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Check Point Email Security (formerly Harmony Email & Collaboration) vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 24, 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

Cloudflare One
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
21st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (15th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (20th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (11th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (7th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (13th), Access Management (13th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (9th), ZTNA (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (3rd)
Check Point Email Security ...
Ranking in Email Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (7th)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Email Security
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (9th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Email Security (formerly Harmony Email & Collaboration) is 4.7%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 7.3%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 3657.3%
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration4.7%
Cloudflare One1.5%
Other86.5%
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.
Nasseer Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre Sales Consultant at Redington Group
Email security effectively detects a wide range of threats and improves productivity
Since we have been using Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for a year, we haven't encountered significant challenges. However, it would be beneficial if it could support other email security services beyond Microsoft and Google. Integration with other platforms would enhance its appeal since the features are commendable. While the analytics are commendable, they don't provide deep dive insights. They show the overall counts of malware, phishing, and business compromise emails, but there isn't a robust ability to dive deeper into those categories to see specifics. Analytics should allow us to explore which users received malware emails the most or trends among departments. Currently, we have to sift through manually, which is not ideal. A more profound analytical capability would elevate the tool to become the complete email security solution for any user.
Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform removes the risk of exposing the applications to the public."
"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."
"Enables me to work from two locations."
"The blocking feature is very good."
"Cloudflare DDoS is better than its competitors for its security, deployment, and scalability."
"The solution has different options that can be used to differentiate DDoS attacks."
"Check Point Harmony gives us great visibility of the threats we are being exposed to, where they are coming from and what were they targeting, giving visibility of the weak gateways that could lead to an infection or a leakage."
"Check Point is very good for threat protection, which is our customers' primary concern."
"There has been a 70% decrease in phishing emails and data breaches since implementing Check Point Harmony Email Security."
"It is the collaboration between users inside the company. It is a big advantage with Check Point to be able to work together on the same document."
"Getting reports and finding threats in the console is easy."
"The solution has a very effective anti-phishing algorithm that detects a significantly higher number of phishing emails compared to the default Microsoft solution."
"Now, we're happy with this solution, as it's doing well."
"We can say that with Check Point Cloud Guard SaaS, we have improved our security to the next level."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is its spam filter."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"The basic features are okay and I'm satisfied with the Defender."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"With Defender for Office 365, we have been able to increase the security posture across our organization."
"The insights provided with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are helpful because it comes with the E5 license, and by default, we can use a lot of capabilities."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has decreased my time to detection and time to respond by one hundred percent."
"We use Microsoft Defender for its ability to integrate with existing business technologies, which is beneficial for protecting business areas."
 

Cons

"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."
"The tool should provide on-premise versions. Currently, all versions are cloud-based."
"From a logging perspective, it is still a bit difficult to see exactly what users are being blocked with the current views."
"Cloudflare DDoS has poor technical support."
"Lacks a VPN feature to provide a secure connection to the data center."
"Operating and tuning the product is difficult."
"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."
"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."
"The business team should be further expanded, and more peer feedback should be made available publicly to have better and complete visibility of the application globally."
"The documentation is a little unintuitive, and I make an additional effort for the first deployment."
"They must provide security to more email service providers."
"For tech people who want to dive deep into self-servicing capabilities, Check Point could improve in this area."
"Although it has good characteristics, it should improve the graphical interface and the latency that it sometimes presents."
"During the East Coast server outage with Amazon service this week, mail was delivered and then pulled back because Harmony wasn't working properly and needed to scan it."
"There could be more automation features included for it."
"The sanitization on the file needs improvement."
"There is room for improvement in terms of reporting."
"Sometimes I have to recategorize things when it takes the wrong step and I do not want it to classify something as suspicious."
"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
"Its price should be improved. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"To improve Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it would be nice to have more accessibility for users to see on their end what they are doing that could cause a threat."
"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get a lot of information on integrations with such apps for security and authentication."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."
"The prices are slightly 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 pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"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."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"Being able to keep the phishing campaigns out of my company has been ROI for me."
"One of the nice features is that the licensing model is elastic, so if you go over your license count, you can add users during your billing cycle and true-up later."
"The cost is similar to other competitors. It's not much higher."
"Cost is the main concern that every customer takes into consideration, and Check Point always negotiates a price that is affordable."
"The product is expensive."
"Check Point is more expensive. That's the honest truth. So far, it's a good value for the money."
"This is a very good product if you are on the cloud, but the price is a little more expensive."
"The product is expensive compared to some competitors, especially for the SME segment."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business63
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access has strong integration with Microsoft, among other platforms. However, when it comes to Kaspersky, ...
What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access provides secure access to internal applications for employees, external members of the organization...
What advice do you have for others considering Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access is one of the best integrations available. While about two hundred vendors offer similar services, ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
I am not the person to say what cost Check Point has for their products. However, for partners like us, if we could g...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
We are working with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration not only for Harmony, but also for their SaaS solut...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
Check Point must develop one mobile app for iPhone users, Android phone users, and Windows phone users or at least fo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My experience with pricing, setup, and licensing is that it's actually quite reasonable even on the licensing side as...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
I think Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can be improved by creating more educational pieces about not just looking ...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 include email hygiene.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform
Check Point CloudGuard, Check Point CloudGuard SaaS , Check Point Harmony Email & Office
MS Defender for Office 365
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

23andMe
Helvetia, Denham Capital, Daymark Solutions, Neopharm Group
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Email Security (formerly Harmony Email & Collaboration) vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
890,027 professionals have used our research since 2012.