Fortinet FortiMail vs Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiMail and Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, TitanHQ and others in Email Security.
To learn more, read our detailed Email Security Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 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
"Our customers are satisfied with Defender for 365 because Microsoft products are easy to use and customize to meet the client's needs. Everything is in one place, so we can adjust policies as needed for phishing, DLP, ATP, or any other security features that our clients want to apply.""The basic features are okay and I'm satisfied with the Defender.""I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution.""The product's scalability is good.""The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use.""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 product is not resource-intensive."

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"Fortinet FortiMail is easy to use and the detection rate is very good. You can customize content filters and profiles are done easily. Additionally, there is a sandbox integration feature that is good.""We found the initial setup to be mostly straightforward.""It has a very high level of security through special licensing with solutions like FortiGuard, sandboxing solutions in the cloud, and URL rewriting solutions.""The antiphishing capabilities are very good.""It is a scalable solution.""The most valuable aspects of this solution are that it protects us from spam and phishing attacks. We had a lot of attacks coming in and then we deployed this solution and they stopped. We no longer have any spam or phishing issues.""A full-featured email gateway solution that contains security threats reliably.""This excellent email gateway minimizes spam, inspects suspicious emails and isolates infected attachments with little administrative effort."

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"The most valuable feature is the URL relay protection because it protects users from phishing attacks.""This is a stable, scalable product that provides a reliable email protection layer.""Email encryption, because it fulfills our business needs.""The filtering aspect is the solution's most valuable feature.""The interface makes it really easy to administer and configure.""The solution is very easy to use, especially the cloud version which is very, very simple. There are some good templates already built-in, so we can just select the template, and you will get all the necessary functionality. The only one thing you have to do is point all your traffic in the cloud.""The ease of use and the security offered by the solution are its most valuable features. It also offers good information protection."

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Cons
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot.""The product must provide better malware detection.""The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent.""The GUI is sometimes slow to fetch the device report and could be improved.""Too many false positives and lacks an accurate capability to detect malicious SharePoint sites.""Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive.""They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."

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"I think the security of the product could improve.""The solution could be improved by providing a virtual machine facility with a complete set of options in the VM setup.""The solution's pricing is flexible and can be adjusted for African utility companies. Microsoft often offers special pricing formulas for African governments and organizations and it is similar to Fortinet FortiMail. In my country, government institutions receive discounted pricing from Fortinet FortiMail.""The product's cybersecurity features could be better.""Limited ability to upgrade hardware may lead to some performance issues that might otherwise be improved.""It is not easy to install.""There are features that other solutions have that this one is lacking, such as reporting options. I hope in future releases they advance their features list.""I don't know if it is possible, but I would like to see Artificial Intelligence and machine learning introduced."

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"There are a few issues with integration that need to be addressed; this would help make deployment easier for new users.""In the next release of this solution, I would like to see more user awareness, such as information about phishing email attacks that have been prevented.""More things need to be integrated into this device, like DLP, so we can have a complete solution in one box.""In the advanced version, you have DLP, Data Loss Prevention, but when you buy the standard version, you don't have it.""There aren't enough advanced settings. They should offer more advanced options.""Reporting could have more options for users to customize desired results.""The reporting functionality is in major need of improvement."

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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 →

  • "The licensing model for this solution is better because it is based on the box and not the number of users."
  • "It is an expensive product."
  • "The annual cost is $55,000."
  • "Pricing is straight-forward and renewable without complicated pricing structures."
  • "Pricing is based on initial license purchase and use volume."
  • "In the future I would like it if there's a possibility to lower the price of the bandwidth and UTM. It is quite expensive."
  • "This is a good solution and value for the money."
  • "If you don't need the full bundle that includes everything, you have options for the small or medium enterprise environments."
  • More Fortinet FortiMail 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:FortiMail possesses notable strengths, and one key feature is its store-and-forward concept.
    Top Answer:It could benefit from enhancing its functionality, especially in terms of advanced filtering. Introducing features such… more »
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    FortiMail
    Email Appliance
    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.

    As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, it is crucial for email security solutions to offer multi-layered protection. Fortinet's proven email security platform, FortiMail, is a comprehensive multi-layered threat protection solution designed to secure users from the full spectrum of email-based threats, which includes zero-day threats, credential impersonation, spam, phishing, malware, and business email compromise (BEC) attacks.

    Fortinet FortiMail offers a variety of deployment models to best fit your organization’s email security needs. On-premises, private or public cloud, or hybrid email environments can be deployed and managed in-house by your team or managed by Fortinet’s data centers. FortiMail also employs virtual machines that provide robust scalability options and flexible deployment of email security infrastructure.

    Fortinet FortiMail Benefits

    Fortinet FortiMail provides your organization with the following benefits:

    • Eliminate message-based threats by using FortiMail’s advanced inspection capabilities before they can harm your users.
    • Flexible licensing ensures that you don’t have to create a license for each user as you scale your network upwards.

    • Achieve regulatory compliance with sophisticated messaging content archiving, quarantining, and routing tools.
    • Stop spam before it takes over your messaging system and network resources, ensuring that your messaging performance remains optimized.

    Fortinet FortiMail Benefits

    Some of Fortinet FortiMail’s top features include:

    • Spam and malware prevention: FortiMail employs advanced techniques and technologies, such as outbreak protection, impersonation detection, content disarm and reconstruction, and sandbox analysis to provide users with high-performing antispam and antimalware tools designed to prevent unwanted bulk email, ransomware, and other targeted attacks.
    • Powerful data loss prevention: Identity-based email encryption and archiving help prevent the loss of sensitive and important information and ensure that your organization adheres to compliance with corporate and industry regulations.
    • Automatic updates: Receive dynamic updates from the FortiGuard subscription services that automatically upgrade your antispam and antivirus functionality using intelligence gathered by Fortinet's dedicated global threat research team.
    • Seamless integration: Integrations with other Fortinet products and external third-party components enable companies to enhance their security by sharing indicators of compromise (IoCs) across a unified security system.
    • Easy email management: Gain full visibility over real-time email traffic with Fortinet FortiMail’s intuitive dashboards, rich reporting features, centralized quarantine tools, and end-user controls. Control email traffic with the solution’s full mail transfer agent and mail-handling capabilities. The solution’s quick-start setup wizard greatly reduces the complexity of deployment and management.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Fortinet FortiMail stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful anti-virus tool and its robust spam protection capabilities.

    Flamur P., head of security management at Ipko Telecommunications, writes, "Fortinet FortiMail has a lot of valuable features. It works great. It also has an antivirus feature. Support for Fortinet FortiMail was also great when my team wanted to block some geographic IPs, but couldn't figure out how to do it. The support team provided clear communication on how to resolve that issue. Another valuable feature of Fortinet FortiMail is spam filtering which tells you how many spammy emails you've received. Based on my current use cases, I'm happy with Fortinet FortiMail."

    Sophos' purpose-built secure email gateway is an all-in-one solution for email encryption, DLP, anti-spam and threat protection. It provides advanced protection from today’s sophisticated spear phishing attacks and gives you full control over data leaving your organization via email.

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
    Investors Savings Bank
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider19%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Government15%
    Computer Software Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization43%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Government5%
    No Data Available
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business45%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise25%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise54%
    Large Enterprise28%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business57%
    Midsize Enterprise43%
    Buyer's Guide
    Email Security
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, TitanHQ and others in Email Security. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiMail is ranked 5th in Email Security with 54 reviews while Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] doesn't meet the minimum requirements to be ranked in Email Security. Fortinet FortiMail is rated 8.6, while Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiMail writes "Good GUI and configuring security policies is easy but the pricing needs improvement". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] writes "An easy to use solution with reasonable pricing and good stability". Fortinet FortiMail is most compared with Cisco Secure Email, Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Fortinet FortiMail Cloud and Proofpoint Email Protection, whereas Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] is most compared with .

    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.