Report:
Magic Quadrant for Email Security
How does Gartner define the Email Security market in 2025?
Gartner defines an email security solution as a product that secures email infrastructure. Its primary purpose is to protect against malicious messages (phishing, social engineering, malware) 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. Email security solutions may also support nonemail collaboration tools, such as those for document management and instant messaging. Email security tools protect an organization's email from spam, phishing, malware attacks, account takeover and data loss. They may provide capabilities for data loss prevention, encryption, domain authentication and security education, as well as advanced protections against business email compromise. Email security platforms give cybersecurity teams visibility into email-related security incidents, support investigation and automated remediation, and enable management of both inbound and outbound email delivery. Email security solutions often integrate with other network, identity and endpoint security controls, and may also support collaboration tools and email relay capabilities.
Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for Email Security in 2025
- Publication Date: 01-Dec-2025
- Document ID: G00826513
- Coverage: Global
- Authors: Max Taggett, Nikul Patel
- Core Purpose: To evaluate and position email security vendors based on their ability to execute and completeness of vision in protecting organizations from malicious messages, phishing, social engineering, malware, spam, and data loss through email infrastructure.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
No strategic planning assumptions provided.
How was the Email Security market evolved in 2025?
- Email security vendors are rapidly bolstering social engineering detection capabilities in response to escalating phishing and business email compromise (BEC) attacks
- The market is experiencing 9% growth in SEG-specific revenue worldwide
- Organizations are increasingly deploying overlapping, multilayered email security solutions from multiple vendors
- The distinction between SEG and ICES vendors is blurring as most SEG vendors now offer API deployment options
- Vendors are expanding beyond email to include collaboration tool protection (Microsoft Teams, Slack, SharePoint, etc.)
- AI-driven approaches are being used for deepfake prevention, advanced identity protection, and autonomous remediation
- Competitive market dynamics allow buyers deploying multiple tools to negotiate aggressive discounts
- Detection efficacy remains difficult to measure consistently across the market
- Customer base includes organizations of all sizes with strong growth in both customer counts and mailboxes protected
- Vendors are introducing unified quarantine capabilities to streamline operations across multiple security layers
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Spam filtering
- Attachment inspection for malware/ransomware and subsequent quarantining or disarming
- URL analysis and protection
- Phishing detection/prevention
What are the common features of top products in the Email Security space?
- DMARC, DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) or Sender Policy Framework (SPF) management
- Outbound protection features, such as DLP and misaddressed sender identification
- Account takeover prevention
- Collaboration/productivity tool protection
- Threat intelligence integration
- Awareness training and phishing simulation
- Message transfer agent (MTA)
- Email data protection, including encryption and data loss prevention features
- Managed detection and response
- Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) support
Scope Exclusions
- Products that cannot be sold as a standalone email security solution independent of other solutions or services
- Solutions lacking capability to block or filter unwanted email traffic
- Products without file scanning for malware protection
- Solutions without malicious URL vetting and protection capabilities
- Products not utilizing advanced analytics tools including natural language processing for message content analysis
- Vendors with fewer than 10,000 customers and fewer than 1 million mailboxes protected
- Vendors with more than 60% of total customer base concentrated in a single region outside North America and Europe
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Must sell email security as a product line independent of any other solution or service
- Must provide the capability to block or filter unwanted email traffic
- Must provide file scanning to protect against malware
- Must provide the capability to vet and protect against malicious URLs
- Must utilize advanced analytics tools, including natural language processing, for message content analysis, and expose semantic analysis to end-user administrators
- Must have a minimum of 10,000 customers or a minimum of 1 million mailboxes protected
- The total number of customers in a single region outside of North America and Europe must not exceed 60% of a vendor's total customer base
Ability to Execute — Relative Weighting
- Product or Service - High
- Overall Viability - Medium
- Sales Execution/Pricing - Medium
- Market Responsiveness/Record - Low
- Marketing Execution - Low
- Customer Experience - Medium
- Operations - Medium
Completeness of Vision — Relative Weighting
- Market Understanding - Low
- Marketing Strategy - Medium
- Sales Strategy - Medium
- Offering (Product) Strategy - High
- Business Model - NotRated
- Vertical/Industry Strategy - Low
- Innovation - Medium
- Geographic Strategy - Low
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research covers the email security solution market, evaluating vendors that provide products to secure email infrastructure against malicious messages (phishing, social engineering, malware), unsolicited messages (spam, marketing), data loss, account takeover, and business email compromise. The evaluation includes vendors offering both traditional gateway and API-driven protection methods, as well as additional capabilities such as DMARC management, encryption, collaboration tool security, and infrastructure support features. The research analyzes 15 vendors across four quadrants (Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players) based on their ability to execute and completeness of vision.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: This research should be used by security and risk management leaders, IT security teams, and decision-makers responsible for evaluating and selecting email security solutions. It is particularly valuable for organizations seeking to: understand the competitive landscape of email security vendors; compare vendor capabilities across deployment methods, features, and use cases; align email security solutions with specific organizational requirements such as size, industry, geography, or technical needs; make informed decisions about single-vendor versus multi-vendor email security strategies; assess vendor strengths and cautions to support shortlist development and proof-of-concept evaluations; and understand market trends including AI-enabled detection, collaboration security, and workspace security consolidation opportunities.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Mandatory features for vendors included in this market are: spam filtering, attachment inspection for malware/ransomware with subsequent quarantining or disarming capabilities, URL analysis and protection, and phishing detection/prevention. Additionally, vendors must utilize advanced analytics tools including natural language processing for message content analysis and expose semantic analysis to end-user administrators.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Failure to sell email security as an independent product line
- Lack of unwanted email traffic blocking or filtering capability
- Absence of malware file scanning functionality
- Missing malicious URL protection capabilities
- Not utilizing advanced analytics tools or natural language processing for message analysis
- Insufficient customer base (less than 10,000 customers or 1 million mailboxes)
- Geographic concentration exceeding 60% in single non-North American/European region
- Failure to meet technical requirements (as in the case of Cisco being dropped from this Magic Quadrant)
Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?
A: Ability to Execute focuses on current product capabilities, market performance, and operational effectiveness including product/service quality, financial viability, sales execution, market responsiveness, marketing execution, customer experience, and operations. Completeness of Vision emphasizes future-oriented strategic planning and market positioning including market understanding, marketing and sales strategies, product roadmap and innovation, vertical/industry focus, and geographic expansion plans.
Reference
- Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Email Security, 01-Dec-2025, ID G00826513
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