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Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance 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

Microsoft Purview Communica...
Ranking in Digital Risk Protection
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
GRC (17th), Microsoft Security Suite (32nd)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Digital Risk Protection
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Digital Risk Protection category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 2.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Digital Risk Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection2.3%
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance0.9%
Other96.8%
Digital Risk Protection
 

Featured Reviews

CP
System administrator
Facilitates compliance and records management but needs user-friendly enhancements
The features I appreciate the most in Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance include the ability to build cases, give them dates, and find them based on the notes that I left behind. The importance of Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance building taking into account critical regulations from around the world is very significant. It helps us stay up to date. While I don't need the functionality, Purview delivers data protection across multi-cloud and security platform environments, including AWS and GCP. It takes into account critical regulations from around the world. It helps us stay up to date with what's going on. We can show compliance in real-time. It's very easy to pull records. The time it saves is very useful.
AshishKochhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Team Lead at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Advanced email protection has blocked targeted attacks and reduces manual threat handling
I feel Proofpoint Email Protection is overpriced. I cannot say that the security level being provided does not justify the cost, but when comparing the similar level of security with other applications or security systems, it is overpriced. If Proofpoint could provide offers or discounts for customers who are already using the product or for new customers implementing it, along with some free services or add-ons, that would be helpful in terms of financial expense. Proofpoint Email Protection has recently introduced AI functionality in terms of data security capabilities and protecting AI assistance from targeted attacks. This is important since everything is now related to AI. The solution is doing threat detection and real-time threat detection and response pretty well. There are a few things I would like to see improved. Sometimes Proofpoint Email Protection takes time to analyze the workflow and the nature of the email. In this age of AI, the solution should analyze an email on the first receipt and determine whether it should pass or be marked as spam without checking previous data. Another improvement would be to have a more user-friendly dashboard. Additionally, if Proofpoint could add the same features in BCP as part of email protection in BCP, it would be helpful since I currently have to take a different add-on for BCP, and integrating it would save costs. I cannot say that threats have increased or decreased with Proofpoint Email Protection because it depends on the mail flow. The solution captures and filters out all threats, and the email threats vary every day depending on how many users are receiving how many emails per day. Today there might be 1,000 emails, tomorrow 5,000, and the day after 500. Proofpoint Email Protection does its job by scanning all emails and threats are reduced to some extent. Since I am aware that virus definitions are updated every day, I cannot blame Proofpoint Email Protection if they take time to determine the nature of an email being received. There are sometimes emails that are false positives, and Proofpoint Email Protection is a bit strict in analyzing false positives, sometimes stopping emails that are actually required. It analyzes the previous nature of an email and if a template looks like an informational template or related to spam, it blocks it because it looks similar to one blocked earlier. However, the template might actually be required. If I receive the same template today that is also blocked by Proofpoint Email Protection, that particular template might be useful and should not be blocked. In such cases, I have to raise it as a false positive stating that this is something in use or my users use and should be released. When AI starts doing its work, it analyzes the email from a sender with a particular template and releases it, but if the same email and template come from another sender, it blocks it according to the policies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance helps with extra collaboration and ensures communication is within the framework."
"The time it saves is very useful."
"Customer support is excellent."
"The features I appreciate the most in Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance include the ability to build cases, give them dates, and find them based on the notes that I left behind."
"The targeted attack protection that we use has been great, as has the email filtering and the rules that we have set for Proofpoint."
"Our clients have definitely seen an ROI; their level of breach and reporting of malicious emails from their user base actually went down by over 50% by using this product."
"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 Phish Alarm button allows users to submit questionable emails for review and complete analysis."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to remove bad messages that were delivered, prior to being classified as unwanted."
"The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is stable enough and does its job of virus, malware, and email scam detection. Setting it up is not too complicated."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk."
 

Cons

"The product should incorporate more automation with the help of AI."
"Monitoring and compliance for web applications could be improved."
"Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance can be improved by having more tutorials available for those who aren't used to using this platform."
"Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance can be improved by having more tutorials available for those who aren't used to using this platform."
"Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms."
"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 Email Protection could improve the Mail Trace feature and make navigation easier."
"Regarding improvements or enhancements in Proofpoint Email Protection, I find the platform somewhat chaotic. It has too many different sections that perform the same function, which is very confusing."
"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."
"Proofpoint Email Protection provides a solution for user training, which I did not end up going with because I chose KnowBe4. That is the only part I did not appreciate about it."
"We find the cost to be prohibitive."
"One major threat is QR code phishing, along with TOAD (Telephone-Oriented Attack Delivery). TOAD attacks don't include links, URLs, or attachments in emails. Instead, attackers try to trick you into calling them, often by offering something enticing like a 50% discount on football matches."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Proofpoint Email Protection has comparable pricing."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"The tool's pricing depends on the customer's preference, offering options for an annual license or a monthly subscription. The cost varies based on factors such as the number of users and specific requirements. Overall, the pricing is competitive."
"The solution charges per user per month to use it. There are not any additional fees in addition to the standard living fees."
"Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
"The end customer is buying our solution, which can be for monthly or annual usage depending on our payment and business model."
"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance?
I was talking with some engineer from Microsoft about how we can audit our web page. They create or add to Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance that part, the Layer seven of the OSI model, to...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance?
Overall, I rate Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance at a nine. I highly recommend it to anyone due to its robust system and valuable resources for IT security, risk assessment, and data mana...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance?
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance is a bit expensive, $500 per license, but it is cheaper compared to products like ComplyAd, GeoComply, and ComplyAdvantage.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?
This is not something that I deal with regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
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...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
In my environment, I am using Proofpoint Email Protection for advanced email threat protection. For malware, spam, and virus protection, we are using their email protection module and security modu...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
886,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.