Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Fortinet FortiMail vs SonicWall Email Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiMail
Ranking in Email Security
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
31st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 4.0%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Email Security is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiMail4.0%
SonicWall Email Security0.5%
Other95.5%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

MOHAN SUKUMAR - PeerSpot reviewer
Secure email management improves through advanced filtering and dynamic virus scanning
Fortinet FortiMail offers capabilities like settings for mail delivery, mail filtering, spam controls, and email bursting prevention. It also allows for email forwarding, dynamic filtering, and scanning based on virus signatures. I can set varying levels of security. The tool is flexible and provides essential features for mail security and management.
Swapnil Kulkarni - PeerSpot reviewer
Has consistently supported security needs for mid-sized teams with affordable deployment
I do not work with Cloud Secure Edge, CSE, or SMA apart from SonicWall NSA. I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security. The customizable policy configuration does not help to tailor email security overall because our systems are not integrated with SonicWall Email Security. We are not using reporting and analytics because it requires completely different software. While all required features are available in SonicWall Email Security for SMBs and startups, we lack analytics features. They provide an option to purchase a complete separate product for analytics, but despite initially having purchased the paper license, due to technical limitations or changes, we cannot use that product. Now they require additional fees to access the analytics feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet’s support services are good."
"For me, Fortinet FortiMail is the best solution I have ever tried."
"FortiMail effectively filters all emails coming to our mail server, blocking malicious ones automatically."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The product helps users handle security challenges as it offers prefiltering options and does relatively good incident reporting."
"Its threat detection capabilities have been beneficial."
"Technical support is great. They are able to look at their patches and offer quick responses. We even have an account manager in the Middle East. They are very good."
"Fortinet FortiMail's most valuable features are its performance and security."
"According to our customers, the product's most valuable feature is the ability to detect spam and reduce phishing emails."
"The most valuable feature is that it protects from spam."
"This solution provides very good email security that protects us against spamming and malware."
"Beside a few issues with specificity in the email protection controls, this product is very good at handling email security."
"SonicWall Email Security uses multi-layer cloud security."
"Setup was easy. It took about 30 minutes."
"There are no wasted extras and the interface is really simple."
"The product is easy to manage in terms of configurations."
 

Cons

"The area that could use some improvement in Fortinet FortiMail is the integration process. I would like the integration to be easier."
"The support could be faster because we've been receiving complaints from customers, they say that when they raise a ticket, it doesn't take 24 hours to respond, sometimes the support responds after three days. This is a lot of time."
"It can be easier to configure or connect to the cloud to report on the attachments."
"High Availability needs improvement."
"The statistics and BI in general could be improved."
"It's difficult for me to talk about areas for improvement in Fortinet FortiMail because I'm the general manager of the company and I'm an engineer with knowledge about the solution, but I'm not deeply involved in its implementation. As I mentioned previously, Fortinet FortiMail is also being used within the company, and I'm happy with its functionality, but sometimes, attacks pass and avoid the Fortinet FortiMail filters, but those could be very sophisticated attacks. There could still be an improvement in the filtering feature of the solution, though the security of Fortinet FortiMail is okay for me because I believe you can't implement one hundred percent security in any solution. The initial setup for the solution also needs improvement. The setup is supposed to be simple, but then the customer starts to complain that some of the false positive emails are reaching quarantine, so my team has to configure it again. There have been instances when Fortinet FortiMail rejects valid emails because some of the service partners of the customer have not been configured accurately, so the system considered valid mails as attacks to be quarantined, so aside from improving the filters, there should also be an improvement in the categorization of emails in the server. My team has to modify the configuration so that valid emails could pass and for Fortinet FortiMail to correctly filter the SPAM traffic. A feature that could be added to Fortinet FortiMail in its next release is advanced AI, so it can analyze and decide accurately on which mail is valid and which mail is SPAM."
"The only drawback to this solution is that the firmware is frequently updated, and each update results in downtime."
"Fortinet FortiMail's pricing could be improved."
"I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security."
"We would like to see more information on a dashboard about what is happening when it comes to spamming and malware."
"They need well-trained partners in Nigeria."
"The reporting needs improvement."
"A lot of spoofed emails are still coming to the end-user, so the configuration for this option needs to be improved."
"The technical support from the company is not always very good at solving issues, but they offer access to a good community of users where problems are easily solved."
"The protection level for email security isn't 100%. I'm still getting some spam and junk mail."
"They should integrate the solution with third-party platforms."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, you get what you pay for in Fortinet FortiMail. Apart from the licensing costs, no additional expenses are attached to the solution's pricing."
"The fees for Fortinet FortiMail can be complicated. However, overall the pricing is fair."
"9,000 Euro per annum for Fortinet Mail and sandbox."
"In terms of licensing, we are using a virtual machine license for the single virtual server which it runs on. Doing it this way enables us to cut costs by only licensing FortiMail for our exact use case. If you need to expand in future, you can later buy extra licenses per virtual machine."
"Fortinet Fortimail has reasonable pricing."
"The pricing is on the higher side."
"Fortinet FortiMail is inexpensive."
"If you don't need the full bundle that includes everything, you have options for the small or medium enterprise environments."
"I rate the application’s pricing a five out of ten."
"The platform offers a yearly license."
"The cost is cheaper than Sophos. I would rate it as five out of ten."
"The overall price of SonicWall Email Security should be reduced and there should be an option to purchase one or two licenses more instead of their current policy of bulk increases only. There should be more flexibility in the licensing model. Each license cost approximately $33 annually."
"We have a two-year license subscription and the price is very high."
"Our customers purchase the solution's yearly license."
"When compared with Cisco, it is very well priced. Cisco is very expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
869,095 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Construction Company
11%
Educational Organization
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail?
Fortinet FortiMail is considered overpriced by Indian rupee standards. My organization is not profit-making, and academic pricing is required, but it may not be available for security products like...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
It can be somewhat difficult to prepare precise or very deep rules to improve security, though the product is very good.
What do you like most about SonicWall Email Security?
According to our customers, the product's most valuable feature is the ability to detect spam and reduce phishing emails.
What needs improvement with SonicWall Email Security?
I do not work with Cloud Secure Edge, CSE, or SMA apart from SonicWall NSA. I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security. The customizable pol...
 

Also Known As

FortiMail
Dell SonicWALL Email Security Platform, SonicWall Hosted Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Star Kay White, Locala Community Partnerships
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiMail vs. SonicWall Email Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,095 professionals have used our research since 2012.