Cisco Secure Email vs Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
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Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (9th)
Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (10th)
Clearswift SECURE Email Gat...
Ranking in Email Security
39th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Email Security category, the market share of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 13.2% and it decreased by 33.9% compared to the previous year. The market share of Cisco Secure Email is 10.5% and it decreased by 15.1% compared to the previous year. The market share of Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway is 0.7% and it increased by 92.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
Unique Categories:
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
12.3%
Microsoft Security Suite
1.5%
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.
NS
Jan 12, 2024
Robust email security with advanced threat detection and prevention, but comes with a higher cost
We use it primarily for filtering both internal and external messages, especially within our Office 365 environment. It serves as our main filtering solution The most significant enhancement we've gained is in terms of security through the upgrade we received. The pricing needs to be…
it_user746937 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 2, 2017
Facilitates creation of your own content-filtering policies with relative ease
Ability to create message bypasses for groups and/or individuals. Meaning, you do not have to "whitelist" email domains or addresses when a specific bypass will do. Personal Message Manager (PMM): It allows users to release or delete quarantined messages. Also, allows users to add people to a…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It gives us visibility into threats and, for endpoints, it helps us to prioritize threats. We used to have a lack of visibility, but now our time to detect and respond has decreased."
"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."
"Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features."
"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 email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"The product's scalability is good."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"The initial setup was easy."
"What I find the most valuable about Cisco Secure Email is that the logs are not that difficult to see even if you're not used to them. The logs are reasonably readable and diagnosing the problem is not too hard with them."
"Anti-Spam and Advanced Malware Protection are the most valuable features... and we also have the option to block Zero-day attacks."
"There is a huge return compared to if we didn't have a gateway appliance, as far as blocking malicious emails."
"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."
"It blocks bulk marketing messages, graymail, spam, and provides advanced malware protection."
"We like the in-built features, like the email filtering based on the IP and domain. Cisco has its own blacklisted domains and IPs, which is very good. This filters around 70 percent of emails from spam, and we are seeing fewer false positives with this."
"It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware. I can only go by what people have told me and what I've seen, but I have not seen spam in a year and a half to two years in my own company mailbox. And there are not a lot of catches where it's catching something that should have gotten through, either."
"It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes."
"A stable solution."
"Ability to create your own content-filtering policies with relative ease."
 

Cons

"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails."
"There is room for improvement in terms of reporting."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"The product must provide better malware detection."
"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."
"Microsoft security solutions work as expected. They are constantly updating the solutions to make them better. At the same time, the changes can impact a customer's environment, and we need to adjust settings. Sometimes we aren't aware of the changes, and nothing is pushed from the backend automatically."
"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."
"I would like to see features like AI since it is currently an area that the product lacks."
"While Cisco offers excellent solutions and innovations, the pricing may not be suitable for everyone. The cost of the software is relatively high. In the current market, there are numerous competitive alternatives that focus on security, enterprise networks, and various other aspects. Cisco, being a comprehensive provider, extends its expertise across data, servers, storage, and security, making them a preferred choice for many enterprises. However, when it comes specifically to security solutions, there are other vendors that specialize solely in this domain, offering competitive options."
"We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."
"I have some frustrations with the user experience in the interface, specifically with regard to making a list of people for whom I want to allow email access."
"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."
"In future releases, I would like to see two main improvements come to mind. First, the current solution requires maintaining two separate operating systems for FTD, which can be cumbersome. I'd love to see a single operating system for the FTD box."
"Malware needs improvement."
"FTP server and TRUST Manager functionality."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing has become expensive."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"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."
"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
"The product is very expensive."
"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."
"You're going to get what you pay for. If you're not willing to pay the price of Cisco, you're not going to get a product that's as good as Cisco. I don't think Cisco is overpriced, because for the last two years I've been comparing it to Microsoft and Cisco has been cheaper and given us more features."
"It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."
"There were no other costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution."
"It is an expensive product. I rate its pricing an eight or nine."
"The licensing was all transferred."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Educational Organization
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
15%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The product must provide better malware detection. The detection algorithms don't perform the way I hope they would.
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market. Whether the product w...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
I am not satisfied with the solution's reporting and logging.
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Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Volusion County Schools
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Clearswift SECURE Email Gateway and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
787,104 professionals have used our research since 2012.