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Network Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use, effective threat blocking based on geo-location, good technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "SpamTitan is a product that saves us time. The less spam that you have, the more time you have because you're not digging through the mail that hits your inbox."
  • "One of the areas that can be improved is the GUI. The product works well but finding things in the interface can sometimes be a bit difficult, just because it's so in-depth and covers a lot."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is filtering incoming emails.

How has it helped my organization?

SpamTitan is a product that saves us time. The less spam that you have, the more time you have because you're not digging through the mail that hits your inbox. The other thing is that it blocks potential trojans, viruses, and phishing attempts. This means that IT has less to deal with in case something does get through and opened, resulting in an infection.

On the front end, the user community doesn't have nearly as much email to deal with, in particular, spam messages. On the back end for IT, it's a huge time saver because we're not infecting our network with malware.

Before we got SpamTitan, the amount of time spent dealing with unwanted emails depended on the user. People that were dealing with a lot of outside entities would receive more spam because their email address is out there. Depending on the user, they might have three or four spam messages, or somebody might have between 20 and 30 to deal with.

For people on the higher end, with 20 or 30 spam messages that are hitting their inbox, it's time-consuming to go through and determine whether something is valid or invalid. In some cases, an email says it's coming from within the company, perhaps somebody in our purchasing department. When another employee sees the name, they assume it's safe but in reality, it's a spoofed email address. People often don't feel like digging into it so they just look at the email, resulting in the introduction of a trojan, virus, or other malware.

The amount of time that it takes to deal with spam messages varies. It depends on the type of spam that is hitting the inbox. In the morning when you fire up your email program, a high-end user may spend 15 to 20 minutes going through stuff just to make sure it's valid or not valid.

Then, throughout the day, these people were getting spam messages. It eats your time, even with one or two here and there, because you're taking time to maybe open the message, then investigate if it's really coming from a valid address or not. Even if it only takes a minute to do one message, and you get 15 of those a day, that's 15 minutes of your time. That's quite valuable.

We have thousands of users so even if 2,000 of them get five spam messages a day, and it takes each one a minute to deal with, it's a lot of time.

Using SpamTitan has immensely improved our spam catch rate and reduced our false positive rate. In a five-year timeframe, it has blocked between 60 million and 70 million messages. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the protection that it offers against spam, phishing, viruses, and other such attacks. That's the biggest benefit of the product.

We use the geo-blocking feature, which helps to reduce our spam intake. There are known locations that are notorious for sending spam, viruses, and so forth, which is one of the reasons we use it. Right now, our filter is blocking approximately 75% of the mail that hits our door. Only 26% of the mail we get actually passes.

We use the geo-blocking feature for restricting emails based on country, and it works well. However, if something does pass that is spam or a phishing attempt, then we may block by IP address if necessary. This is very important to our organization because spam email is bad, and it's a problem for us.

We are able to create exceptions based on a trusted sender's specific location or IP address, and it works fine for that. We don't have a large rule base and in most cases, the senders, who are typically customers or vendors that we deal with, do not have their email exchange set up properly. They don't have the proper checks in place, so we add exceptions for them.

The user interface is good, and it's pretty easy to use once you learn your way around. That said, there's a lot to it and it's in-depth. There are many aspects to the interface, and there are a lot of tabs.

Overall, in terms of the system's intuitiveness, it's okay. When you click on a tab for system settings, as an example, there are multiple tabs that you can drill down into from there. Sometimes, it can be a little bit difficult to find out where you want to go, just because there are many layers to the interface.

It is difficult to say how I might improve it. There are many pieces to it, and a lot of layers, but the way they have it set up is fine. Sometimes, however, you have to search around a little bit to find out where you want to go.

There are eight main tabs and once you click on one of those tabs, it takes you into another area where there can be up to eight or ten other things that you can click into. Then, when you get in there, it might be another six or eight areas that you can look at.

If you go into system setup, as an example, and then go to static routing for network configuration, that's three layers deep. You would probably figure that the network configuration is going to be in the system setup, so you would start there intuitively, but it's a lot of options.

What needs improvement?

One of the areas that can be improved is the GUI. The product works well but finding things in the interface can sometimes be a bit difficult, just because it's so in-depth and covers a lot.

Buyer's Guide
TitanHQ SpamTitan
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about TitanHQ SpamTitan. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using TitanHQ SpamTitan for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable product. We have not had any downtime and we have not had the product crash on us, where it was not filtering mail.

We have not rebooted our server for five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SpamTitan is easily scalable. If you give them more money, they'll give you more licenses.

We are a large company with many factories in Mexico, China, Vietnam, and several US cities. We have several thousand employees and in the past five years of using SpamTitan, we have blocked between 60 million and 70 million messages.

We have 100% adoption. Any email coming into our company has to go through this filter before it hits our Exchange server and then is distributed to the user community. 

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is really good. I've had great luck with the support group out of Titan HQ. They are quick to respond and typically have a solution very quickly. If they don't, they'll dig into it and keep updating you as to where they're at in the process of finding a solution. Overall, I'm pleased with the support.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. It's not a perfect rating because there is always that time when you don't get the exact answer you want, or they can't do exactly what you want. In any case, that could be a software update or something that has to be reprogrammed. They will send that up to development, but sometimes it takes time for that to happen.

If comparing support to other vendors, their response time is very quick. When you open a ticket, you get a response right away that they acknowledge that you've submitted a help desk ticket with them. Then typically you'll get a response from the tech at Titan HQ that has picked up the ticket.

They'll let you know either right then about a solution, or that they're investigating. Typically you will hear back, I would say normally within the hour, with a solution, or potential questions to help with a solution.

I would rate them above average as far as their response time and working through issues.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to using SpamTitan, we were using the filtering that is part of our Microsoft Exchange.

How was the initial setup?

It's quite easy to set up. There are a lot of defaults that are set up in how it functions and what it does. Then, as you start using the product more, you can get more in-depth and put more controls and filters in place. As far as initially setting it up, the process is pretty easy.

Having it easy to set up is always an important thing. The less time you have to spend configuring and setting up a product, the more time you have for doing other things.

From start to finish, we spent approximately one day getting it set up. The server was installed, the software was installed, and then we set up getting our mail routed through it.

After the initial setup, there is some programming and other things that you do over time. But, I wouldn't consider that as part of the installation process.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation ourselves, with the help of Titan HQ. Our experience with them has been good. The products that they sell are typically good and easy to use, so you'll potentially put them into other locations or buy more licenses.

The deployment can be done with one person, and we have a couple of people on staff that take care of it. If there are issues with false positives or things of that nature, we've got a couple of people on staff that oversee it. That's not their only job; they're network administrators or systems admins and they have multiple tasks. That said, they have a couple of people that are familiar with the product and work on it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is on par with other products, and it's reasonable. They have different categories as far as the size of your company and how they license it, which is good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated three or four products at the time, although it was several years ago and I don't recall exactly which ones.

We preferred SpamTitan after looking at other customer reviews, talking with some references, and they just came out the winner as far as capabilities. Support is a big thing for anybody when it comes to dealing with a product, and it's important because you're potentially blocking viruses and other malware that could harm the company very badly.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is looking into implementing this product is to first go through their demo with them and make sure you understand how in-depth the product is because there's a lot to it. If the end-user wants a product that they plug in and turn on and they never have to look at it again, SpamTitan is not it.

This is an in-depth product and there are multiple ways to block things, although it is fairly plug-and-play with their default configuration. Other than just the actual configuration of IP addresses and things of that nature, there's a lot to it.

I know there are simpler options out there, but they also are not as comprehensive as what you can do with the product.

Overall, as far as the product goes and how it catches things, I'm quite happy with it. Ninety percent of the time, it does a great job. There is that 10% that sometimes you may want to try and do something with it, and it doesn't have the capability. That is pretty rare and when it happens, typically they will send that to development, and development will come up with a solution.

It may take a little time for them because I'm sure they have a huge backlog of things, but it's not like they tell you it's something they're not going to do. Instead, they'll send it to the development team and explain that there is an issue that the customer wants to be corrected or a capability that they want to have added. At that point, it will go up the chain within their organization.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Senior Network & Security Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Enhanced email security with advanced spam detection and threat intelligence
Pros and Cons
  • "The AI technology is improving email security by enhancing spam detection capabilities."
  • "There needs to be improvement in response time due to the requirement of going through the ticketing system, which can cause delays."

What is our primary use case?

I use TitanHQ SpamTitan for email security. I recommend it to customers to protect against spam and unwanted emails.

How has it helped my organization?

SpamTitan has reduced phishing attempts and improved threat detection by identifying emails without body content as spam. Its gray listing and threat intelligence have strengthened our email security and reduced unwanted emails.

What is most valuable?

The gray listing feature is most effective for filtering unwanted emails. The AI technology is improving email security by enhancing spam detection capabilities.

What needs improvement?

There needs to be improvement in response time due to the requirement of going through the ticketing system, which can cause delays. Additionally, the pricing model could be improved for larger companies as scaling up becomes expensive. Including link protection in the existing licensing would be beneficial.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SpamTitan for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

SpamTitan is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable, but when scaled up for larger organizations, it can incur additional costs. It might not be suitable for companies with large numbers of employees.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is fine, but improvements could be made in response time since there is no direct call-in support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used AppRiver but switched to SpamTitan because it was rated highly by Gartner and had favorable pricing.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward, involving sending MX records. It usually takes about half an hour.

What about the implementation team?

Deployment does not require many people. A single IT professional can handle it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

SpamTitan's pricing is competitive, being one of the least expensive compared to other vendors. The approximate cost is around $7000 USD. There are no additional costs required for maintenance or support.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated all the basic features of human security solutions before choosing SpamTitan.

What other advice do I have?

I would not recommend it to multinational corporations (MNCs) due to potential delays in email processing as emails may be held in queues. A newly updated interface requires getting familiar with its functionalities. An integrated link protection feature would be beneficial.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
TitanHQ SpamTitan
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about TitanHQ SpamTitan. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Proprietor at Fellcroft
Real User
Reasonably-priced, simple to use, and reduces the support and investigation required for suspicious emails
Pros and Cons
  • "Its simplicity is most valuable. It does what we ask it to do. The filters work, and we are able to set the levels and give the clients or end-user access to the quarantine through a simple email."
  • "A lot of the other companies that I deal with have a feature that allows you to modify emails and apply signatures automatically based on linking into Azure's servers and database. That feature isn't there in SpamTitan."

What is our primary use case?

SpamTitan for our clients, and it's there just as a spam filter for them.

How has it helped my organization?

It reduces the number of support calls and investigations into suspicious emails.

It's not something the clients think about after the initial rollout. It just becomes part of their daily work. The advantage is that the client doesn't have to think about things or spend too much time sorting through things as the vast majority is done before they get anywhere near it.

The geo-blocking feature blocks spam emails from entering the network and servers, reducing spam intake. It has probably reduced spam intake by about 80%. It mainly restricts based on the country of origin, which is something the client doesn't think about, but it's important to me because I have to pick up the pieces.

The geo-blocking feature allows exemptions based on a trusted sender's IP, domain, or email address. The feature is there, and it does work. It's not something that we have to change too often.

It has helped save employees time by not having to sort through junk and spam emails. The whole point of doing it is that end-users don't have to troll through hundreds of spurious emails. If they don't see them, they get a list each morning, and they can decide if any of them is worth releasing.

It has drastically reduced the amount of time that employees spend going through emails. They only get the ones they should.

It has improved the spam catch rate and reduced the organization’s false positive rate. That's the whole point of it. Otherwise, we wouldn't use the service. There is a 70% to 80% improvement.

We are an MSP of TitanHQ. The aspect of TitanHQ’s technology that helps us acquire new customers and add value to our services or product offerings is that it's very quick to roll out. It's very quick and easy to configure, and it's very quick and easy to modify as required.

TitanHQ’s key differentiator for its partners is simplicity. Some of the other packages that we use are quite complex and awkward and not necessarily easy to configure or logical.

What is most valuable?

Its simplicity is most valuable. It does what we ask it to do. The filters work, and we are able to set the levels and give the clients or end-user access to the quarantine through a simple email. It works in a very straightforward method and doesn't require a lot of maintenance.

What needs improvement?

A lot of the other companies that I deal with have a feature that allows you to modify emails and apply signatures automatically based on linking into Azure's servers and database. That feature isn't there in SpamTitan. 

Others have the facility to remove certain bits of text. For example, if somebody sends an email from their iPhone, it always says, "Sent from my iPhone." On a couple of other services that we use, a feature is available to strip known phrases and also to strip things like obscenities from emails that are being sent, just in case you have an employee who is misbehaving.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using SpamTitan for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've had no issues with it. So, it has got to be very stable.

Its stability is on par with the other solutions that I have used. Stability was never an issue.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable. You can go as far as you like or as low as you like. You can go from one user to 200 users very quickly and very easily.

It's deployed on multiple locations, multiple devices, and multiple platforms. There are just under 40 users for this one.

How are customer service and support?

It has been very good. I've not had much need to use their support, but when I needed their support, it was there. Their support was very good in terms of expertise, attentiveness, and speed of response. I would rate them a nine out of ten. Nobody gets a ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Mimecast. We switched because SpamTitan was a simpler solution, and it was also cheaper.

How was the initial setup?

It's a cloud solution. It's on Azure, and it's all Microsoft based.

The initial deployment was very straightforward. We required a couple of tweaks, which the support team sorted out in a reasonable time. 

The deployment took about 30 minutes. It was very easy to set up, configure, and then use SpamTitan. It doesn't require any maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

It was just me.

What was our ROI?

I suppose we have seen an ROI. We do make a margin on it. I don't have the metrics because it's just a revenue stream at the end of the day. We could earn more money off some of the other products that are out there on the market, but that wouldn't necessarily suit the client.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's priced very reasonably. There are no additional licensing costs that affect me.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I looked at some of the other solutions, including BitDefender and Kaspersky, as well as Mimecast. SpamTitan stood out in terms of the simplicity of the system.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend this product. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It just lacks a couple of features.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: MSP
PeerSpot user
reviewer2025309 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Technology at a performing arts with 201-500 employees
Real User
Has a simple process for end users to encrypt emails but does not have an easy way to deal with false positives
Pros and Cons
  • "The encryption feature seems to be the most useful. We didn't have a convenient option for it previously, and having the capability to encrypt from within the message nearly seamlessly is a benefit to us."
  • "With SpamTitan, the false positives and false negatives seem to be higher than those with the product we had previously. The other area for improvement has to do with how to deal with false positives. If something slips through, there's no easy way to mark it as spam globally. The add-in has not been working. We haven't even deployed it to our entire organization yet because it's not working for the few in the pilot project."

What is most valuable?

The encryption feature seems to be the most useful. We didn't have a convenient option for it previously, and having the capability to encrypt from within the message nearly seamlessly is a benefit to us.

EncryptTitan's Keyword Policy Based Encryption feature is one of the features we were looking for. We wanted a simple process for our end users so that they could encrypt emails and attachments. The other option we had before used multiple steps in order to achieve the same result.

What needs improvement?

With SpamTitan, the false positives and false negatives seem to be higher than those with the product we had previously.

The other area for improvement has to do with how to deal with false positives. If something slips through, there's no easy way to mark it as spam globally. The add-in has not been working. We haven't even deployed it to our entire organization yet because it's not working for the few in the pilot project.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using SpamTitan for almost a year now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, it's pretty consistent. It has not gone down, although we had to have the instance restarted once. The stability of our previous email security solution was about the same as that of SpamTitan.

How are customer service and support?

I'm not happy with the technical support. Issues seem to drag on longer than they should, and we have no direct phone contact with support staff. Everything is handled through email, which is not really efficient in some situations and prevents the problem from being resolved faster.

In comparison, the technical support from AppRiver was much faster in terms of service responses. The products that we had before AppRiver were from GFI MailEssentials, and they were very responsive and had phone support so that we could directly talk to someone.

Overall, I would rate technical support at five on a scale from one to ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used AppRiver. The primary reasons we chose SpamTitan are that it was a more modern product and that it offered encryption. On paper, it also looked like SpamTitan had more features than AppRiver.

SpamTitan built a solution for us and tested it out, and it seemed to work fine. That's why we went with it.

How was the initial setup?

The level of complexity of the initial setup was not beyond what we expected because we were deploying a lot of options. We had good support, and it was not difficult to set up and configure SpamTitan. We definitely wanted to be able to deploy the solution as quickly as possible.

We have one person assigned to handle the maintenance of the solution.

SpamTitan is deployed organization-wide. We're very regional, so we don't have other entities outside of our location.

What about the implementation team?

We worked directly with SpamTitan. I did the backend configuration, integrating it with our Office 365 tenant, and my colleague was responsible for the Outlook plugin, which is still an issue.

What was our ROI?

Encryption has definitely filled a gap that we needed, and it's a return on investment. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing was a little bit below the average of what we were looking at.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Proofpoint, Barracuda, Trustify, and Kaseya. We chose to go with SpamTitan because of the encryption option and the supposed modern email security options.

What other advice do I have?

If you are evaluating SpamTitan, I would advise you to take a look at the service options for problem resolution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate SpamTitan a seven.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Attorney at Wegman and Levin
Real User
I like the ability to go online and view mail that's been quarantined
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the ability to go online and view mail that's been quarantined. SpamTitan lets you look at the mail and decide whether you want to release it or not."
  • "SpamTitan doesn't quarantine when it blocks things based on the remote block list or greylisting. It just deletes the email. When I try to look at these blocked items, it tells me they're gone. RBL or greylisted items aren't saved, so you can check them. There may be a setting somewhere that I haven't seen."

What is our primary use case?

SpamTitan filters all incoming mail. We don't allow anything to come into our mail server without passing through SpamTitan. It filters out malware, spam, and any other email-based threat. It's a SaaS solution that's entirely on the cloud. Everything is redirected from our server to the SpamTitan servers.

They do the necessary filtering and pass all the safe emails through to our server. Our servers are configured to only accept IP connections from three or four IP addresses that are specific to SpamTitan, so nobody else can get into the mail server.

Our system consists of two physical servers and several virtual servers. One box is in the office, and there's a backup server at my home. The mail server just happens to be my home. We have about seven or eight end users, but each user can have multiple accounts.  

For example, we have an account for receiving special categories of mail that are placed in a designated folder. In other words, we create accounts that are associated with individual people. We have an online credit card processing company, so when they send emails, it goes to an email address called info@wegmanlevin.com. When it arrives here, it gets split off into a separate folder.

How has it helped my organization?

SpamTitan reduced the spam and malware that gets to our Outlook clients. The prior solution we used didn't do that great a job with malware. I don't know if the time spent sorting through spam has changed compared to the previous solution. 

However, sometimes malware would get wrongly classified as spam. Some emails that used to get through were flagged as spam, but it actually turned out to be malware. That should never have gotten through at all. It should have been blocked or stripped. In some cases, malware infected people's systems with the previous solution. 

What is most valuable?

I like the ability to go online and view mail that's been quarantined. SpamTitan lets you look at the mail and decide whether you want to release it or not.

What needs improvement?

SpamTitan doesn't quarantine when it blocks things based on the remote block list or greylisting. It just deletes the email. When I try to look at these blocked items, it tells me they're gone. RBL or greylisted items aren't saved, so you can check them. There may be a setting somewhere that I haven't seen. 

We get some false positives sometimes. Once we spot it, we can add the sender to the safe list. Then it's no longer a problem. It seems kind of random at times. For example, I got an email last night from the fraud department at Chase Bank informing me that my card had been compromised. It was flagged as spam, so I logged in and released it. It's a balancing act between a spam solution that's overly aggressive or too loose about letting spam in. I think SpamTitan falls on the aggressive side, but it's usually not enough to cause any problems.

I would also like more control over reporting. The reporting is limited to once daily. With the old product, we could get reports multiple times during the day with all the emails quarantined since the last report went out. We had one report at 8:00 a.m. to tell us about all the overnight traffic. We'd also get notifications at noon, and 5:00 p.m., just before people went home.

Over the course of the day, only a few hours would pass before we reviewed a quarantined email. SpamTitan sends its report in the middle of the night, so something can be trapped there for 24 hours. There's a workaround. If somebody tells you an email they were expecting hasn't come through, an admin can go into the portal and release it. That's a hassle. 

Also, there's an attack where a hacker generates emails with the correct domain name but hundreds of different user names. SpamTitan bills by the number of users, and they don't allow you to distinguish between real users and bots. I think I have a limit of around 30 or 35 users, so if somebody hit me with hundreds of phony names, I would get reports generated for each one of those fake accounts and be billed for it. It hasn't happened, but it could. I'm not crazy about that aspect of it. I think it would make a lot more sense if I could give TitanHQ a list of all valid email addresses and tell them to bounce any other email addresses.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using SpamTitan for about a year and a half. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had any issues with stability

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're a small law firm, so I haven't had a reason to scale up SpamTitan, but I assume I could if necessary. It's not likely to happen in my business. If we doubled in size, that would mean going from seven to 14 people. I'm sure that wouldn't present an issue for the software. However, if we had hundreds of employees, I would prefer an on-premise hardware solution.

How are customer service and support?

I've never had a problem that required support, but I contacted TitanHQ support initially with questions about how to tweak some settings. I rate TitanHQ support nine out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used SurfControl, but the version was no longer supported on our server. We originally ran this on the Windows 2003 server, but the product wouldn't install when we upgraded. When we approached the vendor about newer products, we found that all their latest solutions were online and a lot more expensive than SpamTitan, so I started to shop around.

How was the initial setup?

I set SpamTitan up by myself. It was straightforward once I conceptualized exactly what we were doing and the way we were deploying this in the middle of our mail delivery cycle. We have updated the configuration by adding more domains since the original implementation and it was easy.

What was our ROI?

If it blocks one piece of malware from getting into my system, it has probably paid for itself several times over.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost of SpamTitan is reasonable for what we get out of the solution. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I don't recall the names of all the solutions we evaluated,  but looked at Barracuda and a couple of others. We felt that SpamTitan was the best fit, given the size of our operation, monthly costs, etc.

What other advice do I have?

I rate SpamTitan eight out of ten. It's a great option if you're a smaller organization that wants to keep spam and malware off your system. A larger organization may wish to consider the on-premise solution TitanHQ offers because of the licensing issues and limitations on reporting. I recommend that if it's cost-effective for your organization.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Owner/Founder at Nexxous Computer Centres Ltd.
Real User
Provides 100% security, allows us to import rules from other appliances, and is surprisingly easy to install
Pros and Cons
  • "The mail scanning is most valuable. They've been very good. We've used other ones, and everything else seems to be substandard than this. The other thing that I found helpful with SpamTitan was the ability to import rules from other appliances."
  • "We're so used to it now. If anything, there should be more ease of access for the users. If you're on our mail server, there should be easier access for you to better manage your own mailbox."

What is our primary use case?

It is a spam appliance. We're using it in front of our server. It only covers one mail server, and it does the scanning of all of our incoming mail. 

In terms of its version, we're always up to date. It is the newest version. We have it set to auto-update.

How has it helped my organization?

When we bought this solution, we were looking for 100% security, and it provides that. We also tried other solutions. As far as we're concerned, it's even better than Barracuda.

It has saved employees’ time by not having to sort through junk and spam emails. It is hard to define the time saved because each mailbox is unique to itself and what the user has been doing online, but overall, it would have saved hours.

What is most valuable?

The mail scanning is most valuable. They've been very good. We've used other ones, and everything else seems to be substandard than this.

The other thing that I found helpful with SpamTitan was the ability to import rules from other appliances.

The ability to contact their tech support and have them build in custom rules for us is also very important. For instance, somebody submitted a staff member's email address to some spam, and he was getting hundreds a day. They created a custom rule set for that mailbox. That really helped to stabilize the app. It saved hours in going through all those emails daily, which is a huge waste of time. Emails are critical, and if your mailbox starts to get spammed and they're blowing through these predefined rules, you need somebody there to help build custom rules. That's exactly what they did.

I've been involved with other solutions, and I've been through the interfaces of Barracuda. I have also tried some free appliances, and I feel that its interface, once you get used to the lingo, is good. It is very easy to use, at least for me. They're doing pretty good.

What needs improvement?

We're so used to it now. If anything, there should be more ease of access for the users. If you're on our mail server, there should be easier access for you to better manage your own mailbox.

For how long have I used the solution?

We probably have been using this solution since 2014.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My impression of its stability is very high because we don't have any problems. It is ahead of others in terms of stability. The only time we've had a problem was when the hardware on the appliance crashed. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Its scalability is really good. In comparison to others, it is very scalable for what we need in the environment that we use.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is good. Some time ago, they opened up support out of California, which is better. When we first started using SpamTitan, one of the biggest problems was the time differential from the UK to us. We have used the one in California quite a bit, and it has been good for us. 

In terms of expertise, attentiveness, and speed of response from TitanHQ's customer support team versus competing solutions' customer support team, hands down, they have got the best and the fastest response time, which is extremely important, especially when you're having any issues with the appliance and it is interfering with mail protocols.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

It was a long time ago. We tried Barracuda, and there was another open-source one. We found too many inadequacies with Barracuda and its scanning. SpamTitan is considerably more accurate than Barracuda and the open-source one that we tried. The most important thing is the accuracy on the emails coming in. The ability to contact their tech support for custom rules is also valuable.

How was the initial setup?

It was super easy. I was surprised. There was already a pre-built VM, so we just used the virtual disk, created the VM on our side, attached it, and then we went through the command prompt setups. The command prompt setups pretty much tell you exactly what each step is.

What about the implementation team?

It was me who did the deployment, but they assisted me too. I also take care of its maintenance.

In terms of maintenance, it requires a very minor amount of maintenance. We just do periodic FTP backups off-site. Besides that, there are just updates. There is not much more to do. Depending on what they've changed in the update, it usually requires a restart of the appliance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We tried most open-source products that were free out there to save money, but we didn't mind paying the money after we had seen the glitches with them. We found that the open-source ones just couldn't handle the load of the number of mailboxes that we have. They just couldn't handle the load on it. The databases would continually crash, and then we'd have to start all over again. That's a lot of time and wasted effort. Especially when you're dealing with months of database building and then all of a sudden it crashes, you have to rebuild the appliance real quick and get it back online.

What other advice do I have?

You need to have some networking knowledge for the ability to deploy it. You also have to understand the environment itself. Once you get in there and get going, it works very well. For me, it was actually fairly easy to understand. When we first deployed it, their consultant Patrick was very helpful in not just deploying it but also understanding how it works.

I would rate it a ten out of ten, especially after I've seen Barracuda.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1828251 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Information Technology at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Good pricing with excellent geo-blocking and low false-positives
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup was relatively easy."
  • "It's been the same interface for ten years and some things are hard to find, even after using it for years."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for spam filtering for all of our internal clients.

How has it helped my organization?

We're talking ten years since we started using it. At the time, the products we were using took a lot of manual effort to make sure that we were blocking unwanted emails. When we moved to SpamTitan, it alleviated some of that daily work that we'd have to do to make sure we were getting clean email.

What is most valuable?

Their general spam filtering and the logging of the history are helpful.

They have a low false-negative detection. We have a lot of control over what is filtered and what isn't through creating our own rule sets.

We also use SpamTitan's geo-blocking feature. We started using that when it became available as we were doing that ourselves on-prem. We started using that when it became available last year. It allows you to block spam emails entering your network and servers, reducing your spam intake. Being able to block a whole country that our customers don't deal with is just an easy way to not even have to process those spam messages. 

I'm not sure if I can approximate by how much we've reduced our spam intake by using this feature, however. We tend to geo-block based on the country, not the IP. So far, it works. It's easy to set up and easy to make exceptions, based on either IP or domain, in case there is some email from a country that we're blocking that we have to allow through. It's very important due to the fact that we're a government agency. Blocking emails from certain countries, especially during times like this, where there are a lot of attacks coming in, helps keep us safe.

In general, the user interface is good. SpamTitan's overall intuitiveness is okay. 

The solution has saved us time. We went from doing work every day to maybe a couple of times a week to make sure the emails we are getting are clean.

What needs improvement?

The interface could be updated. I wish it was a little bit more modern. It's been the same interface for ten years and some aspects are hard to find, even after using it for years. If you don't go to a certain feature often, you have to dig around to find it sometimes. Therefore, the layout or structure of it could probably be better. 

In terms of intuitiveness, the main daily admin use is fine, however, some of the special configuration areas don't seem to be logically laid out compared to other products that we use.

The only other issue we've had is with searching the logs. It has a field for searching the "from user", yet does not have a "header from". Sometimes it's difficult to find an email when the "from" and "header from" are different, as we're only able to search the from field. This is difficult compared to other products that we use.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. I'd say it's around an eight out of ten. We've had a couple of issues with running out of memory or disk space. However, support has always been able to adjust things to get them back working.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We haven't really expanded it. We have about 5,000 mailboxes that go through it. We've adopted it 100%. We do plan to increase usage.

How are customer service and support?

Their support has always been very good. They're always responsive. You get to the person that is going to be working on it immediately. You don't have these different support levels to get through to get your question answered or the problem fixed.

It's very good. It's one of our best supports on any of the products that we have.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was relatively easy. SpamTitan support helped us get it initially configured. It wasn't difficult on our side. Some of the rules we had to manually enter, and if we had a large batch of things that needed to be inputted, we could send it to their help desk, and they would make the changes for us. They were very helpful with getting it up and running.

For the deployment, I had it up and running on the same day and we were able to point our email to it.

What about the implementation team?

We did have some assistance from technical support.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI. Mostly due to the fact that it freed up man-hours of dealing with spam on a daily basis.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is definitely reasonable. Compared to Office 365 Defender, it's a lot cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We actually use multiple levels or multiple vendors of spam filtering. SpamTitan is our primary one. Then we have another one behind it. Then, some of our customers that have Office 365 have 365 checking things also.

SpamTitan is definitely easier to manage than the others. We haven't compared to any others that have been primary filtering, however, it's done a good job on filtering. Of course, no spam protection is 100%. That's why we run multiple solutions.

What other advice do I have?

In terms of advice to others, I would say if the customer wants to get very detailed in their spam filtering and if they need something to formulate the specific patterns, this is a good solution to look into.

I'd rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
President - CEO at Micro Computer Enterprises
Reseller
Blocks spam email, and support is well above average compared to other companies
Pros and Cons
  • "Every client that uses it experiences a productivity boost. If somebody has to filter through 150 or 200 emails a day to find the 30 good ones, that's inefficient. If they're using SpamTitan it's making them more efficient because they don't have to go through all the junk."
  • "They could improve on the color of the interface."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for domain spam filtering. You put the original MX records on their server and the mail goes to them and then back to you, clean.

How has it helped my organization?

One way that TitanHQ positions me, as a reseller, to acquire new business is that what they have is comprehensive. It's not any one thing that does it. It's a conglomeration of product offerings. The group of products that we can offer makes us look better because we're offering a comprehensive suite of solutions.

Every client that uses it experiences a productivity boost. If somebody has to filter through 150 or 200 emails a day to find the 30 good ones, that's inefficient. If they're using SpamTitan it's making them more efficient because they don't have to go through all the junk.

SpamTitan helps improve your spam catch-rate and reduce your false-positive rate. It depends on the domain, but in general it blocks spam email which amounts to about 60-plus percent of the email that people receive. It makes them that much more efficient.

What is most valuable?

The user interface and user experience of SpamTitan are very good. It's easy to use and very intuitive. No end-user is going to buy the product. A company or a reseller is going to buy it for them. As one of those resellers, I know that our users get a daily report and they can un-quarantine something, or block it in the future.

What needs improvement?

They could improve on the color of the interface.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using TitanHQ SpamTitan for four or five years.

I pay them a flat price for space on a shared server and I can then set up unlimited domains and up to 200 email addresses.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is extremely high.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's an all-in solution. We have it across five domains and there are about 175 users.

How are customer service and support?

The biggest benefit of being a partner of TitanHQ is the technical support. It's good, quality support. Any product can say it is as good as it wants, but without support, no product is useful.

Their support is well above average. They are way better than the average tech support you get from other companies.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used to use a different product and I was pretty happy with it, but then it had a technology fallout and it disappeared off the planet. We couldn't get to our system. Their phones were out for a month and the service was down for a month and we just had to get away from them.

I had Googled SpamTitan, from the TitanHQ line of products, and had gotten very good feedback about them. I decided to give them a try because I needed a new solution. The service worked and the tech support is great.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is another area where we go back to the support they provide. Their support department holds your hand and helps you get through the process. I did four or five domains over a couple of hours on a weekend.

It's pretty simple, just a matter of making sure you have control of the DNS and updating the MX records.

It just takes one person for deployment and maintenance.

What other advice do I have?

The biggest lesson I've learned from using the solution is that there are a lot of nasty emails out there.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free TitanHQ SpamTitan Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free TitanHQ SpamTitan Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.