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Forcepoint Email Security [EOL] vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Forcepoint Email Security [...
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Proofpoint Email Protection
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

Kunjal Haria - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Manager at Muraspec Decorative Solutions Ltd
Stable, easy to scale, and has anti-spam and anti-spyware features, but support needs to be faster and more knowledgeable
I've contacted Forcepoint Email Security support, but I'm not satisfied with the answer speed. It could be a lot faster. I also get more answers on the internet than from the technical support team, so Forcepoint Email Security needs more knowledgeable support. On a scale of one to five, my rating for the technical support of Forcepoint Email Security is three.
Siva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Email defenses have reduced phishing incidents and protect sensitive data across our enterprise
As things are evolving and threats develop in unpredictable ways, Proofpoint must adopt AI solutions and agentic solutions more aggressively and provide them to customers as part of service offerings. Inbuilt AI solutions would add more value and make Proofpoint a more premium choice for customers. With the help of AI solutions, agentic AI, and generative AI capabilities, the product would be more efficient than it currently is. Filtering false positives is highly challenging because it is impossible for humans to identify which emails are genuine and which are spam. Proofpoint should focus more on this area with back-end agents or other tools. Proofpoint should decide which emails are genuine and which are spam so it is not a challenge for end users. When receiving an email, end users should not have to determine whether to respond or not. Proofpoint should not release such spam emails and should strictly block such spam and spoof emails based on connection IPs. Currently, false positives occur in the product, and while this occurs in every product, it is an area where Proofpoint can focus on improving and reducing false positives. One email is enough for an end user to be deceived and lose money, so addressing this area is critical.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like how versatile the options are. For example, we can set it where we are able to access and browse Facebook but we are denied the ability to post photos. There is also that ability integrate with Office 365 - SharePoint app."
"This is a reasonably stable solution."
"The solution has been very stable over the years."
"The feature I find most valuable is the web, email and DLP integration."
"It meets the client's requirements; whatever categories need to be blocked, it does the job perfectly."
"The filtering of the solution is very good. You can do URL filtering and, while you need a custom URL to filter under other solutions like Symantec, here the solution covers most categories and the database."
"With businesses running on email now, the companies are completely protected with this solution, and our customers are happy."
"The solution has proven to be quite user-friendly, it's easier to deploy than other options, it's a stable product, the performance has been flawless, we found the solution to be scalable, the dashboards are good, and its price point is fair and reasonable."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has definitely impacted my organization positively."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by blocking significantly more phishing emails, and phishing is the main entry point into getting compromised, so I have more peace of mind knowing that more malicious emails are getting blocked."
"We have noticed a huge improvement in productivity of the users by clearing up their inbox of malicious emails and spam, and it has also prevented and secured our environment on a daily basis, making the security team's job much easier."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk."
"Proofpoint Email Protection's initial installation is straightforward. It took us less than a day to complete the implementation."
"At this point in time, there's nothing that needs to be changed or improved in the tool."
"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are the performance from being on the cloud."
"Proofpoint Email Protection helped create a safe environment by blocking and preventing Active Directory harvesting attacks, imposter attacks, backscattering, spam, and malicious attacks."
 

Cons

"Customer support could be better."
"I would like to see some improvement like cloud application and integration capabilities and the classification part is missing from the DLP."
"My advice, if you're looking into using Forcepoint Email Security, is that you can find better options out there."
"An area for improvement in Forcepoint Email Security is technical support. The agents need to be more knowledgeable. The support also needs to be faster."
"The pricing could always be just a little bit better."
"The reporting functionality needs to be improved, as it is not customizable."
"Forcepoint is the best for DLP, but it is not better than other solutions in terms of phishing emails or threat protections on the email. It has less visibility over there. They might need to enhance these components because other solutions, such as Cisco Email Security and IronPort, have more advanced features. Forcepoint should focus more on threats and spam. They have a small database for spam. They must increase their solution's capability from this perspective."
"There are a lot of limitations on this product when you compare to other products in the market."
"Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms. Even their mail flow rules are not the best thing."
"The incident reporting on offer needs to be improved. It's lacking right now. It should be on the platform somewhere."
"Given my other experience with other vendors, I think they are a bit on the high end and a bit on the pricey end for the email security functionality that we were using."
"Every client always finds it expensive, but I don't know how much they're paying for it."
"Sometimes it detects false positives."
"The flexibility of the solution can be improved."
"The only limitation we have with Proofpoint Email Protection is when we implement it with Google Workspace."
"Everything with Proofpoint Email Protection has room for improvement in my opinion."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company pays for Forcepoint Email Security licensing annually."
"Licensing is a yearly subscription that is based on the number of users."
"The licensing is user base (per user). The product is purchased mostly by medium to large companies. For smaller companies, we have other solutions because the pricing is not cheap."
"Its licensing is quite easy and straightforward. They have two or three suites, and the price is negotiable. It depends upon the size of the deal. They have multiple licenses. The standard is one, and then there are additional licenses that you can go for. There are three or four licensing models. You have the network suite, endpoint suite, email security, and the standard one."
"There are three types of support licenses."
"When compared to other email security solutions, the price is not cheap."
"It is expensive."
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
"The licensing is basically $8/user."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has comparable pricing."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is a reasonably priced product, which means that it is neither too low nor too high in terms of price."
"The price is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Healthcare Company
8%
Performing Arts
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

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Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
To improve Proofpoint Email Protection, I suggest breaking down the URL into one versus three different GUIs. Regarding Proofpoint Email Protection's AI capabilities, I think its governance and sec...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection includes phishing emails, spam, URL isolation, and training. I utilize the email protect portal to ensure that none of our employees in any of the b...
 

Also Known As

Websense Email Security
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Alphawest, Amadori, AudioNova, Betsson, Confartigianato Vicenza, Davies Turner, iGATE, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Landa Digital Printing, Northern California Bank, Scavolini, Toyota
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint, Microsoft, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Email Security. Updated: September 2026.
919,586 professionals have used our research since 2012.