Check Point Email Security (formerly Harmony Email & Collaboration) Reviews

We use Harmony Email & Collaboration to prevent malicious emails from reaching inboxes, guarding against the attacks of threat actors.

We have also enabled a data leakage policy based on our client's needs, with hundreds of predefined and custom data types.

Below are the security elements of Harmony Email & Office which we use in our client environment. 

• Anti-phishing for incoming and internal emails.
• Complete known malware and zero-day malware prevention (Sandboxing)
• Attachment sanitization (CDR, Threat Extraction)
• Malicious URL protection (URL Protection)

The below features have improved our client experience:

• Anti-phishing for incoming and internal emails.
• Complete known malware and zero-day malware prevention (Sandboxing)
• Attachment sanitization (CDR, Threat Extraction)
• Malicious URL protection (URL Protection)

It protects cloud email and collaboration suites from cyber-attacks that evade default and advanced security tools. Its invisible, multi-layer security enables full-suite protection for cloud collaboration solutions such as Office 365, G-Suite, Teams, and Slack.

The main features are as follows

Harmony Email & Collaboration secures major file-sharing services such as Google Drive, ShareFile, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Box, and Dropbox from malware, ransomware, and east-west attacks. It also prevents accidental or malicious data loss.
Mainly, we are using Harmony Email & Collaboration to detect sensitive data sharing via email and other collaboration apps, and immediately limit data exposure. It enables the enforcement of a data leakage policy in our client environment, with predefined and custom data types.

• Phishing incidents and functionality bugs are misrepresented and can lead to inconsistent email encryption, affecting user experience and potentially compromising security.

• This product should prioritize a zero-trust approach.
• There are unexplained settings in the security console that lack proper documentation or explanation from the vendor, leaving users without support.
• For instance, the back-end query language used to process user-based phishing reports is not documented.
• Additionally, certain features, such as the inability to whitelist DLP events by user, are lacking and their inclusion would reduce unnecessary alerts.

I have been using this for more than a year.

It is 100% percent stable and secure.

I have a really good impression of the scalability as it protects more of the Office 365 suite than just email. I appreciate that system logs capture when someone views the body of an email. It is reasonably priced for the coverage it provides.

Customer support and vendor engagement is really good in comparison to other vendors.

We have multiple clients. We use Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for one of our clients.

It is a much simpler product to set up and support compared to other vendors we have reviewed. It does a much better job of blocking phishing with little to no customization. This product just works out of the box without needing any specific fancy rules.

We have our Professional Services who do implementation-related pieces for our clients. It's really good in comparison to other vendors.

It is very easy to implement and it can see actions taken by Harmony and Microsoft 365 in a single console. It is cost-effective and works well for many of the budget constraint enterprises.

It has an extremely high success rate of keeping junk/spam/phishing emails out while allowing the right emails through. The setup is extremely easy. Vendor Engagement and webinars are always happening- Check Point has monthly new feature meetings, so overall I am having a great experience.

My main use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is stopping phishing attacks and spam coming into our users in our organization.

I don't have anything else to add about my main use case or any other ways I use Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration.

The best features Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration offers are definitely the phishing filtering.

The phishing filtering feature is valuable for me because it stops most of the phishing emails before they hit the users' inboxes, ensuring that users don't see the infected or phishing emails. It's really good at its job, so it stops at least 99% of the emails that come into our organization.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has positively impacted my organization as it has definitely cut down on the amount of phishing emails that are being delivered to users' inboxes.

We have seen a drastic number of reductions of successful phishing attacks, with metrics showing it stops about 99% of the attempted emails before they hit the user's inbox.

I don't think Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration needs improvement; it just does what it's supposed to do.

I don't want to add more about the needed improvements.

I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for one year.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has been very stable for me; I haven't noticed any downtime at all, and even if there's downtime, it fails open, so it won't impact emails.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration's scalability is good, as you pay per user, so it scales automatically as the organization grows.

I would rate the customer support a four, maximum, because I have had to reach out to them, and it wasn't great. I ended up with a technician that didn't actually know how to resolve the issue and was just doing basic level one troubleshooting, so it was very time-consuming to work with them.

Neutral

I previously used Microsoft Defender before Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, but we switched because it was very time-consuming to tune properly, and also, most of the emails were delivered to users' inboxes and then removed afterwards.

My advice for others looking into using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is that it's very easy to set up. I think the setup was done in 30 minutes, so if you decide to go for it, there's not much consideration to be done, actually.

I have definitely seen a return on investment, as there are fewer incidents after deploying this software. We have gone from three to four successful phishing attacks every year to a maximum of one.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is that it's licensed per user, and the price is fair. The pricing is very good and easy.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration.

I can give a specific example of how Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has helped me stop phishing or spam. We bought this product because Microsoft Defender let through phishing attempts, and one of our users clicked that one. So we looked for a vendor to assist us with additional filtering on our incoming emails. Since we implemented Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, it's been great. It stops most, if not all, of the phishing attacks against us.

I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration a 10 out of 10.

We utilize Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration for email security.

Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration offers online support and has tight integration with Microsoft. These are features we often use. Additionally, the deployment is feasible if you have completed some training and acquired hands-on experience. In general, it has good support.

There is a need for improvement in handling business email compromise. Additionally, technical support and the licensing model require enhancement.

I have been using Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration for almost eight years.

Support issues exist with the Check Point company itself, not necessarily the product.

Positive

Earlier, we used Avanade, IronPort, and Proofpoint before moving to Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration.

The initial setup is not easy. It is manageable with the proper training and hands-on experience. If the customer wants only the normal features, it usually takes one to two days; otherwise, five days.

I consider the pricing to be a bit expensive, similar to other solutions.

I recommend Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration to all types of companies, from small businesses to enterprises. I would rate the overall solution as eight out of ten.

Our team primarily uses Google Workspace for email, so we were looking for a solution that could protect us from spam, phishing attacks, and other email threats. 

Harmony Email fits the bill perfectly because it's an API-based product that doesn't require any MX record or other configuration changes. It's also very easy to use and manage, even for non-technical users.

I appreciate the ease of deployment and the intuitive dashboard. Even someone with basic IT knowledge can easily understand the dashboard and identify potential threats. With one hour of training, anyone can effectively use this product.

There are a few areas for improvement. One is the occasional sluggishness or latency, which is likely due to the cloud-based nature of the solution. So, the performance can be better.

Additionally, while Harmony Email can detect phishing emails that Google has missed, it would be even better if it could automatically quarantine or delete these emails.

Since we use multiple Google Workspace accounts across three separate domains, it would be incredibly helpful if Check Point Harmony Email could provide a single dashboard that consolidates all of this information. 

Additionally, Harmony Email should support other email providers beyond Microsoft and Google, as I also use Joho with over a thousand email IDs.

Having a unified dashboard and expanding support to other email providers would significantly enhance the product's usability for many users.

Currently, I have to rely on a separate gateway solution, like Cisco, to protect my Joho emails. It would be much more convenient if Harmony Email could handle all of my email protection needs.

I've been using Harmony Email for about four or five months now.

It is cloud-based, so the performance is low. I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. It is stable but the performance is low.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. We have 300+ end users using this solution. 

The customer service and support are not very prompt like SonicWall and other vendors in the same space. Perhaps because Check Point is not as prominent in my region, their SLA is not terrible. It's just not very effective. 

For instance, if I need support within 15 or 30 minutes, it won't happen. It could take up to four hours. 

Neutral

I initially started with Cisco Gateway. However, due to ongoing changes, we would have needed to modify MX records or other settings, making the configuration more complex. 

As a result, we decided to try Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration, and after conducting a proof of concept (POC), we decided to deploy it. We also checked Barracuda.

So, we chose Check Point over Barracuda during the POC. The primary reason was that Check Point Harmony Email is easy to configure and requires no MX record changes. 

Additionally, it's more effective because it's an AI-based solution. It provides insights into the origin of emails, the connection between the sender and receiver, their previous email history, and the frequency of their communication. These features are unique to Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration.

The initial setup is very simple because only API configuration was there. We provide a user and password on our dashboard, and we can use it remotely. 

It took only 10 to 15 minutes to deploy. Initially, it takes time to collect the data and create timelines. The solution doesn't require any maintenance. 

The pricing is in the middle. Check Point's pricing is not the highest in the competitive market. 

It's more expensive than Barracuda but less expensive than Cisco. So, I would give it a rating of six out of ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Usually, the customer is on Office 365, and the main selling point for us is that approximately 95 percent of customers do not have the E5 license from Microsoft, which is the highest tier. As a result, they lack advanced email protection. Therefore, using a third-party solution is more cost-effective than upgrading to an E5 license, and it also offers greater sophistication. This solution can cover not only Office 365 but also other platforms. Furthermore, it carries the reputable brand name Check Point and is well-known in the security industry.

The centralized management dashboard is easy to use. We usually sell advanced packets that include sandboxing for attachments, which is highly critical to most customers. The solution has a very effective anti-phishing algorithm that detects a significantly higher number of phishing emails compared to the default Microsoft solution. Additionally, it is user-friendly. When customers need to make exceptions to the policy, they find it quite easy to navigate the dashboard. However, what customers mostly care about are the anti-phishing and sandboxing features.

The price has room for improvement. Perhaps, if Check Point offered an SMB bucket for up to 100 users or a similar option. This could be beneficial as it would likely result in a more cost-effective solution.

I would like Check Point to extend its coverage to include more cloud applications. Currently, 95 percent of our customers are using Office 365 or Google Mail. It would be beneficial if the solution covered a broader range of applications.

I have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for two years.

We haven't experienced any stability issues with the solution as it is cloud-based and thus quite stable. I can't say the same for another cloud product, though. The stability is mainly due to the architecture rather than the solution itself.

Scaling the solution is not a problem because it is cloud-based. The number of customer email accounts can range from fifty to five thousand; it doesn't really matter for the solution.

The technical support is average. Like with most companies, when they are not dealing with an enterprise customer, their response is usually medium to slow, unless it's a very critical issue.

Some of our customers used FortiMail but discovered that certain malicious emails were able to bypass the solution, unlike Check Point, which identified and quarantined the emails.

The initial setup is easy. The deployment takes ten minutes and requires only one person.

Due to its pricing, I would say that Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is more suitable for medium to enterprise organizations. For smaller customers, they usually require something more affordable, but it's not related to the features of the product. It's clearly about the pricing.

The license is issued on a yearly basis. On their website, we can observe a price per month, but it's derived from the yearly cost. I don't believe we have the option to purchase it for just a few months, for example.

As far as Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is concerned, we only need to pay for the license. Additionally, we have the option to integrate or add an additional support package, which includes the implementation course, and so on. However, for the solution, we only need to pay for the license.

I would rate Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration an eight out of ten. It's a good solution, but I rarely give a perfect ten to any product. So, I believe it offers a fair value with some room for improvement. It could be rated nine out of ten.

As Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is a cloud-based solution, there is no need to assist users with hardware-level maintenance. Everything is managed in the cloud, eliminating the necessity for updates or firmware adjustments, among other things. However, like any cybersecurity solution, it is essential to keep the policies up to date. For instance, within our organization, we need to periodically train staff on configuration and maintenance to ensure it remains current. Although it requires some maintenance, it is minimal, and one person is sufficient to handle it.

We work with medium and enterprise customers.

As long as the pricing is acceptable for an organization, I would recommend Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration because it provides a good solution for its offerings.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration protects our cloud-based email and cloud collaboration platforms, primarily Microsoft 365, from phishing, malware, and account takeover attempts.

I use Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration to protect against phishing or account takeover attempts by having a user receive an email that appeared to be a Microsoft 365 login alert with a convincing subject line and branding. However, Harmony flagged it immediately due to a suspicious sender domain and a malicious link embedded in the message.

One aspect that stands out in my day-to-day use of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is how seamlessly it integrates into our existing workflows without disrupting users.

The best feature of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is advanced threat prevention because Click-Time Prevention rewrites URLs and scans them when clicked, blocking access to malicious sites even if the email appears legitimate.

URL scanning and Click-Time Protection in Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration have been critical in our environment, especially as phishing attacks become more sophisticated.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration integrates smoothly with Microsoft 365 via API, so there is no need for agents or complex setup.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration has positively impacted my organization, resulting in faster incident response with real-time alerts and detailed threat insights, enabling our team to act quickly when something suspicious is flagged.

After deploying Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, my organization reported a significant reduction in phishing incidents and faster response times to email-based threats.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration could be improved by making the experience easier.

While the dashboard of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is powerful, a cleaner layout or customizable views would help users focus on the most relevant alerts and metrics without digging through layers.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is very stable for our organization and is a great tool.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is a tool with scalability and other great features.

I have not interacted with customer support for Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, but I know that in other tools, Check Point customer support is great and very collaborative about any issues or problems.

Positive

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration saves time, saves money, and provides more security.

There are significant savings with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration in terms of money saved and time saved.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is deployed in my organization in the public cloud.

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is a very complete tool for the next generation of our security. I rate this product an eight out of ten.

The customer has a presence in different countries like India, Poland, and the US. They use Office 365 as an email solution, and on top of that, they use Harmony Email & Collaboration.

All API email security or gateway security solutions work the same as API based. You create an API with the vendor, and it works for all the same. It's just the approach of threat intelligence, how it is taken and how much threat intelligence you have. 

Pushing was a big challenge for email security. Cisco has done that, but now Check Point is also doing the same with the quarantine email. So, it's good. Previously, they didn't have the ability to find and detect the quarantine email, but they are doing it now.

The most valuable feature is the sandboxing feature. It provides a sandboxing environment where you can open links and see where they lead. You can see what is presented in the link after opening it.

Other advantages, like workflow integration, are quite simple and offered by other vendors as well. Cisco is also integrating virus totals into their products. 

But the key advantage here is the visibility you get with the sandboxing feature. 

You can see on a map, on the same dashboard, where the mail originated, where it is going, and from which relay servers. You can see everything visually on the portal, including who it's reaching and who is CCed or BCCed.

Every vendor has a different approach. But as far as I have seen with Check Point, it is quite easy and simple to manage. They have the DLP solution integrated with this email. For example, for email, DLP is zero.

Maybe Check Point can work on the DLP part. Proofpoint's email DLP is very good, so they can work on that more.

I have been using it for six months. 

Stability is not too bad. It's not glitchy. 

Scalability is good. You can add users at any time. You can have hundreds of users in there. No issues or restrictions here. 

The customer service and support are okay. 

Positive

Compared to other solutions, users have the advantage of cost because Check Point is very easy to handle. You can easily train anyone on Check Point. It's not complex.

It's quite simple. Straightforward provisioning is required. You have to do it with a vendor, like Office 365 or G Suite, and you are good to go. Just onboard the users, and that's it.

You can deploy it in a day. For the refinement of the tool, it takes a little bit of time because all email security works by first keeping it on monitor mode and monitoring what you are getting as spam. You do an audit. It takes time with this. But for the configuration part, you can do it in a single day.

For deployment, one person is enough. For maintenance, you need two or three people to check spam. Sometimes, emails get blocked, and users request them to be unblocked. You have to verify those things. But for deployment, one person is enough.

It's a SaaS portal, so you don't have any maintenance issues because it's all done by the backend OEMs.

There is an ROI. In the long run, you will have saved money because it's a cloud-based portal with no maintenance issues.

Compared to other vendors, the pricing is average. I guess FortiMail is a little cheaper.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend using it because it is easy to use and manage. 

If we talk about use cases, one of our customers is using o365, and one of the customers is using G Suite. On top of that, they require email security along with an anti-APT solution, anti-spam, anti-phishing, and business email compromise with next-generation antivirus included. One of the major use cases is internal communication using an encrypted solution or encrypted mail, especially if internal users send some mail to a particular customer and they require encrypted mail. They also require an encrypted mail solution.

With the kind of features we are looking for, be it with Barracuda or Check Point, we are looking at how we can showcase them to the customer and claim that this one is the best solution for your infrastructure and use cases.

I would like Check Point's technical support to be improved.

I have been using the solution for five to six years. My company is a distributor of multiple OEM solutions.

Most of the customers are using another vendor's solution, so most are looking for a particular email security solution. Whoever has used the solution was facing some challenges till some time ago, but gradually Check Point is improving the solution. So now they are still happy with the solution.

There are multiple customers using the solution. Sometimes they have 100 or 200 users, and they are expanding their team and they are purchasing licenses because if they are increasing users, automatically, mailboxes are increased. We are providing the per-mailbox solution. They are ready to purchase the new licenses for those new mailboxes.

I rate the solution's scalability an eight out of ten.

Check Point's technical support is very much of a low level, especially with respect to other vendors and OEMs. Check Point tries to ensure that they are providing good technical support with respect to the solutions and services it provides.

The setup is very easy. I haven't faced any complexity with the setup of the solution.

The deployment took almost four to five years.

I am from the presale side, the solution architecture side. The implementation and deployment teams are different. We have a different team for the deployments and implementations of any particular solution.

Usually, we pay for the licensing part on a yearly basis and not on a monthly basis.

If Check Point's team is providing a good amount of discount, then it is very easy for us to select it since its competitors are also giving the best prices or best discounts.

It is easy to deploy. With every customer, we just share our thoughts and the experience. It's a very easy-to-implement solution. Check Point is a good cloud-based solution with respect to email security, and Check Point is a very powerful tool with respect to other OEMs.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.