Avanan vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

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Microsoft Logo
12,659 views|10,155 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Avanan Logo
3,154 views|1,950 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Proofpoint Logo
2,042 views|1,499 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 6, 2023

We compared Avanan and Proofpoint Email Protection across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Features: Avanan is highly praised for its customizability as well as its consistent advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Users describe Proofpoint Email Protection as a convenient all-in-one solution that offers effective defense against phishing attempts.

  • Room for Improvement: Avanan can enhance its alert clearance speed, decrease false positives, and improve scanning and backup options. Proofpoint Email Protection could make its interface clearer and simplify admin management.

  • Service and Support: Avanan's customer service is consistently commended for its exceptional quality, efficiency, and expertise. Proofpoint Email Protection’s customer service is described as responsive, professional, and knowledgeable. However, there are some concerns about availability.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users like Avanan's trouble-free setup and easy updates. Proofpoint Email Protection can be set up in a relatively short amount of time. Some users found it simple, while others mentioned that it requires technical skills.

  • Pricing: Avanan offers affordable, transparent SaaS-based pricing. Users find it cost-effective, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. The opinions on the cost of Proofpoint Email Protection vary, with some users finding it costly while others find it reasonable.

  • ROI: Avanan has consistently provided positive results by enhancing email network security and contributing to revenue growth. Proofpoint Email Protection stands out with its robust phishing signature file, surpassing competitors in threat detection.

Comparison Results: Avanan is praised for its ease of implementation, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness. Users say Avanan could improve by reducing false positives and providing better documentation. Proofpoint Email Protection provides effective email protection and strong threat-detection features. However, it needs to simplify its user interface and administration.

To learn more, read our detailed Avanan vs. Proofpoint Email Protection Report (Updated: January 2024).
770,292 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The product's scalability is good.""Defender helps us prioritize threats across our organization.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications.""There are several features that I consider valuable.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance.""Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features.""It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have.""The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

"Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents.""Avanan is a stable software. My company hasn't faced any issues, bugs, or problems with the performance of Avanan.""The customizable rules allow you to change aspects.""If we look at four to five years ago, we had close to six or eight people click a link in an email per month. Now, we are probably down to about five or six clicks a year, if not less.""I like Avanan's SmartDLP module. It's seamless, and the administrative overhead is low. We aren't a very sophisticated operation. We just want to reduce our exposure, so we find ThreatCloud helpful. Avanan's acquisition by Check Point was beneficial for them.""Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources.""When we don't understand some functionalities, the customer support staff responds fast to our calls and provides immediate action.""It is simple to deploy this platform and interact with the set features."

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"The stability is very good.""There is no downtime.""It's very good at identifying threats.""The solution scales well.""The archive feature is valuable.""The initial implementation is pretty easy to handle.""The solution is very user-friendly.""The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are the performance from being on the cloud."

More Proofpoint Email Protection Pros →

Cons
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot.""This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products.""In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help.""We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice.""The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect.""We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend.""There needs to be an improvement in integrating the product to work across multiple operating systems, and to have better support for non-Microsoft file types.""The product must provide better malware detection."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"It is very difficult to find the required documentation.""The cost can be reviewed to enable SMEs to acquire it and enjoy great security features.""The system could be designed to give corporate emails first priority due to demands.""In Avanan, the email channel is one of the channels where data leakage happens, and they need to consider it from a DLP perspective.""They should come up with a mobile application so that it can be more flexible.""It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss.""When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests.""It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."

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"There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats.""The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge.""The largest complaint that we hear from our customers is that there is no local support.""Proofpoint should have better integration with complex environments that need more than one instance of Proofpoint, as there are issues with nested instances.""We find the cost to be prohibitive.""The scalability can be improved, and the solution can be optimized.""The solution could be improved with the addition of PLP and email encryption features.""Proofpoint Email Protection is an expensive solution."

More Proofpoint Email Protection Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It's a user-base subscription."
  • "From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
  • "Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
  • "For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
  • "The solution saves money so we have seen a return on investment."
  • "Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."
  • More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."
  • "Having the flexibility and modeling to do the pricing that best fits the needs of the organization is incredibly ideal. That is what Avanan does. They know exactly how many users are using it, etc. We can tune the invoicing associated with how we are using the product so we can charge it back to the shows appropriately."
  • "We have a monthly license that is $4 to $8 per user."
  • "The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."
  • "The product is not the cheapest in the market."
  • "Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."
  • More Avanan Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost."
  • "The price is reasonable."
  • "Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
  • "The licensing is basically $8/user."
  • "It is multiple times more expensive, which made it very much less attractive."
  • "Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
  • "The solution charges per user per month to use it. There are not any additional fees in addition to the standard living fees."
  • "Clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive."
  • More Proofpoint Email Protection Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
    770,292 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various… more »
    Top Answer:The product must provide better malware detection. The detection algorithms don't perform the way I hope they would.
    Top Answer:Spam protection is the most valuable feature.
    Top Answer:Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s backup… more »
    Top Answer:The product is costly. I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high… more »
    Top Answer:The whole configuration management piece of the product requires some work, as it is one of the areas where the tool has… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Cofense PhishMe
    Learn More
    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.

    Avanan is a comprehensive cloud security platform that protects organizations from advanced email and collaboration threats. With its multi-layered approach, Avanan provides real-time protection against phishing, malware, data leakage, and account takeover attacks. 

    By integrating with popular cloud applications such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Slack, Avanan ensures seamless security without disrupting user experience. Its advanced AI and machine learning algorithms analyze billions of data points to detect and block threats, while its granular policy controls allow organizations to customize their security settings. 

    Avanan also offers robust threat intelligence and incident response capabilities, enabling organizations to proactively identify and mitigate security risks. 

    With Avanan, organizations can confidently embrace the cloud while keeping their sensitive data and communications secure.

    Proofpoint Email Protection is a machine learning email gateway that catches both known and unknown threats. Through Target Attack Protection, emails will be analyzed and potentially blocked from advanced threats while users gain visibility around these threats. The technology can also classify various types of email and can be deployed both on premises or as a cloud service. In addition, users can tag suspicious emails to help raise user awareness and track down any email quickly.

    Proofpoint Email Protection offers Advanced BEC Defense, which can precisely detect and block different types of emails, even if they don’t involve a malicious payload, such as business email compromise (BEC). Email Protection, which is powered by NexusAI, is a sophisticated detection technique developed to stop a variety of kinds of email fraud from affecting compromised accounts. It’s specifically designed to analyze message components, such as the sender’s IP address (including reputation and x-originating IP), the message header, and the message body. Using machine learning and AI, it will then determine if that message is a BEC threat.

    Benefits of Proofpoint Email Protection

    Proofpoint Email Protection is a favorite for organizations looking to utilize their cybersecurity budget accurately, and provides the user with incredible visibility. While preventing email fraud, the technology can also detect and block advanced malware as well as identifying possible risks.

    Email Protection offers many benefits, including:

    • Email warning tag - Raise user awareness and reduce the risk of possible compromises by automatically tagging suspicious emails.

    • Gain granular control of unwanted email - Gain control over low-priority emails through granular email filtering, which can pinpoint gray mail, like newsletters and bulk mail.

    • Multi-layered detection - Defend against continuous evolving threats with reputation and content analysis. Email Protection offers a dynamic classification of various emails, including malware, spam, phishing, imposter threats, and bulk email.

    • Smart search - Track down an email based on dozens of search criteria in seconds. Smart search also provides the ability to trace where emails came from.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Proofpoint Email Protection enables business continuity capabilities through their machine learning, AI-powered email gateway. With its innovative approach toward detecting, analyzing, identifying, and blocking advanced threats, users can gain unique visibility into their business data environments. Users especially like the ability to block spam, as well as the business email compromise protection.

    An anonymous reviewer who is a principal consultant at a tech company, notes, "Proofpoint is the main tool for blocking spam because it denies the connection altogether."

    Sridhar R., a security professional at Qatar Computer Services WLL, writes, "The most valuable features are the business email compromise protection and targeted attack prevention."

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
    Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Government6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Recruiting/Hr Firm19%
    Security Firm19%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Energy/Utilities Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization47%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Construction Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Healthcare Company12%
    Retailer12%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization25%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise57%
    Large Enterprise24%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business46%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise34%
    Large Enterprise46%
    Buyer's Guide
    Avanan vs. Proofpoint Email Protection
    January 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
    770,292 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Avanan is ranked 6th in Email Security with 21 reviews while Proofpoint Email Protection is ranked 1st in Secure Email Gateway (SEG) with 44 reviews. Avanan is rated 9.2, while Proofpoint Email Protection is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Avanan writes "We've noticed a significant decline from people accidentally or intentionally clicking on things". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Proofpoint Email Protection writes "A reasonably priced product that offers protection to emails, along with spam filters". Avanan is most compared with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Perception Point Advanced Email Security, Abnormal Security and AppRiver Email Security, whereas Proofpoint Email Protection is most compared with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Cisco Secure Email, Fortinet FortiMail and KnowBe4. See our Avanan vs. Proofpoint Email Protection report.

    We monitor all Email Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.