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Cisco Secure Email vs Sublime Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6.1
Cisco Secure Email is valued for security and efficiency, though financial benefits are mixed and hard to quantify.
Sentiment score
4.5
Sublime Security reduces security risks and costs, enhances efficiency, and streamlines email investigations, improving organizational operations.
Importantly, we didn’t need to hire any additional staff; we were able to absorb this responsibility using our existing team.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
I estimate that we have improved our efficiency, especially for phishing campaigns where we can handle multiple similar emails together, which has reduced repetitive analyst work and improved our response time.
Soc Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I think the ROI for us is primarily in reduced security risk and reduced analyst time.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email's superior customer service, marked by prompt, reliable support, is rated highly over competitors like Fortinet.
Sentiment score
6.3
Sublime Security offers highly rated customer support with efficient responses, expert teams, and excellent communication channels for quick resolutions.
Regarding my interaction with the technical support of Cisco Secure Email, it was zero downtime for the mail production.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Cisco's tech support can be hit or miss, depending on the engineer you get.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support is pretty decent, with a rating of eight out of ten.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
We were able to get in touch with the person who constructed the LLM and its agentic aspects relatively quickly to address our questions.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
They're able to understand the context of an incident rather than just treating it as a generic support ticket.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I would rate customer support ten out of ten.
Soc Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email provides flexible scalability and security enhancements, supporting large setups with positive user experiences and expansion options.
Sentiment score
7.1
Sublime Security is highly scalable and resource-efficient, effectively handling large email volumes across Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
My thoughts on the scalability level of Cisco Secure Email is nine because of the delay in making a configuration and the slowness in the console.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Despite nearly doubling the number of mailboxes and adding significantly more detection rules, the service remains just as fast as it was when we first implemented it.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Its scalability is also good, as it can scale with the number of protected mailboxes or users, or as email volume grows, supporting enterprise development across Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Soc Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We have a fairly large Microsoft 365 environment and haven't had any problems with the platform keeping up with our email volume.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Secure Email is valued for stability and reliability, with minimal issues and efficient operation, requiring minimal maintenance.
Sentiment score
8.7
Sublime Security offers stable, reliable email security with quick performance, efficient threat detection, and no downtime or crashes.
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
Sublime Security acted quickly; once Microsoft alerted Outlook about the incoming email, Sublime Security managed to pull it from the stream before it had a chance to appear in the user's inbox.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure Email faces complex UI, integration issues, high costs, and lacks advanced features, affecting usability and scalability.
Sublime Security should enhance user onboarding, integration, customization, and reporting while addressing pricing and reducing false positives.
The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated into the Email Security Gateway so customers don't have to buy two products for full email protection.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Often I have to prepare reports for our CEOs, and they want it in a less technical way, a simpler view of things such as threats blocked, incidents investigated, and overall risk reduction.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
While they do provide API-level access and web hooks, I believe more out-of-the-box integrations with SOAR platforms and SIEM tools would enhance Sublime's value.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
One breach could potentially put a small company out of business, so having a tool such as this might save them from that fate.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure Email is costly yet valued for features, with variable pricing based on factors like environment and user count.
Sublime Security's pricing is higher but justified by effective threat prevention, with competitive AWS Marketplace setup and licensing.
Its cost is bundled with other Cisco products.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
The licensing is a mess and needs sorting out.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
I can also understand why some people might say it's expensive.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
It's competitive with its peers, especially for the number of mailboxes we have.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure Email offers advanced protection, integration, and user-friendly management, enhancing security against malware, spam, phishing, and ransomware.
Sublime Security offers advanced phishing detection, AI analysis, and automated threat responses, enhancing email security and reducing manual efforts.
It also possesses multiple modules for spam detection, malware detection, and threat intelligence, which are valuable in categorizing emails and determining actions.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It is highly effective in catching phishing and spam emails.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
The integration of Cisco AMP for Advanced Malware Protection with Cisco Secure Email has helped our organization's security posture.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
This level of detail is essential for analysts and anyone conducting evaluations, as it helps them understand the specific circumstances of their environment.
Manager Security Operations Center at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
It adds a smarter layer that catches anything missed by Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace protection.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
The best features of Sublime Security are advanced phishing and BEC detection, campaign grouping, threat hunting, and automated remediation.
Soc Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (6th)
Sublime Security
Ranking in Email Security
14th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.6%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sublime Security is 1.1%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email4.6%
Sublime Security1.1%
Other94.3%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

KS
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Email security has protected financial data and provides clear tracking for every branch message
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP and other content filters compared to other consoles. It may have been due to on-premises, but it was much noisy at some times while configuring DLP. When we tried to configure a DLP policy, the console became much slower. In that case, we cannot see what had happened in the mail which was blocked at that time. It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies. That is the major issue in the product.
reviewer2891127 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Email defenses have reduced manual phishing work and now give clear visibility into threats
I'd say the best features Sublime Security offers are the threat detection and investigation capabilities, which are probably the most valuable part for us. I particularly appreciate the visibility into the email activity and the ability to investigate suspicious messages and understand why something was flagged. I'd say the protection against more sophisticated phishing and business email compromise attacks is also important. Those are difficult to deal with because they don't always contain obvious malware. The investigation capabilities of Sublime Security stand out because they surface themselves in a very nice, obvious way. So when we are investigating, they're just easy to spot and easy to identify. The UI is very clear for us, and overall it's just what we would expect. Regarding Sublime Security's AI capabilities, I think it's honestly pretty good. I haven't had any issues with either the governance side or the security side. I think Sublime Security has been very accurate. For us, it's certainly stopped a lot of the manual investigation that we often do for phishing emails or malicious emails. Occasionally, it does give us false positives, but that's just a five-minute review of something, so it still cuts a lot of time down.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Email?
We are using Cisco Secure Email to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail traffic in our financial institute. We have nearly 900 branches all over India. We have an on-premises mail server in which...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sublime Security?
Pricing for Sublime Security seems appropriate for an enterprise security product. It's not really the cheapest option, but it benefits us. The overall cost does need to be considered against the s...
What needs improvement with Sublime Security?
The product is powerful, but I suppose there are areas where someone new to the platform needs some time to understand all of the available functionality. It can be quite a lot as a new user to abs...
What is your primary use case for Sublime Security?
Our primary use case for Sublime Security is email security, so we use Sublime Security to protect Microsoft 365 email against phishing, business email compromise, any malicious links and attachmen...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Snowflake, Spotify, Anduril, Elastic, Compass, Encompass Health, Zscaler, Ovo Energy, Personio, Beneteler 
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Sublime Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.