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Fortra's Clearswift Secure Email Gateway vs Mimecast Email 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (10th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
Fortra's Clearswift Secure ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
0
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (40th)
Mimecast Email Security
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Office 365 Protection (4th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Email Security
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
PC
Stable, but malware needs improvement and customer support is poor
They need to improve the malware in the product. I am not satisfied with Clearswift because of the lack of customer support. The support is poor, the supplier takes a lot of time and it's expensive. We have some issues here when I contact the supplier, it takes a lot of time for them to get back to us but there's no solution. I am now looking at Symantec as a possible alternative.
ShaheenKapery - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides valuable security features and has a straightforward setup process
The initial setup process is straightforward and takes a weekend at most. A .com domain can take up to forty-eight hours, while a local domain takes about four to eight hours because it has to propagate through the international DNS records. It is a cloud-only solution. If you're managing email security on-premises, you use your bandwidth to download emails, including spam, and then use your servers to clean it up. For example, say a third of your email is spam; this consumes significant bandwidth and resources. However, if you use Mimecast, they filter the emails on their servers before delivering them to you. It can be a major selling point in regions with expensive bandwidth, such as Africa. You can save bandwidth and improve overall efficiency by offloading the spam filtering to Mimecast.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."
"The basic features are okay and I'm satisfied with the Defender."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"The ability to respond to threats if very important."
"Ability to create your own content-filtering policies with relative ease."
"A stable solution."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The interface of this solution is very easy to navigate and user-friendly. There is no delivery in email and other communications, making it reliable. The configuration is relatively easy."
"The product's most valuable features are impersonation protection and phishing countermeasures."
"URL inspection works pretty well."
"Its administration console is very easy to use. The administration console is absolutely important because you interact with the platform through it."
"We like Mimecast's spam filtering. The email signature feature is also a big plus for our users."
"I would rate Mimecast Email Security a nine out of ten."
"Due to our specialized use case, that HIPAA dictionary really comes in handy."
 

Cons

"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."
"About eight months ago, we started to measure the quantity of phishing and spam that we have been receiving, and it has been increasing a lot. That means that protection for our email is not as good as we were expecting."
"I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost."
"They have moved features from one console to another. Things have been moved around in the interface and it takes me time to find where certain features are."
"FTP server and TRUST Manager functionality."
"Malware needs improvement."
"Its pricing can be improved. It is a bit expensive."
"As a user, the user interface of the management console could be upgraded, for example."
"The installation is not so straightforward."
"The price could be better, it should be reduced."
"They could provide a unified licensing model, including all the security features."
"The tool can be challenging because it relies on rule-based configurations, especially for addressing impersonation threats. This approach requires setting up numerous rules to ensure filtering. It should work based on behavior-based analytics."
"They should improve the cookies management feature."
"The attachment scanning feature doesn't work properly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"The product is expensive."
"The product is very expensive."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
Information not available
"We pay monthly fees to our provider."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
"I'm always going to say the price needs to be lower, but it's reasonable."
"There are additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"For what it is, the product is overpriced."
"The product has good pricing in terms of return on investment."
"It is a bit expensive."
"The product price is moderate. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS recor...
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What do you like most about Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
The interface of this solution is very easy to navigate and user-friendly. There is no delivery in email and other co...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
The pricing is higher for Mimecast, particularly for the Indian market, where it is considered expensive.
What needs improvement with Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection?
There is nothing that notably stands out in need of improvement at present.
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
Mimecast Email Security with Targeted Threat Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Information Not Available
Azizi Developments, Affinity Credit Union, Aftercare, Al Abbar Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Proofpoint, Cisco and others in Email Security. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.