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KnowBe4 vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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

KnowBe4
Ranking in Security Awareness Training
1st
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Security Awareness Training
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (3rd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Security Awareness Training category, the mindshare of KnowBe4 is 27.5%, down from 35.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 9.0%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Awareness Training
 

Featured Reviews

Brad Mathis - PeerSpot reviewer
Lowers human element risks and has innovative training
Some more AI-driven automation for creating training and phishing testing campaigns, as well as automated reporting would help. The Phish Alert button could be improved, although it is understood this is due to Microsoft's constant changes. Any improvements in wizards and documentation are always a good thing!. Additonal areas for improvement could be around the technical training and best practice training areas such as NIST CSF, CISv8, Cyberinsurance, and more. Clearer whitelisting requirements are always appreciated. However, the current levels are significant and appreciated.
AhmedRamadan - PeerSpot reviewer
Optimize email security with effective sandboxing and auto Pull for quarantine
Proofpoint is used as an email security gateway for big enterprises, primarily for their on-premises servers. Many customers also use it alongside Office 365 Proofpoint offers a complete solution for email security with features like DLP, email archiving, and encryption. The most valuable…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are many valuable features. It's already deployed in the cloud, and you don't have to install anything. You just upload your users to the cloud and tweak something if needed. You can whitelist some servers to work with this properly. When everything is ready, you can start using the platform and its many automated features."
"The solution is very well priced and very affordable."
"The main thing is the overall report card. We get to tell the percentages of users who click on links and who don't click on links. We also get an overall score or risk score from them, which also helps us."
"KnowBe4's formulas for risk reduction simply work. Being a technical company, our initial phish-prone percentage wasn't super high, but it was still around 18%. Since we have been requiring ongoing training and simulated phish testing, our average phish-prone percentage hovers in the 0 to 3% range now."
"The ability to have business leadership be aware of their users' security posture as well as any kind of security awareness training being pushed by cybersecurity insurance and underwriters is valuable."
"Their customizable nature allows us to create scenarios that closely resemble real-world phishing attempts, making them highly relatable to our end users."
"The tool has improved our workflow by ensuring people receive only the emails they need for work rather than being inundated with hundreds or thousands of unnecessary emails daily."
"They have customized security rules, mature rules, anti-virus protection, as well as email authentication similar to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC."
"It's a mature product. It does a good job in detection."
"Its main defense is to stop malicious emails from coming through. There is a sandbox environment where you can open malicious or suspicious emails to make sure that they're not malicious, instead of taking the risk of having your employees do it. This is definitely something that everybody needs nowadays, especially with the rise in cyber attacks."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to remove bad messages that were delivered, prior to being classified as unwanted."
"The most valuable features are the business email compromise protection and targeted attack prevention."
"Proofpoint provides an expandable project model, including DLP, email archiving, and encryption, which makes it a complete email security solution."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the blocking capabilities, it blocks a lot of potential threats."
 

Cons

"Enhancing the product's emotional intelligence, particularly by providing training content tailored to specific audiences, is an area for improvement."
"It can be more interactive with users. We want to put the users in different scenarios and let them make decisions. For example, instead of making users go through a video and then asking questions, it can have a video where they click on the scenarios and have to make decisions. It can maybe have something like a live simulation. It would be nice for users."
"I would like to see Novo4 expand to other channels outside of emails to things such as text messages."
"It could be more localized for Ukrainian users. This platform is international, and it has a lot of material in different languages, but not in Ukrainian and Russian languages. There's plenty of different content updated regularly for English, French, and German users. They have a lot more information, and Ukrainian users also want more."
"Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms."
"In terms of improvement, the price could be better. Additionally, more security could be implemented."
"Unfortunately, the whole product is going downhill right now, ever since they were sold to Thoma Bravo. We're constantly having problems with stability and the product in general."
"The solution could be improved with the addition of PLP and email encryption features."
"The Secure Mail aspect should have an Outlook add-in, instead of an external dashboard that outside users have to access."
"The support team was a bit slow."
"The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has a new approach to email security with its API feature. Currently, it only works with Office 365. In the future, it would be beneficial if it also works with Gmail, as Check Point is currently the only brand that has API email security for Gmail. It would be beneficial if Proofpoint Email Protection could add this integration, they would be more competitive with other vendors."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product pricing as four out of ten."
"I don't know the cost, but I believe we are paying yearly. We did like a three-year or five-year contract. I am not aware of any extra costs in addition to a standard licensing fee."
"Licensing is paid on a yearly basis. You can go to the official site to check their approximate pricing. It's based on the number of users or staff. It can vary from country to country, but for Ukraine, it works as it's stated on the site."
"It's about five dollars a seat per month."
"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
"Clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive."
"Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost."
"The price is reasonable."
"Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees."
"They are competitively priced, but I have been forced to get quotes for other solutions now because they haven't been responding to requests to do the work that we would like them to do."
"In general, the pricing is competitive."
"It is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
7%
University
6%
Educational Organization
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about KnowBe4?
Their customizable nature allows us to create scenarios that closely resemble real-world phishing attempts, making them highly relatable to our end users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KnowBe4?
The solution is very well priced and very affordable. It's about five dollars a seat per month.
What needs improvement with KnowBe4?
I would like to see Novo4 expand to other channels outside of emails to things such as text messages.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?
In terms of pricing, it is okay compared to others. I would say it is normal. Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
In terms of improvement, the price could be better. Additionally, more security could be implemented.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Cofense PhishMe, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

West Aurora Public School District 129
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about KnowBe4 vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.