Cisco Secure Email vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense comparison

Cisco Secure Email and Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense are both solutions in the Email Security category. Cisco Secure Email is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3, while Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.3. Cisco Secure Email holds a 4.7% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Cisco Secure Email users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Cisco Secure Email and Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense provide advanced email security solutions. Cisco Secure Email is highlighted for its broad adaptability through numerous features, giving it a competitive edge in feature customization and management flexibility, whereas Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense excels in integrating with broader security ecosystems and offering advanced threat detection.

Features: Cisco Secure Email includes robust anti-spam measures, malware protection, and thorough integration with security protocols such as DKIM, DMARC, and AMP. It facilitates easy management and email customization, significantly reducing spam and improving filtering through Talos intelligence. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense focuses on cloud-based threat intelligence and endpoint security integration with capabilities like Threat Grid and AMP that help identify and counteract malicious email threats proactively.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email requires better integration with third-party reporting tools and enhancements in CLI management. Users have noted challenges with rule-setting, desiring user interface improvements and better hardware reliability. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense could enhance its collaboration with other tools, improve intuitive reporting, and develop a smarter search function. Both products would benefit from better phishing protection and additional sandboxing, along with cost reductions for broader accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Email offers versatile deployment options, supporting on-premises, cloud, and hybrid configurations, with seamless setup praised by users alongside reliable technical support. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is optimized for private, hybrid, and public cloud deployments, which can limit on-premises flexibility. Both products are supported by strong service teams, but users appreciate Cisco Secure Email's flexible deployment and satisfaction with customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Email's pricing reflects its comprehensive features with costs varying by user numbers, though customers consider it worthwhile for its significant ROI in security and reduced email issues. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is seen as high-priced due to its premium features and support but is also viewed as a worthwhile investment for security and business continuity benefits. Potential users should balance premium costs with the specific benefits needed.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Email vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

June 2026

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.7%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is 1.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email	4.7%
Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense	1.1%
Cloudflare One	1.7%
Other	92.5%

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Cobe Van Coller

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.

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Karthik Sathivel

Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems

Email security has protected financial data and provides clear tracking for every branch message

The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP and other content filters compared to other consoles. It may have been due to on-premises, but it was much noisy at some times while configuring DLP. When we tried to configure a DLP policy, the console became much slower. In that case, we cannot see what had happened in the mail which was blocked at that time. It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies. That is the major issue in the product.

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Nipuna Madhubhashana

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cloudflare DDoS mitigates DDoS attacks."

"Clover is the best product globally."

"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."

"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 capabilities of the software are strong enough for me to do what it's supposed to do. For me, we don't need to do a lot of configuration on our site. We just enable it and monitor it."

"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."

"Cloudflare DDoS is better than its competitors for its security, deployment, and scalability."

"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."

More Cloudflare One pros

"Cisco IronPort mail security was very helpful by blocking threats, viruses, worms and Trojans from attacking the mail accounts and user PCs."

"The malicious URL scanning, as well as the anti-malware features, have been really useful for us in our environment."

"From a functionality perspective, the platform is great."

"Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services."

"IronPort allows visibility into the problem and an easy way to pinpoint policy offenders."

"The advanced phishing protection and the integration with the awareness tool that Cisco has embedded into the solution to bring awareness to the customers about the dangers of phishing attacks and other things that come from email are the most valuable features."

"Overall, the ease of migration to Cisco's cloud email security from the on-prem solution was a positive experience."

"It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware. I can only go by what people have told me and what I've seen, but I have not seen spam in a year and a half to two years in my own company mailbox. And there are not a lot of catches where it's catching something that should have gotten through, either."

More Cisco Secure Email pros

"On ease of use, it rates very high. It's something that I was able to get into without really looking at any documentation. I wanted to see what it felt like before I started looking at any documentation on how to use it, and it was very easy to use. It works very smoothly. The user experience is very intuitive. They did an amazing job on that."

"Secure Email Threat Defense's scalability is good."

"On ease of use, it rates very high."

"The advanced threat analytics and URL filtering in threat detection are good features that are working well."

"Overall, it's certainly a very good idea to integrate another layer on top of Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection."

"The solution is stable."

"Cisco has a threat mechanism called cloud-based Talos, where all the threats are inbuilt."

"It has an efficient email filtering feature."

More Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense pros

Cons

"The free plan has limitations. For example, I can only set up three rules, and the application firewall is unavailable."

"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."

"Cloudflare DDoS has poor technical support."

"The onboarding process can be improved a little bit."

"They don't have a person to provide support for customers using the solution under their free plan."

"Feedback could be enhanced."

"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."

"I would like them to include a VPN feature to provide a secure connection to the data center."

More Cloudflare One cons

"We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."

"The pricing needs to be reconsidered or enhanced."

"Cisco is not good in dealing proactively or even reactively, so we end up relying on partners."

"Having Cisco Email Security as a standalone solution is not good enough. It needs to be combined with another solution."

"The tool's pricing can be improved."

"The solution does not have a strong outbound service. It should also integrate DLP."

"Don't neglect that because if you just try to rely on Cisco support you're going to notice pretty consistent slowdowns."

"More than a few steps are required to apply rules and these are not essentially intuitive."

More Cisco Secure Email cons

"The solution is a bit expensive. It could be cheaper."

"The physical appliance has been discontinued, although the platform still exists."

"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."

"We encounter issues while searching for missing emails."

"The pricing could always be better."

"The tool gives false positives and it needs to be more accurate. I would like to see AI as a new feature."

"This solution could be improved by integration with Sandbox."

"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."

More Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"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 price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."

"The solution is not that expensive."

"The prices are slightly expensive."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."

"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."

"It is an expensive product. I rate its pricing an eight or nine."

"There are additional fees for adding features."

"The pricing is good."

"The licensing was all transferred."

"The price is significantly high."

"In my previous organization, avoiding four instances of CryptoLocker within an estimated six month period is approximately $600,000 in lost time and effort. Our five year cost was about a million dollars, and the four outages that we had equated to 65 percent of that five year cost."

"It is expensive. I would rate it 2 out of 10, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the cheapest."

"Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."

More Cisco Secure Email pricing and cost advice

"The feedback from vendors and customer is that it is expensive."

"It is expensive compared to other vendors."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

Marketing Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Pricing is competitive. Akamai is more expensive, in my view.

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What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler...

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What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?

The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?

The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Email?

We are using Cisco Secure Email to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail traffic in our financial institute. We have...

See all answers

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, ...

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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 ...

See all answers

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 De...

See all answers

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Proofpoint Email Protection vs Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare One

July 2026

Download Cloudflare One product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email

July 2026

Download Cisco Secure Email product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

July 2026

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense report

Download Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances

Cisco Secure Email Cloud Mailbox, Cisco CMD, Cisco Cloud Mailbox Defense

Overview

Cloudflare One is a comprehensive platform for security, performance, and connectivity. It provides features like rate limiting, DDoS protection, and application access, tailored to enhance user experience while securing internet access and accelerating communications.

Designed to integrate security measures with ease of use and scalability, Cloudflare One offers a secure web gateway and zero trust network access. These features ensure seamless setup and operation, making connectivity reliable and protected. Users appreciate its integrated console, intuitive interface, and the ability to manage risk effectively. It offers straightforward deployment, improves latency, and boasts cost-effectiveness. While its onboarding process and documentation need enhancement, its value in content delivery and application shielding is notable. Despite challenges in integrating Cloudflare Access with existing VPNs and the need for better automation and support, it remains vital for DNS and infrastructure protection.

What features make Cloudflare One stand out?

Rate Limiting: Controls the traffic rate to prevent abuse.
DDoS Protection: Shields applications from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Secure Web Gateway: Provides secure internet access with seamless operation.
Zero Trust Network Access: Ensures secure, application-based connectivity without relying on traditional VPNs.
Access for Connectivity: Facilitates access to internal applications securely.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Security: Robust measures for DNS and browsing protection.
Performance: Enhanced site accessibility and communication speed.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing for its features.
Ease of Deployment: Straightforward and efficient setup process.

In industries like finance, retail, and technology, Cloudflare One is crucial for enabling secure remote access and protecting web applications against dynamic threats. It supports compliance access policies and enhances content delivery, playing a key role in safeguarding digital infrastructure.

Cloudflare

Cisco Secure Email provides email security with advanced threat protection, spam filtering, and easy integration with Cisco Talos, ensuring comprehensive protection against cyber threats like phishing and malware.

Cisco Secure Email offers a comprehensive platform for organizations seeking robust email security. With advanced threat protection and seamless integration with Cisco Talos, it enhances threat intelligence. The tool provides easy-to-use spam blocking and granular policy customization. Effective ransomware, phishing, and malware protection ensures stable network performance. It includes logging and reporting features, along with Active Directory integration, delivering enhanced security without extra hardware. Although it addresses threats efficiently, improvements in synchronization with reporting tools and phishing detection are needed. Organizations find cost and licensing complexities challenging for smaller networks and seek more intuitive configuration, advanced AI threat detection, and comprehensive reporting. Enhanced support, documentation, and cross-platform compatibility are desirable for better management and scalability.

What are the most important features?

Advanced Threat Protection: Guards against cyber threats like malware and phishing
Spam Blocking: Efficiently filters unwanted emails to maintain inbox integrity
Policy Customization: Allows granular control over email security policies
Integration with Cisco Talos: Enhances threat intelligence with global insights
Active Directory Integration: Simplifies user management and enhances security

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Ease of Use: Intuitive interface provides a straightforward user experience
Network Performance: Maintains speed and reliability while securing emails
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed insights into email threats and responses
No Additional Hardware: Provides complete email security without hardware costs
Enhanced Email Security: Protects against a wide range of email-based threats

In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Cisco Secure Email is key to securing email communications. It serves as the primary email gateway in datacenters, scanning and filtering emails to defend against phishing, malware, and spam. Many organizations integrate it with Sophos Antivirus and Talos Threat Intelligence for heightened protection. It plays a crucial role in outbound message control and data loss prevention, ensuring compliance with security policies.

Cisco

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense offers robust email security with features like east-west traffic visibility and seamless SaaS deployment. It enhances cloud email protection by integrating Threat Grid sandboxing and AMP for malware defense, supported by Cisco Talos threat intelligence.

Enhancing email security for Microsoft 365 and cloud emails, Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense acts as an email gateway, blocking phishing, malware, and business email compromise. Users benefit from a centralized management console, efficient graymail administration, and strong filtering capabilities. Despite its strengths, it requires improvements in integration, spam detection accuracy, and enhances phishing protection.

What are the most important features of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense?

East-West Traffic Visibility: Offers insight into email tenant interactions.
SaaS Application Deployment: Simplifies deployment processes.
Threat Grid Sandboxing: Provides advanced malware protection.
AMP Integration: Enhances malware defense capabilities.
Anti-Spam and Antivirus: Powered by Cisco Talos threat intelligence.
Cloud Mailbox Features: Includes robust email filtering and management.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Provides protection against advanced threats.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces reliance on help desk services.
User-Friendly Management: Streamlines email administration tasks.
Improved Email Filtering: Ensures effective threat blocking.

Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense is highly applicable in industries requiring stringent data protection, such as finance and healthcare. It serves cloud-based environments by closely monitoring email activity to prevent unauthorized access and breaches. Tailored deployment options cater to both on-premise and cloud architectures, allowing flexible integration in existing workflows.

Cisco

Sample Customers

23andMe

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra

Luiss University, Lone Star College, T-Systems, Magyar Telekom

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

June 2026

Free Report: Cisco Secure Email vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.

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