--- title: "9 of 15 email security tools on our old list changed owner, name or listing" summary: "What became of the 15 products this blog listed in June 2022, and what 14 email filters in TechBag’s guide show about API, on-premises and Indian hosting, as of September 2026." url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/15-top-best-e-mail-security-software format: Analysis desk: "Security operations" published: 2025-01-07 facts_checked: 2026-09-30 author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal) tags: ["email security","secure email gateway","API email security","Proofpoint","TitanHQ","Barracuda","Trend Micro","Defender for Office 365","CERT-In","DPDP","data residency"] cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/15-top-best-e-mail-security-software.png --- # 9 of 15 email security tools on our old list changed owner, name or listing *What became of the 15 products this blog listed in June 2022, and what 14 email filters in TechBag’s guide show about API, on-premises and Indian hosting, as of September 2026.* Analysis · Security operations · By TechBag · Published 2025-01-07 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/15-top-best-e-mail-security-software The short version - Nine of the fifteen email security products this blog listed in June 2022 have since changed owner, changed name or dropped off their vendor’s product list. Only six are sold today under the same name by the same owner. - The product itself changed shape. Of the 14 email filters in TechBag’s guide, 10 can now connect to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace through an API instead of sitting in front of the mail server, and 3 work only that way.[1] - For an Indian buyer the deciding questions are not on any feature list: what Microsoft 365 E3 already includes, which filter can run on your own hardware (5 of 14), and which documents an Indian data centre (2 of 14).[1][10] In June 2022 this blog published a list of fifteen email security products, from SpamTitan to the Forcepoint Trusted Mail System, with a paragraph on each. It did not say which to buy, or why. Four years on, the useful question for an Indian IT head renewing an email filter is a sharper one: how much of that market is still standing, what has replaced the gateway model the list assumed, and what is worth paying for once Microsoft’s own protection is counted. This rewrite answers those three, with the facts as they stood in September 2026. ## What became of the fifteen We checked each product on the 2022 list against its vendor’s current site and TechBag’s own intel pages. Six are unchanged: Proofpoint Email Protection, Forcepoint Email Security, Fortinet FortiMail, the Paubox Email Suite, ESET PROTECT Complete and DuoCircle’s filtering.[1][8][9] Four are the same product under a new owner. TitanHQ, maker of SpamTitan, ArcTitan and EncryptTitan, was sold in June 2025 to Redstor, a Bregal Milestone portfolio company, and the two now trade together as CyberSentriq.[2] Barracuda passed from Thoma Bravo to KKR in August 2022, two months after the list was published.[3] Three were renamed or moved. Trend Micro’s Email Security is now Vision One Email and Collaboration Security, and the company markets its email line, ScanMail included, under the TrendAI name.[4] The Forcepoint Trusted Mail System went with Forcepoint’s federal business when TPG carved it out; that business was renamed Everfox in January 2024 and still lists the Trusted Mail System among its cross-domain products.[5][6] Two are no longer listed at all under their 2022 names: Comodo’s site now offers a single “Secure Email Gateway” and names neither Dome Antispam nor KoruMail.[7] **Figure: Nine of the fifteen products listed in 2022 changed owner, name or listing within four years** *Status of the 15 products on the June 2022 list, by vendor site and TechBag intel page, September 2026* - Same product, new owner4 products 27% - Renamed or moved to another company3 products 20% - No longer listed under the 2022 name2 products 13% - Same product, same owner6 products 40% | | Value (products) | Share | | --- | --- | --- | | Same product, new owner | 4 | 27% | | Renamed or moved to another company | 3 | 20% | | No longer listed under the 2022 name | 2 | 13% | | Same product, same owner | 6 | 40% | Source: Vendor sites; TechBag Barracuda and Xcitium hubs; TitanHQ; Washington Technology; TechBag count · as of 30 September 2026 · new owner: SpamTitan, ArcTitan, EncryptTitan, Barracuda; renamed or moved: Trend Email Security, ScanMail, Trusted Mail; unlisted: Dome Antispam, KoruMail; unchanged: Proofpoint, Forcepoint, FortiMail, Paubox, ESET, DuoCircle TechBag countTechBag count Four of the fifteen were never inbound filters: ArcTitan archives mail, EncryptTitan and Paubox encrypt it, and the Trusted Mail System moves it between classified networks. Of the eleven that were filters, five appear among the 14 filters in TechBag’s guide; the other nine in the guide were not on the 2022 list.[1] The churn is not confined to the old list. Cloudflare Email Security, one of the 14 filters in the guide, still carries its former brand, Area 1, in TechBag’s record of it.[1] Email security is a category that private equity and platform vendors buy into, and a buyer signing a three-year term should expect the owner, the roadmap or the support desk to change before it ends. Our view Our view: write the exit into the contract. Ask for the right to terminate without penalty if the product is renamed into a bundle, moved to another company or put on an end-of-sale notice, and for an export of quarantine and log data in a standard format. Of the fifteen we listed, nine would have triggered such a clause. ## The shape changed: from the MX record to the mailbox The 2022 list closed by calling every entry a gateway: mail is routed through the vendor by changing the domain’s MX record, scanned, and passed on. That model still exists. But a second one has grown up beside it, in which the product connects to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace through the provider’s API, reads mail after Microsoft or Google has filtered it, and pulls back a message that turns out to be malicious after delivery. TechBag’s guide records the deployment model of each filter from the vendor’s documentation. Three are gateway only: N-able Mail Assure, FortiMail and Forcepoint. Seven offer both, including Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda and Sophos. Three work only through the API: Abnormal, Check Point and Coro.[1] **Figure: Ten of 14 filters can now work inside the mailbox through an API; three work no other way** *Deployment model documented by the vendor, count of the 14 email filters in TechBag's guide, September 2026* Gateway only (MX record) N-able Mail Assure, FortiMail, Forcepoint 3 filters Gateway or API Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda, Sophos and three more 7 filters API only Abnormal, Check Point, Coro 3 filters Not documented Bitdefender 1 filters | | Value (filters) | | --- | --- | | Gateway only (MX record) | 3 | | Gateway or API | 7 | | API only | 3 | | Not documented | 1 | Source: TechBag email & collaboration security guide, deployment field; TechBag count · as of 30 September 2026 · One filter (Bitdefender) does not document its deployment model Our view Our view: the API model wins on the attack that costs money, the payload-free message from a lookalike supplier, because it sees who normally writes to whom. The gateway still wins where mail never touches Microsoft or Google, on an on-premises Exchange or a government mail server. Most Indian mid-market companies are in the first group and are still buying for the second. ## Count what Microsoft already gives you first Microsoft announced in February 2026 that Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, its own anti-phishing, Safe Links and Safe Attachments layer, would be added to Microsoft 365 E3 and Office 365 E3, with the rollout complete by 1 August 2026.[10] An Indian company on E3 now owns a layer it used to buy separately. That does not make a third-party filter redundant, but it changes what one is for: the case for buying is now the detection Microsoft does not do well, and the evidence for it should come from a trial on your own mail, not a feature list. **Figure: The 2022 list compared features every filter has; the 2026 shortlist turns on four questions it did not ask** *What the June 2022 list described for each product, against what TechBag's guide records, September 2026* What the 2022 list described - Anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-malware, anti-virus - Cloud delivery and integration with Office 365 - Sandboxing and machine learning, in each vendor's words - No price, no deployment model, no data location What decides a shortlist now - Does it add anything to Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 on our own mail? - Gateway, API or both, and does it remove a message after delivery? - Can it run on our hardware, or in an Indian data centre? - Does it cover Teams and SharePoint, or only the inbox? Source: TechBag email & collaboration security guide · as of 30 September 2026 The trial is cheaper than it used to be. An API-mode product can be connected to a Microsoft 365 tenant in read-only mode, without touching the MX record, and left to report what it would have caught behind Defender for a month. Ask each shortlisted vendor for that report on your own mail: how many messages it flagged that Microsoft delivered, how many of those were payload-free requests for money or credentials, and how many were false alarms. A gateway product cannot be trialled this way without rerouting mail, which is itself a fair point to weigh against it. ## Where your mail is read An email filter reads every message the company receives. For a regulated Indian firm, where that reading happens is a procurement question before it is a technical one, and the guide’s answers are thin. Five of the 14 filters can run on the customer’s own hardware or virtual machines: Proofpoint, Barracuda, FortiMail, Forcepoint and Kaspersky. Only two document an Indian data centre for mail: Proofpoint, which opened one in 2025, and Sophos, through its Mumbai region. Five cover collaboration stores such as Teams or SharePoint as well as the inbox.[1][11] **Figure: Five filters can run on your own hardware; only two document an Indian data centre** *Count of the 14 email filters in TechBag's guide meeting each test, vendor documentation, September 2026* 5 of 14 Can run on-premises or as your own virtual appliance TechBag count 2 of 14 Document an Indian data centre for mail Proofpoint, Sophos 5 of 14 Cover Teams or SharePoint as well as the inbox TechBag count Source: TechBag email & collaboration security guide; TechBag count · as of 30 September 2026 · Not documented is not the same as absent; ask the vendor in writing ReportedReported Proofpoint has been owned by Thoma Bravo since 2021 and added an India data centre in 2025, which TechBag’s hub records as the basis for its residency claim.[11] If you are buying this in India Price first: of the 14 filters, five carry a vendor-published list price, among them Proofpoint Essentials at US$2.75 to US$5.33 a user (its US list of October 2021) a month, Forcepoint at US$2.40 and a Bitdefender small-business bundle; the rest are quote-only or known only from reseller figures.[1] Expect a US-dollar list converted by the reseller, invoiced in rupees with 18% GST on top, and ask for the quote per user and per year so it can be compared with the Defender licence you already hold. Then the rules. **CERT-In’s Directions of 28 April 2022** make a mailbox compromise a reportable incident within six hours and require logs to be kept for 180 days within India, which applies to the filter’s logs too.[12] The **DPDP Rules**, notified on 13 November 2025, bring the security-safeguard and breach-notice duties into force on 13 May 2027, and a filter is a processor of every personal email it reads.[13] Ask for the processing location in the contract, not the brochure. TechBag quotes several of the vendors named here, Proofpoint and Barracuda among them, in INR with GST. How we did this Figures as of 30 September 2026 The status of the fifteen comes from each vendor’s current product pages, read in September 2026, and from TechBag’s intel pages for Barracuda, Xcitium and Proofpoint, and TitanHQ’s own site; a product counts as “no longer listed” only when the vendor’s own site omits it, and a brand change by the parent counts as renamed. The deployment, on-premises, collaboration and India counts are TechBag’s count of the 14 products marked as filters in the email security guide, whose fields were verified against vendor documentation in August 2026; awareness, DMARC and account-takeover products were excluded. Exact availability dates for ScanMail and the Trusted Mail System were not established. Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece. Sources 1. [TechBag, Email & collaboration security guide (22 products by SKU, 14 of them filters)](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/security/email-security) — vendor documentation, verified 22 August 2026 2. [TitanHQ, company site (CyberSentriq, formed through the acquisition of TitanHQ and its merger with Redstor)](https://www.titanhq.com) — undated page 3. [TechBag, Barracuda vendor hub (KKR ownership since August 2022)](https://www.thetechbag.com/barracuda) — September 2026 4. [TrendAI (Trend Micro), email security platform page: Vision One Email and Collaboration Security, ScanMail Suite for Microsoft Exchange, ScanMail for Domino](https://www.trendaisecurity.com/en-us/platform/email-security) — undated page 5. [Washington Technology, The former Forcepoint Federal takes on new name](https://washingtontechnology.com/companies/2024/01/former-forcepoint-federal-takes-new-name/393722/) — January 2024 6. [Everfox, cross-domain solutions portfolio flyer (lists the Trusted Mail System)](https://info.everfox.com/hubfs/CDS_Portfolio_Flyer_.pdf) — undated page 7. [Comodo Security Solutions, home page product list (Secure Email Gateway)](https://www.comodo.com/) — undated page 8. [Paubox, Email Suite pricing (Standard, Plus, Premium)](https://www.paubox.com/pricing) — undated page 9. [DuoCircle, home page (spam filtering and phishing protection)](https://www.duocircle.com/) — undated page 10. [Microsoft, 2026 Microsoft 365 packaging and pricing updates (Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 in E3, rollout complete by 1 August 2026)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/2026-M365-Packaging-Pricing-Updates) — 16 February 2026 11. [TechBag, Proofpoint vendor hub (Thoma Bravo, 2021; India data centre, 2025)](https://www.thetechbag.com/proofpoint) — September 2026 12. [CERT-In, Directions under section 70B(6) of the IT Act (six-hour reporting; 180-day log retention in India)](https://www.cert-in.org.in/Directions70B.jsp) — 28 April 2022 13. [Legismith, DPDP Rules 2025 commencement timeline](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — notified 13 November 2025 Related on TechBag: the [email security guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/security/email-security) holds the 14 filters counted here, each with one stated limitation; the [Proofpoint Email Protection](https://www.thetechbag.com/proofpoint/proofpoint-email-security) page covers the one filter that publishes a price and documents an Indian data centre. **Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view. Go deeper on TechBag - [Email & collaboration security guide](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse/security/email-security) — the 14 filters counted here, with deployment, on-prem and India fields - [Proofpoint Email Protection](https://www.thetechbag.com/proofpoint/proofpoint-email-security) — the filter that publishes a price and documents an Indian data centre - [TitanHQ hub](https://www.thetechbag.com/titanhq) — SpamTitan, ArcTitan and EncryptTitan under CyberSentriq, and PhishTitan's API model