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Cisco Secure Email vs IceWarp comparison

 

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

Cisco Secure Email
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (6th), Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)
IceWarp
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Email Applications (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Secure Email is designed for Email Security and holds a mindshare of 5.1%, down 7.1% compared to last year.
IceWarp, on the other hand, focuses on Email Applications, holds 4.9% mindshare, down 5.6% since last year.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Secure Email5.1%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3659.1%
Proofpoint Email Protection8.1%
Other77.7%
Email Security
Email Applications Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IceWarp4.9%
Google Workspace15.1%
Microsoft Exchange Online11.1%
Other68.9%
Email Applications
 

Featured Reviews

BD
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
Threat intelligence with fast attack detection enables comprehensive email protection
In some cases, detection is missed, leading to false positives where genuine emails are flagged as spam. This could result in users not opening genuine emails. We have highlighted this to Cisco because sometimes phishing or marketing campaigns, which are genuine, are incorrectly flagged as spam. The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
AvinashLotke - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Head at Team Computers
Useful for collaboration and storage but improvement is needed in API integration
The solution has traditional SSL integration, SAML, and Federation Services. In its latest version, it added SAML integration. However, it needs to work on API integration, especially for dashboards or integration with SAP for log and data system management. It doesn't yet have the kind of API that Google and Microsoft provide for synchronizing users with Active Directory. I think IceWarp needs to improve in a few areas. They have two types of admin consoles - a web-based one and a remote one. I'd like to see these combined into a single web-based admin console. The log reading and information system also needs improvement. The current way of showing incoming and outgoing logs isn't very clear. For new users, it's hard to understand these logs, especially compared to Office 365 and other systems with easier-to-read logs. They should also add an export option to get all logs with a single click whenever we need them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Anti-Spam and Advanced Malware Protection are the most valuable features... and we also have the option to block Zero-day attacks."
"The user interface was quite friendly, it was quite easy to use, unlike some other Cisco products. Anybody could use it. You don't have to be familiar with IT to be able to handle navigating it."
"It is a user-friendly product."
"The strong point of the solution is that we hardly get any spam emails because of Cisco Secure Email."
"The tool's most valuable feature in preventing security breaches revolves around the area of malware protection that the product provides."
"The system provides our service desk with the means to troubleshoot email delivery issues with ease."
"The most valuable feature is the different content filters we are using, such as DKIM."
"Cisco Secure Email's most valuable is email certification."
"The most valuable feature of IceWarp is the chat rooms and file-sharing, they are useful. It is convenient that everything is in one place. You can easily share and collaborate documents, making the program's unity a significant advantage."
"The TeamChat feature has been really good for our email management. It lets us collaborate, share files, and invite guests like Google Spaces or Microsoft Teams. I like the two-factor authentication for security. However, they need to improve their document collaboration tools, as their Word, Excel, and PowerPoint features are basic compared to Microsoft and Google."
"Its price is the most valuable. It is definitely one of the lowest price solutions."
"The solution is easy to manage and includes features such as smart documents and the archiving of user data."
"The product is used very extensively in my company since we have around 1,500 users using it. Also, there is no requirement for any administrators to manage the product by the people who own the solution."
"It has great communication capabilities for team chatting and web conferences."
"The solution has a very good log-in to the UI when compared to other solutions."
"The groupware module is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"There are some concerns in the way the architecture is set up, making it an area where improvements are required."
"If you are not a technical guy, it is hard to maneuver, but as soon as you work on it, it gets better and better. If there was a better way to know how to do things or how to find things, it would be good."
"Licensing is quite complicated for a number of customers, including ourselves."
"The graphical user interface is not user-friendly like other vendors. I find it very difficult at times to find some options on the UI."
"The primary areas for improvement are the pricing and the complexity of deployment."
"In future releases, I would like to see two main improvements come to mind. First, the current solution requires maintaining two separate operating systems for FTD, which can be cumbersome. I'd love to see a single operating system for the FTD box."
"Cisco Secure Email can be improved from the administrator's point of view. Usually, you have to work with different areas, and they can try to make it easy for the administrator to use different functions."
"We have been struggling in the last month with Cisco encryption and with the S/MIME encryption. I don't know if it is an issue on our side or if these features of the solution are not working very well."
"The exchange compatibility mode is rather limited. Their technical support can also be better. They only provide online support, and there should be some option for escalating."
"The solution has traditional SSL integration, SAML, and Federation Services. In its latest version, it added SAML integration. However, it needs to work on API integration, especially for dashboards or integration with SAP for log and data system management. It doesn't yet have the kind of API that Google and Microsoft provide for synchronizing users with Active Directory."
"The solution should improve the mailing list feature. Google has a similar feature where you can automate sending files to different people in a sequence, but that feature is no longer available in the current version of IceWarp. Other features may also have been removed in the current version."
"I would like to have a trial for mobile applications and more documentation similar to Google Drive with mobile applications."
"It is difficult to disable user rights on the console so some users accidentally delete their documents or user details."
"The solution needs improvements in security, particularly regarding document management."
"Although the documentation is extensive and in depth, you must familiarize yourself with it before taking full advantage of the product."
"With multiple databases for VOIP, chat and web IMAP, maintenance is cumbersome."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco Secure Email is not expensive, and licensing costs are yearly."
"The product's price falls on the higher side when compared to the other products on the market."
"I rate the product price as six on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a very expensive tool."
"It is a relatively expensive option compared to other alternatives."
"I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution."
"It is not that costly. We pay for the solution through a contractor and pay an annual fee."
"You're going to get what you pay for. If you're not willing to pay the price of Cisco, you're not going to get a product that's as good as Cisco. I don't think Cisco is overpriced, because for the last two years I've been comparing it to Microsoft and Cisco has been cheaper and given us more features."
"The pricing is good."
"Price-wise, it's a cheaper solution, without a doubt. Price is the reason we are still using the tool."
"I don't see any challenges for the Indian market. For example, 1 GB is available for around 399 INR, and 2 GB for 499 INR. They offer a range of plans, from basic to professional and enterprise, with multiple features. IceWarp's aggressive pricing is competitive compared to other market solutions like Zoho and Microsoft. One significant advantage is that IceWarp does not impose user capping like Google and Microsoft, which allows for substantial cost savings and flexibility in user conversion."
"The solution is inexpensive which is its main benefit."
"The solution is priced well."
"There are various licensing plans available based on geographic zone."
"The license is based on the number of users."
"Pricing and licensing is very competitive and in some cases, cheap."
"Costs far less than other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The user interface of the Email Security Gateway ( /products/security-gateway-reviews ) should be improved. It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IceWarp?
IceWarp was very cost-effective, offering services at a significantly lower cost than Google, which was appealing for our organization.
What needs improvement with IceWarp?
The solution needs improvements in security, particularly regarding document management. Users currently have the rights to delete smart documents, which poses a challenge for administrators. A mor...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Marriott, Toyota, Sony, Wendy's, Canon
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Proofpoint, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Email Security. Updated: January 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.