No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Avanan vs Fortinet FortiMail comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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
8.4
Avanan improved email security, reduced phishing, increased user trust, enhanced mobile protection, and boosted ROI and revenue growth.
Sentiment score
6.4
Fortinet FortiMail enhances email security with cost savings, reduced spam, efficient management, robust features, and improved productivity.
It offers cost savings compared to Cisco, which was very expensive.
System admin at Environment Fund
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
Avanan's customer service is highly responsive, professional, and proactive, with excellent communication and extensive support staff knowledge.
Sentiment score
6.5
Fortinet FortiMail support is praised for responsiveness and expertise but criticized for variability based on region and tier.
Mainly, they are focusing on Fortinet FortiMail and FortiAnalyzer, where the support engineers are very good.
Head of the IT Security Division at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I have direct communication with Kenyan system engineers and local support in Ethiopia, enabling good support.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
Fortinet's technical support offers high-quality support.
System admin at Environment Fund
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Avanan integrates with Office 365 and Google, praised for scalability, admin capabilities, and efficient email protection across diverse organizations.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiMail is scalable for various environments, suitable for mid-sized to enterprise users with virtual and on-premise options.
Fortinet FortiMail is scalable and can be expanded in large environments.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
The scalability of Fortinet FortiMail depends on whether you are buying a virtualized license, which allows for a scalable pay-as-you-go model, or if you are buying a box.
Head of the IT Security Division at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Avanan is highly praised for its stability, efficiency, security, minimal maintenance, seamless Microsoft 365 integration, and reliable AI-based scanning.
Sentiment score
8.3
Fortinet FortiMail is highly rated for stability, reliability, effective spam handling, and seamless integration, requiring minimal fine-tuning.
This stability is consistent across Fortinet products, including FortiGate firewall.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
 

Room For Improvement

Users feel Avanan needs improvements in Active Directory dependency, email quarantining, AI logic, training, UI, performance, pricing, mobile app, and integrations.
Fortinet FortiMail requires interface refinement, improved features, better documentation, and enhanced integration with advanced threat detection and Fortinet’s ecosystem.
I do think they should work on their licensing model to offer more flexibility.
CTO at Exceed NetSec LLC
Providing comprehensive documentation on how to deploy and configure would improve the solution.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
There are also false positives issues, especially with signed PDF attachments.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
 

Setup Cost

Avanan provides flexible pricing for Office 365, with straightforward setup and costs between $4 to $8 per user.
Fortinet FortiMail offers competitive appliance-based pricing, with flexibility and reliability, though higher than open-source alternatives.
Fortinet FortiMail is considered overpriced by Indian rupee standards.
Head of computer systems at Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology(IIST)
The setup cost is a little bit costly.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
 

Valuable Features

Avanan provides advanced malware and phishing detection, 24/7 cloud protection, easy integration with Microsoft 365, and ensures secure communications.
Fortinet FortiMail provides strong security, usability, scalability, and performance for email threat detection and content control in diverse environments.
Its threat detection capabilities have been beneficial.
System admin at Environment Fund
The most valuable features are Fortinet FortiMail's ability to protect from advanced features of email-based attacks, including protection against ransomware and malware attacks.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
Fortinet FortiMail positively impacts my organization by reducing mail activities such as spam and phishing.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
 

Categories and Ranking

Avanan
Ranking in Email Security
22nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (41st)
Fortinet FortiMail
Ranking in Email Security
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Avanan is 1.9%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 2.6%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiMail2.6%
Avanan1.9%
Other95.5%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Information Technology at Makeready
Enhances email security and has a very simple and easy-to-use UI
Spam protection is the most valuable feature. We have implemented the tool to enhance our email security. It helps prevent phishing attacks. The anomaly detection capabilities are baked into the security platform. The product integrates wonderfully with Microsoft 365. It's built right on a cloud platform and works almost natively. The solution has a very simple and easy-to-use UI. The tool appears extremely powerful and has a good solid feature set. It catches things that are bad for my environment. The user interface is good the way it is. If the solution continues down that path, I see no problems with the way it is going. It feels like a mature product.
Abhimanyu Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Kyndryl
Targeted email filtering has reduced spam and phishing and now saves significant investigation time
The best features of Fortinet FortiMail include its techniques and tactics, which are highly effective compared to other solutions such as Microsoft 365. Although Fortinet FortiMail may not be as advanced in some aspects, it is well recognized for its strong performance in handling spam and phishing. It performs thorough mail scanning and also offers a sandboxing feature that enhances protection. Fortinet FortiMail has had a positive impact on my organization by significantly reducing unwanted email activities such as spam and phishing. It provides accurate detection and generates results that often exceed what can be achieved through manual analysis. Since deploying Fortinet FortiMail, I have observed a reduction in investigation time by at least 20 to 30 percent.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
I think they should improve Fortinet FortiMail on-premises by enhancing its user interface. Additional features they could have in the future would include advanced analytics capabilities. I do thi...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiMail?
I do have a partnership with Fortinet. I have been both a partner and reseller.
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiMail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Fortinet FortiMail and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.