Malicious mail that never lands
The whole point, and the unglamorous one. Safe email in the inbox, so your people get on with their work instead of second-guessing every message.
Email securityPublished benchmark
You can’t see what your filter misses.
Your native filter catches the bulk. A 14-day, monitor-only trial shows what it misses in your own inboxes, then we match you to the platform that stops more.
Free. Live in 15 minutes, no MX changes.
The problem
Email is still the way in.
Email is the hub. Supply-chain conversations, hirings and firings, financial detail and strategy all meet there, which makes it indispensable and the most valuable target in your business. It has been the most common way in for years.
What has changed is the attacker's leverage. Finding the right target, researching them and writing a convincing lure used to take a person days. Now it runs automatically, in the right tone, with almost no effort. AI multiplied a threat that was always here.
More than halfof the breaches the ASD recorded in 2024-25 started with email.
Architecture
Where email is checked decides the outcome.
On paper, the leading platforms look alike. They differ in where in the flow they check your mail, and in whether you can see what your current filter lets through. Most teams can't.
- 01
Native filtering
Microsoft or Google's built-in layer. It is the floor most teams start on and it catches the bulk. It is not built to catch the targeted mail aimed at your people.
- 02
Post-delivery
An API layer that lets mail land, takes a copy, decides if it is dangerous, then pulls it back. High efficacy, but the message sat in the inbox first. That is a risk window.
- 03
Inline
An API layer that analyses mail before it reaches the inbox. Nothing dangerous lands to be retracted later. The same top tier, with a tighter architecture.
A monitor-only trial shows you. Within days it surfaces the malicious mail reaching your inboxes, including mail your native filter marked safe, so you choose on your own data.
See what gets throughWhat you get
What good email security gives you.
What safe email looks like once the architecture is right.
Visibility you can show
A clear view of what was reaching inboxes and what the platform now stops. Evidence for the board, the auditor and the insurer, not a claim they have to take on trust.
One console, fewer tools
Filtering, account takeover detection and protocol management on one platform, so your team runs less, not more.
What to look for
What can the top platforms do?
Behavioural detection, attachment and URL scanning, and the AI behind them ship in every serious platform now. These are the capabilities that separate real protection from a box that has been ticked.
Visibility into what native misses
A monitor-only view of the malicious email reaching your inboxes today, drawn from your own environment.
Coverage of all three mail flows
Inbound, internal-to-internal and outbound, so a compromised account has nowhere to hide.
Inline analysis before delivery
Mail assessed before it lands, not retracted after, so there is no window where a dangerous message sits in the inbox.
Click-time protection without the lag
Links checked at the moment they are clicked, with no delay the user can feel.
Account takeover detection
Behavioural baselines across historical mail flag a compromised internal account, not just inbound spam.
Protocol management in one console
SPF, DKIM and DMARC managed alongside filtering, rather than as one more thing handled separately.
Maturity
Where most teams sit today.
Email security maturity, tier by tier.
Focused
Native Microsoft or Google filtering on its own, or a cheap add-on that can perform worse than the default. Self-managed, with no view of what is getting through. Many teams sit here.
Typical features
- Native Microsoft or Google filtering
- Spam and known-malware scanning
- SPF and DKIM set, DMARC monitoring only
- Reported phishing handled by hand
Broad
A top-tier API platform layered over Microsoft or Google, watching all three mail flows, with account takeover detection and protocol management in one console. A strong base, working mostly once mail has landed.
Typical features
- An API platform over Microsoft 365 or Google
- All three mail flows: inbound, internal and outbound
- Impersonation and business email compromise detection
- Account takeover detection
- Malicious mail clawed back after delivery
- DMARC enforced, managed in one console
Best fit if you’re being targeted
Comprehensive
Everything Broad does, plus checks before mail lands and the same protection across Teams, Slack and SharePoint. The most room to adapt as attacks change, and the place to start if a fake invoice or a targeted phish has already reached your people.
Everything in Broad, plus
- Inline analysis before mail lands
- Teams, Slack and SharePoint covered too
- Warning banners inside risky messages
- Click-time link checks with no felt delay
- Threat intelligence shared with your SOC or MDR
- Automated remediation across every mailbox
Tekspace Research
We tested the email security field.
We benchmarked the leading email security platforms against the same tests and published what we found, including where each one let mail through. Your shortlist starts from those results.
Published benchmark
Email Security
What does your filter miss once a message reaches the inbox?
Catches what Microsoft 365 and Google let through, before and after it reaches the inbox.
What we found
Catching today’s phishing takes filtering that keeps watching a message and what happens to it after delivery. Only a handful of products do that well.
Vendors assessed
- Abnormal
- Barracuda
- Check Point Harmony
- Cloudflare
- Darktrace
- Graphus
- Hornetsecurity Vade
- Ironscales
- KnowBe4 Egress
- Material
- Mesh
- Mimecast
- Paubox
- Proofpoint
- Sophos
- SpamTitan
- Sublime
What we tested
- Post-delivery link checks
- Account takeover detection
- Monitor-only trial in your tenant
Same tests on every product. The full scores are in the benchmark.
Read the benchmarkThe Tekspace Fit Method
How we’d help you choose.
Five steps from the problem you have to the product that fits, each leaving you with something you keep.
- 01
Understand
For email security
Agree what’s getting through, who it targets, and what fewer incidents would look like.
What you get
Problem brief. The agreed problem and what success looks like.
- 02
Map
For email security
Your Microsoft 365 or Google tenant, the three mail flows, and who runs the platform day to day.
What you get
Environment map. Your tools, identity, users and constraints.
- 03
Narrow
For email security
The platforms that suit your tenant and the way your team works, with a reason for every one we cut.
What you get
Shortlist with reasons. Why each option made it, and why the rest did not.
- 04
Prove
For email security
A monitor-only trial on your own mail shows what each one catches that native misses.
What you get
Proof-of-value results. How each option did against your problem.
- 05
Enable
For email security
Deploy, tune and train the people the attacks target. Then it’s yours to run.
What you get
Handover plan. Deployment, training and who owns what.
Questions we hear most.
63%drop in phishing-related IT tickets
“Engaging with Tekspace across our cybersecurity stack has been a game-changer for our organisation. We’ve seen a significant reduction in risk and a 63% drop in phishing related IT tickets.”
Even where we have a product we like, we’ll recommend something else if your context calls for it.
- No consulting fee
- If nothing fits, we say so
- Vendor-independent
- Operating since 2006