Avanan vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

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12,659 views|10,155 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
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3,154 views|1,950 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
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9,374 views|6,133 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on May 17, 2023

We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Email and Avanan, based on PeerSpot users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Cisco Secure Email and Avanan have different initial setup experiences. Cisco Secure Email can be easy or complex depending on the deployment model, while Avanan is described as easy, straightforward, and not complicated at all. Avanan is a cloud-based solution that is easy to implement and manage, with quick integration with other systems. Customization may be needed for specific cyber threats, but the overall setup process is manageable for both solutions.
  • Features: Cisco Secure Email has a wide range of customizable features, including Advanced Malware Protection, Email Protection, and Advanced Phishing Protection. The solution has a clear graphical interface and powerful tracking capabilities. Avanan excels in detecting and preventing advanced threats like phishing, malware, and ransomware attacks. Its administration and detection components are highly effective, with quick identification of anomalies in emails and links. The solution is accessible for non-technical users, has customizable rules, and provides 24/7 protection. Avanan's AI and machine learning are continuously improving, and it regularly updates its library to identify new threats. The software has prevented account takeovers, eliminated spam, and enhanced end-to-end security for data sharing. Its integration with existing applications is seamless, and its customer support services are reliable.

  • Pricing: Cisco Secure Email offers a variety of pricing options, but some users find it expensive, while Avanan's pricing is reasonable and negotiable based on the user base. Cisco Secure Email has no added costs beyond standard licensing fees, while Avanan offers SaaS-based pricing that allows for per-user charging and subscription as needed. Avanan's pricing and licensing terms are favorable to many enterprises, though some reviewers suggest customized plans for smaller organizations would be helpful. Cisco Secure Email is customizable to the customer environment, and customers are willing to invest more in it.
  • Service and Support: Cisco Secure Email and Avanan both have positive customer service experiences, with Cisco being described as knowledgeable, patient, and prompt, and Avanan being highly praised for their quick response, professional knowledge, and dedication to serving all customers. However, Avanan's customer service is considered the best due to their proactive and innovative approach to service delivery and their ability to work well with customers to maximize solution investment.
  • ROI: Avanan has proven to be more effective than Cisco Secure Email in terms of ROI, with a 60% annual increase in revenue growth and quick payback within a few months. Avanan offers protection for mobile devices and detailed explanations for blocked emails, which has helped maintain data protection. While Cisco Secure Email has also resulted in a positive ROI, there is no information in the reviews on the specific percentage or how it compares to Avanan's ROI.

Comparison Results: Avanan is the preferred product over Cisco Secure Email based on user reviews. Avanan excels in advanced threat detection and prevention, with AI and machine learning continuously improving and updating its library. Avanan also has the best customer service, with professional, helpful, and innovative staff. Both products have positive ROI, but Avanan has an edge in reducing the number of compromised email accounts and phishing attacks, helping protect mobile devices, and providing explicit details on why emails are blocked.

To learn more, read our detailed Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,170 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
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance.""Defender for 365 is a comprehensive cloud-based solution. The value of the cloud is that you aren't alone. Threat intelligence and analytics are shared in the cloud. We don't have to find the solution alone. If you face an unknown threat with traditional solutions like Trend Micro and Symantec, you need to open a case and send your information to them to analyze forensically and identify the source of the attack.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable features are safe attachments and safe links.""Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution.""The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple.""It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have.""The initial setup was easy."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pros →

"This technology is one of Check Point's acquisitions, and it is currently a powerful tool that provides all the protection that is not found in other tools.""When we don't understand some functionalities, the customer support staff responds fast to our calls and provides immediate action.""Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents.""It can detect corrupted files and filters out documents with viruses.""The program has reduced the dangers related to phishing, malware, ransomware, and other vulnerabilities.""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 most valuable feature of Avanan is its Anti-Malware solution for Office 365, and box.com.""The ease of installation and the AI capacity of the product are valuable."

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"The most valuable feature is the different content filters we are using, such as DKIM.""Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services.""Users were able to do a check by themselves on quarantined emails. They could check if a valid email had been stopped, if it matched up with the SPF certification.""The most valuable features are Advanced Malware Protection, URL filtering, and of course Reputation Filtering.""The system provides our service desk with the means to troubleshoot email delivery issues with ease.""It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. It has ensured we don't have business email compromises, and it has also ensured that our brand Galaxy is unique all year round.""The strong point of the solution is that we hardly get any spam emails because of Cisco Secure Email.""It integrates with Active Directory and we can limit specific users to using specific applications."

More Cisco Secure Email Pros →

Cons
"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.""The product must provide better malware detection.""Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features.""This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products.""The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included.""One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration.""We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required.""In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"It is very difficult to find the required documentation.""The system could be designed to give corporate emails first priority due to demands.""The user experience must be improved.""It should reduce the amount of time needed for thorough scanning.""The cost can be reviewed to enable SMEs to acquire it and enjoy great security features.""In Avanan, the email channel is one of the channels where data leakage happens, and they need to consider it from a DLP perspective.""When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests.""Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."

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"The UI is definitely one area of improvement because it doesn't match other interfaces and the navigation can be a little clunky.""The user interface needs some improvement to become more user-friendly. The graphics could be better. It's designed more for a technical user rather than a business user.""I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability.""I would like more functionality and how to use it for Level 2 type staff. The biggest issue is it needs to be easier to use and navigate.""The configuration UI should be made more intuitive. Currently, it takes a while to understand how to do the basic configurations.""The solution needs to improve its advanced phishing filters. It is very good at filtering things which have bad reputations. However, when phishing or malicious emails are new or coming from a legitimate source, we don't feel that the solution is working.""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.""The hardware is not up to the mark. Two to three times a year we have complete downtime."

More Cisco Secure Email 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 →

  • "Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."
  • "Having the flexibility and modeling to do the pricing that best fits the needs of the organization is incredibly ideal. That is what Avanan does. They know exactly how many users are using it, etc. We can tune the invoicing associated with how we are using the product so we can charge it back to the shows appropriately."
  • "We have a monthly license that is $4 to $8 per user."
  • "The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."
  • "The product is not the cheapest in the market."
  • "Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."
  • More Avanan 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 →

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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:Spam protection is the most valuable feature.
    Top Answer:Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s backup… more »
    Top Answer:The product's initial setup phase was easy.
    Top Answer:The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market. Whether the product… more »
    Top Answer:There are some concerns in the way the architecture is set up, making it an area where improvements are required. When… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
    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.

    Avanan is a comprehensive cloud security platform that protects organizations from advanced email and collaboration threats. With its multi-layered approach, Avanan provides real-time protection against phishing, malware, data leakage, and account takeover attacks. 

    By integrating with popular cloud applications such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Slack, Avanan ensures seamless security without disrupting user experience. Its advanced AI and machine learning algorithms analyze billions of data points to detect and block threats, while its granular policy controls allow organizations to customize their security settings. 

    Avanan also offers robust threat intelligence and incident response capabilities, enabling organizations to proactively identify and mitigate security risks. 

    With Avanan, organizations can confidently embrace the cloud while keeping their sensitive data and communications secure.

    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.”

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
    SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company17%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Security Firm20%
    Recruiting/Hr Firm20%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization47%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Construction Company4%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Retailer10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Educational Organization16%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise57%
    Large Enterprise24%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise49%
    Buyer's Guide
    Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Avanan is ranked 6th in Email Security with 21 reviews while Cisco Secure Email is ranked 2nd in Email Security with 56 reviews. Avanan is rated 9.2, while Cisco Secure Email is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Avanan writes "We've noticed a significant decline from people accidentally or intentionally clicking on things". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Email writes "Has effortless spam control, improves security posture, and frees up our IT department's time". Avanan is most compared with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Perception Point Advanced Email Security, Abnormal Security and Barracuda Email Security Gateway, whereas Cisco Secure Email is most compared with Trellix Collaboration Security, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Fortinet FortiMail, Proofpoint Email Protection and Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. See our Avanan vs. Cisco Secure Email 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.