The 5 Best Email Security Products for UAE Startups

Your business’s inbox is the first line of defence, and it’s also where most attacks begin. And this isn’t just some empty claim. The UAE Cyber Security Council reports that more than 75% of cyber breaches in the country start with a phishing email or fraudulent message, out of the roughly 3.4 billion phishing messages sent worldwide every day.  

Below are five of the best email security products for smaller UAE teams, in no particular order, each with a note on why it earns a place.

How We Selected These Email Security Products

This is a non-ranked shortlist built around the needs of UAE startups and smaller teams. We reviewed each product using the following parameters:

• Pricing: Published pricing, licensing model, trial availability, and whether key functions require higher plans  

• Threat Coverage: Protection against phishing, malware, business email compromise, account takeover, and malicious links or attachments  

• Deployment: Compatibility with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and the amount of setup involved  

• Unique Features: Capabilities such as collaboration security, email continuity, archiving, backup, or managed incident response  

• UAE Availability: Regional presence, local data options, and access through UAE partners or resellers  

• Service & Support: Vendor support, managed services, incident response, and the level of internal administration required  

The comparison is based on publicly available vendor information rather than independent laboratory testing. Pricing can also change based on user numbers, contract length, package, and the UAE partner providing the service.

Barracuda Email Protection

Barracuda has long focused on the mid-market and smaller businesses, which shows in how quickly its email protection can be set up. It combines email filtering with API-based scanning of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, catching spam, malware, phishing, and impersonation attempts, and adds link protection that checks a URL at the moment someone clicks it.  

Higher tiers include email backup and account takeover detection, so a compromised mailbox is spotted rather than left to spread quietly.

Why This Works: It packages the protections a small business actually needs into one product, without the setup effort or price of an enterprise gateway.

Check Point Email Security

Check Point Email Security takes an API-first approach, plugging directly into Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace rather than sitting in front of your mail flow. It scans messages after they pass the built-in filters but before they reach the inbox, catching phishing and business email compromise that would otherwise slip through.  

It also covers the tools startups actually live in, like Microsoft Teams and Slack, plus the cloud drives your files sit in, and applies data loss prevention across them.

Why This Works: For a cloud-first team on M365 or Google, it adds a strong second layer in minutes, with no change to how mail is delivered.

Fortimail Workspace Security

FortiMail Workspace Security is an AI-powered platform that scans every attachment and link before it reaches a user, and extends the same checks to collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack. It focuses on the threats that hit smaller companies hardest, catching business email compromise and account takeover attempts that get past standard filters.

In the UAE, Lumora is one prominent provider that uses it, delivering it as part of its managed LumoraX service so the setup and monitoring are handled for you.

Why This Works: it brings strong, AI-driven detection to both email and collaboration tools, and a provider like Lumora can run it for you, so a startup gets that protection without operating it in-house.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

If your startup runs on Microsoft 365, you may already own a capable email security tool. Defender for Office 365 adds Safe Links and Safe Attachments, which detonate suspicious URLs and files in a sandbox before they reach a user, on top of the phishing protection built into Exchange Online. Plan 1 covers the core protections, while Plan 2 adds threat investigation and attack simulation training, and it comes included with Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Why This Works: it is often the most cost-effective option because you may already be paying for it, so it needs turning on and configuring rather than buying separately.

Mimecast

Mimecast is a well established name in email security, built around a secure email gateway that filters mail before it reaches you. Beyond the standard anti-phishing and malware controls, it is known for two things smaller companies come to value as they grow: email continuity, which keeps mail flowing if Microsoft 365 has an outage, and archiving for compliance and e-discovery. It also offers awareness training to help staff spot the messages that get through.

Why This Works: It suits a growing SMB that wants email security alongside the resilience of continuity and archiving from a single, well-known provider.

Choosing the Best Email Security for Your Business

Choosing an email security product is only part of the job. The service still needs proper setup, policy tuning, quarantine management, monitoring, and support when a suspicious login or mailbox rule appears. Lumora manages these tasks (via Fortimail Workspace Security) across Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, covering phishing, spoofing, malicious attachments, account takeover, and collaboration risks while reducing the load on lean IT teams.  

Ultimately, however, email security is only one small part of a wider security posture. For more comprehensive security, you need an end-to-end essential security solution. LumoraX is that answer, giving UAE startups and SMBs a managed baseline across email, endpoints, identity access, networks, domain protection, and human risk, with regular reporting and ongoing expert support.

Explore LumoraX to bring not just your email security, but all your essential security under one managed solution.

‍