Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms

3 July 2025 - ID G00800286 - 7 min read
By Peer Community Contributor
Email security platforms protect organizations from threats over emails, like phishing and data theft, making them critical to reduce breach risks. This note guides security and risk management leaders to learn from ratings and reviews by their peers shared on Gartner Peer Insights.
To view the Interactive Voice of the Customer for this market, click the Launch button at the top of this page.

What Are Email Security Platforms?

Gartner defines an email security platform as a product that secures email infrastructure. Its primary purpose is the removal of malicious (phishing, social engineering, viruses) or unsolicited messages (spam, marketing). Other functions include email data protection, domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC), investigation, and remediation through a dedicated console. These solutions may integrate as a secure email gateway (SEG) for predelivery protection or as an integrated cloud email security (ICES) solution for postdelivery protection.
Email security platforms protect an organization’s email infrastructure from social engineering, phishing, business email compromise, spam, malware attacks and data theft. These platforms are deployed independently but integrated with other network and endpoint security controls to improve the overall risk posture of the organization. They offer cybersecurity teams visibility into email-related security incidents for investigation and remediation.

What Is Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer”?

“Voice of the Customer” is a document that synthesizes Gartner Peer Insights reviews into insights for buyers of technology and services. This aggregated peer perspective, along with the individual detailed reviews, is complementary to Gartner expert research and can play a key role in your buying process. Peers are verified reviewers of a technology product or service, who not only rate the offering, but also provide valuable feedback to consider before making a purchase decision.
Along with the historical peer-based perspective represented in this document, Gartner has a related expert-led Magic Quadrant for the email security platforms market. For related research in this market, please visit the Magic Quadrant for Email Security Platforms.
Figure 1 shows all “Voice of the Customer” eligible vendors in the market categorized into four quadrants based on scores assigned for User Interest and Adoption (x-axis), and Overall Experience (y-axis). The midpoint of each axis, labeled “market average,” represents the average score as calculated exclusively from vendors included in the document.
Vendors’ User Interest and Adoption (x-axis) scores incorporate three factors: review volume, user willingness to recommend, and review market coverage across industry, company size and region. Vendors’ Overall Experience (y-axis) is a composite score that incorporates average user ratings for “Overall Experience,” “Capabilities” and “Support/Delivery.” See the Methodology section for more detail.
Figure 1. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
All vendors are classified under specific quadrants based on their “overall experience,” and “user interest and adoption.” The Customers’ Choice quadrant in the upper right represents the highest overall experience, and maximum user interest and adoption. Strong Performer is in the upper left. Aspiring is in the lower left. Established is in the lower right. Eligible vendors as of April 2025 — Customers’ Choice vendors: Abnormal AI, Darktrace, KnowBe4 (Egress); Strong Performer vendors: Fortinet, IRONSCALES, Material; Aspiring vendors: Barracuda, Cloudflare, Microsoft; and Established vendors: Check Point Software Technologies, Mimecast, Proofpoint, Trend Micro.
Vendors placed in the upper-right “Customers’ Choice” quadrant of the “Voice of the Customer” have scores that meet or exceed the market average for both axes (User Interest and Adoption, and Overall Experience).
Vendors placed in the lower-right “Established” quadrant have scores that meet or exceed the market average for User Interest and Adoption, but are below the market average for Overall Experience.
Vendors placed in the upper-left “Strong Performer” quadrant have scores that meet or exceed the market average for Overall Experience, but are below the market average for User Interest and Adoption.
Vendors placed in the lower-left “Aspiring” quadrant have scores below the market average for both User Interest and Adoption, and Overall Experience.

Email Security Platforms Peer Reviews and Ratings

In addition to the synthesis provided by the “Voice of the Customer,” you can read individual reviews and ratings on the Gartner Peer Insights page for this market.
The rest of this document highlights some key insights for the email security platforms market based on 18 months of reviews and also points you to particular ways to use the site in your buying process.
Gartner Peer Insights’ reviews give insight into end users’ willingness to recommend each vendor. Willingness to recommend is a component of the “Voice of the Customer” x-axis. For details, see Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer Methodology. Figure 2 compares vendors by the percent of reviewers who were willing to recommend them (see the Methodology section for details). To create a more detailed comparison between several vendors on your shortlist, please go to the Gartner Peer Insights page for this market and press the “Compare Alternatives” button under the vendor/product you are interested in.
Figure 2. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Willingness to Recommend
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
Eligible vendors compared based on their “overall reviews” and reviewers’ “willingness to recommend.”

Vendor Summaries

Figures 3 through 15 summarize key information for each vendor included in the “Voice of the Customer”:
  • Reviewer demographics for reviews received in the 18-month review period, ending 31 March 2025
  • Overall Rating and rating distribution
  • Other ratings covering specific aspects of the experience with the vendor
The same eligibility requirements and weighting used in the “Voice of the Customer” quadrants also apply for ratings in the vendor summary figures, including overall star rating, willingness to recommend and rating by category (see Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer Methodology for details). Below each image is a direct link to the user reviews on the Peer Insights site.
Figure 3. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Abnormal AI Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Abnormal AI.
Figure 4. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Barracuda Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Barracuda.
Figure 5. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Check Point Software Technologies Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Check Point Software Technologies.
Figure 6. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Cloudflare Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Cloudflare.
Figure 7. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Darktrace Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Darktrace.
Figure 8. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Fortinet Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Fortinet.
Figure 9. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, IRONSCALES Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for IRONSCALES.
Figure 10. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, KnowBe4 (Egress) Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for KnowBe4 (Egress).
Figure 11. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Material Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Material.
Figure 12. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Microsoft Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Microsoft.
Figure 13. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Mimecast Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Mimecast.
Figure 14. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Proofpoint Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Proofpoint.
Figure 15. Voice of the Customer for Email Security Platforms, Trend Micro Vendor Summary
Source: Gartner (July 2025)
This vendor demographic, including rating histogram and rating by category, along with company size, industry and deployment region, displays customers’ willingness to recommend this vendor.
Read all Peer Insights user reviews for Trend Micro.

Methodology

A full description of the methodology can be found on the Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer Methodology page.
Voice of the Customer includes vendors with products aligned to the market that have 20 or more eligible published reviews (and 15 or more ratings for “Capabilities” and “Support/Delivery”) during the 18-month consideration period ending 31 March 2025. Reviews from vendor partners or companies with less than $50 million in revenue are excluded.
In the email security platforms market, Gartner Peer Insights published 2,287 reviews and ratings during the consideration period. For details, see Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer Methodology.
The data used in this report is drawn from reviews on Peer Insights, a free peer review and ratings platform that regularly publishes new reviews. The “Voice of the Customer” methodology uses a snapshot of reviews data from a defined timeframe and does not automatically update as new reviews are published. The external Peer Insights site will always have the most updated peer view of the vendors and products in this report.
The numerical ratings scores in each vendor summary graphic (shown as “Rating by Category”) are best interpreted as sample statistics with a reasonable margin for error and not as exact values.