Avanan vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

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Microsoft Logo
12,736 views|10,031 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Avanan Logo
3,147 views|1,958 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Cisco Logo
9,331 views|6,017 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on May 17, 2023

We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Email and Avanan, based on PeerSpot users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Cisco Secure Email and Avanan have different initial setup experiences. Cisco Secure Email can be easy or complex depending on the deployment model, while Avanan is described as easy, straightforward, and not complicated at all. Avanan is a cloud-based solution that is easy to implement and manage, with quick integration with other systems. Customization may be needed for specific cyber threats, but the overall setup process is manageable for both solutions.
  • Features: Cisco Secure Email has a wide range of customizable features, including Advanced Malware Protection, Email Protection, and Advanced Phishing Protection. The solution has a clear graphical interface and powerful tracking capabilities. Avanan excels in detecting and preventing advanced threats like phishing, malware, and ransomware attacks. Its administration and detection components are highly effective, with quick identification of anomalies in emails and links. The solution is accessible for non-technical users, has customizable rules, and provides 24/7 protection. Avanan's AI and machine learning are continuously improving, and it regularly updates its library to identify new threats. The software has prevented account takeovers, eliminated spam, and enhanced end-to-end security for data sharing. Its integration with existing applications is seamless, and its customer support services are reliable.

  • Pricing: Cisco Secure Email offers a variety of pricing options, but some users find it expensive, while Avanan's pricing is reasonable and negotiable based on the user base. Cisco Secure Email has no added costs beyond standard licensing fees, while Avanan offers SaaS-based pricing that allows for per-user charging and subscription as needed. Avanan's pricing and licensing terms are favorable to many enterprises, though some reviewers suggest customized plans for smaller organizations would be helpful. Cisco Secure Email is customizable to the customer environment, and customers are willing to invest more in it.
  • Service and Support: Cisco Secure Email and Avanan both have positive customer service experiences, with Cisco being described as knowledgeable, patient, and prompt, and Avanan being highly praised for their quick response, professional knowledge, and dedication to serving all customers. However, Avanan's customer service is considered the best due to their proactive and innovative approach to service delivery and their ability to work well with customers to maximize solution investment.
  • ROI: Avanan has proven to be more effective than Cisco Secure Email in terms of ROI, with a 60% annual increase in revenue growth and quick payback within a few months. Avanan offers protection for mobile devices and detailed explanations for blocked emails, which has helped maintain data protection. While Cisco Secure Email has also resulted in a positive ROI, there is no information in the reviews on the specific percentage or how it compares to Avanan's ROI.

Comparison Results: Avanan is the preferred product over Cisco Secure Email based on user reviews. Avanan excels in advanced threat detection and prevention, with AI and machine learning continuously improving and updating its library. Avanan also has the best customer service, with professional, helpful, and innovative staff. Both products have positive ROI, but Avanan has an edge in reducing the number of compromised email accounts and phishing attacks, helping protect mobile devices, and providing explicit details on why emails are blocked.

To learn more, read our detailed Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,679 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
"Threat Explorer is one of the features that I very much like because it is a real-time report that allows you to identify, analyze, and trace security attacks.""The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance.""Defender is a SaaS platform, so it offers more flexibility. Managing the permissions is easier. The solution's automated detection and response features are scalable.""The deployment capability is a great feature.""Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises.""The product's scalability is good.""The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

"Avanan is a stable software. My company hasn't faced any issues, bugs, or problems with the performance of Avanan.""The ease of installation and the AI capacity of the product are valuable.""This technology is one of Check Point's acquisitions, and it is currently a powerful tool that provides all the protection that is not found in other tools.""Spam protection is the most valuable feature.""The integration with all our existing and new applications is great.""Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources.""Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents.""It can detect corrupted files and filters out documents with viruses."

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"Capital expenditure is a significant consideration, and the impact on major expenditures prompts a careful analysis before onboarding the new product.""It is a user-friendly product.""The system provides our service desk with the means to troubleshoot email delivery issues with ease.""I can customize the configuration and policies.""It's a bit easy to handle Cisco Secure Email; it's not that difficult. For the logs, which are in PDF format, it's not hard to read them. We don't need Wireshark much to analyze the logs.""The system enables end users to manage their own whitelists/blacklists.""There is a huge return compared to if we didn't have a gateway appliance, as far as blocking malicious emails.""The tool comes with AI features. It is good for clients who already use Cisco products due to integration."

More Cisco Secure Email Pros →

Cons
"They have moved features from one console to another. Things have been moved around in the interface and it takes me time to find where certain features are.""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.""This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products.""The only thing they should improve is the licensing model. They should stop changing it. A year ago, the five features I mentioned were included in one product. Now, three of them are bundled into one product, and you have to pay extra for the other two. I don't mind paying extra, but I don't want them to change it every year or every six months. I need to know what I'm looking at and not worry about it next year.""The product must provide better malware detection.""In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement.""We are always looking for others tools to increase automation on tasks. There can be better integration with other solutions, such as PowerPoint and email.""The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time.""When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests.""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.""Sometimes it seemed like the allow list wasn't working. I've created many allow list rules however, they still seem to be blocked; the same is true with the blocked list rules.""Integration with various SaaS offerings, who are leading in the SaaS market.""There are times when we have false positives.""It should reduce the amount of time needed for thorough scanning."

More Avanan Cons →

"The pricing needs to be reconsidered or enhanced.""I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features.""The interface is dated. It has looked pretty much the same for 15 years or so. It would be helpful to be able to do everything from one spot. The centralized quarantine and reporting are completely separate from policy administration.""If you are not a technical guy, it is hard to maneuver, but as soon as you work on it, it gets better and better. If there was a better way to know how to do things or how to find things, it would be good.""Licensing is quite complicated for a number of customers, including ourselves.""Cisco is already providing a very good environment with the IronPort solution, but there could be some more integration with other products. For instance, an integration with the EDR solution could be there to raise an alert.""The management features of the product are not up to date.""We have been struggling in the last month with Cisco encryption and with the S/MIME encryption. I don't know if it is an issue on our side or if these features of the solution are not working very well."

More Cisco Secure Email 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 →

  • "We do annual licensing for Cisco Secure Email Gatewayand SMA together, and possibly SmartNet support. Packaged together, the cost is just under $38,000."
  • "In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."
  • "Pricing depends on your environment and which model you want to buy."
  • "Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."
  • "The license was not per user, the license model was per feature. You could choose anti-virus, anti-spam, etc. It was feature-based and charged yearly."
  • "There were no other costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."
  • "It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."
  • More Cisco Secure Email Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    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:Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
    Top Answer:The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market. Whether the product… more »
    Top Answer:I am not satisfied with the solution's reporting and logging.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
    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.

    Cisco Secure Email is an email security solution that provides advanced protection to safeguard inboxes. The solution includes comprehensive defense from the most damaging threats so your employees and organization can remain secure at all times. In addition, it includes advanced threat defense capabilities that detect, block, and remediate threats in incoming email faster. Simultaneously, it protects an organization’s brand, prevents data loss, and secures important information in transit with end-to-end encryption.

    Cisco Secure Email Features

    Cisco Secure Email has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Advanced threat analysis: Easily identify the malicious techniques used in attacks targeting your organization. Understand the specific business risks and categorize threats to gain insight into the parts of your organization that are most vulnerable to attack.
    • Robust, actionable threat data: The solution’s searchable threat analysis data provides critical contextual insight to the attack scope and breadth and expedites remediation.
    • Real-time URL analysis: With this feature, you can drop emails with risky links automatically or block access to newly infected sites with real-time URL analysis to protect against phishing.
    • Domain-based message authentication (DMARC): Users can prevent brand abuse from attackers using their organization’s domain to carry out phishing campaigns with automation of the domain-based message authentication (DMARC) process.
    • Data loss prevention (DLP): The solution enables users to protect sensitive content in outgoing emails.

    Cisco Secure Email Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Cisco Secure Email. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Optimize your defenses: The solution is designed to protect your organization from threats that can come from multiple sources, including phishing, malware, and ransomware. It can defend against all of them with industry-leading threat intelligence that empowers you to act quickly.
    • More efficient processes: You can use the solution’s orchestration feature to simplify workflows, reduce the burden on your team, and focus on more strategic initiatives.
    • Easy-to-manage tools: The solution is built with tools that are user-friendly and help you spend less time managing alerts. They allow users to quickly detect emerging threats and quarantine suspected threats to prevent their spread.
    • Flexible license options: Cisco Secure Email provides three different license choices: Secure Email Essentials, Secure Email Advantage, and Secure Email Premier.
    • Increase spam catch rates: Cisco Secure Email blocks unwanted emails using a multilayered scanning architecture.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cisco Secure Email is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has an intuitive interface, reputation filtering, few false positives, and great protection features.

    Enrique J., Owner at Jolly Security Inc., says, "It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. The most valuable feature is reputation filtering.”

    The solution has a “low rate of false positives, good support, and it integrates well with other Cisco security products,” explains Mark R., IT Admin / Manager at a retailer.

    PeerSpot user Charles N., Network Security Engineer at Galaxy Backbone Ltd., mentions, “It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. They have a lot of features such as Advanced Malware Protection, Email Protection, Advanced Phishing Protection, Antispam, Antivirus, and Outbreak Filters.”

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
    SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Security Firm20%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm20%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization48%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Construction Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Retailer10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Educational Organization17%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business45%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise40%
    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 Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise48%
    Buyer's Guide
    Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Avanan is ranked 6th in Email Security with 21 reviews while Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 56 reviews. Avanan is rated 9.2, while Cisco Secure Email 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 Cisco Secure Email writes "Has effortless spam control, improves security posture, and frees up our IT department's time". Avanan is most compared with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Perception Point Advanced Email Security, Abnormal Security and INKY Email Security Platform, whereas Cisco Secure Email is most compared with Trellix Collaboration Security, Fortinet FortiMail, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Proofpoint Email Protection and Trend Micro Email Security. See our Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email report.

    See our list of best Email Security vendors.

    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.