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Darktrace vs Sophos Email comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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
7.0
Darktrace enhances security with threat detection and vulnerability exposure, providing financial benefits despite deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
7.4
Sophos Email offers strong ROI by improving efficiency, cutting costs, enhancing security, and reducing unsolicited emails, benefiting compliance.
Other NDR solutions provide virtual appliances that can be deployed on virtualization servers to get up and running quickly.
Using this solution provides financial benefits by securing from server attacks, which offers indirect savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace customer service is responsive and helpful, praised for efficient issue resolutions and proactive engagement with users.
Sentiment score
6.7
Sophos Email support responsiveness varies; users report mixed experiences with speed and effectiveness, especially for complex issues.
The technical support from Darktrace is of high quality.
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
The challenge lies in waiting for a response after logging a ticket.
When I reported a problem with our firewall, they acted promptly and delivered another piece of equipment.
The technical support from Sophos Email deserves a rating of 10 out of 10.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace is praised for its scalability, seamless expansion, robust architecture, and capacity to manage increasing demands effectively.
Sentiment score
7.4
Sophos Email is scalable, praised for handling various organization sizes, but faces cost and support issues when scaling.
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
There is still a gap in terms of storage, and we are trying to figure out how to increase that capacity for regulated environments, which require data retention for 5 to 6 years.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Darktrace is praised for its reliability and stability, offering seamless performance and quick resolutions to occasional issues.
Sentiment score
7.8
Sophos Email is praised for stability and reliability, deemed a dependable choice for organizations despite minor user suggestions for improvement.
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
The appliance itself has never let me down.
For stability, I would rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek better SIEM integration, improved automation, user-friendly interfaces, and enhanced protection with more intuitive reports and dashboards.
Sophos Email needs improved security features, integration, user interface, and support to enhance performance, accuracy, and user experience.
There is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
They say they can integrate with most firewalls, but when we did an integration with Meraki MX firewalls, that integration didn't work and still doesn't work to this day.
We need Darktrace on each branch to get the data out, and I suggest having some kind of a centralized product that gets data from multiple sources to aggregate and provide the data.
Sophos Email does not work with split delivery.
 

Setup Cost

Darktrace offers flexible payment options but is costly, especially for small businesses, justified by its advanced features.
Sophos Email offers competitive, flexible subscription pricing with discounts, deemed fair and valuable by most users despite some cost concerns.
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
The pricing is costly in USD, and they charge based on device counts.
The licensing cost is approximately eight dollars a year.
Sophos Email pricing is a bit high, especially since I purchase through a partner, and they sell it at a higher price since they also seek to make a profit.
 

Valuable Features

Darktrace provides AI-driven security with fast responses, real-time monitoring, and autonomous threat management, minimizing false positives efficiently.
Sophos Email provides advanced security features and easy management, making it a top choice for protecting organizational communications.
It is capable of responding to lateral movement and ransomware deployment within environments where there is data exfiltration.
I do not need to manually process incidents as Darktrace provides an incident summary, potential detection paths, and other details, all exportable with just a click.
If I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
It provides a defense layer for email protection, scanning every incoming and outbound email for malware and spam.
The spam reduction feature in Sophos Email provides comfort when using it.
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Ranking in Email Security
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (11th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (4th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Sophos Email
Ranking in Email Security
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Office 365 Protection (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Darktrace is 2.9%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Email is 2.2%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Malebo Lethoba Group - PeerSpot reviewer
Have found the AI analyst and detection functions highly valuable for network operations while managing complexity in initial setup
The functions I find most valuable in Darktrace are the AI analyst as well as the detection.The autonomous response capabilities of Darktrace are not crucial for me because it doesn't work in a network where there are no core switches. In a modern network, the autonomous response doesn't work, especially when sitting in a shared data center.If I'm running a traditional network where I am not in a shared data center with a layer two dedicated for my resources, then it can work for me. However, if I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
BhanuPrakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieving Seamless Email Security and Encryption while Managing Temporary Email Storage Limits
We continue to use Sophos products and remain with the company. For firewall protection, we use XGS systems. We have provided Sophos Email Gateway for one of our clients. We have integrated Sophos Email with our internal email server, using it for both outbound and inbound traffic. Integration with Office 365 protection for Sophos Email Security works smoothly without any challenges. The solution is totally cloud-based. I recommend Sophos Email for mid-sized companies as it is a good option, though it may not be ideal for large-scale or small businesses. I have not tried incorporating AI technology with Sophos Email yet. I am Bhanu Prakash, Technical Head for Systek Services, and can be reached at b.hanu@teamsistek.com. I am a partner with Sophos. Overall rating for Sophos Email: 10/10.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is meant for smaller to medium-sized businesses. It is also a good option for organ...
What do you like most about Darktrace?
A very useful feature in Darktrace for real-time threat analysis is the packet inspection that analyzes the packet traffic in real time.
What do you like most about Sophos Email?
The solution's identity proxy feature is very good and reliable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Email?
Regarding Sophos Email pricing, I would rate it between six or seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with Sophos Email?
While Sophos Email is generally sufficient, one challenge we face is the 24-hour email storage limitation. This presents an issue when internal systems are down for more than 24 hours. The solution...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Sophos Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Del Monte Foods, Terra Verde, spicerhaart, RIVERLITE, Dataprise, SureBridge, Reed's School, Sayfol International School
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Sophos Email and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.