What is our primary use case?
We use it for spam. Our biggest concern has been malware. Spam is a nuisance, but malware could be very damaging to our systems, and losing data just wasn't an option for us. It is that security side. The actual spam piece is probably secondary in my mind. Spam was certainly an inconvenience because of user complaints, but filtering out malware was huge for us. I would rather stop these things at the perimeter than rely on a local computer's antivirus.
We use it for exactly what it is supposed to be for. We use it for filtering out any malware that has been sent via email. For your truly obvious spam, I would rather put that out on the edges so end users don't have to see that junk in their junk mailbox. For some reason, being a college, the amount of spam we get is unbelievable. I would rather not overload users with too many things in their junk folders from Outlook. It just cuts down on the amount of noise that end users have to deal with.
We are a college. We are primarily a Windows shop, though we do have some Macs internally. Our servers are Windows-based. We have two locations. However, that whole idea of locations has gotten pretty fuzzy, not only with the cloud, but with the emphasis on remote work. The nice thing is that it filters mail before it even comes into our mail server and it doesn't matter where somebody is. They could be on campus at either one of our locations, or they could be at home, and SpamTitan will do what it is supposed to do.
How has it helped my organization?
It achieves a design goal that we have for in-depth defense.
What is most valuable?
We have had no cases of malware slipping through since we have had SpamTitan.
At times, I have used the geo-blocking feature. There are some hostile countries for whom I try to filter out traffic, be it through email or the perimeter firewall. We have to be careful with it, but it is good for cutting down on the amount of noise that we have to sort through.
The geo-blocking feature has worked well. Certainly some of that stuff can be spoofed, so it is not going to be 100%.For that really spammy spam, a lot of times the spammers don't even try to hide where they are originating from. For that, it has been good. There are a handful of countries that we just consider hostile, so being able to block those has been a good thing.
The geo-blocking feature seems to work fine for allowing exemptions based on a trusted sender's IP, domain, or email address. We haven't had any issues with it.
Over time, you set up additional filters, change the sensitivity level, and set up exceptions. The exceptions are powerful, so we don't accidentally filter out emails from a party that we work with. That has been great.
What needs improvement?
It could be improved a little bit on the speed side. When I am trying to troubleshoot a mail message that somebody is looking for in SpamTitan, sometimes setting up the filters for the quarantine is a little bit pokey.
Buyer's Guide
TitanHQ SpamTitan
March 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had to do upgrades. Anything that happens is done by the SpamTitan team, and it just stays up and running.
There have been no concerns in regards to stability. It just works. We haven't experienced any downtime with it. There have been no problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are a small institution, so it certainly meets our needs. For us, it has been fantastic.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been great. I haven't needed a lot of technical support, but the few times that I have reached out to them, they have answered quickly. I would rate them as 10 out of 10.
The biggest thing for me to compare it to would be Microsoft. I much prefer dealing with SpamTitan because they are smaller. They are more responsive than some of the larger companies that we have worked with.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We tried some local things that were local to the computer itself, and typically a part of the anti-malware software. We found the performance hits were unacceptable and the filtering wasn't that good. It didn't satisfy that desire to filter those things out before getting to the user's computer. So, we did use other products, but they just weren't a good option for us.
SpamTitan has been much better than the Exchange Server competing product that we previously used, which would interfere with our backups of the Exchange Server. So, that had to go immediately. We were then depending on endpoint protection, which was just a terrible hit to us from a performance standpoint. Whereas, architecturally, SpamTitan does exactly what we want it to do. It is on the edge of our network, doing its job before anything even comes to our mail server.
SpamTitan was our very first spam filter. We were using an in-house Exchange Server, which didn't have viable filtering. We saw an ad for SpamTitan and brought it in, and it solved our problem. Later on, we did migrate away from an in-house mail service to Microsoft 365. While Microsoft's spam filtering is very good, I am not a big fan of trusting a single technology for something like security. I prefer the defense in-depth approach.
Now, SpamTitan is more of a perimeter filtering system. What we primarily hope to get from it, and have been getting from it, is filtering out malware sent via email from the most egregious spam. We then let Microsoft be an additional layer after SpamTitan.
SpamTitan has absolutely helped save employees’ time by not having to sort through junk and spam emails. We first brought it in when we had the in-house mail solution and certain users were getting 300 to 400 spam emails a day. That was just a huge burden. Almost instantly, SpamTitan cut that down by well over 90%, even with the out-of-the-box tuning. That was a huge savings.
Even after we migrated to a cloud-hosted mail solution through Microsoft, it gives us that design goal of not trusting just one vendor's product for security.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was very easy. Basically, we just changed our MX records, and a minute or two later, it was working. It was very easy to deploy.
It was very important to us that the setup and configuration were easy. Being a small school, we don't have a big staff for things like this. At the time that we brought it in, there was just one other person (a technician) and me.
When there is a full range of IT services that we need to offer, I can't have a product that ties us up too much. So, SpamTitan has been easy to work with.
What about the implementation team?
The SpamTitan team just walked us through it. There wasn't much to it because it was easy to work with.
What was our ROI?
Our ROI is excellent. Technically, we don't have to have it. Microsoft does an excellent job, but SpamTitan is so inexpensive that it is worth having that extra layer of defense. We just get a lot of peace of mind from having it.
We have considered dropping SpamTitan just to save little money on the budget. However, we thought through the cost of having a breach coming through email. There are certainly other attack avenues, but as far as email goes, SpamTitan is a bargain. It is using a different build entity than Microsoft uses, and I like having less of a monoculture when it comes to security.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and licensing have been very fair. I can't complain.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Because we are a small school, the cost is an issue for us. SpamTitan was much more affordable than some of the other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, it is a great product. It is simple. It just does what it is supposed to do. We just haven't had issues with it.
Every now and then, I check and see if we have a false positive or add some geo-filtering. I will use the edge filtering at times, but I wouldn't call that maintenance. I will add exceptions if we bring on a new partner, then I will make sure that their stuff is whitelisted.
I would rate SpamTitan as 9.5 out of 10. I am just going to take off half a point for the performance issues at times. Not all the time, but sometimes when I am setting up filters to try to sort through the spam in the quarantine. Sometimes that gets a little bit pokey, but honestly, it has better performance than what I get out of Microsoft.
If you are looking for something where this solution is the first thing that scans your mail before it even goes through your mail server, then it is an outstanding option. I would highly recommend it with no reservations.
We really do love SpamTitan. It just works. It is simple, and I don't have to think about it.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.