# GFI MailEssentials Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra

> With the help of Capterra, learn about GFI MailEssentials Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Email Security products and more.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/88914/GFI-MailEssentials

---

# 

 GFI MailEssentials Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons

Last updated on March 13, 2026

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.

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How Capterra ensures transparency

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[Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews)

GFI MailEssentials

## What is GFI MailEssentials?

GFI Kerio Connect is a communications software that provides email, calendars, contacts, tasks, chat, and more in one unified platform. The software delivers collaboration tools that are easy to deploy and use for SMBs. GFI Kerio Connect brings together email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and chat functionalities into a single solution that can be accessed from computers, tablets, and smartphones.

## What is GFI MailEssentials used for?

[Anti-spam](https://www.capterra.com/anti-spam-software/)[Email Security](https://www.capterra.com/email-security-software/)

Top alternative

Featured

Overall rating

Based on 11 user reviews

Reviews sentiment

Positive

\-

Neutral

\-

Negative

\-

Starting price

€99

One Time

Free trial  
not available

Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products...

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

Do you work for GFI MailEssentials?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://www.gfi.com&name=GFI MailEssentials)

## Compare with a popular alternative

Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status.

### GFI MailEssentials

3.4 (11)

VS.

[4.9 (337)](https://www.capterra.com/p/233248/Hoxhunt/reviews/)

Starting Price

€99

One Time

Starting Price

Contact vendor

Free Trial

Free Version

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

Ease Of Use

3.5 (11)

Ease Of Use

4.9 (337)

Value For Money

3.3 (10)

Value For Money

4.8 (149)

Customer Service

3.3 (9)

Customer Service

4.8 (180)

## GFI MailEssentials alternatives

[Microsoft Defender for Office 365](https://www.capterra.com/p/219685/Microsoft-Defender-for-Office-365/)

[4.6 (235)](https://www.capterra.com/p/219685/Microsoft-Defender-for-Office-365/reviews/)

Starting price

Contact vendor for pricing

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

94%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/219685/Microsoft-Defender-for-Office-365/)

[SpamTitan](https://www.capterra.com/p/168436/SpamTitan/)

[4.6 (563)](https://www.capterra.com/p/168436/SpamTitan/reviews/)

Starting price

$1.26

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

93%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/168436/SpamTitan/)

[Proton Mail](https://www.capterra.com/p/201276/ProtonMail/)

[4.5 (122)](https://www.capterra.com/p/201276/ProtonMail/reviews/)

Starting price

$6.99

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

92%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/201276/ProtonMail/)

[Trustifi](https://www.capterra.com/p/218859/Trustifi/)

[4.9 (18)](https://www.capterra.com/p/218859/Trustifi/#reviews)

Starting price

$6.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

100%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/218859/Trustifi/)

[View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/88914/GFI-MailEssentials/alternatives/)

## Features

Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically.

Allow/Block List

4.0 (2)

50.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Lists of domains/addresses that are allowed / rejected

Spam Blocker

4.0 (2)

50.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Filters used to determine different types of malware threats

Spam Quarantine

3.5 (2)

50.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Feature in email systems that identifies suspicious or unsolicited emails and holds them in a separate folder for review or deletion

Anti Spam

3.0 (1)

0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Techniques to prevent and filter unwanted or unsolicited email spam from reaching a user's inbox

Anti Virus

3.0 (1)

0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Prevents, detects and removes malware

Email Attachment Protection

3.0 (1)

0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Provides protection against malicious attachments.

GFI MailEssentials 10 features

Lists of domains/addresses that are allowed / rejected

Techniques to prevent and filter unwanted or unsolicited email spam from reaching a user's inbox

Prevents, detects and removes malware

Provides protection against malicious attachments.

Use filters to process, organize and categorize emails to identify spam, malware and other unwanted messages

Find & retrieve relevant data or documents

Create, manage, and track policies and procedures within an organization

Filters used to determine different types of malware threats

Feature in email systems that identifies suspicious or unsolicited emails and holds them in a separate folder for review or deletion

Control system access and/or deliverability for applications and email addresses

Features

3.2 (11)

3.2

Based on 11 reviews

## Pricing

Value for money

3.3 (10)

Basic

€99.00

One Time

Value for money

3.3 (10)

3.3

Based on 10 reviews

## Support, customer service and training options

Customer Service

3.3 (9)

Support

-   Email/Help Desk
-   FAQs/Forum
-   Knowledge Base
-   Phone Support
-   24/7 (Live rep)
-   Chat

Training

-   In Person
-   Live Online
-   Webinars
-   Documentation
-   Videos

Deployment

-   Web
-   Android
-   iPhone/iPad

Typical users

-   Freelancers
-   Small businesses
-   Mid size businesses
-   Enterprises

Customer Service

3.3 (9)

3.3

Based on 9 reviews

## User reviews

Overall rating

3.4

Based on 11 reviews

Filter by rating

5(0)

4(6)

3(3)

2(2)

1(0)

Mentioned topic

Sorted by most recent

AU

Anonymous User

IT Manager

Medical Devices

### "Anti Spam / Email security is lack luster"

3.0

Overall Rating

3.0

3.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

3/10

December 12, 2023

Pros

GFI Mailessentials was very cheap compared to other solutions.

Cons

The protection it covers when compared to the current threats in the market

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

CIO

Education Management

### "Great Email security product"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

November 9, 2021

We used GFI MailEssentials to fight SPAM and Email viruses, it served us well for several years and its highly recommended for SMBs

Pros

The software is easy to implement, friendly interface, lots of useful functions and customizations.

Cons

nothing in particular. we didn't face any problems with our setup and the regular updates had been converging most issues.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

Senior Systems Engineer

Information Technology and Services

### "SPAM filter"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

6/10

April 23, 2019

I used to use this before switching to Barracuda.

Pros

This is a good solution and fairly easy to use

Cons

Doesn't scale up well in my opinion, hard when you want to managed a large system.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

IT Administrator

Information Services

### "Spam Filter"

3.0

Overall Rating

3.0

3.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

3.0

3.0

Likelihood to Recommend

6/10

February 19, 2019

Pros

We used this product for few years and then moved to another product . When we used, it worked okay. Open source was the plus that I noticed and self hosted is another.

Cons

We had some issues with legit emails getting tagged as false positives.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JR

John R.

CIO

Accounting

### "A bit finicky"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

2.0

2.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

5/10

October 22, 2018

Pros

Once you get it configured it does a great job of filtering out spam.

Cons

Loves to crash in the middle of the night and fill users boxes with spam.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

JM

Jared M.

Systems Administrator

Leisure, Travel & Tourism

### "Brain-dead easy to manage, but brain-dead stupid software"

2.0

Overall Rating

2.0

2.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

2.0

2.0

Customer Service

3.0

3.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

September 12, 2018

Pros

I suppose the management interface is generally intuitive, though something as simple as whitelisting an individual address or domain can be stupidly cumbersome. Oh, that email address your manager asked you to whitelist still isn't being allowed through? Better make sure you hit 'apply' in both areas, including the more hidden one not readily apparent from the section you enter the email address. Support is fairly responsive, but I have not once had a serious issue resolved by them and isntead referred to their published knowledge base myself. This is not the fault of their support, but instead limitations of the software itself.

Cons

Where to begin? Extraordinarily limited anti-spam, anti-spoof and antivirus engines cause so much spam to waltz through on an hourly basis. It is an absolute embarassment of a product that is humiliating to our department - we've switched to Mimecast which we hopefully plan to implement in the next few weeks. We were saved by our endpoint antivirus software, mercifully, when an email spoofing our domain recently was sent to nearly every user in the company simultaneous attached with a crypto payload in a word doc. It is inexcuseable for software this poorly functioning to be marketed and sold at the price they are requesting. This may be particular to our environment due to the nature of our business and the tremendous email volume, so a smaller company may have success with it.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Matt E.

Network Architect

Consumer Services

### "An OK spam solution"

2.0

Overall Rating

2.0

2.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

2.0

2.0

Customer Service

2.0

2.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

June 5, 2018

Pros

Administration is easier then on some of the other spam solution products I've used. Also one of the cheaper spam solutions.

Cons

The filters are sub par at filtering. Even after verifying hardened settings. Too much spam still gets through.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Shawn B.

President

Information Technology and Services

### "Set it and Forget it AntiSPAM product that we use for most of our non-Office365 Clients"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

2.0

2.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

May 14, 2018

Pros

The Installation is fairly quick and easy. GFI has a host of add-ons so it makes it easier to piece-meal the products you want to add to your deployment. Love the end-user SPAM/Quarantine Access. The Daily Digest feature is excellent, clients like the reports they get daily.

Cons

Can get cumbersome if you start going into the minutiae. The Licensing part I'm not very fond of, if you go over the quantity the software simply stops working after a week or so of grace-period. I would prefer if they sent email reminders when License renewal is closer. Customer Service is hard to get a hold of.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AU

Anonymous User

Director of IT

Hospital & Health Care

### "System administrator "

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

0/10

April 24, 2018

Pros

It's very easy to install system. Mostly the default configuration works out of the box without any problems.

Cons

The system is somewhat easy to use. They have a lot of limitations when you try to do advanced configuration load or reset spam lists.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

ET

Eric T.

I.T. Supervisor

Utilities

### "We have used GFI Mail essentials for the past two years to archive our email for our users to access"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

February 9, 2018

The ability to quickly and effectively archive our emails and retrieve them via a simple web browser gui.

Pros

It has performed very well as far as the archiving of our emails. Our users are able to retrieve their own emails for themselves therefore reducing the administration overhead of doing the same tasks ourselves.

Cons

There are only a few gripes and most are minor. One being the amount of segmented archives that seem to get created. Integration with our domain was a little tricky.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

[View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/88914/GFI-MailEssentials/reviews/)

Independent research methodology

Capterra's researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.

[Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/proprietary-data-research/)

How Capterra verifies reviews

Capterra carefully verified over 2.5 million+ reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.

[Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-verify-reviews/)

How Capterra ensures transparency

Capterra lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Capterra is free for users. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Sponsored profiles include a link-out icon that takes users to the provider's website.

[Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-ensure-transparency/)