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Darktrace vs Fortinet FortiMail comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (15th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (21st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (11th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (7th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (13th), Access Management (12th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (8th), ZTNA (3rd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (3rd)
Darktrace
Ranking in Email Security
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (11th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (9th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (4th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (4th), AI Observability (9th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Ranking in Email Security
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.5%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Darktrace is 2.1%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 3.3%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiMail3.3%
Darktrace2.1%
Cloudflare One1.5%
Other93.1%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

CV
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.
AM
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
Consistent threat hunting and anomaly detection deliver valuable insights for network security management
In terms of improvement for Darktrace, pricing is the main concern. Pricing bothers me and this is one of the major factors when choosing a solution. When we get feedback from customers, that's the only felt need. When we factor in Darktrace, we do it only limited. We put it on where the perimeters and connections are, but still, some gray areas are left out, especially if we have multiple branches. We need Darktrace on each branch to get the data out, and I suggest having some kind of a centralized product that gets data from multiple sources to aggregate and provide the data.
Abhimanyu Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It will take the blow rather than our applications should an attack occur."
"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."
"The solution has different options that can be used to differentiate DDoS attacks."
"Cloudflare is by far the most effective solution that I have come across."
"The tool also offers good scalability, and the dashboard, along with real-time analytics, is very good."
"It is a stable solution."
"Enables me to work from two locations."
"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 technical support from Darktrace is very good, including support from their resellers."
"Because of unsupervised machine learning, its detection capability is quite good."
"We are able to detect a lot of things, actually, and see what is happening in our network."
"One member of staff is enough for deployment and maintenance because Darkforce is AI-driven; it does a lot of things by itself."
"The product can scale."
"I have found the most valuable features to be artificial intelligence for cybersecurity, advanced machine learning capabilities, enterprise Immune System, Antigena Network, and Antigena Email. The way the solution detects the threat over the network before it spreads is very good. It notifies you of what the threat is exactly doing and gives you all the details about the execution of that application that had created the threat over your network."
"I am impressed with the product's ability to give insights into network traffic."
"I have found the automation and AI features to be valuable. If someone were to come in to the office at midnight and log in, Darktrace would flag it."
"FortiMail is extremely flexible and very easy to learn. Compared to other email security products that we've tried, it is mainly the ease of configuration that makes FortiMail valuable to us."
"Technical support is great. They're available 24/7 and their response time is typically within the hour."
"It actually filters the compromised emails when on a network layer itself."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the spam filter."
"The features I find most valuable in Fortinet FortiMail include its robust security and ease of use."
"FortiMail effectively filters all emails coming to our mail server, blocking malicious ones automatically."
"It is a very reliable program and it works great."
"This excellent email gateway minimizes spam, inspects suspicious emails and isolates infected attachments with little administrative effort."
 

Cons

"I would like them to include a VPN feature to provide a secure connection to the data center."
"The free plan has limitations. For example, I can only set up three rules, and the application firewall is unavailable."
"The tool should provide on-premise versions. Currently, all versions are cloud-based."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform needs to improve its documentation. It took time to do the implementation."
"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."
"They don't have a person to provide support for customers using the solution under their free plan."
"The response time for support must be reduced."
"Our customers no longer use Cloudflare because its service is subpar."
"The interface and dashboards could be improved for ease-of-use."
"The cost of the solution is quite high."
"We want to continue using Darktrace but it's very expensive."
"If asked to rate Darktrace support on a scale from zero to ten where ten is the best, I would give them five points."
"I was under impression that Darktrace's automatic blocking would be an out-of-the-box feature, but we had to integrate it with our firewall to get it to block automatically. The salesperson should be upfront and explain that you need to integrate it with your network. I would also like to see more reporting on risk. Banks in my region want to see at a glance the risk level of various assets."
"There are still some issues with the network capturing or blocking traffic even after implementing exceptions. It requires more learning in this area."
"Its documentation is not up to the mark. At times, I have a lot of trouble finding a solution. Even when I posted questions on the community chats, it took a lot of time for me to get answers. That's something that can be improved. Darktrace can focus on creating a more interactive community. If there are more people from Darktrace to focus on community chats, it would be better."
"It could build in integrations for some complementary products, but it has an assistant plugin so this is not really a big deal."
"They should add a lot of threat-intelligence feeds from different sources - not only from one source (FortiGuard)."
"The statistics and BI in general could be improved."
"In the Latin America market, some spam messages use Portuguese language. Some clearly spam messages would be better identified by the anti-spam if not for the language."
"Fortinet FortiMail's technical support team has shortcomings and needs improvement."
"The sandboxing features are not well done in Fortinet FortiMail, making it an area of improvement."
"I have little to say about possible improvements, but the configuration for content blocking could be better. So, for example, if the email includes the line "You have a Bitcoin", I would like it to be easier to block it before it enters an inbox. Fortinet could maybe offer better or simpler help on how to do this properly."
"Fortinet FortiMail should allow more flexibility with the content rules."
"The area that could use some improvement in Fortinet FortiMail is the integration process. I would like the integration to be easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."
"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"The prices are slightly expensive."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"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."
"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 the ballpark, we're talking about $30K, $50K, and up. It can even be as much as $50K or $100K."
"The product is expensive."
"The cost is moderate."
"Our customers feel that the price of Darktrace is quite high compared to other solutions."
"They are too expensive compared with other vendors."
"When it comes to large installations, it can be expensive, but for small accounts it's fine."
"This solution is expensive."
"The pricing is expensive. It costs over $100,000 a year."
"The fees for Fortinet FortiMail can be complicated. However, overall the pricing is fair."
"FortiMail has extra charges for installation, configuration, and project management."
"Fortinet FortiMail is a little bit expensive."
"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."
"This is a good solution and value for the money."
"The pricing is good."
"It's not as that expensive with the competitive different brands. The products sell a lot."
"There is a license required for this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
23%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access has strong integration with Microsoft, among other platforms. However, when it comes to Kaspersky, ...
What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access provides secure access to internal applications for employees, external members of the organization...
What advice do you have for others considering Cloudflare Access?
Cloudflare Access is one of the best integrations available. While about two hundred vendors offer similar services, ...
How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Darktrace?
Concerning pricing for the product, I would say it is somewhat expensive.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
In my opinion, points for improvement for Fortinet FortiMail include sometimes the speed and fine-tuning the false po...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform
No data available
FortiMail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

23andMe
Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Fortinet FortiMail and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.