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

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 5, 2023

We compared Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Features: Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration offers exceptional integration through APIs, advanced protection against data leaks, and the ability to detect complex social engineering attacks. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stands out for its thorough email scanning, ease of use, and anti-phishing capabilities.

  • Room for Improvement: Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration could improve integration with Exchange and other SaaS clouds while enhancing its threat clouds and AI engines. On the other hand, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can improve integration with non-Microsoft solutions and offer better documentation for its advanced security features.

  • Service and Support: Check Point has earned mixed reviews for its customer service. Some customers appreciate the technical support provided, while others are dissatisfied with response times. Microsoft customer service has received mixed feedback. While some customers find it responsive and prompt, others believe it could be more advanced and attentive.

  • Ease of Deployment: Check Point Harmony Email is considered relatively easy to implement. The setup for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is generally considered effortless. Users appreciate its seamless integration with Office 365 and the minimal maintenance it requires.

  • Pricing: Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration is a cost-effective option. It offers competitive prices and is suitable for small to medium-sized organizations. Some reviewers found Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to be reasonably priced, and others consider it expensive. Defender is typically sold in a bundle, so it’s challenging to compare the cost to other solutions.

  • ROI: Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration delivers superior return on investment compared to other options. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps users prevent ransomware and malware while enhancing email security and providing cost savings through its subscription-based service.

Comparison Results: Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration is an effective solution for blocking malicious attachments and detecting social engineering attacks. However, there is room for improvement in terms of integration and support, reducing false positives, and enhancing response times. Defender is praised for its thorough email scanning and integration into a single console. Defender users desire a more centralized interface and improved spam and malware detection.

771,212 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 dashboard provides information to investigate more about malicious activity and blocked emails.""Email security has improved since we deployed this platform.""The automated rule cleanups and automated policy installs have improved my customers' organizations.""This product enhances faster and more secure sharing of information among colleagues from different departments.""We need the phishing detection and email quarantine. Once an email is considered malicious, it stays in the quarantine where we can interrogate it. We can check out why it was quarantined and see if it should be delivered to the individual.""It is fast and has a very simple, easy integration.""The setup is very easy. I haven't faced any complexity with the setup of the solution.""The product is a fairly complete and centralized solution accessible through the Infinity Portal."

More Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration 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 benefit that stands out to me is the ability for multiple individuals to collaborate simultaneously within the same document. Additionally, there is the option to save the document directly in the integrated OneDrive or SharePoint.""I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat.""The deployment capability is a great feature.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe.""The most valuable feature is protection against malicious links, fishing, and impersonation. You can train people to be aware of these threats, but they're not always careful. When they're using their phones between meetings, they click on a link, and it's game over.""The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple.""The product is not resource-intensive."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

Cons
"After updates, the internet connection fails, and I have to restart my desktop to resume initial functionalities.""I would love it if they would do some work on the Postgres definition on the back-end.""The integration with Gsuite could be improved, especially when reporting the amount of emails it manages to filter.""The solution fails to support hybrid deployments.""They could improve Check Point support response times. Sometimes it takes days to resolve or even days to get a first response.""I need to go to Check Point's admin portal if I want to see the license list and the details of the users of the tool, making it an area of concern where some ease of process should be provided from an improvement perspective.""There is always room for improvement and growth.""Its guides are not great."

More Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration Cons →

"The GUI is sometimes slow to fetch the device report and could be improved.""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.""There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive.""The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent.""In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement.""The custom alerts have to improve a lot.""Configuration requires going to a lot of places rather than just accessing one tab."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Having information stolen by a hacker would be more expensive than purchasing a license."
  • "Being able to keep the phishing campaigns out of my company has been ROI for me."
  • "Do a full feature evaluation (interactive) with a support person. That is what I did."
  • "The price is very good, based on what they deliver."
  • "One of the nice features is that the licensing model is elastic, so if you go over your license count, you can add users during your billing cycle and true-up later."
  • "There are absolutely no additional costs to the standard licensing fees. One of the wonderful pieces is that CloudGuard SaaS is all-inclusive in its licensing. There's no a-la-carte functionality. You're getting 100 percent of the product for the licensing that you're paying."
  • "The difference between [Check Point and its competitors] boiled down to money. Price-wise, Check Point was very good, it was very competitive."
  • "The pricing and licensing are always negotiable."
  • More Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration 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 →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I don't even have details of the product's single license purchased by my company.
    Top Answer:I use the solution in my company to secure the users' environment so that there are no phishing attacks. The tool operates as an anti-spam solution for the users in our company. Each and every email… more »
    Top Answer:The product offers good and easy integration capabilities with other products.
    Top Answer:Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the… more »
    Top Answer:The product must provide better malware detection. The detection algorithms don't perform the way I hope they would.
    Ranking
    7th
    out of 107 in Email Security
    Views
    2,512
    Comparisons
    1,395
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    507
    Rating
    8.7
    1st
    out of 107 in Email Security
    Views
    12,659
    Comparisons
    10,155
    Reviews
    28
    Average Words per Review
    677
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Check Point CloudGuard, Check Point CloudGuard SaaS , Check Point Harmony Email & Office
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Learn More
    Overview

    Check Point Harmony Email and Office is a cloud-based software offering complete protection to stop malware attacks through emails. The software is designed to provide protection for organizations using Office 365, G Suite, Google Workspace, and all other collaboration and file-sharing apps. Access permissions can be granted and custom policies can be defined for any user of choice.

    Check Point Harmony Email and Office identifies and blocks advanced malware, phishing, and ransomware attacks in real time before they reach the user’s inbox. In turn, this also helps protect sensitive business data from breaches. Harmony Email and Office was the first solution to implement machine learning, API, and AI for email security, and will ultimately prevent any attempts at account takeover via agentless multi-factor authentication.

    What is Complete Protection?

    Check Point Harmony Email and Office offers a superior catch rate for collaboration apps and cloud email with their API-based solution that detects attacks that other solutions miss, including account takeover, supply chain attacks, ransomware, and BEC. The complete protection offers:

    • Malware Protection - Recognized by NSS Labs as “most effective in breach prevention,” the solution leverages technologies to bring clean files to users within 1.5 seconds. In addition, enterprises can be safer as the solution prevents malicious messages and files from reaching the user’s inbox.
    • Data Leakage Protection - Any confidential or sensitive information will be marked and have a classified suffix added to the end of the message or file to help keep those materials safe. Those files are encrypted, and the user will be alerted to any attempted breach of those messages.
    • Phishing Protection - Before advanced phishing attacks reach the end user, Harmony Email and Office detects and blocks them, including outbound, inbound, and internal communications.
    • Account Takeover Protection - After a user connects their cloud app, the solution captures the user's history and creates a profile and a custom threat profile. In the event of a suspected account takeover, threat intelligence is leveraged through millions of Check Point-secured gateways and endpoints and is blocked.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Check Point Harmony Email and Office offers a revolutionary prevention solution to stop malware attacks through emails. Users particularly like its visibility and the ability to protect sensitive business data.

    David U., a CISO at IMC companies, notes, "It provides visibility of events, what's going on with the environment, what we're missing with our other solution, and the user behavior."

    Mantu S., a senior technology architect at Incedo Inc., writes, "We are able to protect sensitive business data and maintain regulatory compliance with advanced data leak prevention (DLP)."

    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.

    Sample Customers
    Helvetia, Denham Capital, Daymark Solutions, Neopharm Group
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Energy/Utilities Company16%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Security Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Real Estate/Law Firm5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business51%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    Buyer's Guide
    Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,212 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is ranked 7th in Email Security with 49 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is ranked 1st in Email Security with 41 reviews. Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is rated 8.6, while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration writes "Has a user-friendly dashboard, a great anti-phishing algorithm, and sandboxing for testing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 writes "Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support". Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is most compared with Avanan, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Mimecast Email Security, Cisco Secure Email and Barracuda Email Protection, whereas Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Cisco Secure Email and Fortinet FortiMail. See our Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 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.