Avanan is praised for its advanced threat protection, ease of integration, competitive pricing, and valuable customer support. Users appreciate the machine learning capabilities and real-time alerts Avanan provides. On the other hand, Abnormal Security stands out for its behavioral AI engine, advanced threat protection and easy integration with email platforms.
The summary above is based on 30 interviews we conducted recently with Avanan and Abnormal Security users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"The basic features are okay and I'm satisfied with the Defender."
"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 individuals within our organization who are affected."
"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 email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"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."
"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."
"Ease of use is undoubtedly one of the most valuable features of Abnormal Security."
"One of the things that I love about them is that the setup and installation are super easy. All you do is give them access to your Microsoft 365 tenant, and through APIs, they are able to do their work. They are doing all this through APIs, so you do not have to install the software and take a month to get it all set up to even see the value of the solution. You could be up and running in less than an hour."
"What I like about Abnormal Security is that it notifies me if any of my partners or suppliers are experiencing a security breach by analyzing their database and identifying potential cyber threats."
"I have never encountered any stability issues with Abnormal."
"It does some really cool stuff that other tools aren't doing. We found it to be really effective, and the AI/ML functionality is really what differentiates them."
"Initial auto-remediation allows us to auto-remediate before the email lands in the end user's inbox for a split second."
"The features that appeal to me most are the combination of auto-remediation and Detection 360."
"Their ability to take things out of the mailbox and catch things much faster than users is excellent."
"Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources."
"It can retract unsafe emails and remove them from the entire communication channel."
"When we don't understand some functionalities, the customer support staff responds fast to our calls and provides immediate action."
"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its Anti-Malware solution for Office 365, and box.com."
"I highly recommend this solution to any prospective buyer."
"Email encryption enhances end to end security of any data before it passes through the networking system."
"Spam protection is the most valuable feature."
"If we look at four to five years ago, we had close to six or eight people click a link in an email per month. Now, we are probably down to about five or six clicks a year, if not less."
"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."
"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"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."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 must improve the overall management style, including the GUI. It also needs to change the filters so that it is easy to whitelist and blacklist data."
"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."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect."
"When we're working on something as engineers, and we find an idea or a method of doing something that would be greatly improved by doing it another way, there should be an ability for me to click the ideas button, type in an idea that I have, and submit it to a product review team or developers to have them think through the process a little bit more."
"The pricing for academic institutions and student mailboxes is challenging."
"I would like to have the ability to customize the auto-remediation feature."
"I, as such, do not have anything that I do not like or would like to add, but you could argue that because they are doing it API-based, there is a chance that something could slip through temporarily before they are able to pull it out. In theory, it could happen just because of the nature of the system. They are not in line with the delivery of the mail. They are kind of asynchronous, which is a pro as well as a con. If it is synchronous, then I know it would always stop them, but because it is asynchronous, things could get through temporarily or because of some system issues on the Microsoft side or their side. It is the nature of the beast, but it is a little bit of a con."
"There could be room for improvement in enhancing integration with other cybersecurity tools."
"The ideal scenario would be for Abnormal Security to work in tandem with Microsoft to analyze incoming emails."
"The biggest pain point for us is the lack of support for on-premise email systems."
"One feature I'd love to see is outbound scanning."
"Integration with various SaaS offerings, who are leading in the SaaS market."
"There are times when we have false positives."
"It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."
"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."
"The system response in a slow computing device affects performance when sending and receiving emails."
"It is very difficult to find the required documentation."
"It should reduce the amount of time needed for thorough scanning."
"When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests."
More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →
Abnormal Security is ranked 12th in Email Security with 8 reviews while Avanan is ranked 6th in Email Security with 21 reviews. Abnormal Security is rated 9.6, while Avanan is rated 9.2. The top reviewer of Abnormal Security writes "Provides comprehensive email security management, effective in detecting a wide range of email threats". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Avanan writes "We've noticed a significant decline from people accidentally or intentionally clicking on things". Abnormal Security is most compared with Mimecast Email Security, Egress Intelligent Email Security, Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cisco Secure Email and Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), whereas Avanan is most compared with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Perception Point Advanced Email Security, Mimecast Email Security and Fortinet FortiMail. See our Abnormal Security vs. Avanan report.
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