A Mimecast Alternative for Email Security

Mimecast Secure Email Gateway is a popular email security gateway for enterprises. While the solution can be adopted by small- and medium-sized businesses, many SMBs search for a Mimecast alternative that includes enterprise-grade features but is available at a much more SMB-friendly price.

Mimecast Secure Email Gateway is a solid email security solution that performs well at blocking spam and common email threats such as phishing, spear phishing, and known malware, and has advanced threat detection capabilities to block new and emerging threats. The solution includes attachment sandboxing for catching threats that bypass the signature-based detection mechanisms and URL scanning for detecting malicious links in phishing emails. The product has a high level of granularity for policy creation, and good reporting options, and delivers insights for incident response teams. There is an email archiving feature and end users have access to the quarantine folder, so lost emails and false positives can be found without submitting tickets to the IT department.

No email security solution is perfect and there are some issues with the Mimecast solution. While there is considerable scope for customization, common complaints include a complicated set-up process and a user dashboard that is not particularly intuitive, so there is a steep learning curve. While not generally an issue for enterprises, price is a key factor for SMBs. Mimecast Secure Email Gateway is priced at the upper end of the spectrum, and while not the most expensive email security solution, many businesses seek a cheaper Mimecast alternative. Based on 250 users, Mimecast Secure Email Gateway costs $4.50 per user, per month, which is $13,500 a year.

Ratings on business software review sites are broadly good. G2 Crowd, which includes reviews from verified users of the solution, gives Mimecast Secure Email Gateway a solid 4.4 stars out of 5, with reasonable scores in each of the 7 rating categories. The product gets similar scores on Capterra, attracting an overall score of 4.3 out of 5.

G2 Crowd User Ratings for Mimecast

A More Affordable Mimecast Alternative

SMBs seeking a more affordable Mimecast alternative have a great deal of choice. A popular Mimecast alternative for SMBs and managed service providers (MSPs) serving the SMB market is SpamTitan Email Security from TitanHQ. Like Mimecast, SpamTitan is a cloud-delivered email security solution – SpamTitan Cloud, although the company offers SpamTitan Gateway as an on-premises solution that is provided as a virtual appliance for installation on existing hardware.

SpamTitan has an industry-leading spam detection rate of 99.99% and a low false-positive rate of 0.003%. Independent tests show the solution’s dual antivirus engines are excellent at identifying and blocking known malware threats, and in addition to signature-based detection, there is a Bitdefender-powered sandbox for identifying new malware threats. Machine-learning capabilities and URL scanning perform well at blocking phishing emails and email impersonation attacks, with the outbound scanning detecting potentially compromised mailboxes and having solid data loss prevention features. The solution also serves as a temporary archiving service and offers an extensive suite of reports for investigations.

The most cited pros, apart from threat detection, are ease of setup, use, and maintenance. The solution lacks the complexity of Mimecast and other advanced spam filtering solutions and has an easy-to-use interface, and the company is known for providing rapid and high-quality customer support.

As a Mimecast alternative, one of the key benefits is price. SpamTitan is an affordable Mimecast alternative being priced at $1.08 per user, per month, or $3,225 per year, based on 250 users. That is a saving of $3.42 per user, per month, or $10,275 per year compared to Mimecast.

While there are some common niggles with the product such as the degree of customization that is possible, the frequency of spam reports, and releasing false positives from quarantine, the solution is generally well-liked by users. Ratings on business software review sites are very good. G2 Crowd gives SpamTitan Email Security a rating of 4.6 stars out of 5, with high scores in each of the 7 rating categories, only being beaten by Mimecast on Product Direction. The product is also given 4.6 stars out of 5 on Capterra.

G2 Crowd User Ratings for SpamTitan Email Security

In the subcategories, for security, detection, functionality, administration, and maintenance, SpamTitan achieves a rating of 9.0 or above in all but two areas – data exfiltration detection and activity monitoring, compared to 8 sub 9.0 scores for Mimecast. SpamTitan is consistently rated higher than Mimecast across all subcategories, only being beaten on activity monitoring, encryption, outbound email monitoring, and anti-malware. If you are searching for a Mimecast alternative, SpamTitan certainly warrants evaluation.