Cisco Secure Email vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security comparison

Cisco Secure Email vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security

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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 June 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.6%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.5%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Perception Point Advanced Email Security is 1.6%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email	4.5%
Perception Point Advanced Email Security	1.6%
Cloudflare One	1.6%
Other	92.3%

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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GOUTHAMKRISHNA

Senior Security Analyst at a security firm with 11-50 employees

Advanced email protection has reduced fraud risks and simplifies compliance workflows

The primary area for improvement in Perception Point Advanced Email Security is the need for more integrations with XDR solutions. Currently, XDR integration exists with Symantec and CrowdStrike, but additional integrations are needed. I have found that the CrowdStrike integration, specifically the Falcon integration, has been experiencing issues recently. This represents another area requiring improvement. Integration capabilities are particularly important because companies are increasingly transitioning to their own SOC platforms or SIEM solutions to ensure complete environmental integration and security. MDR technology has emerged as a significant market offering, and Perception Point Advanced Email Security should develop integrations with additional solutions in this space. I am fully satisfied with the functionality of Perception Point Advanced Email Security because we have more than 200 customers using this product. We are retaining approximately 85 to 90 percent of our customers with this solution. All customers are satisfied, and we ourselves are satisfied with the product with no plans to change it. The only area for improvement is the integration capabilities.

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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

"I'm very satisfied with the environment and the dashboard."

"Cloudflare is by far the most effective solution that I have come across."

"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 best feature is rate limiting. If I'm expecting 500 visits per hour, Cloudflare will limit the requests if I suddenly get 50,000."

"It will take the blow rather than our applications should an attack occur."

"It's a perfect solution from my perspective; it's easy to understand and easy to configure."

"The solution has different options that can be used to differentiate DDoS attacks."

"The simplicity of the solution is its valuable features as almost no effort was needed to learn the configurations. It is also one of the cheapest firewalls available in this category."

More Cloudflare One pros

"It does a great job of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware."

"It provides good IT assistance."

"The tool comes with AI features. It is good for clients who already use Cisco products due to integration."

"The system provides our service desk with the means to troubleshoot email delivery issues with ease."

"Cisco Secure Email Cloud Gateway has allowed our users to be able to concentrate on the emails that they do receive. Previously, our users had to deal with nine million additional emails across the organization, which is nearly 1,000 emails per user to have to deal with a month. That's a massive amount for our staff to deal with and probably several hours of their time. We have a lot of clinical staff, being a hospital. We want to make our staff as productive as possible. By removing a lot of that spam and phishing type emails, this allows them to do their job."

"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."

"The tool's most valuable feature in preventing security breaches revolves around the area of malware protection that the product provides."

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

More Cisco Secure Email pros

"Perception Point has improved the way our organization functions in many cases."

"Since implementing Perception Point, we have had zero suspicious emails coming into our inbox, we have seen a 100 percent decrease in attempts, and there have been no false positives."

"I see from time to time that Perception Point is being proactive. They approach us, and say, "Can you check this, and this?" So, it does seem that they are an extension of my incident response."

"It really works well on SharePoint when you upload a file or save a file. Advanced Email Security scans if it is malicious and identifies issues. It can do some forensics on its console, which is nice."

"Perception Point Advanced Email Security has helped address specific email threats within my organization."

"The Perception Point Incident Response team acts as an extension of our SOC team. This is very important for us. This is a benefit provided for their main product of scanning our emails. If Perception Point can give me IR, this is really good versus other products that do not provide this kind of service. Perception Point's service is great. They are very professional. That reduces the time that my internal SOC has to deal with my internal IT person. They just send an email to the IR team at Perception Point, who continues the investigation and blocks any emails, if necessary. This is very good because it can reduce a lot of time and effort from my team. It is like an extension of my SOC, but external."

"The solution is used to block malicious items hidden inside a document or PDF file."

"Perception Point is really worth in terms of holistic protection without compromising the user experience."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pros

Cons

"Feedback could be enhanced. While I work efficiently with Clover as a partner in Mexico City, sometimes the information and requests are easier to manage with more concrete solutions."

"When there are any dynamic changes in complex applications, the tool takes a lot of time, making its analytics-related area a major matter of concern where improvements are needed."

"Feedback could be enhanced."

"Our subscription plan for the solution has a limitation of bot signatures."

"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."

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

"The tool should provide on-premise versions. Currently, all versions are cloud-based."

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

More Cloudflare One cons

"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."

"We have Microsoft and we have the E5 licenses, they have more EDR responses on certain emails. That's something that Cisco ESA on the cloud doesn't have. They don't do anything about MITRE attacks. They only detect if there is a malicious email or a threat and they remove it."

"It is not user-friendly, and it is quite complicated. So, it should be more user-friendly."

"Better dashboards and more interactive overviews would be nice, but the current functionality is sufficient."

"I use the search all the time. Sometimes, it is hard to search for things and things are hard to find. People come to me all the time, saying, "This email didn't get through." Then, I go searching and don't find it on the first search. You have to think about alternative searches. I don't know if there is an easier way that they could help to find things. I don't know how they could simplify it, because now everybody else is using the cloud and everything is coming from Office 365, or whatever. It is just not the same environment from years ago where everybody had their own server and you could search easier."

"In future releases, I would like to see two main improvements come to mind. First, the current solution requires maintaining two separate operating systems for FTD, which can be cumbersome. I'd love to see a single operating system for the FTD box."

"They can do it better with web links, with the URLs."

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

More Cisco Secure Email cons

"Email alerts should be available in real-time."

"To improve the solution, maybe a portal for end users to consult their emails would be helpful. The end user could access the portal and see their emails or events. They could also refresh the names."

"They just don't do a good job of promoting themselves. They seem like a typical busy IT company who is just working on fixing problems and making technology better. However, they are not fantastic at marketing themselves to existing partners, which is not a bad thing. It is just something for improvement."

"The only thing that can be improved in Perception Point is the in-depth analysis and attribution to cyberattack groups."

"From a forensics point of view, it could improve a bit more from a threat intelligence aspect. So, if I find a malicious email, they could have more investigations about sources, headers, where it comes from, if they have seen it in other campaigns before, etc. I would like a little bit more from a threat intelligence point of view so I can understand who else might be affected and attacked as well as the vectors of attack."

"They need more customer engagement."

"There is room for improvement in terms of adding the DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution, which would be a good option for Perception Point to look into."

"This is an option to preview an email in their console, and that could be improved. If you open the preview, then it auto scrolls. Therefore, it is hard to look at the email when it is going to the next page or scrolling. It should not have the auto-scroll."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The prices are slightly expensive."

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

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."

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

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

"The solution is not that expensive."

"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."

"In addition to the standard licensing, there is a cost for SMARTnet as well."

"We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."

"Cisco Secure Email is not expensive, and licensing costs are yearly."

"There are additional fees for adding features."

"Cisco Secure Email and the support are priced well. It's not cheap, but there are other solutions that offer less and cost so much. For example, Microsoft is more expensive than Cisco."

"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."

"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."

"It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."

More Cisco Secure Email pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is high."

"Pricing is lower in comparison to Proofpoint."

"The pricing and licensing are very fair compared to competing companies in the same field."

"It has very reasonable pricing. Normally, the end user is paying. Perception Point is already in the Amazon marketplace, so we cannot sell it as a distribution partner. For example, we cannot take more than that margin of what they offer in the marketplace. Whatever the end user is paying, it is definitely worth it and it is not that high."

"The pricing was fair in comparison with the other solutions. We have received good value for what we paid."

"When compared to other solutions on the market, it is relatively fair."

"They are not the most expensive vendor. There are much more expensive vendors. They are not cheap, but they are not the most expensive. They are somewhere in the middle."

"We were able to get reasonable pricing that matches the ROI we want, so I think that it is the correct price point."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

19%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing 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	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	6

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.

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...

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...

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

In Brazil, the dollar price affects the cost. Perception Point Advanced Email Security is about 50 percent less expen...

What needs improvement with Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

The primary area for improvement in Perception Point Advanced Email Security is the need for more integrations with X...

What is your primary use case for Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

Perception Point Advanced Email Security specializes in email security, though it includes different products like co...

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Product Reports

Cloudflare One

Download Cloudflare One product report

Cisco Secure Email

Download Cisco Secure Email product report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Download Perception Point Advanced Email Security product report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security 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

No data available

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

Perception Point Advanced Email Security is a cutting-edge platform designed to safeguard email communications with extensive threat detection and efficient response capabilities, leveraging AI and machine learning for advanced protection against email threats.

Focusing on dynamic multi-layer threat detection, Perception Point Advanced Email Security provides robust protection against phishing, spam, and malicious content. Its powerful anti-phishing capabilities, account takeover protection, and AI-driven analysis enhance email security in both hybrid and cloud-based environments. The platform offers real-time scanning, detailed threat analysis, and low false positives, further augmented by an efficient incident response team. While the solution excels at improving operational efficiency and user experience, it seeks enhancements in reporting, policy customization, integration with tools like XDR and SIEM, and spam filtering. Organizations benefit from Perception Point's strong reporting capabilities and easy integration options, though improvements in analysis speed, spam filtering, and more intuitive interfaces are desired.

What are the key features of Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

Dynamic Multi-layer Threat Detection: Advanced AI and ML-driven systems for comprehensive threat analysis.
Real-time Scanning: Continuous scanning to detect and neutralize threats instantly.
Account Takeover Protection: Safeguards against unauthorized account access and compromise.
AI-driven Anti-phishing: Employs AI to identify and block phishing attempts effectively.
Incident Response Team: Provides immediate support and quick resolution of security incidents.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating this solution?

Improved Efficiency: Streamlines email security operations with real-time threat detection.
Enhanced User Experience: Reduces false positives for accurate threat detection.
Strong Reporting: Offers in-depth insights into threat landscapes and security status.
Easy Integration: Seamlessly connects with existing systems for improved security posture.

Organizations in compliance-focused industries, especially those utilizing cloud-based platforms like Office 365, benefit significantly from Perception Point's comprehensive scanning and filtering features. Leveraging its sandboxing and API capabilities, they achieve deeper threat analysis, meeting regulatory requirements while exploring additional features for collaboration and file-sharing security.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

23andMe

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra

Information Not Available

Cisco Secure Email vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security