Purview and Google Workspace DLP alternative for people without an IT department
Built-in DLP in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace is powerful, admin-only, and gated behind the expensive editions. Presend gives each person the pre-send check in the compose box — in Gmail, Outlook Web, Slack and LinkedIn — for $3 a month.
If you are on Microsoft 365 E5 or a Google Workspace Enterprise edition and have an admin who writes policies, use the DLP you already pay for — it enforces at the server and Presend does not. If you are on a lower tier, or nobody is going to write the policies, or your exposure is on Slack and LinkedIn as much as email, Presend is the check that actually gets turned on.
What Purview and Workspace DLP does
Microsoft Purview DLP and Google Workspace DLP let an administrator define policies — sensitive-information types, keywords, labels — and enforce them across mail and files: warn, block, encrypt, or report. Purview's Exchange DLP basics are in Microsoft 365 E3, with the advanced actions and classifiers in E5 or the E5 Compliance add-on. Google's DLP for Gmail sits in the Enterprise editions.
Why people look elsewhere
- It is gated behind the top-tier licences, so smaller companies on Business plans do not have it.
- Policies are written by an administrator; individuals cannot add a check for their own recurring mistake.
- It is scoped to the suite. Slack, LinkedIn, Zendesk, and the rest of the SaaS you paste into are outside it.
- It classifies data, not writing. Nothing tells the sender the message reads like a chatbot.
Side by side
| Purview and Workspace DLP | Presend | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Mail and files inside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace | Gmail, Outlook Web, Slack, LinkedIn, X, any web compose box |
| Server-side enforcement | ✓block, encrypt, quarantine | –sender-side confirmation |
| Sensitive-information types (PII, financial) | ✓large built-in library | ✓SSN / card patterns, credentials |
| Credential detection by sentence label | Partial, via custom patterns | ✓built in |
| Attachment mentioned but missing | – | ✓ |
| AI-slop and voice check | – | ✓ |
| Rules written by the sender | –admin only | ✓plain English, one severity each |
| Compliance reporting and audit | ✓ | –Team dashboard of findings only |
| Licence required | M365 E3 basic / E5 advanced; Workspace Enterprise | None; browser extension |
| Pricing | Included in eligible editions | Free / $3 / $29 per user |
The DLP You Already Have
If your organisation is on Microsoft 365 E5 or Google Workspace Enterprise, you own a serious data-loss-prevention system. It can find a card number in an outbound email and block it at the server, encrypt a message carrying a health record, and produce a report for the auditor. Presend does none of that, and if that is your requirement you should turn on what you are paying for.
Most companies are not in that position. They are on Business Standard, or E3, and the DLP feature is either absent or a stub. Or they have the licence and nobody has written a policy in two years, because policies are an administrator's job and the administrator is busy. The exposure is the same either way: a person about to paste a key into a message with nothing between them and Send.
That is the gap Presend fills. It is not a replacement for suite DLP. It is the check that exists when suite DLP does not, or is not switched on, or does not reach the app the person is typing in.
Enforcement and a Gate Are Different Things
Suite DLP enforces. The policy decides, and the user finds out afterwards, sometimes with a bounce. That is the right guarantee for regulated data and the reason it needs an owner.
Presend gates. It evaluates the draft at the send gesture — the click, or the platform's send keystroke — and raises a confirmation sheet when a finding is classed as risk. The sender can still send. They cannot send without looking. For the mistakes people actually make — the key that was meant for a colleague, the banned promise, the number that should never have been typed — looking is usually enough.
Where Suite DLP Cannot Follow
Purview governs Microsoft's estate; Workspace DLP governs Google's. Neither reaches the Slack message, the LinkedIn DM, the Zendesk reply, the HubSpot note or the Notion comment, and those surfaces leak the same credentials and customer data that email does.
Presend runs on all of them. Gmail and Outlook Web have adapters that know the send button and the recipient list; Slack gets a guard on plain-Enter sends; LinkedIn and X are covered; and every other textarea and contenteditable on the web is found structurally, so a SaaS nobody wrote an adapter for still gets checked. Rules are filtered by channel — email-only checks stay in email, secrets and PII run everywhere, and slop escalates to a hard stop on public posts.
The Checks Nobody Writes a Policy For
Suite DLP classifies data. It does not know that "see attached" has no attachment, that "the link is below" has no link, that a company named in the subject never appears in the body, or that the whole message reads like it came out of a chat window. Presend ships those checks, plus a credential detector that keys off the sentence — "here is the password:" — rather than only off known key formats, plus a slop engine and a local voice check that underlines the sentences that do not sound like you.
And the rule for the mistake you personally keep making is one you write yourself, in plain English, with a severity. No ticket to IT.
Pricing and Licensing
Suite DLP is included in the editions that have it and unavailable below them; the upgrade path to E5 or Enterprise is priced per user per month across the whole organisation. Presend needs no licence at all. Free covers twenty-five AI checks a day with local rule checks unlimited, Pro is $3 a month, Team is $29 per user per month for org-wide rules, Custom Actions and the dashboard.
Stay with Purview and Workspace DLP if
- You are already licensed for it and someone owns the policies.
- You need enforcement the user cannot bypass, with audit reporting.
- Your sensitive data is defined by classifier and label, not by what a person types.
Switch to Presend if
- You are on a Business or E3 plan and the DLP you want is an upgrade away.
- Nobody is going to write and maintain policies.
- Your people paste secrets into Slack and LinkedIn as readily as into email.
Pricing, checked September 11, 2026
- Purview and Workspace DLP
- Included with eligible editions. Purview: basic Exchange DLP in Microsoft 365 E3, advanced in E5 or E5 Compliance. Google: DLP for Gmail in Workspace Enterprise editions.
- Presend
- Free: 25 AI checks a day, local rule checks and voice scoring unlimited. Pro $3/month. Team $29/user/month.
Vendor pricing changes; verify at the vendor's own page before you decide.
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