Looking for a Microsoft 365 E5 alternative?
Microsoft 365 E5 includes Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, advanced compliance tools, analytics, and collaboration features. While comprehensive, its email security layer is broad and generalized.
Strengths & Weaknesses of Microsoft 365 E5
| E5 Strengths | E5 Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Full-featured suite with security, compliance, and analytics built in | Expensive compared to other options and not always fully utilized |
| Includes Defender P2, Microsoft Purview, Power BI, and more | Can be complex to configure and manage across all features |
| Strong fit for regulated industries and security-focused buyers | Security tools are broad but may lack precision or transparency |
At a Glance
| Capability | Defender E5 | Libraesva Email Security |
|---|---|---|
| Email Security Base | Defender P2 | Specialist, higher precision |
| Phishing Detection | Good | Best-in-class AI filtering |
| Sandboxing | ||
| Outbound / DLP | Advanced (Purview) | Simple, email focused DLP |
| Encryption | OME + BYOK | Policy-based, simpler UX |
| Archiving | Unlimited + eDiscovery | |
| Insider Risk & Analytics | Full suite | |
| Deployment | Cloud only | Cloud / On-prem / Private |
Full Feature Breakdown
| Feature | 365 E5 | Libraesva Email Security |
|---|---|---|
| Message, body & header scanning | AI-driven contextual detection (Defender) | Semantic AI content analysis & Adaptive Trust AI Engine |
| Attachment inspection & quarantine | Safe Attachments included (via Defender P2 in E5) | Gateway sandbox, local / hybrid detonation |
| URL analysis & protection | Active URL analysis & filtering | |
| Threat investigation & hunting | Full threat hunting & incident analysis tools (Explorer, Incidents) | Dashboards, threat search, investigation workflows |
| Automated incident response | Automatic threat response | One-click remediation across mailboxes via API |
| User awareness & phishing simulation | Includes simulation training | PhishBrain option for simulations & training |
| Core anti-spam & malware filtering | EOP + advanced threat protection | Multi-engine + API filtering |
| Outbound protection (DLP + anti-spam) | Advanced DLP (content-aware policies, auto rules with E5 Compliance) | Outbound DLP rules, encryption triggers, anti-spam |
| Email archiving & retention | Unlimited, auto-expanding archive + litigation hold | Email Archiver option |
| eDiscovery & legal hold | eDiscovery Premium – analytics, custodian management | Email Archiver option |
| Audit log retention | At least 1 year (Advanced Audit in E5; up to 10 years with add-on) | Email Archiver option |
| Encryption | OME + Customer Key (BYOK) – bring your own key for encryption | Policy-based AES-256 encryption |
| Insider risk monitoring | Purview insider risk management & compliance | Adaptive Trust AI identifies insider threats & account compromise |
| Business analytics & reporting | Power BI Pro (includes advanced analytics dashboards) | KPI dashboards, trends & reporting API |
| Deployment | Cloud-only (Office 365 service) | Cloud, on-prem, private cloud (multi-tenant or dedicated) |
| Integration | Rich Microsoft integrations (built-in SIEM connectors e.g. Sentinel, APIs) | Open integration: REST API, syslog, SIEM/SOAR; M365 & Google |
| Social graph / identity heuristics | Defender AI “mailbox intelligence” – uses user communication history for impersonation protection | Social graph model identifies anomalies |
| Voice / collaboration features | Includes Teams Phone & audio conferencing (Office 365 E5 suite feature) |
FAQ
What is Microsoft 365 E5 (from an email security perspective)?
Does Microsoft 365 E5 include Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 (P2)?
What are the key strengths of E5 for security teams?
What are common weaknesses of E5 as an email security layer?
Why layer Libraesva with Microsoft 365 E5?
How does phishing protection compare (E5 vs Libraesva)?
How does attachment sandboxing compare?
How does threat investigation and hunting compare?
Does E5 include automated incident response? Does Libraesva?
What outbound protection and DLP capabilities are included in E5 vs Libraesva?
What encryption options are available in E5 vs Libraesva?
Does E5 include archiving and eDiscovery? What about Libraesva?
How long are audit logs retained in E5 vs Libraesva?
What deployment options differ the most between E5 and Libraesva?
What integration options should we expect?
Does E5 cover insider risk and advanced analytics? Does Libraesva?
Libraesva Email Security sees what others miss
Understand the message
Semantic AI goes beyond keywords and reads the intent behind every email, catching impersonation and AI-written deception others ignore.
Know what “normal” looks like
Adaptive Trust AI continuously maps your organization’s communication patterns to flag unusual interactions and behavioral anomalies in real-time.
Layers of defense
Secure gateway scanning with deep AI stops threats at every stage. Semantic and Adaptive Trust AI detect deception, while sandboxing and URL checks stop what others miss.
Trusted by companies like these
Libraesva delivers layered, AI driven defense to protect businesses and people against modern email threats.
Libraesva delivers deeper, specialist protection with superior control, flexible deployment, and independent resilience, ideal for high-risk or compliance-driven environments.
