Email security software for MSPs are tools that help MSPs defend client networks against phishing, malware, and data breaches through features like sandboxing, encryption, and endpoint protection. The top options offer capabilities like sandboxing, URL rewriting, data encryption, and content disarm and reconstruction. To help you choose the best one for you, we’ve shortlisted 10 of the top email security solutions.
Here are our picks for the top email security software for MSPs:
- Avanan: Best overall email security software option.
- Barracuda: Best provider for quality customer support.
- Sophos: Best email security tool for data encryption.
- Zerospam: Best provider for transparent, flexible pricing.
- Cisco Secure Email: Best for integration and compatibility.
- Trend Micro: Best tool for advanced threat protection.
- Mimecast: Best security provider for secure email gateway.
- Forcepoint Email Security: Best for data loss prevention.
- Proofpoint: Best software for AI and ML security tools.
- SpamTitan: Best platform for intuitive email security.
Featured Partners: Cybersecurity Software
Top email security providers comparison
The first step in choosing the best email security provider is knowing what the top providers offer and how they compare. You can expect most email security service providers offer services like spam blocking, archiving and sandboxing. Here’s how our top 10 providers compare against five services that better bring out a comparison amongst them.
| Spam Quarantine | Whitelisting/ Blacklisting | Content Disarm & Reconstruction (CDR) | Data Encryption | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avanan | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Barracuda | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | — |
| Sophos | ✔ | — | — | ✔ |
| Zerospam | ✔ | ✔ | — | ✔ |
| Cisco | ✔ | ✘ | — | ✔ |
| Trend Micro | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mimecast | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Forcepoint | ✔ | ✔ | — | ✔ |
| Proofpoint | ✔ | — | ✘ | ✔ |
| SpamTitan | — | — | — | ✔ |
✔=Yes —= Limited X=No
Avanan
Best overall email security provider
Overall rating: 4.1/5
- Core offerings: 4.3/5
- Cost: 3.5/5
- Ease of use: 4.1/5
- AI and ML: 4.4/5
- Compatibility: 4.7/5
- Customer support: 3.8/5
Avanan has a wide roster of advanced email security offerings while being integrable with a variety of services. Its tools and features include AI-based anti-phishing, zero-day protection, file sanitization, URL click-time protection, data loss prevention, and encryption. These capabilities can be directly integrated into cloud services like Office 365 Email, Office 365 Suite, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, G Suite, Gmail, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and Slack.
For its comprehensive range of features and services, Avanan doesn’t disclose its pricing publicly. If you’re in the market for a provider with lots of features and transparent pricing, consider Zerospam.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Direct cloud service integration | Limited support for on-premises infrastructure |
| Selection of AI-driven security features | Sandboxing unavailable in basic plans |
| User-friendly operational interface | DLP is only available in the highest tier |
Pricing
Avanan doesn’t list its pricing information publicly in favor of inviting prospective users to request a quote based on the services they’d want to secure. Though they offer a 14-day free trial.
Key offerings
- Inline email security deployment: Enable direct integration of your clients’ cloud email platforms for a full malware analysis of emails.
- Phishing protection: Utilize Avanan’s AI to accurately identify and prevent phishing attempts targeting your users’ email communications.
- Anomaly detection: Employ machine learning to analyze and respond to unusual activities, enhancing your users’ email security posture.
- Data loss prevention: Implement controls to secure sensitive information from unauthorized access and enforce compliance.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
Best for customer support
Overall rating: 3.9/5
- Core offerings: 3.9/5
- Cost: 3.5/5
- Ease of use: 3.6/5
- AI and ML: 3.9/5
- Compatibility: 4.7/5
- Customer support: 4.5/5
Barracuda Email Security Gateway stands out for its customer support. It delivers live chat, phone, and email support options with human support professionals, as opposed to the increasingly common option of an automated system. Additionally, it offers training to its users through its Barracuda Campus, whose options include instructor-led classroom training and distance learning. It also includes options for self-paced training and in-depth documentation.
Barracuda’s AI and ML features are simple compared to some alternatives on this list. For strong customer support as well as advanced AI features, shortlist Sophos.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| All-rounded customer support | Pricing details could be more transparent |
| Protects against 12+ email threats | Setup process can be complex |
| Strong phishing and malware defense | Few detection features for its lowest tier |
Pricing
Reach out to Barracuda directly for a customized quote based on the needs of your business. You can also take advantage of a fully-featured 14-day free trial.
Key offerings
- Inbound malware defense: Secure your users’ email systems against incoming malware, spam, and phishing attempts, maintaining operational integrity and productivity.
- Customizable policies: Implement detailed email security policies tailored to your clients’ needs, enhancing the overall security framework and compliance.
- AI-driven protection: Leverage Barracuda’s AI solutions for real-time defense against spear phishing and cyber fraud, complementing the gateway’s capabilities.
- DOS attack mitigation: Safeguard your clients from Denial of Service attacks and ensure their email systems remain accessible and functional even under threat.
Sophos
Best for data encryption
Overall rating: 3.8/5
- Core offerings: 3.8/5
- Cost: 2.8/5
- Ease of use: 3.7/5
- AI and ML: 4.4/5
- Compatibility: 4.6/5
- Customer support: 4.4/5
Sophos Email Security provides MSPs with robust data encryption capabilities to secure their users’ email communication. It offers S/MIME encryption for adding a digital signature, ensuring sender authenticity and message integrity. Sophos also includes customizable encryption choices like TLS encryption, which secures email communications in transit, and options for encrypting both attachments and messages in formats such as PDF and Office documents.
Sophos, however, isn’t the easiest tool to use. For an alternative with strong encryption capabilities that’s simple to use, Cisco Secure Email stands out.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Strong encryption standards | Pricing information isn’t transparent |
| User-friendly management interface | Not the most intuitive option |
| Responsive customer support | Resource-intensive on smaller systems |
Pricing
Even though the provider offers a 30-day free trial, Sophos doesn’t share their pricing information publicly, you’ll need to request a quote.
Key offerings
- Data loss prevention: Implement DLP policies to protect sensitive information across all emails and attachments and ensure the integrity of your clients’ data.
- Encryption and authentication: Enhance security with message encryption options like S/MIME for digital signature verification, TLS, and customizable encryption.
- Advanced threat protection: Utilize Sophos’ threat detection capabilities to guard against emerging email threats and keep your users’ inboxes safe.
- Phishing defense: Secure your customers’ sensitive information by deploying anti-phishing technologies to detect and neutralize phishing attempts.
Zerospam
Best for transparent and adaptable pricing
Overall rating: 3.8/5
- Cost: 5/5
- Core offerings: 3.8/5
- Ease of use: 2.9/5
- AI and ML: 3.4/5
- Compatibility: 4.2/5
- Customer support: 3.2/5
Zerospam is the only solution on this list that delivers clear and transparent pricing right off the bat. It sets its pricing based on the number of mailboxes per domain of an MSP as well as the services required across three clearly defined pricing tiers. All its tiers offer an anti-spam service and unlimited messages, and the highest pricing tier also includes an email archiving feature. Additionally, Zerospam offers a 30-day free trial without an obligation for automatic renewal.
Regardless of its pricing transparency, Zerospam feels like a niche email solution as it has fewer capabilities compared to most of its alternatives. For a provider with a greater variety of features and capabilities, check out Avanan.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Crystal-clear pricing | Limited product scope |
| Very focused product scope | Basic interface design |
| Easy deployment | Fewer advanced features |
Pricing
Zerospam offers three pricing tiers, namely Smart, Top, and Premium. Smart costs €5 (about $5.36) per month for a maximum of 5 mailboxes, while Top and Premium cost €10 (about $10.70) and €20 (approximately $21.45) per month for a maximum of 1000 mailboxes. It also offers a 30-day free trial.
Key offerings
- Spam and malware filtering: Deploy robust spam and malware filtering to shield your users from unwanted and harmful emails.
- Ransomware protection: Implement advanced measures to prevent ransomware from compromising your clients’ email security.
- Phishing detection: Utilize sophisticated algorithms to detect and block phishing attempts, safeguarding sensitive data.
- Machine learning protection: Use machine learning filters for dynamic, effective defense against all kinds of email threats.
Cisco Secure Email
Best for integration and compatibility
Overall rating: 3.8/5
- Core offerings: 3.8/5
- Cost: 2.5/5
- Ease of use: 4.2/5
- AI and ML: 3.8/5
- Compatibility: 4.8/5
- Customer support: 4.4/5
Cisco Secure Email delivers a highly compatible solution designed to seamlessly blend into diverse IT environments. With its extensive compatibility with cloud, virtual, on-premises, or hybrid deployments, Cisco Secure Email helps businesses maintain their preferred IT setups without compromising operational efficiency or having to introduce multiple solutions to secure their email systems. This adaptability ensures there’s minimal disruption to existing workflows.
For MSPs looking for similar integration capabilities but with a stronger focus on AI and ML-driven security tools, Proofpoint offers an excellent alternative as it provides intelligent, adaptive email protection mechanisms.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extensive integration options | Complex setup for some |
| Vast threat protection | Higher cost on premium features |
| High compatibility across systems | Requires technical proficiency |
Pricing
Pricing details are provided upon request, as the prices of the Essentials, Advantage and Premier plans aren’t listed. But Cisco offers a 30-day free trial to test out its Secure Email.
Key offerings
- Global threat intelligence: Leverage extensive threat intelligence for preemptive email security that’ll consistently secure your users.
- Advanced malware protection: Use comprehensive defenses against malware, ransomware, and emerging threats to secure your customers.
- Email encryption: Secure the email communications of your users end-to-end and safeguard data in transit and at rest.
- Integrated incident response: Enhance your security posture with automated incident response to reduce the time to remediate threats.
Trend Micro
Best for advanced threat protection
Overall rating: 3.7/5
- Core offerings: 4.0/5
- Cost: 3.3/5
- Ease of use: 2.5/5
- AI and ML: 4.3/5
- Compatibility: 4.5/5
- Customer support: 3.9/5
Trend Micro Email Security’s best quality is its advanced threat protection, as it features protection against business email compromise, ransomware, and sophisticated targeted attacks. It offers an advanced service, Trend Micro Email Security Advanced, which ensures continuously updated protection with enterprise-grade features adapted to securing business communications. Some of the other protection services and features you can expect from Trend Micro include file password extraction, document exploit protection, and more.
Regardless of its reputation for advanced threat protection, it’s not the easiest service to use. For a more intuitive option with advanced capabilities, check out Avanan.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Wide roster of advanced features | Opaque pricing |
| Scalable to organizational needs | AI-fraud detection only in advanced tier |
| Highly compatible solution | Configuration may require IT expertise |
Pricing
For detailed pricing information, you’ll have to contact Trend Micro directly for a customized quote, as they’ve not disclosed their pricing. They offer a 30-day free trial for their services.
Key offerings
- BEC protection: Shield your customers from Business Email Compromise by using Trend Micro’s targeted defense mechanisms.
- Ransomware defense: Fortify user email systems against ransomware attacks and ensure their data’s integrity and accessibility.
- Spam and phishing prevention: Intercept spam and sophisticated phishing attempts before they compromise your inboxes.
- Continuous updates: Stay ahead of emerging threats with consistently updated security measures to handle challenges as they arise.
Mimecast
Best for secure email gateway
Overall rating: 3.6/5
- Core offerings: 3.9/5
- Cost: 3/5
- Ease of use: 2.9/5
- AI and ML: 4.8/5
- Compatibility: 4.2/5
- Customer support: 3/5
Mimecast offers a secure email gateway that fortifies email ecosystems against all kinds of cyber threats. As an advanced, cloud-based protection solution, Mimecast is adept at guarding against spam, viruses, malware, and more. It takes an all-rounded approach to email security with aspects such as social engineering defense, risk protection, browser isolation and dynamic bannering to ensure that MSPs’ email gateways are protected on all sides.
However, Mimecast’s pricing can be described as translucent. For a solution with fully upfront pricing, Zerospam will be a better fit.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Advanced email gateway security | Complexity in configuration for some setups |
| Effective spam and malware blocking | Limited support hours outside business times |
| Strong AI and ML capabilities | Customization options can be overwhelming |
Pricing
Mimecast offers three plans, Protect, Protect Plus and Custom, with only Protect having its pricing listed. Protect’s pricing starts at $4.50, but for the other plans, you’ll have to contact Mimecast for a quote. The provider offers a 30-day free trial.
Key offerings
- Secure email gateway: Enhance your customers’ email security posture with gateway protection to prevent unwanted and harmful emails.
- Phishing defense: Utilize advanced algorithms to detect and neutralize phishing attempts on your users and safeguard sensitive information.
- Data loss prevention: Implement DLP capabilities to prevent your users communications from being breached and ensure compliance with regulations.
- Email continuity: Ensure your teams and customers have uninterrupted email services, even during outages or cyber attacks, using continuity solutions.
Forcepoint Email Security
Best for data loss prevention
Overall rating: 3.5/5
- Cost: 1.3/5
- Core offerings: 4.2/5
- Ease of use: 4.3/5
- AI and ML: 4.3/5
- Compatibility: 4.4/5
- Customer support: 3.0/5
Forcepoint Email Security specializes in data loss prevention (DLP) for email to thwart phishing attempts and prevent inadvertent data leaks. It delivers more than 1700 pre-defined classifiers and out-of-the-box templates for setting up policies quickly. Forcepoint also helps MSPs maintain data sovereignty and integrity by saving emails where they need to without having to store sensitive data in the cloud.
For all its DLP prowess, it could do with more email protection features, and it doesn’t list its pricing plans or offer a trial. For a solution with advanced threat protection alongside DLP, have a look at Trend Micro — it offers strong DLP features and has a 30-day free trial.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Superior DLP features | Can be complex to setup |
| Advanced AI/ML analytics | Limited support options |
| High compatibility with IT infrastructures | May be overkill for smaller organizations |
Pricing
No pricing information is offered upfront, meaning prospective users have to contact Forcepoint to receive a price quote. They also provide a customized demo instead of a free trial.
Key offerings
- Data loss prevention: Implement advanced DLP measures to prevent unauthorized sharing of sensitive data through email communications.
- Incident risk ranking: Utilize AI-driven analytics to prioritize incidents based on risk, streamlining the response process and reducing workload.
- Cloud email integration: Seamlessly integrate with major cloud email platforms, ensuring consistent protection across all user email traffic.
- Encryption and compliance: Enforce encryption protocols and compliance standards to secure your customers’ data both in transit and at rest.
Proofpoint
Best for AI and ML security tools
Overall rating: 3.4/5
- Cost: 1.3/5
- Core offerings: 4/5
- Ease of use: 2.8/5
- AI and ML: 5/5
- Compatibility: 4.7/5
- Customer support: 3/5
Proofpoint excels in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to hinder business email compromise (BEC) attacks. Their BEC Defense uses their NexusAIto to analyze email attributes like message headers, sender IP addresses, and content for urgency cues and suspicious phrases. It goes beyond payload detection to identify subtle BEC threats through sophisticated detection techniques and uses ML insights to improve its accuracy.
Proofpoint, however, isn’t the most intuitive solution. For an easier-to-use solution with strong AI and ML capabilities, look at Avanan.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Advanced AI/ML threat detection | Pricing is opaque |
| Extensive behavioral analysis engine | May need technical expertise for optimization |
| Access to global threat intelligence | Customer support has room for improvement |
Pricing
Contact Proofpoint for detailed pricing since that information isn’t public. Although Proofpoint offers a free trial whose length isn’t stated, its description matches a demo more than it does a trial.
Key offerings
- Behavioral engine: Deploy an advanced engine to analyze language, relationships, cadence, and context for detecting and preventing threats using AI/ML.
- Advanced BEC defense: Utilize sophisticated defenses against business email compromise (BEC) attacks and use machine learning to identify and block these threats.
- Email fraud defense: Protect your users against email fraud with advanced analysis and verification to prevent impersonation and phishing.
- Targeted attack protection (TAP): Implement TAP to give clients layered defenses against advanced threats targeting their email communications.
SpamTitan
Best for intuitive email security
Overall rating: 3.3/5
- Core offerings: 2.8/5
- Cost: 2/5
- Ease of use: 5/5
- AI and ML: 3.9/5
- Compatibility: 4.2/5
- Customer support: 2.5/5
SpamTitan is a user-friendly, cloud-based solution for MSPs that ensures robust protection against email threats for their clients. Its Private Cloud product simplifies the process of securing customers’ emails without the complexity of managing in-house servers or infrastructure. Its configuration is low maintenance with fully automated end user spam management. Additionally, MSPs are free to rebrand SpamTitan Private Cloud or integrate it into existing service offerings.
Even though it’s an intuitive solution, it could do with more advanced features and services. Shortlist Forcepoint for an easy-to-use solution with a vast feature catalog.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Highly intuitive user interface | Fewer advanced threat protection options |
| Flexible configuration options | Basic reporting tools |
| Real-time threat updates | Limited after-hours support |
Pricing
Even though you’ll have to reach out to SpamTitan for a pricing quote, it offers a 14-day free trial.
Key offerings
- User-friendly email security: Streamline email security management for your clients with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.
- Malware defense: Utilize advanced defenses to protect your teams and clients against malware and ransomware threats.
- Spam filtering: Implement spam filtering to weed out spam and maintain clean and safe inboxes for your clients.
- Email encryption: Secure email communications with encryption to protect sensitive user data from unauthorized access.
Top 7 offerings of email security providers
Quality email security providers typically offer spam quarantine, whitelisting/blacklisting, content disarm and reconstruction, clawback, data encryption, fraud detection, and sandboxing.
Spam quarantine
Spam quarantine functions as a secure holding area, isolating emails suspected of being spam away from users’ primary inboxes. This feature is indispensable for maintaining clean, manageable inboxes and making sure that users don’t inadvertently engage with harmful content.
Whitelisting/blacklisting
The duo of whitelisting and blacklisting allows MSPs to exert control over incoming emails. Whitelisting ensures that emails from trusted sources bypass stringent security checks for uninterrupted workflow, while blacklisting proactively blocks known threats, significantly mitigating the risk of phishing and malware infiltration.
Content disarm and reconstruction (CDR)
CDR is a sophisticated defense mechanism that scans and neutralizes potentially malicious elements within email attachments and links. By stripping away harmful content before it reaches the end user, CDR acts as a preemptive strike against malware, ransomware, and other sophisticated attacks.
Clawback
The clawback feature offers the ability to retract an email after it has been delivered if it’s later found to be malicious. This is crucial in mitigating the impact of phishing and malware attacks that might slip through initial screening processes. It provides a safety net, allowing administrators to remove threats from user inboxes even after delivery to reduce the potential for damage.
Data encryption
Data encryption in email security ensures that sensitive information remains confidential and inaccessible to unauthorized entities. This is key not only for compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR and HIPAA but also for upholding the trust and privacy of communication. Encryption secures the contents of an email in transit and at rest, guaranteeing that only intended recipients can decipher the message.
Fraud detection
Fraud Detection typically involves using advanced algorithms to analyze email content and metadata for signs of fraud. This includes detecting spoofing attempts, identifying patterns that point to phishing or business email compromise (BEC), and other anomalies that could signify malicious intent. These systems leverage machine learning and real-time threat intelligence to continuously update and refine detection methods to ensure they can adapt to evolving threats.
Sandboxing
Sandboxing isolates and executes incoming attachments and links in a controlled, virtual environment separate from the user’s actual operating system. This allows the email security system to inspect the behavior of the file without any risk to the integrity of the user’s device or network. If the sandbox analysis flags malicious intent, the attachment or link can be blocked, and the threat is neutralized before it ever reaches the user.
How we evaluated the best email security software providers
To identify the premier email security software providers, we chose six weighted categories to examine more than a dozen options. Providers scored up to five points per category, with the highest scorer in each being the category winner. The provider with the highest cumulative score across all categories became our top pick. We also determined what each provider is best for.
Evaluation criteria
We prioritized core offerings as the foundation of effective email security, as they shape the kind of service that will go up against the multitude of threats targeting email communications. The cost was the next significant criterion, as it’s wise to align any kind of investment with your budget. We then gave equal emphasis to ease of use, AI and ML tools, and compatibility, followed by customer support with the lowest weight.
- Core offerings (25%): We assessed the variety, scope, and sophistication of each provider’s email.
- Criterion Winner: Avanan
- Cost (20%): We looked at each provider’s pricing approach, considering their pricing models, transparency, and any additional costs, to gauge overall affordability and value.
- Criterion Winner: Zerospam
- Ease of use (15%): The analysis here revolved around the user experience, from the initial setup to daily operation.
- Criterion Winner: SpamTitan
- AI and ML (15%): Our focus was on the uptake of artificial intelligence and machine learning in enhancing threat detection, prevention, and response capabilities.
- Criterion Winner: Proofpoint
- Compatibility (15%): We evaluated how well each solution integrates with existing IT ecosystems.
- Criterion Winner: Cisco Secure Email
- Customer support (10%): Our scrutiny was on the quality, accessibility, and effectiveness of customer support services.
- Criterion Winner: Barracuda Email Security Gateway
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is email security?
Email security refers to the various methods and techniques used to secure the access and content of an email account or service. It is a broad term that encompasses everything from protecting emails from unauthorized access to securing the content of your email communications to prevent them from being read by anyone other than the intended recipients.
What do email security providers do?
Email security providers offer solutions that help protect organizations from email-based threats. These providers implement a range of technologies and practices to safeguard email communications. They utilize advanced filtering techniques to block spam and phishing emails, anti-virus and anti-malware solutions to prevent the spread of harmful software, and encryption methods to protect the confidentiality and integrity of email messages, among other methods.
Bottom line: email security providers
The best email security service provider will go beyond providing basic email threat and breach prevention features to offer you highly integrable and comprehensive email and email application protection services with constant support. When choosing a provider, take advantage of their free trials to practically determine whether a provider you shortlisted is the best fit for you. Where there are no free trials, you can sign up for free demos instead.
As email security services are just one security tool MSPs can use, learn about the top managed security service software for a full toolkit.