No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Arkose vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cloudflare One
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (13th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (22nd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (13th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (9th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (12th), Access Management (11th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (9th), ZTNA (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (9th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (3rd)
Arkose
Ranking in Email Security
24th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Bot Management (8th), Anomaly Detection Tools (4th)
Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Arkose is 0.4%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.7%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email4.7%
Cloudflare One1.7%
Arkose0.4%
Other93.2%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

CV
Network Architect at IP Dimension
Cloud security has improved remote access and has reduced costs for smaller client sites
I have used Cloudflare One's Identity-Aware Proxy, and it is quite straightforward from what I have seen so far. The app registration on the Azure side integrates fully into Cloudflare, and I am very satisfied with that part because it is easy to set up. The integration of Cloudflare One's Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access works without any issues. That part is pretty automatic, and if you complete the rest of the setup, it comes together by itself with no issues from my side. What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection. The hops get shorter and you get better latency. We have done testing to see if it is better. One thing that we did notice with our proof of concept with our current client is that they have people connecting from the UK. When they used their previous VPN solution, uploading CAD drawings and other files to the server took a long time. They mentioned that it is much quicker on Cloudflare One's solution. I definitely believe that is part of the improved performance, and I am satisfied with that as well. What is nice about Cloudflare One is that it makes the setup easier and also easier to train technicians to maintain it. Compared to legacy systems, we do not need to get fancy firewalls in place that are costly. That is definitely also a cost-saver with Cloudflare One.
Rajesh Podishetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Fraud controls have protected patient portals and now support trusted digital healthcare access
Arkose can be improved in several ways. Integration complexity requires alignment with healthcare IT systems, which is an area where Arkose is currently lagging. There is a need to balance security versus patient experience, as overly strict controls frustrate legitimate users who want to access the patient portal without excessive restrictions. Evolving threats present another challenge. Every day, fraudsters use generative AI to mimic human behavior, which requires Arkose to continually improve its threat detection. Since Arkose handles different systems that need to be controlled over time, there should be regular audits to determine which features need adjustment. Cost-wise, the platform requires improvement, as there is significant cost involved and considerable manual intervention needed, which should be brought into the AI automation. On an everyday basis, patient login verification sometimes experiences delays when internet issues occur, causing patients to wait long in queue. Insurance claims validation does not always happen easily due to application environment downtime. These operational improvements need to be addressed in Arkose Labs systems.
KS
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Email security has protected financial data and provides clear tracking for every branch message
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP and other content filters compared to other consoles. It may have been due to on-premises, but it was much noisy at some times while configuring DLP. When we tried to configure a DLP policy, the console became much slower. In that case, we cannot see what had happened in the mail which was blocked at that time. It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies. That is the major issue in the product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cloudflare DDoS is better than its competitors for its security, deployment, and scalability."
"Cloudflare is by far the most effective solution that I have come across."
"It is a stable solution."
"Cloudflare Access is a stable solution."
"The solution has different options that can be used to differentiate DDoS attacks."
"It's a perfect solution from my perspective; it's easy to understand and easy to configure."
"We mostly use Cloudflare WAF, and gets basic Cloudflaire DDoS, caching as extra bonus . We like the factor these features are all integrated into 1 console, simple to manage."
"The best feature is rate limiting. If I'm expecting 500 visits per hour, Cloudflare will limit the requests if I suddenly get 50,000."
"I also like that they challenge crawling in CAPTCHA for mobile. This is good compared to the traditional way."
"I love the Advanced Malware Protection feature. It works very well... The appliance has more security such as SDF, DKIM, DMARC, and encryption."
"Even though it's not perfect, it has the IMS engine, Intelligent Multi-Scan engine, and it does a good job, right out-of-the-box, of blocking the vast majority of things that should be blocked."
"It saves a lot of time wasting, for example, phishing attacks distract a user's attention and forged emails waste a lot of time, and this solution helps protect user data."
"We like the in-built features, like the email filtering based on the IP and domain, and Cisco has its own blacklisted domains and IPs, which is very good because this filters around 70 percent of emails from spam and we are seeing fewer false positives with this."
"The solution is valuable if you are looking for a security email gateway that provides you with the most services possible."
"Initially, the most valuable feature for us was the SenderBase Reputation, because that reduced the number of emails that were even considered by the system by a huge number..."
"Capital expenditure is a significant consideration, and the impact on major expenditures prompts a careful analysis before onboarding the new product."
"My favorite feature of Cisco Secure Email is the threat intelligence capabilities, particularly its integration with Cisco Talos."
 

Cons

"Feedback could be enhanced."
"Feedback could be enhanced. While I work efficiently with Clover as a partner in Mexico City, sometimes the information and requests are easier to manage with more concrete solutions."
"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."
"There are premium tier live service and lower tier live service, so we opted for the lower tier. But there is no medium tier where we pay a little extra and get a bit more service. So if that can be improved."
"Automation could be improved where you can easily add a TLS and SSL certificate to an application or web app if the developer did not include it."
"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."
"Cloudflare DDoS has poor technical support."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform needs to improve its documentation. It took time to do the implementation."
"Integration complexity requires alignment with healthcare IT systems, which is an area where Arkose is currently lagging."
"Arkose need to provide something for testing."
"We cannot manage multiple devices from a single UI."
"They could improve the filters. In my time at the company, there were several times we had to contact support to update the filters."
"The discontinuation of physical hardware solutions is a significant area for improvement in Cisco Email Security Appliance. This decision has posed challenges as virtual appliances are now the only option, which may not be suitable for all industries. The uncertainty regarding the future of the hardware aspect of the solution is a notable concern."
"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."
"I would like to see sandboxing for email, where suspicious emails received by the system are analyzed through online services."
"It takes time to harmonize information from the email log events with higher level reporting tools."
"I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability."
"The graphical user interface is not user-friendly like other vendors. I find it very difficult at times to find some options on the UI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."
"The prices are slightly expensive."
Information not available
"There are additional fees for adding features."
"The licensing was all transferred."
"The pricing is good."
"Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."
"In my previous organization, avoiding four instances of CryptoLocker within an estimated six month period is approximately $600,000 in lost time and effort. Our five year cost was about a million dollars, and the four outages that we had equated to 65 percent of that five year cost."
"In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler...
What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN...
What needs improvement with Arkose?
Arkose need to provide something for testing. Maybe some test accounts or testing features. For example, I need to ch...
What is your primary use case for Arkose?
The main use case of Arkose was for fraud prevention. But we also used secure connections between servers using keys....
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Email?
We are using Cisco Secure Email to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail traffic in our financial institute. We have...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform
Arkose Email Intelligence, Arkose Bot Manager
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

23andMe
Information Not Available
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint, Microsoft, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Email Security. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.