IRONSCALES vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security comparison

IRONSCALES vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security

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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

Microsoft Defender for Offi...

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 13.1%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IRONSCALES is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Perception Point Advanced Email Security is 2.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja

Head of Department of Network Communications at Eko electricity

Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis

The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.

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Orion Trist

Systems Administrator at Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

Saved us a big deal by catching malicious links and attachments sent directly to our staff and has also been helpful for educating our staff

It has helped immensely because it has gotten rid of malicious links and malicious attachments that have been targeted at our different staff members. It has definitely protected us on more than one occasion. Their integrated approach of combining email security and employee awareness training is excellent because the training is a reminder for staff to continually be on their feet and look out for the ever-changing landscape. It also lets us know who has been trained, who hasn't been trained, and what they're like. It integrates a risk ratio for all our employees. Its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities are very important because I don't want to have to manage 24/7. Having the AI to do a lot of the work for me is invaluable. Its automated detection and response capabilities are excellent. It does a wonderful job. They provide all the stats on what it has done. It gives you information about how much time is saved and all that kind of good information. Its automated detection and response capabilities have massively decreased the time we spend manually reviewing email events. Since May, it has taken care of 170 hours. So, it has saved 88 hours per analyst. It is very good in terms of the customization of the automated detection and response capabilities. It is granular, and you can adjust it however you want. If it is too high, you can turn it down. If it is too low, you can turn it up.

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Jijin Joseph

Technical Director at Channelnext

Gives in-depth analysis reports to end users for any malicious content found in emails

Our users would like the solution to scan outgoing emails. So, if my system is compromised, and I have malicious content in my system, then there is a possibility that I send malicious email to my colleague. There is a dependency on AWS cloud.This means if the cloud service is down, which may impact the perception point's email delivery.So it would be great if there is any HA for the solution. I would like a user-friendly configuration, like APIs. This solution is API-friendly configuration by following the steps provided. It would be great if it could be automate it, like the Avanan.Also, it would be good if Perception Point Advanced Email Security could have an MSP model. During the early stages of working with this solution, there were some constraints and issues.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's scalability is good."

"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises."

"Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is its spam filter."

"The initial setup was easy."

"Defender for 365 is a comprehensive cloud-based solution. The value of the cloud is that you aren't alone. Threat intelligence and analytics are shared in the cloud. We don't have to find the solution alone. If you face an unknown threat with traditional solutions like Trend Micro and Symantec, you need to open a case and send your information to them to analyze forensically and identify the source of the attack."

"Defender helps us prioritize threats across our organization."

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pros

"The fact that it is set-and-forget is valuable. Once you turn it on, you very rarely have to micromanage it, whereas, with a lot of spam filters, you have to go in very often."

"The solution captures a bit more of the unknown, quantifies it, and applies intelligence to it to pick out and stop a lot of phishing emails that come through."

"The report function through Gmail is probably the most valuable feature. The next most valuable features are simulation and training."

"The biggest benefit is that we get fewer phishing and spam emails, so using IRONSCALES has made our environment much safer."

"There is buzz around phishing awareness training. When I make a campaign, all of a sudden people in our organization are talking, thinking, and wondering about it. Therefore, it keeps people on their toes. That is perfect because it does exactly what we want it to do."

"It is a totally stable solution."

"For me, the mobile app is most valuable. All other features are also very useful, but the mobile app makes it really easy for me to manage on the go. I don't have to be at my desk. I could be at the shops, or it could be in the evening when I am out, and I can get a notification on my phone that there is an incident that has been raised. I can sort it out very quickly without having to be at my work PC."

"I would say the most valuable feature is what they call Themis. It's like a virtual analyst that uses the decisions that system admins make to generate a score for whether an email is legitimate, spam, or phishing. It gets better based on the decisions that we make over time. The automation piece is great as well. The integrated approach of email security combined with employee awareness training is excellent."

More IRONSCALES pros

"The Perception Point Incident Response team acts as an extension of our SOC team. This is very important for us. This is a benefit provided for their main product of scanning our emails. If Perception Point can give me IR, this is really good versus other products that do not provide this kind of service. Perception Point's service is great. They are very professional. That reduces the time that my internal SOC has to deal with my internal IT person. They just send an email to the IR team at Perception Point, who continues the investigation and blocks any emails, if necessary. This is very good because it can reduce a lot of time and effort from my team. It is like an extension of my SOC, but external."

"Another feature that we really like, one that was introduced a few months back, is the way it categorizes threats into groups, such as Emotet, Qbot, Formbook, and the like. It's not only telling you that something is malware, but it's also giving you insight into what kind of malware... You understand what you are facing and whether you are a target for a specific group of threats..."

"The most valuable feature of Perception Point Advanced Email Security is the filtering and securing of emails."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the ones that are related to finding impersonation attacks and detecting attempts to steal credentials. In scenarios where attackers get you to follow URLs to a malicious site that looks similar to a good site, and then ask for the user credentials to try to steal them, it is very useful."

"Their security engines are very effective at stopping malware and potential attacks before they reach a user's mailbox. They have the best detection engine."

"After integration, the tool is very easy to use. I had a problem with scripts for one customer, but my team did the integration for other customers without issues. So, I think I made a mistake in my integration. Both inline and API work fine."

"We haven't had a client, who uses their protection, have an email security breach. That is the best thing about what they do. We don't have to think too much. Their product just works and keeps bad emails away."

"The most valuable feature is the technical support services."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pros

Cons

"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."

"Configuring the default strategies and policies in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps generates a lot of noise and false positives."

"They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."

"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."

"The visibility for the weaknesses in the system and unauthorized access can be improved."

"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."

"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."

"Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 cons

"The simulation and training piece could be improved by having more granularity in terms of scheduling how campaigns are run and allowing people to directly take the training rather than having to go through an official campaign. That's not available yet."

"I think the tool can continue to hone the product to ensure the detections are accurate."

"The tool supports 15 to 16 languages, but the content it uses in the training in Spanish has certain limitations."

"I would like it if IRONSCALES had some sort of reminder mechanism, meaning IRONSCALES knows if a user completed the training or not. As long as it hasn't been completed, it keeps reminding every so often, alerts the manager, etc. Right now, it is all in the hands of the employee, and not all of them continue the process, which is a shame."

"Its UI could be improved. My pet peeve with a lot of these cloud-based systems is that a lot of times, the interface for the management is a little clunky. If you live and breathe IRONSCALES all day long, you'll obviously know where everything is just from muscle memory, but the system is not designed for people to be in it all day long. You're only supposed to occasionally look at it. When things get moved around, it is not necessarily that intuitive. I'm an IT guy, and I can pretty much take the worst UI and figure it out, but the menus and the options in the interface could be a little cleaner graphically. If you have a quick problem that you want to resolve, it takes a little bit of digging in the admin console, whereas it should take a few clicks up front."

"I would love to see the indication of compromise and how the solution utilizes open source resources. It would be good to see that included in the paid versions. It would be a small addition but add a lot of value for clients."

"IRONSCALES should bundle more features together instead of separating them and charging additional licensing fees."

"In addition to integrated training, they should also have personalized training that you don't have to do as part of a phishing campaign or a simulation."

More IRONSCALES cons

"It would be helpful for Perception Point Advanced Email Security to have more integration with other solutions."

"Perception Point Advanced Email Security should make available more use cases."

"In terms of architecture, and I know that they're going to improve this, the solution needs to be much more redundant. There was an outage a month ago in AWS, and that basically stopped the service for two or three hours. Although in two years, this was the first time that something like that happened, our expectation from a company like Perception Point is that it should work with either a multi-cloud or multi-region architecture, to improve the resilience."

"Its websites for analysis need to be a bit more approachable for people who are less technical. Technically, it is a fire-and-forget solution. So, you want to be able to implement this solution for a lot of companies who don't have security operation teams (SOCs) behind them. You need to have something where a secretary can jump onto this console and release whatever she needs to release. Therefore, it needs to be written in a very specific non-technical language."

"From a forensics point of view, it could improve a bit more from a threat intelligence aspect. So, if I find a malicious email, they could have more investigations about sources, headers, where it comes from, if they have seen it in other campaigns before, etc. I would like a little bit more from a threat intelligence point of view so I can understand who else might be affected and attacked as well as the vectors of attack."

"The only thing that can be improved in Perception Point is the in-depth analysis and attribution to cyberattack groups."

"This is an option to preview an email in their console, and that could be improved. If you open the preview, then it auto scrolls. Therefore, it is hard to look at the email when it is going to the next page or scrolling. It should not have the auto-scroll."

"We have had a few false positives, not that many, but a few... they have a feature where someone from the Incident Response team can look at an email and mark it as 'verified malicious.' You might think that if an engine detects it is malicious, and an IR team member has flagged it as malicious, it will definitely be malicious. But that's not always the case."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing has become expensive."

"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."

"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."

"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."

"Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."

"For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."

"The product is expensive."

"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing and cost advice

"Considering the value it provides, it is definitely worth the cost. We don't have to do manual analysis and remediation of phishing emails, which saves us a lot of hours. Its licensing is based on the number of users being supported and the number of email addresses being protected. I'm not aware of any additional costs."

"They are pretty much the same as all the other competitors in the market."

"We pay $3000 plus a little more a year for the number of employees we have, and we're not even that big. The solution is at the higher end in terms of cost. It's not the most expensive product, but I would say it's worth the price if you have a high volume of email traffic. In our case, the solution has inspected over 162,000 emails between three and four months. It saved us a lot of time and money. It's a worthwhile investment because a bad actor only has to succeed once; we must defend against everything in our business. IRONSCALES offers a sense of security and confidence from being well protected."

"As compared to everything else we looked at, it was good. It was the best value for the dollars."

"IRONSCALES is an expensive solution."

"There is an installation cost. Since we have this as a managed service, we pay for licensing and the managed service itself. Other than that, there are no additional costs."

"I don't know about its pricing because I don't run the budget or pay the bills, but if it was extortionate, we probably would be looking to scrap it, and because we are not, I assume its price is okay."

"The tool is not very cheap, but it is affordable."

More IRONSCALES pricing and cost advice

"Pricing is lower in comparison to Proofpoint."

"The pricing and licensing are very fair compared to competing companies in the same field."

"They are not the most expensive vendor. There are much more expensive vendors. They are not cheap, but they are not the most expensive. They are somewhere in the middle."

"We were able to get reasonable pricing that matches the ROI we want, so I think that it is the correct price point."

"When compared to other solutions on the market, it is relatively fair."

"The pricing compared to the value Perception Point brings is super-competitive. They're not the cheapest in the market, but the value and the quality of the product are superior to anything else in the market, so we don't mind paying more for it."

"It fits every budget. It has a low price. I can't go ahead and sell it for any price I want. They are quite strict. They say, "This is the price that you can sell it for and this is the price for you as a reseller." That is it. It is not a lot of money. I will not become rich from it, but I like that they keep a standard for everyone. They are a fair company."

"The price of the solution is high."

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security pricing and cost advice

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845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

I don't have detailed specifics on pricing, setup cost, or licensing.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?

I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost.

What do you like most about IRONSCALES?

The solution captures a bit more of the unknown, quantifies it, and applies intelligence to it to pick out and stop a...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IRONSCALES?

The product is available as a middle-priced tool. I think it is not the cheapest solution. There are other solutions ...

What needs improvement with IRONSCALES?

I think maybe on the side of the awareness training, the tool can improve a little more information and have some oth...

What do you like most about Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

The most valuable feature is the technical support services.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

In Brazil, the dollar price affects the cost. Perception Point Advanced Email Security is about 50 percent less expen...

What needs improvement with Perception Point Advanced Email Security?

To improve the solution, maybe a portal for end users to consult their emails would be helpful. The end user could ac...

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Comparisons

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Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 7% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

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Mimecast Email Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 4% of the time

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Avanan vs IRONSCALES

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Secure Email vs IRONSCALES

Compared 9% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs IRONSCALES

Compared 7% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs IRONSCALES

Compared 7% of the time

Graphus vs IRONSCALES

Compared 7% of the time

More IRONSCALES Competitors

Avanan vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 16% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 12% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail Cloud vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 9% of the time

Darktrace vs Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Compared 8% of the time

More Perception Point Advanced Email Security Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Download Microsoft Defender for Office 365 product report

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 report

IRONSCALES

Download IRONSCALES product report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security

Download Perception Point Advanced Email Security product report

Perception Point Advanced Email Security report

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.

With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.

This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.

Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.

Microsoft

IRONSCALES secures against business email compromises, phishing, and email-based attacks. Protects Microsoft 365 users by enhancing spam filters, automating threat mitigation, and providing phishing awareness training.

Deploy IRONSCALES to inspect, report, and quarantine threats with a sandbox feature, and run simulations to train staff worldwide, adding an extra security layer. Communicates via API to ensure ongoing email security. Offers threat-sharing capability, AI, easy setup, scalability, stability, and effective email security. Automated detection and response, mobile app notifications, integration with Microsoft 365, phishing training modules, and a user-friendly interface, including an Outlook extension to report suspicious emails. Reduces manual analysis time, saving considerable effort.

What are the most important features of IRONSCALES?

Threat-sharing capability: Allows users to share threat intelligence easily.
Excellent AI: Utilizes advanced AI for accurate threat detection.
Easy setup: Simplifies deployment with minimal effort.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet users' requirements.
Stability: Provides strong and reliable performance.
Effective email security: Offers a robust defense against email threats.
Automated detection and response: Quickly identifies and mitigates threats.
Mobile app notifications: Keeps users informed through mobile alerts.
Microsoft 365 integration: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365.
Phishing training modules: Educates users on phishing threats.
User-friendly interface: Simplifies user interaction.
Outlook extension: Facilitates reporting of suspicious emails.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in the reviews?

Reduces manual analysis time: Saves effort by automating threat response.
Cost-effectiveness: Though pricing is high, it offers robust features that potentially justify the expense.
Improved email security: Enhances overall email protection.
Enhanced threat detection: Utilizes AI for accurate threat identification.
Comprehensive training: Provides extensive phishing awareness training.
Increased operational efficiency: Simplifies security management tasks.

In specific industries, IRONSCALES can be implemented to address varied email security needs. For instance, financial services may benefit from robust threat mitigation and phishing training to protect sensitive data. Healthcare organizations could utilize features like AI-driven detection and sandboxing to comply with stringent regulations. Technology firms might value the easy setup and scalability to keep up with rapid growth and evolving threats. Retailers can leverage mobile app notifications and automated response to ensure continuous protection against email-based attacks. Education sectors may find phishing awareness training modules particularly useful to educate staff and students about potential threats.

IRONSCALES

Perception Point Advanced Email Security is a comprehensive solution designed to protect organizations from advanced email threats. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, it offers multi-layered defense mechanisms to detect and block sophisticated attacks such as phishing, malware, and ransomware.

With its advanced threat intelligence capabilities, it can identify and neutralize zero-day threats in real-time. The solution also provides robust data loss prevention features, ensuring sensitive information remains secure. Its user-friendly interface allows for easy management and monitoring of email security, while its seamless integration with existing email platforms ensures a hassle-free deployment process.

Perception Point Advanced Email Security is a reliable and efficient solution that safeguards organizations against the ever-evolving landscape of email-based threats.

Perception Point

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.

Allegheny Millwork, Ayrshire College, Nium, Orris, Paramount School District, Pres Les, PRT Staffing, Recovery Unplugged, Telit, WebHelp

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IRONSCALES vs. Perception Point Advanced Email Security