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Cisco Secure Email vs Fortinet FortiMail vs MetaDefender Email Gateway 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.6%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 2.7%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetaDefender Email Gateway Security is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email4.6%
Fortinet FortiMail2.7%
MetaDefender Email Security Solutions1.0%
Other91.7%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

KS
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.
Abhimanyu Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
Targeted email filtering has reduced spam and phishing and now saves significant investigation time
The best features of Fortinet FortiMail include its techniques and tactics, which are highly effective compared to other solutions such as Microsoft 365. Although Fortinet FortiMail may not be as advanced in some aspects, it is well recognized for its strong performance in handling spam and phishing. It performs thorough mail scanning and also offers a sandboxing feature that enhances protection. Fortinet FortiMail has had a positive impact on my organization by significantly reducing unwanted email activities such as spam and phishing. It provides accurate detection and generates results that often exceed what can be achieved through manual analysis. Since deploying Fortinet FortiMail, I have observed a reduction in investigation time by at least 20 to 30 percent.
RM
Senior Information Systems Engineer at Liberty Pumps, Inc.
Helpful support, and useful dashboards
They offer a feature called SmartLink neutralization. I have tried it before. It seemed to work most of the time; however, I had a few users for whom it just wouldn't work. Whenever they click on a link, it stays on the MetaDefender page, saying that it's scanning it and never moves forward. I haven't tried it in a while since then. Since I can't turn it off on a per-user basis, I had to turn it off globally. I have certain exceptions for not doing the sanitization, and how to set those up is not intuitive. It would be useful if there were a better way of doing that. Using digital certificates is hard. It would be better if it used Windows Servers' built-in certificate management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For what you get for the product, the support, and the overall stability, it is definitely a good return on investment."
"The tech engineers are very knowledgeable."
"The reasons I chose Cisco Secure Email Gateway are the interface is - it's easy to use - and the support is great."
"This is a great product with wonderful support."
"The user interface was quite friendly, it was quite easy to use, unlike some other Cisco products. Anybody could use it. You don't have to be familiar with IT to be able to handle navigating it."
"It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure."
"Administration of the email domains and custom filters are easily done via the web interface."
"At one point, there was a zero-day attack. The Cisco appliance detected it and stopped it, helping us out. We avoided the attack and potential damage."
"The biggest implementation my team has done for Fortinet FortiMail was for more than five thousand people, and the most valuable feature was its anti-spam feature."
"This solution has protected us from email spam and from phishing."
"At the end of the day, they look at the performance and the price, and Fortinet covers all the bases."
"They have a feature called CDR, Content Disarm, Reconstruction, click protection, and DLP for encryption purposes."
"It has a very high level of security through special licensing with solutions like FortiGuard, sandboxing solutions in the cloud, and URL rewriting solutions."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiMail are its virus outbreak prevention and FortiSandbox integration."
"Fortinet FortiMail is a very good product and reliable, and we find it easy to sell it."
"I highly recommend the product; the product is easy and there's no complexity, it's easy to use, easy to learn, easy to upgrade, easy to apply any changes, and it offers a good price versus quality balance."
"The most valuable feature is called summary reconstruction which is used to deliver encrypted files to users."
"The most valuable feature of MetaDefender Email Security is the CDR. Customers purchase this solution specifically for data communication, as the other features can be obtained through other technologies that most customers already possess. Therefore, data communication serves as the foundation for the platform."
"The sanitization is very good."
 

Cons

"Cisco Secure Email can be improved from the administrator's point of view. Usually, you have to work with different areas, and they can try to make it easy for the administrator to use different functions."
"The area of license renewal should be improved. We normally renew our license every year."
"One of the things that Cisco could improve on with IronPort is the support. Cisco doesn't really have enough engineers who have full, hands-on knowledge of IronPort. Knowledge of it is not something you can find easily compared to other security appliances."
"The product's GUI for the dashboard needs improvement."
"Many smaller businesses opt for more cost-effective solutions, such as Gmail or Hotmail accounts, instead of investing in Cisco Secure Email, given its higher cost."
"The user interface of the Email Security Gateway should be improved."
"More than a few steps are required to apply rules and these are not essentially intuitive."
"I use the search all the time. Sometimes, it is hard to search for things and things are hard to find."
"The tool needs to improve its pricing policy. Also, it needs to be more user-friendly. I would want it to improve email security as well."
"The IDE feature in Fortinet is not as good as the rest of the product because it's very difficult to deploy it."
"Online support sometimes takes up to a week to get back to you."
"Sometimes, authentic emails get blocked by the solution's firewall."
"Fortinet FortiMail's technical support team has shortcomings and needs improvement."
"The solution doesn't scale easily."
"The logging information is sometimes not clear or easy to understand."
"The solution's pricing is flexible and can be adjusted for African utility companies. Microsoft often offers special pricing formulas for African governments and organizations and it is similar to Fortinet FortiMail. In my country, government institutions receive discounted pricing from Fortinet FortiMail."
"The DLP should be upgraded and has room for improvement."
"They offer a feature called SmartLink neutralization. I have tried it before. It seemed to work most of the time; however, I had a few users for whom it just wouldn't work. Whenever they click on a link, it stays on the MetaDefender page, saying that it's scanning it and never moves forward."
"Although the number of AV engines is good, it could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive. I would rate it 2 out of 10, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the cheapest."
"The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market."
"It's adapted to the market. It's similar to other vendors. We at least don't have many problems regarding that because Cisco is adaptable on that side. When we present the solutions to the customers, we tend to achieve the goals that the customer has in terms of the budget for such implementations."
"As per market availability, this solution is more expensive than other vendors."
"The pricing is good."
"It is a relatively expensive option compared to other alternatives."
"The pricing for the Cisco Email Security Appliance involves recurring costs for licenses based on the contracted time frame, such as one year, three years, or five years. Renewals are required after the license expires."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"Pricing is based on initial license purchase and use volume."
"There is either an annual or six-month charge to use this solution. Fortinet FortiMail is cheaper than Proofpoint or Cisco Security, or other email security appliances."
"Pricing is straight-forward and renewable without complicated pricing structures."
"If you don't need the full bundle that includes everything, you have options for the small or medium enterprise environments."
"Compared to its competitors, Fortinet's products are available at a higher price range."
"Price-wise, the solution is not far from Microsoft ATP. So, it is affordable."
"Fortinet Fortimail has reasonable pricing."
"The solution is reasonably priced compared to one of its competitors."
"According to our customers, the price of MetaDefender is high and it continues to increase by almost 15 percent each year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Pharma/Biotech Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise14
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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 ...
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...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
I think they should improve Fortinet FortiMail on-premises by enhancing its user interface. Additional features they ...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiMail?
I do have a partnership with Fortinet. I have been both a partner and reseller.
Ask a question
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Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
FortiMail
OPSWAT MetaDefender Email Security, MetaDefender Email Gateway Security, MetaDefender Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
https://www.opswat.com/blog/how-one-of-the-largest-banks-in-taiwan-uses-opswat-metadefender-email-security-to-close-security-gaps https://www.opswat.com/blog/hapool-insurance-achieves-almost-100-reduction-in-email-threats-with-opswat https://www.opswat.com/blog/luzerner-psychiatrie-ag-stops-email-borne-malware-attacks-with-opswat-technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint, Microsoft, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Email Security. Updated: September 2026.
916,771 professionals have used our research since 2012.