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Arkose vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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

Arkose
Ranking in Email Security
28th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Bot Management (10th), Anomaly Detection Tools (3rd)
Cisco Secure Email Threat D...
Ranking in Email Security
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Arkose is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense1.1%
Arkose0.4%
Other98.5%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

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.
GC
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Provides robust email security features but requires improved modernization and complexity management
Modernization is an area that could be improved for Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, as some features have lagged behind newer competitors, potentially offering more advanced analysis capabilities. The initial setup is not straightforward and requires expertise and time to master configurations such as spoofing and DLP. More control over backend functionalities and simplifying rule management could enhance user experience. The product's complexity at times results in redundant rule sets that are difficult to untangle, highlighting the need for streamlined management systems and a more user-centric approach to system configuration. Furthermore, the pricing might deter new users who could opt for alternative, more cost-effective solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I also like that they challenge crawling in CAPTCHA for mobile. This is good compared to the traditional way."
"Regarding stability, Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is very stable."
"The product offers protection, email security, anti-spam, and antivirus."
"Cisco has a threat mechanism called cloud-based Talos, where all the threats are inbuilt."
"It has an efficient email filtering feature."
"Overall, it's certainly a very good idea to integrate another layer on top of Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection."
"Cisco Cloud Mailbox is used for copying emails, anti-spamming, and securing the company's email, and we really enjoy the anti-spamming capabilities as well as the rejecting of bulk emails, which we can customize by adjusting the variables, and it is very user-friendly."
"It's very easy to deploy and configure."
"The ability to see east-west traffic is its most valuable feature. Traditionally, email defense focuses on north-south, inbound-outbound, egress-ingress traffic. With Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, it's able to quickly identify, track, tag, and categorize emails that are internal. That can typically give us visibility into if there's an internal compromised account (for example). Someone can then use that internal compromised account to email additional accounts with either malicious software or links, but internal within that Office tenant. Effectively, that email message never leaves the tenant. Any of the mail gateways really do not have any method or way of seeing this traffic since it's not leaving the environment."
 

Cons

"Arkose need to provide something for testing."
"Integration complexity requires alignment with healthcare IT systems, which is an area where Arkose is currently lagging."
"The learning curve shows that in the beginning, there are numerous false positives. For one month, we had to reclassify the false positives manually until the system learned."
"There is still room for improvement in terms of integrations with other Cisco tools and non-Cisco tools. There is also some room for improvement needed in terms of the reporting."
"We encounter issues while searching for missing emails."
"Cisco's multiple product lines and verticals made this just one of their many verticals, and we could see a shift in focus."
"The behavioral analysis capability of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is not particularly helpful for identifying new, evolving threats within my company, as it keeps flagging legitimate emails as malicious."
"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox can improve by adding advanced phishing, then the solution would become the best in the market. However, this could increase the price even more. Additionally, if CES with domain protection could be added it would be an even better solution."
"The solution is a bit expensive. It could be cheaper."
"The tool gives false positives and it needs to be more accurate. I would like to see AI as a new feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is expensive compared to other vendors."
"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox does not have any competition with Sophos, Trend Micro, or other vendors of the world. However, there is a pricing premium for the solution. One has to look at it from that angle that while they are buying Cisco, there will be a premium, and Cisco justifies that premium value. That's why they're charging a high price."
"The feedback from vendors and customer is that it is expensive."
"The solution’s pricing is manageable."
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915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arkose?
Earlier, fraud management used to cost us around 15 million dollars per annum. After using Arkose Labs for fraud control, it helped us save around 9 million dollars. The cost is now 6 million dolla...
What needs improvement with Arkose?
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...
What is your primary use case for Arkose?
I have been using Arkose for the last four years. Arkose is a fraud prevention and trust management platform that helps different sectors in the healthcare industry, including healthcare providers,...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Secure Email Threat Defense?
Comparatively with other products, the pricing of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is normal. As a technical guide, I am not very aware of the pricing details.
What needs improvement with Secure Email Threat Defense?
We have deployed Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense in two customer environments. It is still in development as a new product. Some customer requirements, such as sending logs to a Syslog server, ar...
What is your primary use case for Secure Email Threat Defense?
We are working with Cloud Mail Gateway and on-premise mail gateways. We have worked with Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense.
 

Also Known As

Arkose Email Intelligence, Arkose Bot Manager
Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, Cisco CMD, Cisco Cloud Mailbox Defense
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Luiss University, Lone Star College, T-Systems, Magyar Telekom
Find out what your peers are saying about Arkose vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.