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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

"This solution is easy to use."
"The features and functionalities are much better than Microsoft's in-built Defender plan, and this product has helped us to protect our organization from any malware attack in the past."
"Regarding stability, Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is very stable."
"The product offers protection, email security, anti-spam, and antivirus."
"On ease of use, it rates very high."
"Secure Email Threat Defense's scalability is good."
"The ability to see east-west traffic is its most valuable feature. Traditionally, email defense focuses on north-south, inbound-outbound, egress-ingress traffic. With Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, it's able to quickly identify, track, tag, and categorize emails that are internal. That can typically give us visibility into if there's an internal compromised account (for example). Someone can then use that internal compromised account to email additional accounts with either malicious software or links, but internal within that Office tenant. Effectively, that email message never leaves the tenant. Any of the mail gateways really do not have any method or way of seeing this traffic since it's not leaving the environment."
"I highly recommend it as one of the best choices."
"Its administration console is very easy to use. The administration console is absolutely important because you interact with the platform through it."
"The most valuable feature of Mimecast Mailbox Continuity is real-time alerts."
"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."
"Due to our specialized use case, that HIPAA dictionary really comes in handy."
"Based on overall experience, Mimecast Email Security is the best solution for traditional gateways."
"The platform's most valuable features are journaling and email archiving, effectively stopping phishing attacks."
"The security is pretty good, and that's why we're going to upgrade to an even more advanced package. We used it when we had a power issue, and it works. It has been pretty reliable, and the support has been quite good."
"Mimecast is a brilliant product; it works very well, I have very seldomly, if ever, had any problems with it, and it does exactly what it promises to do."
 

Cons

"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."
"This solution could be improved by integration with Sandbox."
"There is still room for improvement in terms of integrations with other Cisco tools and non-Cisco tools. There is also some room for improvement needed in terms of the reporting."
"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."
"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."
"The physical appliance has been discontinued, although the platform still exists."
"From a technical point of view, Cisco is far behind in terms of cybersecurity, and it has to improve very much."
"The search area has room for improvement."
"Their support should be improved. They are notorious for sending you to knowledge-based articles rather than actually talking to you about the problem you're reporting."
"For improvement, I would say some of the catalogs, while navigating, were a little tricky."
"Mimecast Advanced Email Security needs to improve in this area because they are only focusing on a particular set of problems which is on email and human risk, whereas companies that need a slightly bigger picture will look elsewhere."
"It was not a good experience due to the fact that our main infrastructure had a problem for that entire time."
"The installation is not so straightforward."
"Improvements for Mimecast Advanced Email Security include enhancing the user interface and accessibility, particularly regarding admin capabilities to add or modify user accounts."
"They could provide a unified licensing model, including all the security features."
"What can be improved with Mimecast Advanced Email Security is around the Brand Exploit Protect tool; the turnaround times to take down sites or block them in the meantime are a bit slow, and the detection of brand exploitation out in the world could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to other vendors."
"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."
"The solution’s pricing is manageable."
"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 product has good pricing in terms of return on investment."
"The product price is moderate. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The price of Mimecast Mailbox Continuity is expensive."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
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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.