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Forcepoint Email Security [EOL] vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

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

MB
Senior IT Security at ALEXBANK
Easy to use and setup and expands well
We primarily use the solution for email security The solution is very easy for administration. The interface is very good.  It's easy to set up initially. We have found the product to be stable.  It can scale well.  The solution could use better integration capabilities.  There are other…
Siva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at Infosys
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

"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."
"As a Forcepoint partner, we support the product; it is a good choice, and so far, I have not seen a lack of features, as this product is doing very well and every year they are adding features into their product."
"Unlike other competitors, it doesn't cause any performance issues."
"The email and the web filter aspects of the solution are the most valuable features."
"It meets the client's requirements; whatever categories need to be blocked, it does the job perfectly."
"It's easier to deploy than other options."
"Technical support is great and are available during the week and on weekends."
"The solution is very easy for administration."
"We've observed that we have almost 99.9% control over our emails now in an easy to configure and easy to implement solution."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the dashboards and their visibility, easy configuration, and artificial intelligence, and additionally, the reports are very important and helpful."
"Overall, using Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted our security posture, and we are using multiple products in Proofpoint, including DLP and email protection, and the real-time experience has us very satisfied."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has massively improved the attack surface and has limited a lot of user compromise events."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has increased the efficiency of the organization, as before a single end user might be receiving fifteen, twenty, or thirty spam emails in a week, but with Proofpoint Email Protection, they have decreased by approximately eighty percent, so users are receiving many fewer spam emails and do not have to go through all the spam emails just to verify if they are legitimate or not."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by reducing the number of cyber email attacks we are receiving compared to the past."
"The flexibility is unbelievable and you could get extremely creative to accommodate real case scenarios."
"Using Proofpoint Email Protection has improved my SOC analyst workloads significantly by reducing false positives and the number of incidents in the queue."
 

Cons

"The reporting functionality needs to be improved, as it is not customizable."
"I would like to see some improvement like cloud application and integration capabilities and the classification part is missing from the DLP."
"It's quite difficult to learn this solution, it's not an entry level product. If you are a skilled user you will think it's a very useful tool, but if you are not a skilled user, you'll think it is very difficult to learn."
"It would be better if it were simpler to deploy on one or two machines instead of three or four machines."
"My advice, if you're looking into using Forcepoint Email Security, is that you can find better options out there."
"Customer support could be better."
"Forcepoint Email Security is stable, but it could be improved."
"I would like for deployment to be simplified."
"The management portal of Proofpoint Email Protection has an outdated UI that requires an update for better usability."
"Every client always finds it expensive, but I don't know how much they're paying for it."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve on the training. Every organization is different and to fine-tune it to block everything properly there needs to be better training. Sometimes it can block some of the information it shouldn't."
"I would like to see improvements in the transition from Proofpoint Protection Server to Proofpoint on Demand because Proofpoint Protection Server is not very user-friendly and requires logging into two portals for some features."
"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."
"The setup requires expertise. It needs someone with experience on managing it, and I would rate the implementation as needing someone experienced."
"We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."
"The solution could lower its price."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is a yearly subscription that is based on the number of users."
"My company pays for Forcepoint Email Security licensing annually."
"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."
"When compared to other email security solutions, the price 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."
"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."
"The licensing model for Proofpoint Email Protection is simple. It's based on the number of users. Price-wise, Proofpoint Email Protection is a five out of ten because it's a pretty expensive solution."
"Clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive."
"Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
"The solution charges per user per month to use it. There are not any additional fees in addition to the standard living fees."
"In general, the pricing is competitive."
"The licensing is basically $8/user."
"It is multiple times more expensive, which made it very much less attractive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Healthcare Company
9%
Performing Arts
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
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 Business29
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
The downside is I feel the vendor support is a little lacking and should be more responsive. The technical support is not up to the mark.
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
I am leading this security domain, and my L1 and L2s have been using Proofpoint Email Protection and other modules of Proofpoint Email Protection for more than three years.We are currently working ...
 

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: August 2026.
911,039 professionals have used our research since 2012.