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Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Sophos Email comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides enhanced security, yielding financial savings and efficiency gains through improved threat detection and data protection.
Sentiment score
7.8
Check Point Harmony boosts ROI with enhanced security, reducing breaches and costs while improving productivity and protecting data.
Sentiment score
8.7
Sophos Email delivers cost-efficient security and reduces unsolicited emails, enhancing ROI, particularly valuable for government contracts.
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 generally offers efficient support, but improvements in responsiveness and handling complex scenarios are desired.
Sentiment score
7.1
Check Point Harmony Email support receives mixed reviews; some praise responsiveness while others mention slow response and inefficiencies.
Sentiment score
6.4
Sophos Email support is responsive but requires improvements in speed and expertise; users can contact via phone, chat, or email.
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Customer service and support have been fantastic.
Customer support is of high quality.
I would rate customer support eight out of ten.
Support issues exist with the Check Point company itself, not necessarily the product.
When I reported a problem with our firewall, they acted promptly and delivered another piece of equipment.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 excels in scalability, accommodating any organization size with efficient cloud-based performance and seamless updates.
Sentiment score
8.2
<p>Check Point Harmony Email &amp; Collaboration is a highly scalable, cloud-based platform, ideal for businesses of all sizes.</p>
Sentiment score
7.3
Sophos Email is scalable and reliable for SMEs, though licensing and server maintenance can be challenging for larger use.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
I would rate the scalability of Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration as nine out of ten, indicating high scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 boasts 99.9% availability, resolving issues quickly, with users rating its reliability highly.
Sentiment score
8.0
<p>Check Point Harmony Email &amp; Collaboration is highly stable, offering reliable uptime, robust security features, and efficient cloud-based performance.</p>
Sentiment score
8.1
Sophos Email is reliable and stable, highly rated for handling significant email activity despite minor issues and update requests.
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
Overall, the stability and reliability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are good.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 requires enhancements in virus-blocking, compatibility, integration, phishing detection, and global support.
Check Point Harmony needs project management, performance, scalability improvements, better integration, threat detection, technical support, and reduced deployment costs.
Sophos Email needs better security, user interface, compatibility, and performance, with improvements in pricing and reporting features.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
We still see many false positives from time to time with Microsoft Defender for Office 365, so it would be good if we can reduce those false positives.
Check Point should integrate with features available in Barracuda - like more advanced threat management.
Sophos Email does not work with split delivery.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is cost-effective with extensive features but may be costly for smaller organizations with limited budgets.
Check Point Harmony offers flexible per-user licensing, competitive features, and negotiable rates, appealing to growing companies.
Sophos Email offers reasonable pricing with flexible options, balancing affordability and features for various organizational needs.
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
I consider the pricing to be a bit expensive, similar to other solutions.
The pricing is lower compared to what I used before.
The pricing is reasonable, rated five out of ten for affordability.
Sophos Email pricing is a bit high, especially since I purchase through a partner, and they sell it at a higher price since they also seek to make a profit.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides integrated threat protection, risk notifications, and productivity enhancements through a single management console.
<p>Check Point Harmony Email &amp; Collaboration offers robust threat protection, seamless Office 365 integration, and efficient data security for enterprises.</p>
Sophos Email provides robust security, AI-driven features, and seamless integration with Office 365 and Google Workspace for comprehensive protection.
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
The most valuable feature is spam detection and phishing site prevention, which Microsoft couldn't catch, yet Check Point does.
Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration offers online support and has tight integration with Microsoft.
The protection and scanning of emails are also appreciated, as they secure everything in the email spectrum.
It provides a defense layer for email protection, scanning every incoming and outbound email for malware and spam.
The spam reduction feature in Sophos Email provides comfort when using it.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
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Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (11th)
Check Point Harmony Email &...
Ranking in Email Security
7th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th)
Sophos Email
Ranking in Email Security
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Office 365 Protection (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 12.9%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is 4.7%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Email is 2.2%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
Rahul Kamble. - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers complete detection and simple management and is a user-friendly solution
It's very effective as a solution to prevent mobile app threats. It has a mobile MDX, mobile detection, and response session. As a comprehensive solution, Check Point offers a very granular and best-in-class experience. Compared to competitors like Fortinet, Trend Micro, Palo Alto, and Cisco, Check Point provides a superior solution according to both the MITRE and Gartner frameworks. For example, in a recent attack simulation, Check Point only allowed ten malicious emails through, while Fortinet allowed 1500 and Cisco allowed 1800. Check Point's email attack ratio is nearly 0.10%, while others range from 1% to 3%. This demonstrates Check Point's superior email filtering capabilities. Check Point's email cleaning ratio is 99.9%, significantly higher than the 98%, 95%, or 93% of its competitors. Moreover, Check Point Harmony Email incorporates AI technology within its security features. Harmony Email & Collaboration (HEC) provides full protection and addresses zero-day files. It's the best solution available, as others don't offer protection against zero-day attacks and rely on signature-based solutions. HEC is truly the best option.
NaveedAli - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good identity proxy features, but sandboxing and spam control features could be improved
Sophos gives you a feature set to manage your on-premises firewall on the cloud. I just integrated my on-premises firewall into the cloud, and I can manage the tool through the cloud as well if needed. I recommend using Sophos Email as a proxy. For email gateways, I advise choosing mature products with rich feature sets, like Trend Micro or CrowdStrike. The solution's integration with other tools is very simple. I easily integrated Sophos Email with my Active Directory. My organization needs a WAF with a limited feature set, which we use through Sophos. Purchasing additional WAF will be costly, but I get sandboxing and WAF features free of cost with Sophos, which is included in the license. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 ( /products/office-365-reviews ) suite, making it slightly more expensive ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process. There are many conditions to be ...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
We are using Check Point Harmony Email &amp; Collaboration to protect our organization from phishing attacks. For exa...
What do you like most about Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
The product offers good and easy integration capabilities with other products.
What do you like most about Sophos Email?
The solution's identity proxy feature is very good and reliable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Email?
Sophos Email pricing is a bit high, especially since I purchase through a partner, and they sell it at a higher price...
What needs improvement with Sophos Email?
Sophos Email does not work with split delivery. If I have a domain with 100 mailboxes and want to protect only 50, it...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Check Point CloudGuard, Check Point CloudGuard SaaS , Check Point Harmony Email & Office
Sophos Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Helvetia, Denham Capital, Daymark Solutions, Neopharm Group
Del Monte Foods, Terra Verde, spicerhaart, RIVERLITE, Dataprise, SureBridge, Reed's School, Sayfol International School
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs. Sophos Email and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,043 professionals have used our research since 2012.