We've configured Microsoft to the nines. Isn't that enough?

Microsoft is a capable floor, not a mistake. Email security is one of hundreds of products it runs, so the specialist depth sits with platforms built only for this. The test is what reaches your inboxes now, and a monitor-only trial shows you within days.

Isn't this just another spam filter?

A spam filter reads inbound mail for obvious junk. A modern platform watches all three mail flows, learns what normal looks like for each person, catches business email compromise and account takeover, and analyses links and attachments more deeply than native filtering does.

Won't it slow email down or annoy users?

It shouldn't, and this is where platforms differ. Every vendor claims click-time protection. The top tier delivers it with no delay users can feel, while lower-tier tools add a visible lag that creates backlash. An API deployment needs no MX record changes, so mail keeps flowing during the trial.

Will it stop everything?

No, and we won't claim it does. No email security is foolproof. A good platform is a large, measurable improvement over a native filter alone, and the trial measures that improvement on your own mail.

How hard is it to trial?

Light. An API-integrated platform turns on in about 15 minutes with no MX record changes, in monitor-only mode, so nothing is disrupted. Over 14 days we open real inboxes with you, name the most-attacked users, and show where native filtering marked dangerous mail safe.

Email securityPublished benchmark

You can’t see what your filter misses.

A 14-day, monitor-only trial shows what your native filter misses, then we find the platform that stops more.

See what gets through Read the benchmark

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

What keeps malicious mail out of your inboxes.

The outcome depends on when mail is checked and on the threat intelligence engine making the call.

01
Native filtering
Microsoft or Google catch the bulk before mail lands. Their threat intelligence is shared across hundreds of products, so some targeted mail gets through.
02
Post-delivery
A specialist API layer with strong threat intelligence pulls dangerous mail back after it lands. Until then, it sits in the inbox: a risk window.
03
Inline
A specialist API layer checks mail before it reaches the inbox, with a mature threat intelligence engine making the call. What it catches never lands.

Within days, a monitor-only trial on your own mail shows what each engine stopped and missed, including mail your native filter marked safe.

See what gets through

What you get

What good email security gives you.

What safe email looks like once the architecture is right.

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.

What to look for

What can the top platforms do?

Every serious platform ships detection and scanning now; these capabilities separate real protection from a ticked box.

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

Most teams stop at Microsoft 365.

Attacks are now automated, so most teams need the specialist layer that Comprehensive adds to Microsoft or Google.

Focused
Microsoft or Google’s defaults as shipped, or a cheap add-on that can do worse. Self-managed, with no view of what gets through.
Typical features
- Default Microsoft or Google filtering, or a low-cost add-on
- Spam and known-malware scanning
- SPF and DKIM set, DMARC monitoring only
- Reported phishing handled by hand
Broad
Microsoft 365 fully configured, with Defender for Office 365 and DMARC enforced. The only view of misses comes from the engine that let them in.
Typical features
- Defender for Office 365 licensed
- Anti-phishing and impersonation policies tuned
- Link and attachment checks switched on
- DMARC enforced
- Mail flagged after delivery cleaned up automatically
- Reporting only from the native console
Recommended as your standard
Comprehensive
Everything Broad does, plus a specialist platform with mature threat intelligence that checks mail before it lands, across all three mail flows.
Everything in Broad, plus
- A specialist API platform over Microsoft 365 or Google
- Inline analysis before mail lands
- Specialist threat intelligence behind every verdict
- All three mail flows: inbound, internal and outbound
- Account takeover and email compromise detection
- Click-time link checks with no felt delay
- Teams, Slack and SharePoint covered too
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC in the same console

Tekspace Research

We tested the email security field.

We put the leading platforms through the same tests, and published where each one let mail through.

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 assessed17 vendors assessed