Cisco Secure Email vs Mimecast Email Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 6, 2023

We compared Cisco Secure Email and Mimecast Email Security across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Features: Cisco Secure Email offers advanced protection against phishing attacks, reputation-based filtering, and robust tracking functionalities. Mimecast Email Security is appreciated for its efficient archiving capabilities and effective protection against targeted threats. Its seamless integration with Microsoft 365 also earned high marks.

  • Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email should improve global malicious email defense, data loss prevention, and integration with third-party solutions. Mimecast Email Security should focus on improving its administrative aspect, filtering capabilities, and ease of setup.

  • Service and Support: Cisco support is generally considered knowledgeable and helpful, but a few users reported slow response times and difficulty navigating the support process. Mimecast's customer service elicits varied opinions, with some customers expressing satisfaction with its responsiveness and effectiveness, while others perceive it as unsatisfactory.

  • Ease of Deployment: Cisco Secure Email is generally straightforward and seamless to set up. It provides a modular and adaptable environment, but new users may need training. Users had mixed experiences with Mimecast Email Security's setup. Some users found it fast and uncomplicated, while others found it moderately complex.

  • Pricing: Opinions on the pricing of Cisco Secure Email are mixed. Some find it expensive but worth the investment, while others find it reasonably priced and competitive with other vendors. Mimecast Email Security is generally seen as costly, and some users struggle to justify the expense. It’s perceived as more expensive than competing solutions.

  • ROI: Cisco Secure Email's return on investment is influenced by factors such as use case, organization size, and industry. It is challenging to measure the return on investment for Mimecast Email Security.

Comparison Results: Cisco Secure Email is highly regarded for its intelligence threat detection, reputation filtering, and robust tracking abilities. The solution’s areas for improvement include data loss prevention and third-party integration. Mimecast is commended for its archiving and targeted threat protection capabilities. On the other hand, Mimecast faces challenges with its administrative aspect, filtering capabilities, and high pricing.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Email vs. Mimecast Email Security Report (Updated: January 2024).
765,234 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 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.""Defender enables us to secure all 365-related activity from a single place. It gives us visibility into everything happening in Outlook, protecting us against phishing and other email-based threats. Defender helps us detect any suspicious behaviors.""I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat.""The product's scalability is good.""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.""The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

"The tech engineers are very knowledgeable.""It integrates with Active Directory and we can limit specific users to using specific applications.""The most valuable features are Advanced Malware Protection, URL filtering, and of course Reputation Filtering.""Cisco Secure Email's most valuable is email certification.""It blocks bulk marketing messages, graymail, spam, and provides advanced malware protection.""Cisco Secure Email Cloud Gateway has allowed our users to be able to concentrate on the emails that they do receive. Previously, our users had to deal with nine million additional emails across the organization, which is nearly 1,000 emails per user to have to deal with a month. That's a massive amount for our staff to deal with and probably several hours of their time. We have a lot of clinical staff, being a hospital. We want to make our staff as productive as possible. By removing a lot of that spam and phishing type emails, this allows them to do their job.""I love the Advanced Malware Protection feature. It works very well... The appliance has more security such as SDF, DKIM, DMARC, and encryption.""It provides good IT assistance."

More Cisco Secure Email Pros →

"The interface of this solution is very easy to navigate and user-friendly. There is no delivery in email and other communications, making it reliable. The configuration is relatively easy.""The product's most valuable features are impersonation protection and phishing countermeasures.""In the current environment that the world is in, everyone is trying to hack everyone else, so Project+ definitely helps a lot there.""URL inspection works pretty well.""It's really quite user-friendly. In terms of technical superiority and the product itself, there are no complaints. It is really cutting edge.""What I like about the integration is that it is directly into Microsoft 365, users can use their Microsoft 365 credentials to log into the portal and access their mail.""The initial setup is very straightforward.""It's good, it keeps the spam out."

More Mimecast Email Security Pros →

Cons
"One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get a lot of information on integrations with such apps for security and authentication.""One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration.""We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment.""The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 could improve by giving customers information on techniques to prevent threats. For example, information about best practices on how to protect their own devices against hackers and scammers, such as educational information or training. This would help others have a better understanding of cyber security. Additionally, there can be more security features added.""There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails.""The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"We cannot manage multiple devices from a single UI.""The configuration UI should be made more intuitive. Currently, it takes a while to understand how to do the basic configurations.""My opinion on the licensing of this solution is that it is a mess that needs sorting out. I am not particularly bothered by pricing as I administer it and make recommendations for people to buy or not to buy.""We have occasionally had hardware problems because we are using an appliance-based solution, but that might change. We may consider going to virtual systems.""The management features of the product are not up to date.""Typically, in a phishing email, they try to use a name everybody's going to recognize, like the CEO's name or the CFO's name... With this appliance, the way it's designed at the moment, for us to really stop that with any level of confidence, we have to build a dictionary of all the names of the people we want it to check, and all the ways they could be spelled. My name would be in there as Phillip Collins, Phillip D. Collins, Phillip Dean Collins, Phil Collins, Phil D. Collins. There could be eight or 10 variations of my name that we'd have to put in the dictionary. There's no artificial intelligence to say "Phil Collins" could be all these other things, and to stop phishing from coming through in that way.""They can do it better with web links, with the URLs. They have a technology called Outbreak but it doesn't work as well as we would like.""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."

More Cisco Secure Email Cons →

"The solution is very expensive.""Their support should be improved. They are notorious for sending you to knowledge-based articles rather than actually talking to you, but that is, unfortunately, kind of becoming a trend with everything. In terms of features, I haven't had any complaints. However, I don't like the fact they moved to a paid training subscription model. They used to have a lot of free webinars for training, but they have started to charge for them in the past year.""We have subscribed to an archival service, and yet, when we have to get our data out, we have to pay a fee to get our own data. They charge an extraction fee.""The price could be better, it should be reduced.""While it's quick and easy, the initial setup could be more user-friendly.""Many of our users complain that the system is blocking too many attachments. It's a good practice from a security perspective, but our users think Mimecast is doing too much. It might be something we'll have to adjust.""The attachment scanning feature doesn't work properly.""The filtering needs more flexibility."

More Mimecast Email Security 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 →

  • "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 →

  • "It's an expensive solution."
  • "The licensing costs are per-user for the product that you get with them."
  • "It is a bit expensive."
  • "I'm always going to say the price needs to be lower, but it's reasonable."
  • "The customers can select the license packages as per their requirements."
  • "On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
  • "Compared to the other solutions in the market, Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection's pricing is fine."
  • "For what it is, the product is overpriced."
  • More Mimecast Email Security 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:The tool comes with AI features. It is good for clients who already use Cisco products due to integration.
    Top Answer:Cisco Secure Email is more expensive than other products. I rate it a five out of ten. There are no additional costs… more »
    Top Answer:Cisco Email Secure's pricing needs to be less. We have vendors who provide cheaper solutions with the same features.
    Top Answer:Email security is the most valuable feature of the solution.
    Top Answer:The product has good pricing in terms of return on investment. We purchase its yearly license. Extra costs are involved… more »
    Top Answer:The solution should include more AI features instead of Mimecast's more general static configuration tooling.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
    Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection
    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.

    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.”

    Mimecast Email Security is a comprehensive solution designed to safeguard organizations against advanced email threats. With an array of advanced security features, it provides robust protection against phishing attacks, malware, ransomware, and other targeted threats.

    This product leverages Mimecast's extensive threat intelligence network to identify and block malicious emails before they reach the user's inbox. It employs sophisticated algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze email content, attachments, and URLs, ensuring that only legitimate and safe emails are delivered.

    One of the key features of Mimecast Advanced Email Security is its URL Protect capability. This feature scans all URLs within emails in real-time, checking for any signs of malicious activity. It blocks access to suspicious websites, preventing users from inadvertently clicking on harmful links and falling victim to phishing attacks or drive-by downloads.

    Another notable feature is Attachment Protect, which scans all email attachments for malware and ransomware. It uses multiple layers of defense, including sandboxing and file conversion, to detect and neutralize any threats. This ensures that users are protected from opening malicious attachments that could compromise their systems.

    Mimecast Advanced Email Security also includes Impersonation Protect, which guards against CEO fraud and other impersonation attacks. It analyzes email headers, domains, and sender behavior to identify suspicious emails that attempt to deceive users. By alerting users and administrators to potential impersonation attempts, it helps prevent financial loss and data breaches.

    Furthermore, Mimecast Advanced Email Security provides comprehensive data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities. It scans outgoing emails for sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers, and prevents accidental or intentional data leaks. This helps organizations comply with data protection regulations and maintain the privacy of their customers' information.

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
    Azizi Developments, Affinity Credit Union, Aftercare, Al Abbar Group
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Retailer10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Educational Organization15%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Transportation Company17%
    Retailer17%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Construction Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Construction Company6%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise27%
    Large Enterprise49%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business52%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise44%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco Secure Email vs. Mimecast Email Security
    January 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Mimecast Email Security and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 55 reviews while Mimecast Email Security is ranked 3rd in SEG (Secure Email Gateway) with 23 reviews. Cisco Secure Email is rated 8.4, while Mimecast Email Security is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Email writes "Has effortless spam control, improves security posture, and frees up our IT department's time". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Mimecast Email Security writes "It gives clients peace of mind and helps them educate their users about threats". Cisco Secure Email is most compared with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Trellix Collaboration Security, Fortinet FortiMail, Proofpoint Email Protection and Abnormal Security, whereas Mimecast Email Security is most compared with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Abnormal Security, Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, Fortinet FortiMail and Avanan. See our Cisco Secure Email vs. Mimecast Email Security 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.