

Fortinet FortiMail and Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) both compete in the robust email security market. FortiMail seems to have the upper hand in threat detection and spam-filtering capabilities, while EOP excels in seamless integration within Microsoft environments.
Features: Fortinet FortiMail offers comprehensive email security with robust spam detection, integrating DNS blacklist scans, greylisting, and an optional sandbox feature. It supports flexible deployment options, including transparent mode inspection, and provides bi-directional email translation and sender reputation management. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection integrates effortlessly with Microsoft services, providing layered email filtering, anti-phishing features, and strong administrative interfaces linked with Microsoft 365 services.
Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiMail could improve its web console management, enhance encryption features, and streamline deployment processes. Additionally, handling frequent firmware updates and reducing false positives are areas for attention. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection can improve automation, tackle gray emails more effectively, and reconsider pricing strategies. Enhancing user experience and expanding the feature set for advanced threat handling and reporting would bolster its offerings.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiMail offers a combination of on-premises and cloud deployment options, tailored to various infrastructure needs. Customer service is generally responsive, though experiences can vary regionally. Predominantly cloud-based, Microsoft EOP benefits from integration within Microsoft’s ecosystem, offering straightforward deployment. However, support experiences vary, with feedback indicating a need for more responsive service.
Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiMail is cost-effective with box-based licensing, avoiding per-user fees, and it’s viewed favorably for return on investment due to its customizable pricing and extensive feature set. Microsoft EOP, often bundled in broader Microsoft packages, can seem pricier but provides integrated security solutions for Microsoft users, with ROI tied to its protection within the Microsoft ecosystem, appealing to companies invested in Microsoft services.
It offers cost savings compared to Cisco, which was very expensive.
Mainly, they are focusing on Fortinet FortiMail and FortiAnalyzer, where the support engineers are very good.
I have direct communication with Kenyan system engineers and local support in Ethiopia, enabling good support.
Fortinet's technical support offers high-quality support.
If I had to rate the support I received on a scale of ten, I would give it a ten because he went way beyond what was expected for me.
Microsoft offers excellent 24/7 support.
My team is able to get the help they need when necessary.
Fortinet FortiMail is scalable and can be expanded in large environments.
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.
This stability is consistent across Fortinet products, including FortiGate firewall.
The transition from on-premises devices to virtual appliances may be necessary as more organizations migrate email services to the cloud.
Providing comprehensive documentation on how to deploy and configure would improve the solution.
There are also false positives issues, especially with signed PDF attachments.
Improving the search process by allowing searches with different types of parameters and facilitating searches within emails would be advantageous.
The user interface of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) has room for improvement.
From an end-user point of view, I am quite happy with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) because my favorite feature is the ease with which I can identify if an email is a phishing email or spam email.
Fortinet FortiMail is considered overpriced by Indian rupee standards.
The setup cost is a little bit costly.
I find the price of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) to be fairly reasonable, and I have no problems with it.
Microsoft Exchange is more expensive compared to other services like Gmail.
The pricing is reasonable.
Its threat detection capabilities have been beneficial.
Fortinet FortiMail positively impacts my organization by reducing mail activities such as spam and phishing.
Our customers are using sandboxing also to protect against known and unknown viruses.
We've benefited from the anti-phishing features of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), as it has been quite accurate and has eliminated most of our phishing emails, making it really impressive.
In the last three years, has resulted in no antivirus problems.
Another feature I appreciate is the ability to question things, as our Exchange server allows us to identify in real-time if an email is a phishing email or spam email.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiMail | 3.3% |
| Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) | 4.3% |
| Other | 92.4% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 32 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 22 |
| Large Enterprise | 15 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 24 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 11 |
As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, it is crucial for email security solutions to offer multi-layered protection. Fortinet's proven email security platform, FortiMail, is a comprehensive multi-layered threat protection solution designed to secure users from the full spectrum of email-based threats, which includes zero-day threats, credential impersonation, spam, phishing, malware, and business email compromise (BEC) attacks.
Fortinet FortiMail offers a variety of deployment models to best fit your organization’s email security needs. On-premises, private or public cloud, or hybrid email environments can be deployed and managed in-house by your team or managed by Fortinet’s data centers. FortiMail also employs virtual machines that provide robust scalability options and flexible deployment of email security infrastructure.
Fortinet FortiMail Benefits
Fortinet FortiMail provides your organization with the following benefits:
Fortinet FortiMail Benefits
Some of Fortinet FortiMail’s top features include:
Reviews from Real Users
Fortinet FortiMail stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful anti-virus tool and its robust spam protection capabilities.
Flamur P., head of security management at Ipko Telecommunications, writes, "Fortinet FortiMail has a lot of valuable features. It works great. It also has an antivirus feature. Support for Fortinet FortiMail was also great when my team wanted to block some geographic IPs, but couldn't figure out how to do it. The support team provided clear communication on how to resolve that issue. Another valuable feature of Fortinet FortiMail is spam filtering which tells you how many spammy emails you've received. Based on my current use cases, I'm happy with Fortinet FortiMail."
Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a comprehensive email filtering and security service designed to protect organizations from spam, malware, and other email-based threats. It provides advanced threat protection, anti-malware and anti-spam filtering, and data loss prevention capabilities.
With EOP, organizations can ensure the security and integrity of their email communications. It uses multiple layers of filtering and scanning to detect and block malicious content, including phishing attempts, viruses, and ransomware. EOP also leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to continuously improve its threat detection capabilities.
In addition to its robust security features, EOP offers advanced anti-spam filtering to reduce unwanted and unsolicited emails. It uses a combination of reputation-based filtering, content filtering, and sender authentication techniques to identify and block spam messages.
EOP also includes data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities to prevent sensitive information from being leaked or shared inappropriately. It allows organizations to define policies to detect and prevent the transmission of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers, via email.
Furthermore, EOP integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Online and other Office 365 services, providing a unified and integrated email security solution. It can be easily managed through the Exchange admin center, allowing administrators to configure and monitor security settings, review reports, and manage quarantined emails.
We monitor all Email Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.