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Avanan vs MetaDefender Email Gateway Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2026

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
23rd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (41st)
MetaDefender Email Gateway ...
Ranking in Email Security
32nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Avanan is 1.8%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetaDefender Email Gateway Security is 1.2%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Avanan1.8%
MetaDefender Email Gateway Security1.2%
Other97.0%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
RM
Senior Information Systems Engineer at Liberty Pumps, Inc.
Helpful support, and useful dashboards
They offer a feature called SmartLink neutralization. I have tried it before. It seemed to work most of the time; however, I had a few users for whom it just wouldn't work. Whenever they click on a link, it stays on the MetaDefender page, saying that it's scanning it and never moves forward. I haven't tried it in a while since then. Since I can't turn it off on a per-user basis, I had to turn it off globally. I have certain exceptions for not doing the sanitization, and how to set those up is not intuitive. It would be useful if there were a better way of doing that. Using digital certificates is hard. It would be better if it used Windows Servers' built-in certificate management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Avanan Cloud Email Security has empowered teams with modern data security management knowledge and provided enough awareness that helps employees to prepare for any outcomes."
"The program has reduced the dangers related to phishing, malware, ransomware, and other vulnerabilities."
"Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources."
"We are grateful for the solution and its great advances in connecting teams under a secure environment that cybercriminals cannot compromise."
"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its Anti-Malware solution for Office 365, and box.com."
"The threat detection tools enable us to ascertain malware and phishing messages across the email network infrastructure."
"It can retract unsafe emails and remove them from the entire communication channel."
"This software has kept the company information systems very secure for a long period, and we are proud of that."
"The most valuable feature is called summary reconstruction which is used to deliver encrypted files to users."
"The sanitization is very good."
"The most valuable feature of MetaDefender Email Security is the CDR. Customers purchase this solution specifically for data communication, as the other features can be obtained through other technologies that most customers already possess. Therefore, data communication serves as the foundation for the platform."
 

Cons

"It should reduce the amount of time needed for thorough scanning."
"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."
"The cost is higher for SMEs, however, the pricing and billing criteria can be lessened to accommodate more willing customers."
"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."
"The customer service team could come up with clear tutorials on how to use this platform to help new teams."
"Frequent updates should be made on time to keep the system running effectively."
"It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."
"The user experience must be improved."
"Although the number of AV engines is good, it could be better."
"The DLP should be upgraded and has room for improvement."
"They offer a feature called SmartLink neutralization. I have tried it before. It seemed to work most of the time; however, I had a few users for whom it just wouldn't work. Whenever they click on a link, it stays on the MetaDefender page, saying that it's scanning it and never moves forward."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."
"Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."
"Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."
"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."
"The product is not the cheapest in the market."
"According to our customers, the price of MetaDefender is high and it continues to increase by almost 15 percent each year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
OPSWAT MetaDefender Email Security, MetaDefender Email Gateway Security, MetaDefender Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
https://www.opswat.com/blog/how-one-of-the-largest-banks-in-taiwan-uses-opswat-metadefender-email-security-to-close-security-gaps https://www.opswat.com/blog/hapool-insurance-achieves-almost-100-reduction-in-email-threats-with-opswat https://www.opswat.com/blog/luzerner-psychiatrie-ag-stops-email-borne-malware-attacks-with-opswat-technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. MetaDefender Email Gateway Security and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.