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Cisco Secure Email vs Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection comparison

 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (6th)
Hornetsecurity 365 Total Pr...
Ranking in Email Security
22nd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Office 365 Protection (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 5.2%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is 1.4%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Secure Email5.2%
Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection1.4%
Other93.4%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

BD
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
Threat intelligence with fast attack detection enables comprehensive email protection
In some cases, detection is missed, leading to false positives where genuine emails are flagged as spam. This could result in users not opening genuine emails. We have highlighted this to Cisco because sometimes phishing or marketing campaigns, which are genuine, are incorrectly flagged as spam. The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
HM
CEO at Cyber Internet Services (Pvt) Ltd.
Comprehensive email protection has secured sensitive communications and simplified threat management
Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is a good product right now, and the report is available in Spanish, which is beneficial for Latin Americans who speak Spanish. They can continue to improve the pricing because it is the most important aspect, as another solution is aggressive with a lower cost and includes everything. While Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is good right now, it would be better to improve the price. At the end, the client sees the price, and in Puerto Rico, the market is different than in the United States since here the client sees price independent of security. I have more effort to explain the difference between price versus technology, which is important because in Latin America, the price may not be the same as in the US due to the company's increase not being the same volume. When clients have many mailboxes, the price is more important than the technology. I do not know why, but this really happens.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The filtering is definitely better at catching both spam and malicious messages, and there's a lot of extremely granular ability for setting up rules. You can do it the way you want to. The Microsoft solution tends to be pretty limited in how it allows some of that to be done."
"Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution."
"There are a lot of filters for scam emails and things like that work out of the box. You can also use the antivirus features. I like its features."
"The product blocks spam emails."
"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."
"Cisco's Secure Email integrates with Cisco Firewalls, utilizing the AMP as their anti-malware engine, which allows for information sharing between devices."
"Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services."
"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."
"I have a lot of control over spam and phishing emails."
"My advice for people considering using Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is that the simplicity is the best option because Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection includes everything in one platform and provides a 360-degree view."
"The best part is, I rarely have to access the portal as everything is set up and tweaked the way I wanted it. But the feature set is incredibly granular and allows for deep levels of customization."
"Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is an easy-to-use solution."
"Backup and restore are precious features."
 

Cons

"I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability."
"The scalability must be improved."
"The initial setup was complex because I have two sites with physical clusters."
"The user interface is a bit complex."
"The UI is definitely one area of improvement because it doesn't match other interfaces and the navigation can be a little clunky."
"It would be nice to have an easier way to check on the health of the system, how stressed these appliances are. Sure, you can do it, but it would be helpful to have an easier way to do it, maybe even at a glance."
"There are some concerns in the way the architecture is set up, making it an area where improvements are required."
"It is not user-friendly, and it is quite complicated. So, it should be more user-friendly."
"The pricing is a little high compared to other products."
"The solution’s pricing is not reasonable."
"They can continue to improve the pricing because it is the most important aspect, as another solution is aggressive with a lower cost and includes everything."
"I guess I would say maybe quick access to training material for end-users. I know partners have access to this but I as an end-user do not have immediate access to new update information."
"A reduction of 10% in pricing can be an improvement."
 

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."
"I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution."
"The license was not per user, the license model was per feature. You could choose anti-virus, anti-spam, etc. It was feature-based and charged yearly."
"Compared to Cisco's on-prem service, the cost is the same, but you don't have to pay for the hardware and you don't have to maintain the system, as far as upgrades and hardware failures are concerned. It is cheaper to operate on their cloud service than it is to operate with their on-prem service."
"It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."
"Cisco Secure Email is expensive, but we get what we pay for."
"We do annual licensing for Cisco Secure Email Gatewayand SMA together, and possibly SmartNet support. Packaged together, the cost is just under $38,000."
"The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market."
"The pricing is acceptable and falls into the medium range, neither cheap nor overly expensive."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Retailer
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise25
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
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 user interface of the Email Security Gateway ( /products/security-gateway-reviews ) should be improved. It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection?
The pricing is acceptable and falls into the medium range, neither cheap nor overly expensive.
What needs improvement with Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection?
Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is a good product right now, and the report is available in Spanish, which is beneficial for Latin Americans who speak Spanish. They can continue to improve the ...
What is your primary use case for Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection?
Our use case with Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection is to protect the 365 email.
 

Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
concordia, fraunhofer, mazars
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.