it is a good product that they can choose, and it offers good integration features. It is also a solid feature set. If someone is on a tight budget, I won't recommend the tool to such people.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

The tool needs to improve its pricing policy. Also, it needs to be more user-friendly. I would want it to improve email security as well. 

I have been using the solution for two years. 

I would rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten. 

The support takes one to two days to respond. 

Positive

The tool's distributor supported us with the deployment. The solution's deployment took around one day to complete. 

You need to pay additional fees for premium support. 

I would rate the tool a nine out of ten. This solution is good for small and medium enterprise companies. 

The product is the main gateway to protect us from spam and/or malicious mail activities.

It is a great product.

The product is easy to use.

Its performance is very good and it is stable.

We've found the product offers fair, reasonable pricing.

The security is quite good overall.

It could continue to improve the user experience.

It is not easy to install.

In terms of FortiMail, we have been using it for about five years. 

We have found the solution to be very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It is reliable. 

We have about 1,000 users on the solution currently.

I'm not sure if we plan to increase usage. I don't have visibility on those types of decisions.

Technical support is good. We depend on them a lot and contact them often. We contact them approximately once a month.

The initial setup is not easy to handle on your own. I, for example, required the assistance of a vendor.

The initial deployment took about 14 working days, about half a month or so.

We have two technical people, engineers, that can manage the product.

I needed help from the vendor. I did not implement the solution myself. 

The pricing is very good. It's not overly expensive. 

We pay a yearly licensing fee.

We are using the latest version of the solution.

I would rate the solution ten out of ten. We've had a good experience with the product.

I'd recommend the solution to other users and organizations.

We use Fortinet FortiMail primarily for our email security. We're also using the solution for its anti-spam, antivirus, and sandbox features.

Fortinet FortiMail has been beneficial to my company. In the past, there were a lot of SPAM and phishing attempts, but after Fortinet FortiMail was implemented, it gave better protection against SPAM, phishing attempts, and ransomware. The solution detects emails received from non-reputable sources. You can also finetune Fortinet FortiMail based on your requirements. For example, the solution used to quarantine even safe emails, but after finetuning it, Fortinet FortiMail now only blocks and quarantines unsafe emails.

Fortinet FortiMail has a lot of valuable features. It works great. It also has an antivirus feature.

Support for Fortinet FortiMail was also great when my team wanted to block some geographic IPs, but couldn't figure out how to do it. The support team provided clear communication on how to resolve that issue.

Another valuable feature of Fortinet FortiMail is SPAM filtering which tells you how many spammy emails you've received.

Based on my current use cases, I'm happy with Fortinet FortiMail.

What's missing in Fortinet FortiMail is some sandbox information for some of the emails. It's probably configuration-based, where it could be configured on some emails. For example, there was malware in some emails that weren't detected in some of the Fortinet FortiMail sessions, but it should have been configured from my company's end to better catch scam emails, but overall, the solution is okay.

At the moment, my company is okay with the current Fortinet FortiMail offerings, but in the past, because of a lack of understanding, my team wasn't able to quickly implement the geographical IP blocking feature. It was time-consuming to implement that feature, but that wasn't a fault of Fortinet FortiMail. The issue was from my team's end, but just by emailing the support team, that issue was resolved, so right now, there isn't any additional feature I'd like added to Fortinet FortiMail.

We started using Fortinet FortiMail just this year, in particular, in March.

Fortinet FortiMail is a stable solution.

Fortinet FortiMail is a scalable solution.

The Fortinet FortiMail team provided great support. On a scale of one to five, I'll give it the highest score, which is five.

Positive

Though I wasn't part of the team that installed Fortinet FortiMail, my impression was that the installation was straightforward because it had some documentation on how to do it, and it was easy, so you won't have much trouble installing Fortinet FortiMail. You just need to learn the dashboard first, which is normal for first-time users of any other application. The solution did have a very user-friendly GUI.

Fortinet FortiMail implementation didn't take long. You first put it on the testing platform with a test domain, then you implement it in a production environment, where you'll learn how to use it, and determine how to best put the solution in production. Next, you set up or orient email traffic to the platform, then let the admins and Fortinet FortiMail support team do the work in terms of finetuning the solution and figuring out how to implement it based on company requirements. Though I don't have exact information on how long the deployment took, it was just a short period. For example, for Fortinet FortiMail to be up and running, it took just a couple of days.

My company worked with Fortinet FortiMail support in implementing the solution in the test environment, then in production.

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.

We evaluated other options before deciding on Fortinet FortiMail. We tested Fortinet FortiMail first, discussed it with others, then went with Fortinet FortiMail.

My company is using the latest version of Fortinet FortiMail.

Approximately six hundred to seven hundred people have mailboxes within the company, but in terms of Fortinet FortiMail usage, my company has five administrators for it. Two administrators deal with cybersecurity issues and security checks, then the other two administrators focus on the network, while a system administrator deals directly with product health. I'd say that there are three standard users of Fortinet FortiMail and two backup users.

I would recommend Fortinet FortiMail to others looking into implementing the solution for business purposes.

My rating for Fortinet FortiMail is ten out of ten.

My company is a customer of Fortinet FortiMail.