Avanan vs Kiteworks comparison

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Avanan

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Kiteworks and Avanan are competing products in secure communication and email security. Avanan often leads due to its advanced security features and value for cost.

Features: Kiteworks offers secure file sharing, email protection, and compliance integrations. Its strengths lie in large file transfers up to 30 GB, centralized content management, and built-in antivirus protection. Avanan specializes in advanced AI-driven threat detection, easy integration with platforms like Microsoft Office 365, and comprehensive email threat protection involving sandboxing and anomaly detection.

Room for Improvement: Kiteworks could enhance its content visibility tools, expand admin access controls, and improve two-factor authentication mechanisms. Avanan may benefit from refining its malware detection algorithms for old-school attack vectors, reducing false positives, and integrating more seamless updates to improve threat identification.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Kiteworks provides an intuitive deployment process and strong customer support for seamless system integration. Avanan offers a cloud-based setup that prioritizes minimal disruption and rapid deployment, with responsive customer service ensuring ongoing support.

Pricing and ROI: Kiteworks provides a cost-effective solution with competitive pricing and a clear ROI through its extensive feature set. Avanan, despite higher initial costs, offers significant ROI by enhancing email security with advanced protective measures that justify the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Avanan vs. Kiteworks Report (Updated: July 2025).

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Avanan vs. Kiteworks

July 2025

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

Avanan

Ranking in Email Security

16th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (26th)

Kiteworks

Ranking in Email Security

33rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Content Management (15th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (6th), Content Collaboration Platforms (14th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Avanan is 3.7%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kiteworks is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez

Vice President Information Technology at Makeready

Enhances email security and has a very simple and easy-to-use UI

Spam protection is the most valuable feature. We have implemented the tool to enhance our email security. It helps prevent phishing attacks. The anomaly detection capabilities are baked into the security platform. The product integrates wonderfully with Microsoft 365. It's built right on a cloud platform and works almost natively. The solution has a very simple and easy-to-use UI. The tool appears extremely powerful and has a good solid feature set. It catches things that are bad for my environment. The user interface is good the way it is. If the solution continues down that path, I see no problems with the way it is going. It feels like a mature product.

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Sukkanta Banerjee

Senior Software Engineer at Wipro Limited

Two-factor authentication and .ZIP format make large file transfers very secure

The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth. Also, only the .ZIP format is supported because it is a very secure mode of file transfer, and that is why it is recommended. It also has built-in antivirus, so if it detects any malware it will quarantine the file and it won't be delivered. This is really important to keep the service up and running in a proper and secure manner. With people working from home, the data needs to be checked to see what kind of data is being sent. It has a two-factor authentication mechanism. For example, if a person with a particular domain is using Kiteworks and sends a file to a party outside of his domain, that external party has to go through two-factor authentication. The receiver gets a link that takes them to the setup of a temporary account, which will be valid for three days. The recipient will also receive a customized password separately. Only after all these steps will they be able to access the file. That access is only available to a person with the mail ID to which the file was sent. In addition, admins can see who is sending sensitive content, what that content is, and to whom it is being sent, and can track emails. One week of good training will give a user complete knowledge for using the solution. The system is very easy to use. You just click on "Compose," attach a file, and send it. It's very easy compared to Outlook or Teams. It's quite simple, even for someone logging in for the first time. It is very smooth and easy to send files.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When we don't understand some functionalities, the customer support staff responds fast to our calls and provides immediate action."

"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its effectiveness. When scanning incoming emails for threats it can in an automated fashion, quarantine suspicious attachments."

"I like Avanan's SmartDLP module. It's seamless, and the administrative overhead is low. We aren't a very sophisticated operation. We just want to reduce our exposure, so we find ThreatCloud helpful. Avanan's acquisition by Check Point was beneficial for them."

"It can detect corrupted files and filters out documents with viruses."

"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its Anti-Malware solution for Office 365, and box.com."

"Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents."

"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."

"Easy to use for non-technical users."

More Avanan pros

"The most valuable feature is the ability to allow end-users to manage their own information and data with minimal administration. That's the best feature from my perspective."

"The benefits that Kiteworks has provided to its customers in terms of data sovereignty."

"Scalability is impressive."

"We can see when people are sending things. We can definitely see who is sending to whom. From the administrative logs, we can see who is sending to an outside entity, and those logs are retained for quite a while."

"The best part of this solution is that we can generate multiple reports about how the data is transferred and about user information or IP."

"The solution removes the limitations with file attachment size that is found with regular email."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth."

"We could see whether the customer with whom we shared a file had downloaded it, which was not available with GitHub."

More Kiteworks pros

Cons

"The cost can be reviewed to enable SMEs to acquire it and enjoy great security features."

"When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests."

"Sometimes it seemed like the allow list wasn't working. I've created many allow list rules however, they still seem to be blocked; the same is true with the blocked list rules."

"It should reduce the amount of time needed for thorough scanning."

"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."

"Being cloud first and because we are in the movie business, we use a lot of Macintoshes. So, there is absolutely no reason for us to have Active Directory whatsoever. However, if you are using Office 365, you must have Active Directory in order to reset passwords. Even though we have a single sign-on provider, we must have Azure Active Directory for Office 365, which is really stupid. As a cloud application, you would think that I don't need Active Directory, which I don't need for anything else except Office 365. We have one server inside that space to help us manage Active Directory just for Office 365. This is a very sore point, but it is what it is."

"The system could be designed to give corporate emails first priority due to demands."

"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."

More Avanan cons

"We have experienced a few hiccups and bugs when using the admin console and from a user perspective."

"There are always issues when there are bugs or upgrades. The challenge with upgrading is getting more storage from the customer. Every time we have a new version, it requires additional storage. This means that the customer would need to procure more storage for their server, which they don't like because it means additional cost to them. So, I think my request would be that the version upgrades don't require any significant storage requirement."

"File location could be improved."

"I would like to see immediate releases of fixes because now it takes at least a week. If that time span can be reduced to one day or two days, that would be very helpful for users so that things are sorted and transactions work smoothly."

"Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss."

"It could be more stable. In the next release, it would be better if it was more stable with improved performance."

"I noticed the Kiteworks login UI is very basic, lacking customization. Allowing more HTML tags to add hyperlinks or user-friendly information on the home page would be very useful."

"It would be nice if Kiteworks could provide a free version of the platform so that it could be used for a certain number of file transfers. We could be charged a fee if we exceeded the number of allotted file transfers."

More Kiteworks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not the cheapest in the market."

"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."

"Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."

"Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."

"The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."

"I believe it's a little costly, but given the faith that we put into it from a security perspective to maintain the integrity of our patient information that is being transferred through this system, that's a small price to pay. So, on the surface, it might look like a lot of money, but depending on the need for security, which is where we feel it shines, it's okay price-wise."

"The license management is changing and confusing. If I could make one change to it, it would be better license management through the API."

"They changed it midstream. We were being charged a certain flat rate for SFTP traffic. For whatever reason, at the beginning of the year, our pricing changed, and we are now being charged more for using a feature of the product than we were when we first bought it. That has been our experience with billing. It turned out to be more expensive than when we started with it."

"The solution is very expensive because we are buying with Malaysian Ringgit and it's sold in US dollars."

"It is not really expensive. I mean, to me it's obviously expensive, but it's worth it."

"The price of Kiteworks is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Avanan?

Spam protection is the most valuable feature.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Avanan?

Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda.

What needs improvement with Avanan?

Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s backup and retention services. I've brought this up with the vendor. They told me t...

What is Kiteworks?

Kiteworks is a secured file sharing platform that enables users to collaborate with different parties across a robust offering of secured protected channels. Users have the option of virtual privat...

What do you like most about Kiteworks?

The benefits that Kiteworks has provided to its customers in terms of data sovereignty.

What needs improvement with Kiteworks?

I'm not a network expert, however, there must be some room for improvement. Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss. If users receive such notifi...

Abnormal Security vs Avanan

Comparisons

Compared 12% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Avanan

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Avanan

Compared 11% of the time

Perception Point Advanced Email Security vs Avanan

Compared 7% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Avanan

Compared 6% of the time

More Avanan Competitors

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct vs Kiteworks

Compared 34% of the time

SharePoint vs Kiteworks

Compared 10% of the time

GoAnywhere MFT vs Kiteworks

Compared 8% of the time

FileCloud vs Kiteworks

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs Kiteworks

Compared 6% of the time

More Kiteworks Competitors

Product Reports

Download Avanan product report

Avanan

August 2025

Download Kiteworks product report

August 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Accellion

Overview

Avanan provides advanced email security, integrating with cloud services like Microsoft Office 365 to guard against phishing, malware, and ransomware while offering user-friendly, seamless, and comprehensive protection for all users.

Avanan leverages AI to detect and block threats before they reach inboxes, offering real-time protection, data leak prevention, and advanced email screening. The solution is easy to deploy and can be used effectively by both technical and non-technical users to secure email environments. Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365, it provides continuous protection, efficiently sandboxing suspicious emails and responding swiftly to emerging threats. While recognizing its performance in threat detection, users suggest improvements in AI logic to reduce false positives and enhance user experience.

What are the key features of Avanan?

Advanced AI: Leverages artificial intelligence for superior threat detection and blocking.
Real-Time Protection: Offers real-time monitoring for consistent threat detection.
Easy Deployment: Simple to implement across various platforms.
Cost-Effective: Provides robust security solutions at a competitive price.
Customizable Rules: Allows users to tailor security settings to their needs.
End-to-End Encryption: Ensures data security throughout transmission.
Seamless Integration: Integrates smoothly with Microsoft Office 365.
Efficient Sandboxing: Isolates and inspects suspicious emails effectively.
Responsive Support: Offers quick customer support for resolving issues.
Cloud-Native Controls: Provides continuous protection against evolving cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Improved Security: Enhanced protection against phishing, malware, and ransomware.
Ease of Use: User-friendly interface suitable for both technical and non-technical users.
Time Efficiency: Rapid deployment and seamless integration save valuable time.
Cost Savings: Affordable pricing with comprehensive features offers high ROI.
Data Integrity: Maintains data security with end-to-end encryption and real-time protection.
User Satisfaction: Efficient threat detection and responsive customer support.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and education, Avanan's security measures are critically important for protecting sensitive information. Financial organizations benefit from advanced threat detection to safeguard transactions, while healthcare entities use robust security protocols to protect patient data. Educational institutions use Avanan to secure communications, ensuring the safety and privacy of students and staff.

Avanan, a Check Point Company

Kiteworks empowers organizations to effectively manage risk in every send, share, receive, and save of sensitive content over numerous communications channels: email, file sharing, managed file transfer, APIs, and web forms. The Kiteworks platform unifies, tracks, controls, and secures sensitive content moving within, into, and out of an organization, significantly improving risk management and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring

United States Securities and Exchange Commission, National Health Service, Husch Blackwell LLP, NYC Health + Hospitals, Viatris, MITRE Corporation, Chubb, Kraft Heinz, KPMG, Kohler, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Purdue Pharma, AVL