Email Archiving and Compliance -- Proofpoint Alternatives

Best Proofpoint Alternatives for Email Archiving and Compliance in 2026

Email archiving and compliance is a critical requirement for regulated industries including financial services, healthcare, legal, and government. These organizations must retain email communications for specified periods, produce emails in response to legal discovery requests, and demonstrate compliance with regulations like SEC Rule 17a-4, HIPAA, FINRA, and GDPR. Effective email archiving requires tamper-proof storage, granular search and eDiscovery, litigation hold, and supervision workflows to monitor communications for policy violations.

How It Works

1

Define Retention Requirements

Map your regulatory requirements to email retention periods: SEC Rule 17a-4 requires broker-dealers to retain email for 3-6 years, HIPAA requires 6 years for healthcare communications, and FINRA requires 3-6 years for financial communications. Define retention policies for different user groups and email categories based on regulatory requirements and business needs.

2

Deploy Journaling and Archive

Configure email journaling to capture a copy of every inbound, outbound, and internal email to your archive. Ensure the archive is tamper-proof and provides immutable storage that meets regulatory requirements. Verify that the archiving solution captures the complete email including headers, body, attachments, and metadata required for compliance.

3

Configure eDiscovery and Search

Set up eDiscovery workflows that allow legal and compliance teams to search the archive by date range, sender, recipient, keywords, and attachment type. Test search performance on large datasets to ensure timely response to discovery requests. Configure role-based access so only authorized personnel can access archived communications.

4

Implement Litigation Hold and Supervision

Configure litigation hold capabilities to preserve emails related to legal matters, preventing deletion even after retention periods expire. Deploy supervision policies to monitor communications for regulatory violations, insider trading language, or policy breaches. Assign reviewers to supervision queues and establish escalation procedures for detected violations.

5

Validate Compliance and Audit Readiness

Conduct regular audits to verify that all emails are being captured, retention policies are applied correctly, and the archive meets regulatory storage requirements. Generate compliance reports documenting retention enforcement, supervision activity, and eDiscovery response times. Prepare for regulatory audits by maintaining documentation of your archiving policies, retention schedules, and supervision workflows.

Top Recommendations

#1

Mimecast

Enterprise Email Gateway

Custom pricing / per-user licensing

The most direct alternative to Proofpoint's archiving with cloud-based email archive, eDiscovery, supervision, and compliance features. Offers 7-year retention, litigation hold, and regulatory compliance including SEC 17a-4 and FINRA. The closest feature-for-feature replacement for Proofpoint's archiving capabilities.

#2

Barracuda Email Security

Enterprise Email Gateway

From $3.60/user/month / appliance pricing varies

Includes cloud email archiving with search, compliance retention policies, and eDiscovery export at a fraction of Proofpoint and Mimecast's pricing. Good enough for organizations with basic archiving needs that do not require advanced supervision or SEC 17a-4 compliance.

#3

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Cloud Email Security

Plan 1 from $2/user/month / Plan 2 from $5/user/month / included in E5

Microsoft Purview (formerly Microsoft 365 Compliance) provides email retention, eDiscovery, litigation hold, and communication compliance natively within Microsoft 365. Included in E5 licensing and covers Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive alongside email. Best for Microsoft-centric organizations wanting unified compliance.

Detailed Tool Profiles

Mimecast

Enterprise Email Gateway
4.3

Cloud email security platform with threat protection, archiving, and continuity

Pricing

Custom pricing / per-user licensing

Best For

Mid-to-large enterprises wanting a unified email security, archiving, and continuity platform with strong API integrations

Key Features
Targeted Threat Protection (URL, attachment, impersonation)Email continuity and failoverCloud-based email archivingSecurity awareness training+4 more
Pros
  • +Email continuity keeps mail flowing during outages — unique differentiator
  • +Strong impersonation and brand protection capabilities
  • +Unified platform covering security, archiving, and continuity
Cons
  • Detection efficacy slightly behind Proofpoint for advanced threats
  • Email archiving search performance can be slow on large datasets
  • Pricing is still premium and comparable to Proofpoint
Cloud

Barracuda Email Security

Enterprise Email Gateway
4.1

Email threat protection platform available as gateway appliance or cloud service

Pricing

From $3.60/user/month / appliance pricing varies

Best For

Small-to-mid-market organizations wanting effective email security at a lower price point than Proofpoint or Mimecast

Key Features
Multi-layer email threat scanningLink and attachment sandboxingAnti-spam and anti-malware filteringEmail encryption and DLP+4 more
Pros
  • +Significantly lower pricing than Proofpoint and Mimecast
  • +Available as both appliance and cloud service for deployment flexibility
  • +Straightforward administration with less complexity
Cons
  • Detection efficacy below Proofpoint for advanced targeted threats
  • Cloud-native API protection less mature than gateway product
  • Reporting and analytics less sophisticated than enterprise competitors
CloudSelf-Hosted

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Cloud Email Security
4.4

Microsoft's native email security for Microsoft 365 with XDR integration

Pricing

Plan 1 from $2/user/month / Plan 2 from $5/user/month / included in E5

Best For

Microsoft 365-centric organizations wanting native email security with XDR integration and cost efficiency through E5 licensing

Key Features
Safe Links (URL detonation and rewriting)Safe Attachments (sandbox analysis)Anti-phishing with impersonation protectionAutomated investigation and response (AIR)+4 more
Pros
  • +Deep native integration with Microsoft 365 and Defender XDR ecosystem
  • +Included in Microsoft 365 E5 — significant cost savings for E5 customers
  • +Automated investigation and response reduces analyst workload
Cons
  • Only protects Microsoft 365 — does not support Google Workspace or other platforms
  • Detection efficacy for advanced threats historically behind Proofpoint and Mimecast
  • Configuration complexity across multiple Microsoft security portals
Cloud

Email Archiving and Compliance FAQ

How does Proofpoint's archiving compare to Microsoft Purview?

Proofpoint's email archiving is purpose-built for compliance with deep eDiscovery, litigation hold, supervision, and regulatory storage capabilities. Microsoft Purview provides broader coverage across email, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive with unified retention policies. For organizations that need SEC 17a-4 compliance specifically, Proofpoint offers a dedicated compliance archive that meets the strictest requirements. For general email retention and eDiscovery within a Microsoft 365 environment, Purview is often sufficient and eliminates the need for a separate archiving vendor.

Is Mimecast's archiving as capable as Proofpoint's?

Mimecast's cloud archive is comparable to Proofpoint's for most compliance use cases, offering tamper-proof storage, eDiscovery, litigation hold, and supervision workflows. Both support SEC 17a-4 compliance and FINRA requirements. The main differences are in search performance at scale (Proofpoint generally handles larger archives more efficiently), supervision workflow sophistication, and integration depth with compliance tools. For most regulated organizations, Mimecast's archiving is a fully adequate Proofpoint replacement.

Do AI email security tools like Abnormal Security offer archiving?

No. AI-powered email security tools like Abnormal Security, IRONSCALES, and Tessian focus exclusively on threat detection and do not provide email archiving or compliance capabilities. If archiving is a requirement, you need a platform like Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda, or Microsoft Purview alongside your threat detection tools. This is one of the key advantages of comprehensive platforms like Proofpoint — they provide both threat protection and compliance in a single solution.

What are the risks of relying on Microsoft 365 native retention instead of a dedicated archive?

Microsoft 365 native retention through Purview is sufficient for many compliance scenarios, but dedicated archives offer advantages: independent storage separate from your email platform (important if Microsoft has an outage or data loss), faster search performance on large datasets, more sophisticated supervision workflows, and compliance certifications specifically for archival storage (SEC 17a-4). Regulated industries like financial services and healthcare often prefer dedicated archiving to satisfy auditors who want independent third-party retention outside the email platform.

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