Microsoft Exchange vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Exchange
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A
Proofpoint Email Protection
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Proofpoint Email Protection is available as an on-premise or cloud based solution and blocks unwanted, malicious and impostor emails with granular search capabilities and visibility into all messages. Outbound controls include encryption and data loss prevention, while continuity capabilities ensure business communications can continue as normal in the event of an email outage. With Proofpoint's Email Protection, you can protect your people, data, and brand from today’s threats…N/A
Pricing
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Exchange
Chose Microsoft Exchange
Office 365 has hosted Microsoft email that is powered by Exchange but which is run completely in the Microsoft cloud and paid for by monthly subscription. Microsoft Exchange, on the other hand, is hosted on-premise and inside your own network. They both work the same way and do …
Proofpoint Email Protection
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
Proofpoint is the leader of the pack when it comes to email security services. I have used a range of other providers in the space and Proofpoint is the best. It's ability to identify and block malicious email and threats sets it above all other competitors.
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
We have used EOP (Exchange Online Protection) in the past and we also had a POC with Proofpoint which we were excited to use and the results were positive.

Before Proofpoint, we had many issues with imposters and TAP issues with EOP, which have been improved with Proofpoint. We …
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
I have not evaluated any others since I have been in this position. But in a previous position I evaluated Mimecast. It's similar and may have a nicer GUI but I don't think it has the same depth as far as bulk of historical detection data.
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
I have used Symantec Brightmail, Cisco Ironport, and Trend Micro Email Security.
We selected Trend's product due to the price, but it failed miserably at clustering and overall email delivery. Proofpoint came in second as it checked off a lot of the boxes that we required in …
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
We have been using Proofpoint Email Protection so long that I can't actually remember what we used before. It is highly rated on the Gartner scale and we have not evaluated other products because Proofpoint Email Protection does what it is supposed to.
Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
This is the only product we have used.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Exchange
8.1
81 Ratings
4% below category average
Proofpoint Email Protection
9.2
78 Ratings
9% above category average
Anti-malware8.164 Ratings10.076 Ratings
Customizability7.976 Ratings10.075 Ratings
Data Loss Protection8.666 Ratings8.748 Ratings
Threat Detection7.965 Ratings9.075 Ratings
Sandboxing7.445 Ratings9.257 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption8.365 Ratings9.358 Ratings
Management Tools8.478 Ratings8.074 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Small Businesses
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Score 7.7 out of 10
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Score 7.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(99 ratings)
8.8
(95 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(2 ratings)
8.3
(2 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(12 ratings)
8.3
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
You can use Microsoft Exchange Server with peace of mind for e-mail, calendar, communication, scheduling, and collaboration services. Microsoft's Exchange Server is a product designed to provide users with access to the messaging platform from mobile devices, desktops, and web-based systems. Telephony features in Exchange Server support voicemail. Exchange Server successfully offers high availability service with Microsoft Exchange Database availability groups.
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Proofpoint
Well suited: Proofpoint does a pretty good job at protecting us from spam emails. I was able to block a lot of emails coming from SendGrid by blocking SendGrid emails with a custom spam filter. However, SendGrid has a lot of legit emails too so I was able to create another rule to allow those emails from certain people, then block the rest. That way business need was met but spam emails are blocked. Less Appropriate If you are trying to monitor internal to internal emails Proofpoint is probably a little over featured for that.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
  • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
  • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
  • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
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Proofpoint
  • Spam - catches these emails before hitting the inbox.
  • Daily digest - provides users with a list of the emails that were blocked and allows them to choose to release them if they are legitimate emails.
  • Ensures that emails coming into our organization is safe for our users and verifies the email is coming from stated senders email server.
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Cons
Microsoft
  • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
  • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
  • Security remains a major concern.
  • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
  • Hardware and license costs are high.
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Proofpoint
  • Proofpoint could offer more frequent training opportunities to customers at all levels of expertise.
  • Proofpoint can always continue to strive to keep its product a leader in the industry.
  • Proofpoint's support site could be overhauled to provide a more logical flow.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
It is the best, and perhaps only, email solution worth considering.
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Proofpoint
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
Microsoft Exchange is well suited for inexperienced Messaging Admins and veterans alike. If you have no idea of the fundamentals of modern email (SMTP, mail headers, MX Records, SPF/DKIM, Encryption, etc.) and just need to get people's mailboxes and calendars the support they need, you can use it with confidence. If you are an old pro and want to leverage and dovetail your Powershell and AD with Exchange, you will be rewarded for your efforts.
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Proofpoint
Very robust and solid product in protecting our emails. The engineers who assisted with our implementation was very knowledgable and great to work with. Easy to use by end-users. Administration and management are also easy for IT. Great dashboard and reporting tools for business reviews.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
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Proofpoint
There were no appliance errors or unplanned outages during five years of operation.
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Performance
Microsoft
I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
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Proofpoint
Most important thing is the performance of processing mails. Even in a complex environment the system keeps performing on a very high Level.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft support.
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Proofpoint
We use ProofPoint support quite often to fix issues and assist with setting up features and rules. Each time we have created a ticket, they have been very helpful and respectful. Each ticket has been treated with the appropriate SLA time and attention. We also enjoy the regular check-ins from the engineers when tickets are open but we get busy with other tasks.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
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Proofpoint
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Most of the 365 subscriptions include desktop and cloud versions of Microsoft programs. These "traditional" software may be installed on a desktop computer and used offline without any problems, as long as you have a working Internet connection. Because so many firms still transmit each others file's developed locally using these applications, despite this being an era of cloud computing– there is a strong case for keeping desktop versions available.
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Proofpoint
We previously used halon anti-spam, which lasted us well until our organization really started to grow and it was not able to keep up with the amount of mail we were receiving. The support is also nothing compared to Proofpoint's professional services offering. Halon was also not able to have the complex rules that Proofpoint can offer.
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Scalability
Microsoft
The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
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Proofpoint
You can add a lot of agents to your environment if you need them. And you can operate hardware appliances and virtual appliances in the same cluster.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • It has been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
  • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
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Proofpoint
  • Having easy-to-reach backups of all employee emails has made Proofpoint worth it by itself. That plus the countless times that spam/malicious emails did not make it through to the intended person that could have potentially cost the organization a lot of money.
Read full review
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