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KnowBe4 vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

KnowBe4
Ranking in Security Awareness Training
1st
Average Rating
9.4
Number of Reviews
4
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
50
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (2nd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Security Awareness Training category, the mindshare of KnowBe4 is 32.1%, down from 36.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 10.4%, down from 14.7% 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.
Pranay Gurrapu - PeerSpot reviewer
Beginner -friendly tool and simplifies the process of adding new domains
I didn't work on the installation and deployment, but I know the procedure. It's easy, not complicated. We just need to have servers and storage capacity. In our organization, it was an on-premises Proofpoint Protection, so we had a server, capacity storage, and all. We also need to connect that server with our internal environment and Active Directory. It's all easy. There's documentation from Proofpoint on how to do it. And we also have support from their team to guide us.

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."
"Their customizable nature allows us to create scenarios that closely resemble real-world phishing attempts, making them highly relatable to our end users."
"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."
"It's very good at identifying threats."
"Provides better control over emails, especially those sent via Office 365 on the cloud."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is the best solution from the perspective of email security."
"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are the performance from being on the cloud."
"The solution offers very good flexibility. You can blacklist or whitelist with ease."
"It's the top choice because no company can operate without security. Ensuring email protection is a major priority for any organization when building its infrastructure."
"The setup was easy."
"The solution scales well."
 

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."
"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."
"The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge."
"The flexibility of the solution can be improved."
"You only receive one model in Proofpoint Email Protection and the other ones you have to purchase at a high price. There should be more available with the solution and additional models should be less expensive."
"They do not have an on-demand scan for the internal viruses and internal users, and they don't have a scan for the exchange server against viruses and spam as Symantec does."
"Proofpoint should have better integration with complex environments that need more than one instance of Proofpoint, as there are issues with nested instances."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve by allowing more customization of the reports, such as exceptions and black-and-white lists."
"Sometimes it doesn't detect actual spam emails, and sometimes it catches normal emails."
"We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"I rate the product pricing as four out of ten."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"We sell annual licenses for this solution."
"The licensing is basically $8/user."
"It is on a yearly basis. Their floor for SMB doesn't matter. The user count is 100 users and below at $2,500 a year. Its cost is higher than other solutions. It is probably about 20% to 30% higher than what you would get with Microsoft. There are no additional costs. All costs are factored in. It can be improved pricing-wise so that it is affordable for the SMB market."
"The price is reasonable."
"Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost."
"Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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?
My advice would be to find a trusted partner and work with them. The pricing model is simple. If you have the technical staff and bandwidth, you may implement it yourself. However, if you want to g...
What needs improvement with KnowBe4?
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 t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?
Proofpoint is considered a very expensive solution compared to others like FortiMail, being double in cost. Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription ...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
Phishing detection & Response capabilities could improve further to match some of the capabilities offered by competitors. Proofpoint could expand its PDR capabilities to improve its efficiency...
 

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: December 2024.
825,661 professionals have used our research since 2012.