Fortinet FortiMail Reviews

The solution provides security for our mail system. We're a group of companies, mainly dealing with car importation and distribution, and I'm the CIO.

This solution has a very clean user interface. It's agnostic to whatever environment you're using behind it. My email servers are HCL Domino servers now and it's easy to implement - they have very good sandbox for checking email without the danger of opening them.

I think their statistics and the BI in general could be improved. By that I mean the feedback the admin can take from the reporting. We're in the process of moving to Microsoft 365. We have discussed employing the Fortinet cloud solution with them, because right now we're using the on-premise solution. I don't know how it's going to play out in the cloud version.

I've been using this solution for five years. 

It does the job that it needs to do, it's quite stable. 

I haven't checked the scalability, because we have bought the larger version, which is the 32 VMs. I think it's pretty scalable. We have around 400 users, basically everybody in the company and we use it as a gateway. It gets all the email and takes it from our mail servers. We have two people in the company maintaining the solution and two others monitoring things. 

We have a contract with a partner for technical support, not Fortinet Greece. We used to use Fortinet Greece, but they're mainly sales engineers so we took on a partner. We're satisfied with them. 

We used another solution several years back. The trigger to move to Fortinet was a virus, a ransomware and that's when we switched to Forti products. We're happy with things. 

The initial setup was pretty straightforward, it was easy to implement. 

We're using two products, the FortiSandbox, which is actually the sandbox environment of FortiMail and FortiMail. We're paying about 9,000 Euros per year for those two products. It is pretty cost-effective for Greece. Fortinet is very aggressive with their pricing.

The other options we looked at were Check Point perhaps or Barracuda. Either they didn't have the sandbox solution or it wasn't as centralized as we wanted and they were more expensive. 

It's important to know what you're aiming for beforehand and what your environment needs in terms of implementation. It requires being very explicit so you can know what to set up with it. Things such as rules and domains that you can work with. You have to know your environment well. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

The solution is primarily used for identifying spam, viruses, zero-day spamming, and any other kind of spam issues our organization might face.

We have several of these solutions in place. We do have, as of late, spam outbreaks. This solution has been pretty reliable in dealing with them. 

The solution can scale.

The solution is mostly stable.

Sometimes it takes a little bit too long to determine if an email is good or not. If they could shorten that time span, it'd be so much better. It does delay our email, which does not make users happy. That said, I would have to say we have not been blacklisted for quite a while now.

Sometimes there are false positives.

When spam goes into system quarantine, it would be ideal if there was a safe way to let the users review the email in question and release it themselves, as opposed to having to wait on an administrator, to search for it and release it. It could be done securely. I understand why the system quarantines. However, a lot of users have their financial documents or lawyer's documents get thrown into the system quarantine and they're waiting on them. They need them within the hour as they are often time-sensitive matters. Due to this, they have to contact me. They wait for a while because they don't know when it's going to come, however, eventually they have to contact me. It's a delay. People understandably get very impatient.

There are some emails that go through that should be given a login code - for example, like whenever you're signing up for Microsoft in the cloud and they have to send you a login code. These codes from well-known vendors get stuck in the spam outbreak. They get stuck in different places. 

Whitelisting should be a little bit friendlier for the users. It was actually easier a few versions back. Once you logged into your Fortimail account, you could whitelist very easily. Now, you have to kind of navigate through the email to do it. We cannot turn on the auto whitelist feature on because then there are users that will download anything without thinking, so we never use the auto whitelist feature. That's why it's so important to make whitelisting individually an easy task.

I've used the solution within the last 12 months.

The stability of the solution is mainly good. We do occasionally get false positives, however, it's rare.

It is very scalable and it does work well for what it's doing.

We've been satisfied with the technical support. They always are able to help us with upgrades and implementations. We find them to be quite knowledgeable.

For us, the setup is pretty straightforward. However, it's that way due to the fact that we use technical support to assist us. If we were to do it on our own, it may be difficult to implement. It's not something that I could just pull up and do on my own. I don't feel like I could. The knowledge of the engineers is very beneficial.

In our use case scenario, we do have support to help us set it up. In all the scenarios, even when I migrate to another upgrade or to a different box, even though we've had this for several years, we always use support.

We did evaluate other options before choosing this solution.

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten. If it weren't for issues surrounding quarantining emails, I'd rate it higher.

The primary use case for this solution is for filtering emails, internally and for external emails. We have part with Office 365 and the other is hosted inside. We have monitoring and certain policies regarding emails, both in sending and receiving them. 

The deployment Model is on-premises using a virtual machine.

This a user-friendly solution.

Troubleshooting is very simple because you can see where the email was not delivered and why it would be considered as spam. For the IT team, it is important, because when they are asked by management why their email was not sent or why was this email that was sent to me was considered as spam, they have the details that are needed to explain why. 

It is much better than IronPort for Cisco and Websense. 

For now, as per our experience with FortiMail in handling a large number of emails and spams as well, in the past three years, we have been protected and saved from any attacks from the outside. This is one of the main reasons we will continue to use FortiMail.

The dashboard is small, it doesn't have a huge dashboard that you can rely on, you need another application to work with it, which is why they created FortiAnalyzer. This allows you to dig deeper if you want details. For example, it would tell you from which domain, to what domain, and what are the triggers that have been used to classify this email. These are all extra features, it is not an all in one.

Some of the dashboards found in the FortiAnalyzer could be improved. For the basics, the solution covers it. 

An additional feature that could be added is a pop-up screen notifying you that an email has been blocked, without having to double click on it to take you there it could provide you with a summary explaining why it was on hold or why was it spam when you hover over it with your cursor.

I have been using this solution for three years.

This solution is very stable. I don't remember the last time that I had to restart the server.

This is the main mail filter, for our entire company.

They are different, not of the same email. One for Office 365 and the other is Lotus and other mail services.

Not only one service in our system, but it is configured on that one main filter using different platforms, acting as the main suitor for FortiMail.

There are approximately five hundred users, with two administrators and three at the help desk. They can do minor duties such as releasing emails, but not going into why were the emails blocked. They help to release emails that are blocked for users, who cannot release them on their own. We do, however, have limited system privileges for the administrators.

The administrators maintain the solution. The administrators will search for new firmware, find the new releases, and whether it is beneficial or not needed.

This solution is scalable at the start. You don't have any boundaries for upgrading or downgrading.

The Virtual Machine can hold as much as you want, but of course, every Virtual Machine has its capacity. You cannot take the capacity that is needed now, but rather, you have to think forward. For example, maybe now you have twenty emails, but next year we're going to have fifty emails more, and you end up with seventy, so now you reach one hundred.

While every Virtual Machine has its limitations, the limitation of every Virtual Machine is large.

We do not plan to increase usage.

The technical support was good. They are perfect.

The support is open and support is with FortiGate. They always reply and they are always there to support you within an hour, at the maximum. 

Everything will be shown in your inbox. 

We develop our products, and we do our troubleshooting without relying on the support.

If we reach a stage where we can't do anything more, then we contact support. It has been approximately two years since we last contacted them.

Previously we used a different solution. We switched to FortiMail because our old solution was not good, or stable.

We used many solutions before, including Sophos Email, and when you have a good experience with a product you will not go back to the old products or switch to other products unless there are big advantages.

Emails were not accurate, some emails on the first day were in your inbox and another day, they are quarantined, and then other days they were not being delivered.

There were limitations in the configuration and troubleshooting. 

We have always had SLAs, but not with the company, it was with the brand. For example, we had support from Cisco and Sophos between one and three years.

We directly open cases with them. Two cases were not closed. I had completed my troubleshooting and solved the issue, while they were not able to solve it. 

Cisco was too complicated, not user-friendly, and not designed for emails in that complex environment. For an easier environment, they were fine, but, not for a complex environment, with different main servers, and different platforms.

Cisco is also more expensive than others. I don't know why, especially now, with technology in the hands of every brand.

Cisco is not the one and only, but now, it is the last and only.

This is why we are no longer using Cisco. We did have a good experience with Cisco. Everything was tested. I asked the suppliers, the brand owners in the region, to come over to see us. I didn't just go to Fortinet FortiMail directly.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The deployment time varies depending on if you are doing research, or if you are going to post on your site regarding FortiMail. If it is one domain it will take one day, or if it is for ten domains that have to be checked on to see the main flow and to see everything, it can take anywhere from one to three days.

We had only one staff member for the deployment of this solution.

To have it fully deployed and for fine-tuning, it will need ten working days. At some points, there is mail that you receive and not able to detect them, for example, all of the mail you are getting are spam or are getting quarantined or they are not quarantined, they are just trespassing in, you need approximately ten days. It's similar to machine learning, where you can learn your emails and how they flow. 

Simply put, the implementation is one to three days and for fine-tuning, it is ten days.

We used the reseller and the technical people to work with us, but the configurations and the policies are from my recommendation.

The resellers are awesome!

The time needed for troubleshooting before was reduced by at least 80%. This allowed us to focus on other applications as well, not only the web filter, email filter, and applications for the firewall. 

We have taken away some applications that we used to monitor our network with, as they were offered in FortiGate, so we no longer needed them.

Many areas helped us in reduced costs, not only in the administration in these areas, but in replacing other services that we used to buy. For example, If you want to have wireless access points so that people can access on their mobiles, we would have had to purchase a radio-server and an expensive wireless access point which was needed together. 

Access points that would cost between sixty and eighty dollars, you can have them with FortiGate on a switch, allowing you to monitor all of these from the FortiGate. 

You have all of the security, you can create your policies and you can do all the measurement and shaping and applications of vision monitoring. Everything can be done through FortiGate.

These are some of the advantages that FortiGate have over all the others. 

It's multi-platform. 

As long as you work more on the configuration and you dig deep inside the policies, you can reach huge worlds, and the security layers, not seven, layer eight and nine because intelligence and security are there. 

You have all it backs-up with the company. So yes, several things have been changed and replaced.

We are satisfied with the pricing of this solution.

Licenses are based on everyone's needs. If you don't need the full bundle that includes everything, you have options for the small or medium enterprise environments.

I was doing both the evaluating and testing. 

I had researched the internet for the leaders.

I did not go with Gartner as they pay to gain leadership. I went to other sources. I went to reviews, and I opened cases in everyone. I evaluated Barracuda, IronPort Cisco, Sophos, FortiMail and Websense.

I evaluated every one of the five brands and it took five months of testing all brands before we made the decision to go with FortiMail. We chose FortiMail because they passed all of the tests. The POC was for one month.

Emails are dangerous to deal with. You need backdoors for all people, You don't have any control over it because you are not the person who's dealing with emails for the employees.

Everyone is dealing with their own emails. In order to secure your emails, you need to secure your employees and the emails that are trespassing into your environment.

You need to find a solution that not only scans emails, but you also need to have some artificial intelligence for the machine learning for emails.

That's what FortiMail is doing. 

FortiMail is flexible, straightforward, and easy to troubleshoot. This is key, for  IT, they need to troubleshoot easily, and need to know why and how this was done. 

FortiMail is one of the important applications that can provide us what we require, as well as, being able to delegate your troubleshooting and your administration with many players or many, team members in IT. There are some that can do it while others cannot.

You should test before you decide to own a product. Don't rely on people saying, that it's the best product I have. You should know what your business is working with. There are no best practices in IT. There is what the business needs in IT.

The best practices that are there, are by the books, but the business may require different paths than the books and the best practices they tell you. So, always test. Know why and what you need the services for and don't buy everything, because you will not have time to be working on all of them.

If you have things set up straightforwardly, and it is fast to configure, then, yes, these products are good for you. The differences are, the experience and stability of these products, and how far you can go with the policies. This is what I have learned, not only from FortiMail but from all the solutions we're working with.

Never put your business and IT aside. They should collaborate and align together.

Overall, this is a good and reliable application.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We use this solution to put the server on the FortiMail server. Users acquire a domain, and use emails from the the FortiMail server.

The solution has a user-friendly interface. It is easy to deploy and handle. You can easily troubleshoot the issues of the solution.

The product should work on licensing and provide more detail once the license is selected for the customer.

I have been using Fortinet FortiMail since last month. We are a partner of Fortinet.

Fortinet Fortimail is a very stable product. I have compared it with Barracuda devices, and they filter mail servers. Customers prefer Barracuda, but I propose the FortiMail server. Barracuda is expensive compared to FortiMail. I ensure support to customers during the deployment times if they go with Fortinet.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

Support is very good. They provide timely support to the customer. 

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I have used Barracuda but it is more expensive than FortiMail.

The solution’s initial setup is configurable and easy to manage and handle.

Fortinet Fortimail has reasonable pricing.

FortiMail is easy to integrate, deploy and troubleshoot the issue. I always recommend it to the customer.

We mainly use Fortinet FortiMail as an anti-spam solution.

Overall, I'm satisfied with Fortinet FortiMail.

I like that it has reasonable pricing. I also like that it's very good compared to its competitors and has many features.

I like the anti-spam and security features of Fortinet FortiMail, and that its features complement each other.

A room for improvement in Fortinet FortiMail is that it's hardware-based. It only has a hardware version.

I also didn't find the solution scalable, so that's another area for improvement.

My experience with Fortinet FortiMail is ten years.

Fortinet FortiMail is a very stable solution.

Fortinet FortiMail is not scalable because once you connect to a model, you're stuck with it. It isn't a good fit for enterprise companies.

Fortinet FortiMail has excellent technical support.

Fortinet FortiMail is easy to deploy.

We deploy Fortinet FortiMail for customers. We have a technical team that handles the deployment.

I find Fortinet FortiMail pricing reasonable. 

There's no additional cost apart from its standard licensing fees.

My company is a reseller for Fortinet.

I primarily work with Fortinet FortiMail and Fortinet FortiGate, but with FortiADC, not so much.

My customers use Fortinet FortiMail, but my company also uses it as a Fortinet partner.

I mainly deal with sales and scoping for Fortinet FortiMail and other Fortinet products.

My rating for the solution is a ten out of ten.

Fortinet FortiMail is used for mail protection.

Fortinet FortiMail's most valuable features are its performance and security.

I have been using Fortinet FortiMail for approximately two years.

Fortinet FortiMail is stable.

The salability of Fortinet FortiMail is good.

We have approximately 20 people using this solution in my organization.

The support could be faster because we've been receiving complaints from customers, they say that when they raise a ticket, it doesn't take 24 hours to respond, sometimes the support responds after three days. This is a lot of time.

The initial setup of Fortinet FortiMail was straightforward. The process took approximately two hours.

There is a license required for this solution.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiMail a nine out of ten.

Fortinet FortiMail helps protect our organization's emails from attacks and threats on their system.

Fortinet FortiMail is easy to use and the detection rate is very good. You can customize content filters and profiles are done easily. Additionally, there is a sandbox integration feature that is good.

My customers frequently ask to have detailed documentation for FortiMail and FortiWeb as they have in FortiGate. What they currently have is not enough.

I have been using Fortinet FortiMail for approximately five years.

I have approximately 10 customers using this solution.

I am certified to give support and I have not used the support very often.

I have not faced any issues with the configurations. All technical support issues I had were because of a new feature that caused a bug that needed to be upgraded.

I have used other solutions previously and Fortinet FortiMail is better than Cisco and Trend Micro IMSVA.

The installation is simple.

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.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Fortinet FortiMail a nine out of ten.

I am actually looking for new a new solution at the moment, possibly Forcepoint or Arbor. This solution is good for us, but we hope to implement a new solution with Fortinet.

The infrastructure could be improved. The data leak prevention could also be better.

I have been using Fortinet FortiMail for five years.

I am satisfied with both the scalability and the stability of this solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of seven.