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Fortinet FortiMail Cloud vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

 

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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
ROI from Fortinet FortiMail Cloud is hard to quantify, though enhanced security and decreased incidents indicate value satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers strong ROI through security enhancements, cost savings, and improved company productivity despite measurement challenges.
Return on investment in the time is difficult to quantify, however, the return on investment for us was achieved since we did not have similar incidents again in our environment.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud support is generally praised for its responsiveness and knowledge, despite some concerns about occasional delays.
Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 users rate support highly, praising its responsiveness and 24/7 availability, despite occasional documentation and communication issues.
As far as Fortinet secure support, I will rate them nine out of ten.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the technical support from Fortinet as ten out of ten.
Senior Network and Security Engineer at Symbol Technologies PLC
Fortinet's support is really good.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
With a subscription for Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is an eight. Without it, it is a six.
Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud offers scalable user expansion, though experiences vary due to subscription and deployment choices impacting flexibility.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers scalable, efficient protection for large enterprises, ensuring seamless growth across diverse industries.
It is highly scalable, so I can give it a ten out of ten on that.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales with the growing needs of my company well.
Senior Client Director and Advisory Service Leader at Crossfuze
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud is highly stable with minimal downtime, consistently reliable performance, and high user satisfaction ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides 99.9% uptime with minor issues, ensuring reliable performance and seamless cloud integration.
I would give it a high stability rating of nine out of ten.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as 10 over 10 because it's highly available, it works, and it does the job it is meant to do.
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues because of Defender.
Technology Associate at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud requires improved filtering, encryption, UI simplicity, and competitive pricing, while lacking sorting, archiving, and AI features.
Users call for enhanced virus detection, cross-platform support, and pricing transparency in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
If we go for FortiMail Cloud and have a separate endpoint security solution, there are two agents that have to sit on a customer endpoint.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It would be beneficial to enhance flexibility for better adaptation to various customer environments.
Owner at wct it-solutions GmbH
We can't import files into the Fortinet FortiMail Cloud sensors.
Senior Network Security Engineer at Vibs
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
Senior Director, Security Architecture & Engineering at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud offers competitive subscription pricing, with annual licenses around $4,000, varying by organizational needs.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing is seen as flexible but potentially expensive, offering value in comprehensive security features.
The price is relatively expensive.
Senior Network and Security Engineer at Symbol Technologies PLC
The pricing for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud seems a bit high, although it is considered acceptable for the product's value.
Owner at wct it-solutions GmbH
Cost-wise, it's a bit expensive, but it's totally worth it.
Senior Network Security Engineer at Vibs
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud offers robust email protection with advanced threat detection, seamless integration, and comprehensive management features.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enhances email security with anti-phishing, anti-malware, threat intelligence, and seamless integration for efficient management.
FortiMail's integration with other Fortinet solutions enhances the security part of the organization.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud has had a positive effect on our organization since we can classify each email coming to our organization.
Consultant for the Chairman at Financial Literacy Knowledge Hub
The return on investment for us was achieved since we did not have similar incidents again in our environment.
Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (5th)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud is 4.6%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 24.2%, down from 31.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 36524.2%
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud4.6%
Other71.2%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

HR
Senior Network Security Engineer at Vibs
Provides solid functionality and allows room for enhancing content management and support services
They can improve their CDR content profile and some anti-spam features. They don't have any direct script to run to add personalization, and we have to do it manually one by one. There are many tasks which we have to complete individually. We can't import files into the Fortinet FortiMail Cloud sensors. That's a drawback, as they need to provide a feature to import files. We can make the format, but we cannot import the file into Fortinet FortiMail Cloud. Additionally, in Fortinet FortiMail Cloud, not in FortiSandbox, they need to improve the block and allow list functionality to block URLs and allow specific types of URLs or regex.
Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.
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879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
The price of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud in Egypt is very competitive against other products, including the setup cost and licensing of this solution.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
The improvement in Fortinet FortiMail Cloud can be made regarding the classification process itself because it has some false positives.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
I have experience working with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud as a mail gateway, not a firewall, and we have been using it for about three or four years. I have worked with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud for t...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents, protecting my documents, and protecting attachments. I also use it to conduct ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Defender for Office 365
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiMail Cloud vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.