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Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 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
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (15th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (21st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (11th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (7th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (13th), Access Management (12th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (8th), ZTNA (3rd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (3rd)
Check Point Harmony Email &...
Ranking in Email Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (4th), 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
61
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 March 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is 5.5%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 8.8%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 3658.8%
Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration5.5%
Cloudflare One1.5%
Other84.2%
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.
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

"It is a stable solution."
"It's the endpoint exposition. We don't need to expose our VPN server to the internet and need a zero-test solution. I can apply some conditional access to the endpoint that's connecting to our network to check their security policies or the security condition of their workstation. Once the workstation is trying to connect to my internal network, then I would like to check the discrete condition of these endpoints that are trying to access my internal network. We created some conditional access. We have CrowdStrike, to check if the CrowdStrike is installed, to check if it's updated, and to check for Windows updates. We created some conditional policies to check it."
"Enables me to work from two locations."
"Cloudflare is simple to use."
"For Cloudflare Access, I am using the free plan...The most valuable feature is their protection."
"Cloudflare DDoS mitigates DDoS attacks."
"This solution is easy to understand and easy to configure."
"I'm very satisfied with the environment and the dashboard."
"The combination of smooth integration and advanced detection has made it feel like a strong layer of protection in our overall security stack."
"Our employees and the company's system are pretty much safe, and it has overall improved our email hygiene with very little spam and no malicious attachments reaching us, which get filtered out very quickly."
"It is very intuitive. It is a point and click type of deal."
"It fully protects colleagues from visiting insecure sites and browsing in unhealthy environments."
"The solution has a very effective anti-phishing algorithm that detects a significantly higher number of phishing emails compared to the default Microsoft solution."
"The option to set a copy is beneficial."
"It protects cloud email and collaboration suites from cyber-attacks that evade default and advanced security tools. Its invisible, multi-layer security enables full-suite protection for cloud collaboration solutions such as Office 365, G-Suite, Teams, and Slack."
"Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration offers online support and has tight integration with Microsoft."
"The coolest feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is its ability to look for phishing emails."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"The initial setup is straightforward. You just add the license, click it, and then you can set up the rules. It is quite simple."
"The feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 that I like the most is probably the email features specifically, because those are the ones that a typical end user will accidentally click on a link not knowing what it is, and it'll catch it, and then it'll feed it over to Defender and stop the attack from happening before it actually can."
"It has helped us in improving our security posture; it detects any kind of attack or abnormal behavior in accessing the system and sends an alert to the administrator who can check, understand, and review on time to ensure that all activities are legit."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."
"With Defender for Office 365, we have been able to increase the security posture across our organization."
 

Cons

"Our subscription plan for the solution has a limitation of bot signatures."
"They don't have a person to provide support for customers using the solution under their free plan."
"When there are any dynamic changes in complex applications, the tool takes a lot of time, making its analytics-related area a major matter of concern where improvements are needed."
"The onboarding process can be improved a little bit."
"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."
"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."
"Feedback could be enhanced."
"Cloudflare DDoS has poor technical support."
"Since the portal to the management and administration entry sometimes has performance problems and takes a long time to respond to what has arrived, the handling of the tool is difficult."
"A phishing simulator would be helpful as a user training module."
"I have learned enough to make the product stable. However, the stability has some challenges."
"Stability has been a pain point. I was going back and forth with my product engineer and project manager for a couple of months. I had the product in a demonstration mode and wasn't satisfied with the results initially. After a few alterations and a few revisions later, it is fine."
"Check Point Infinity Portal sometimes feels a bit slow, and there are performance issues that should be easy to fix."
"The implementation could definitely be better. We had great support from Check Point, but there were some "got-you" moments where we got surprises as we were setting it up."
"We understand that false positives are always there, but sometimes the notifications are more than expected."
"The documentation is a little unintuitive, and I make an additional effort for the first deployment."
"I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost."
"Sometimes I have to recategorize things when it takes the wrong step and I do not want it to classify something as suspicious."
"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 must improve the overall management style, including the GUI. It also needs to change the filters so that it is easy to whitelist and blacklist data."
"Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities."
"The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not that expensive."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"The prices are slightly expensive."
"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"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's pricing lacks transparency."
"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."
"You can get CloudGuard as part of Infinity. When you do the solution through Infinity, it's a per user type of license cost."
"The pricing is in the middle. Check Point's pricing is not the highest in the competitive market."
"The product is expensive compared to some competitors, especially for the SME segment."
"The pricing is expensive."
"As we are a non-profit organization, we got the tool with a good offer. On a yearly basis, we pay 10,000 Euro for 500 users, which also includes the technical support part."
"Due to its pricing, I would say that Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is more suitable for medium to enterprise organizations."
"The price is very good, based on what they deliver."
"There are absolutely no additional costs to the standard licensing fees. One of the wonderful pieces is that CloudGuard SaaS is all-inclusive in its licensing. There's no a-la-carte functionality. You're getting 100 percent of the product for the licensing that you're paying."
"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."
"It's a user-base subscription."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
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 Business62
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
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?
My experience with the pricing aspect, including setup cost and licensing cost of Check Point Harmony Email & Col...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
We use Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration for our clients, and we have also implemented the solution in ou...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
A more intuitive interface would be an area for improvement. I would like the agents to perform better; sometimes, th...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents...
 

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 Harmony Email & Collaboration vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.