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Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs Mimecast Advanced Email Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco Secure Email Threat D...
Ranking in Email Security
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Mimecast Advanced Email Sec...
Ranking in Email Security
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (2nd), Office 365 Protection (2nd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Mimecast Advanced Email Security is 3.8%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Mimecast Advanced Email Security3.8%
Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense1.1%
Other95.1%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

NM
Enginner at Millennium Information Technologies
Has faced challenges with configuration, taking actions, and learning curve but benefits from centralized management and good technical support
We have deployed Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense in two customer environments. It is still in development as a new product. Some customer requirements, such as sending logs to a Syslog server, are limited as ETD only supports sending audit logs. Customers have requirements for other system logs as well, which should be developed from their side. Another customer request is to restrict the IPs that can log in, which cannot be done from Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense yet. Any user with login details can log in. We can restrict the IPs in Cloud Mail Gateways, but not from Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. It would be beneficial to improve this feature. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense can take actions, such as requesting O365 to quarantine mail. In that case, the customer requires notification to the recipient from Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. This option would be valuable if available. The real-time threat intelligence of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is an AI-based classification. It took one to two months to optimize the classification, but we still experience some false positives. Reducing the learning period would be beneficial. The learning curve shows that in the beginning, there are numerous false positives. For one month, we had to reclassify the false positives manually until the system learned. Reducing the learning time would be much better. Additional features desired in the next release include IP restrictions and user logging IP restrictions, ensuring only the customer environment can log in to Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense. Logs forwarding needs improvement as currently it only has audit logs. In Cloud Mail Gateway, we can create an IPsec tunnel to forward logs. However, in Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense, there is no option, and we must do API integration to send logs. Only SIM can get logs; Syslog cannot retrieve them.
Avinash Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - EUC at Finthrive
Advanced email filtering has blocked massive spam volumes and prevents unauthorized data leaks
Improvements for Mimecast Advanced Email Security include enhancing the user interface and accessibility, particularly regarding admin capabilities to add or modify user accounts. Streamlining this could improve overall usability and security management for users. Reporting is another area needing improvement in Mimecast Advanced Email Security, as the reports provided are not very easy to decipher. With artificial intelligence being integrated into various tools including Mimecast Advanced Email Security, I believe there is potential to enhance functionality, enabling users to ask specific questions and retrieve concise answers instead of overwhelming data. I choose a nine for Mimecast Advanced Email Security because improvements such as better user interface and artificial intelligence integration features would greatly enhance its usability. While no tool is perfect, these adjustments could greatly elevate Mimecast Advanced Email Security's capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco's technical support is very good."
"Overall, it's certainly a very good idea to integrate another layer on top of Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection."
"The solution is stable."
"Cisco Cloud Mailbox is used for copying emails, anti-spamming, and securing the company's email, and we really enjoy the anti-spamming capabilities as well as the rejecting of bulk emails, which we can customize by adjusting the variables, and it is very user-friendly."
"I would say it's very comprehensive, with multiple antivirus OEMs, virus encrypt features, encryption, and more."
"It's very easy to deploy and configure."
"This solution is easy to use."
"I highly recommend it as one of the best choices."
"Mimecast Advanced Email Security positively impacts my organization by filtering spam emails."
"The product is good. To date, we have not faced any challenges."
"It offers an easy initial setup."
"Mimecast Mailbox Community is an email gateway required for every organization, regardless of size."
"It's really quite user-friendly. In terms of technical superiority and the product itself, there are no complaints. It is really cutting edge."
"If you want the ease of use, then Mimecast, or at least a cloud solution, is the way to go."
"Based on overall experience, Mimecast Email Security is the best solution for traditional gateways."
"Overall, I consider Mimecast Advanced Email Security to be a reliable and effective security solution, with the highest value for organizations that face significant phishing and email-based threats and are willing to invest time in proper configuration and monitoring."
 

Cons

"The solution is a bit expensive. It could be cheaper."
"I wouldn't recommend Cisco to others because I think Fortinet is better."
"The behavioral analysis capability of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is not particularly helpful for identifying new, evolving threats within my company, as it keeps flagging legitimate emails as malicious."
"This solution could be improved by integration with Sandbox."
"The search area has room for improvement. When you go to the next page, it remains at the bottom of the current page that you're on. Also, under the reports section, it allows you to see any "convictions," but if you want to search for those convictions you have to remember when they all came in and go back and edit the search accordingly. You cannot click on the list of convictions to actually see if you had a spike at a certain time."
"The search area has room for improvement."
"The pricing could always be better."
"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox can improve by adding advanced phishing, then the solution would become the best in the market. However, this could increase the price even more. Additionally, if CES with domain protection could be added it would be an even better solution."
"The price could be better, it should be reduced."
"The differentiation between bulk spam mail and campaign-related mail could be improved."
"From an administrative point of view, Mimecast is a little bit cumbersome and difficult. It's not something that the end-user can easily find navigate themselves."
"I don't think it's ideally suited for maybe a smaller business environment, like, for example, for companies with less than 100 seats."
"The lock in is very, very tight. It is impossible to move out of Mimecast to a different product, like Proofpoint or 365 ATP, and keep the chain of custody for every email that I've archived."
"The interface and the documentation could be improved. They can also include some more training resources and content like video. While setting things up, I had to search for the information quite a bit. It took me time to find the correct way to do something. The information is there, but it is sort of all over the place. They can create a better help knowledge base or help portal. It retains your email for 45 days. They can maybe increase this duration."
"As for areas for improvement within Mimecast Web Security, I believe there is quite a lot that can be improved."
"For improvement, I would say some of the catalogs, while navigating, were a little tricky."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing is manageable."
"The feedback from vendors and customer is that it is expensive."
"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox does not have any competition with Sophos, Trend Micro, or other vendors of the world. However, there is a pricing premium for the solution. One has to look at it from that angle that while they are buying Cisco, there will be a premium, and Cisco justifies that premium value. That's why they're charging a high price."
"It is expensive compared to other vendors."
"Its price is in the middle range. It is a structured licensing model where there are various components that you can add or choose to add or not."
"The customers can select the license packages as per their requirements."
"Compared to the other solutions in the market, Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection's pricing is fine."
"The licensing costs are per-user for the product that you get with them."
"It's an expensive solution."
"For what it is, the product is overpriced."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
"I'm always going to say the price needs to be lower, but it's reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Secure Email Threat Defense?
Comparatively with other products, the pricing of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is normal. As a technical guide, I am not very aware of the pricing details.
What needs improvement with Secure Email Threat Defense?
We have deployed Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense in two customer environments. It is still in development as a new product. Some customer requirements, such as sending logs to a Syslog server, ar...
What is your primary use case for Secure Email Threat Defense?
We are working with Cloud Mail Gateway and on-premise mail gateways. We have worked with Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense.
What needs improvement with Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
There is room for improvement since new threats are emerging. Considering the availability of new features would be worthwhile. Mimecast Email Security is somewhat expensive compared to the competi...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, Cisco CMD, Cisco Cloud Mailbox Defense
Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection, Mimecast Web Security, Mimecast Mailbox Continuity, Email and Collaboration Threat Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Luiss University, Lone Star College, T-Systems, Magyar Telekom
Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), Cushman and Wakefield, PIB Group, Swissport
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Mimecast Advanced Email Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
912,788 professionals have used our research since 2012.