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Senior Information Security Consultant at Dimah Capital
Consultant
Top 20
The product protects organizations from malicious attacks, has no downtime, and has a responsible support team
Pros and Cons
  • "There is no downtime."
  • "The price could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is used for email protection. It protects us from malicious attacks. It has sandboxing, archiving, email retrieval, and quarantine features.

How has it helped my organization?

The product helps us with email archiving and indexing of emails.

What is most valuable?

All the security features in the tool are good enough. It provides ransomware protection. The solution is always available. There is no downtime. There is no loss of data. We also have Emergency Inbox services. If our Exchange Server is down, we could still retrieve our emails from Proofpoint’s cloud. The tool provides us with all the basic and advanced security features. The dashboard is quite good. I rate the product’s user experience and administrative interface a seven out of ten.

What needs improvement?

The price could be improved.

Buyer's Guide
Proofpoint Email Protection
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is very scalable. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We have around 200 users in our organization.

How are customer service and support?

The support team is very responsible. The onboarding activities are very good. The team provides support 24/7. All products have similar features. The quality of the product depends on the support. If the support is good, the product is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The solution we used previously was on-premise. It was too expensive to maintain. The annual maintenance costs were very high. We wanted to have a lower footprint on our data center. So, we chose a cloud-based service.

We were running two solutions parallelly. Proofpoint worked in the front, and Barracuda worked at the backend as a second layer of protection. Proofpoint caught malicious attacks 99.9% of the time. So, we stopped using Barracuda. We have also used Fortinet.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is cloud-based.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is expensive. Cloud services are pricey. However, compared to an on-premise product, a cloud solution is much better. It reduces costs in the long run. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I will recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
SimonClark - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Advisor - Director at Fort Net UK
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Offers an additional layer of protection compared to other brands
Pros and Cons
  • "Proofpoint Email Protection offers an additional layer of protection compared to other brands like Microsoft, Mimecast, and Barracuda. While these major companies excel at detecting malicious attachments, the solution goes further by analyzing the context of emails, allowing for more nuanced decision-making."
  • "The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge."

What is our primary use case?

I use the product for email protection and staff awareness training. 

What is most valuable?

Proofpoint Email Protection offers an additional layer of protection compared to other brands like Microsoft, Mimecast, and Barracuda. While these major companies excel at detecting malicious attachments, the solution goes further by analyzing the context of emails, allowing for more nuanced decision-making.

The solution doesn't slow down things. It's very effective at blocking spam and phishing emails. 

What needs improvement?

The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for six months. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is mature and stable. The tool's strength lies in its extensive industry knowledge and access to up-to-date information on the latest cyber threats. This allows their products to stay current and adapt to the evolving market in real-time. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. My company has 100 users. 

How are customer service and support?

I haven't contacted the tool's technical support. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution's deployment is complex if you use Google instead of Microsoft. You need to know the settings to make the most out of it. The process took two hours to complete. However, the customer needs to cooperate.  

What was our ROI?

The product's effectiveness in blocking phishing attacks is significant, especially considering that approximately 93 percent of breaches occur through phishing. It outperforms many other leading brands in terms of blocking such attacks. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

The product prevents phishing attacks, but its Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities might be limited compared to other specialized products. While it offers some protection against business email compromise, it may not cover all aspects. Supplementing Proofpoint with additional layers of security, such as Amazon Redshift, is recommended to cover all security aspects. You need a little bit of technical knowledge to set it up. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten. I haven't got any false positives while using it. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Proofpoint Email Protection
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Mohamed-Kamal - PeerSpot reviewer
Tech manager at MKTech
Reseller
Reliable and straightforward to set up but does have mail flow issues
Pros and Cons
  • "The spam filter for email is good."
  • "Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms."

What is most valuable?

The stability is good.

The spam filter for email is good.

The solution can scale. 

We have found the initial setup to be straightforward. 

What needs improvement?

I have some concerns about Proofpoint mail flow rules. It's not smart.

Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms. Even their mail flow rules are not the best thing. Mimecast and Microsoft Office 365 are better than them. Many emails are marked as spam unnecessarily. I've had issues and have had to open many tickets. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

While most of my clients have under 100 users, my understanding is if it works for 100, it can work for 1,000 or 10,000 users. Scaling shouldn't be an issue. 

How are customer service and support?

I've talked to support about creating rules and the issues we've had. I've had to open many tickets with them. 

For example, last month our web application sent an invoice for one of the customers, and it relayed the email on behalf of the customer domain. This email was marked as phishing. Even when the SBS was correct and the DCOM was correct. I opened a ticket. The rule didn't work. They responded fast. Even though I have problems, I find them to be responsive. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Defender, Proofpoint, and Mimecast. I use them daily for different companies and have subscriptions for all three. In my company, we use Defender.

Mimecast and Microsoft are better than Proofpoint when it comes to mail rules. On Proofpoint, the rules don't work as expected. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution is straightforward and simple to set up. It's not overly complex. 

What other advice do I have?

I'm a freelancer working to support some companies that are using Proofpoint. 

Sometimes I create a subscription for them and configure everything from scratch; sometimes, I take it already configured and just maintain it.

Anyone with basic knowledge of the solution and how to configure items will not have an issue with this product.

I'd rate it seven out of ten based on the mail flow issues I have witnessed.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller/Implementer
PeerSpot user
Larry Etzler - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at JL Computers
Real User
Easy to use interface, useful blocking capabilities, and quick setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the blocking capabilities, it blocks a lot of potential threats."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I am using Proofpoint Email Protection for blocking out spam and malware from the emails. Proofpoint Email Protection is linked to our Microsoft Office365

How has it helped my organization?

Proofpoint Email Protection has improved the way our organization functions by blocking threats.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the blocking capabilities, it blocks a lot of potential threats.

What needs improvement?

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.

In a feature release, phishing blocking could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Proofpoint Email Protection is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection is good.

We have between 50 to 100 people using this solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used the technical support from Proofpoint Email Protection.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have previously used SolarWinds Mail Assure prior to Proofpoint Email Protection. The main reason we switched was that the price was better for Proofpoint Email Protection.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Proofpoint Email Protection is very easy. The full process took approximately 15 minutes.

What about the implementation team?

We did the implementation of Proofpoint Email Protection in-house. It did not require a lot of maintenance. We only have to watch out for the quarantine list that gets emailed to us.

What was our ROI?

We have received a return on investment. Less spam is coming in through email. 

I rate the ROI of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options before choosing Proofpoint Email Protection.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is the solution seems to be good and stable with a very easy-to-use user interface.

I rate Proofpoint Email Protection a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Gerald Ashokan - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Account Executive at Tata Consultancy
Real User
Stable platform that detects malware, viruses, and other email scams and the setup is not too complicated
Pros and Cons
  • "Proofpoint Email Protection is stable enough and does its job of virus, malware, and email scam detection. Setting it up is not too complicated."
  • "Pricing for the platform could still be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

Proofpoint Email Protection is used as an email security platform to detect all kinds of malware, viruses, and unethical acts being done through email solicitations.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been dealing with Proofpoint Email Protection for at least three years. We've been providing the support for it and deploying it across different countries within the group.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Proofpoint Email Protection is stable enough, and it has a good image within the group. It's doing its job.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for Proofpoint Email Protection is not too complicated. I won't classify it as complicated or complex, though it does require a certain level of technical skills to manage and run the platform, which is also required on similar platforms.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive, but I don't know how much they're paying for it. The price for the license could still be cheaper, in general.

What other advice do I have?

I provide products to clients. I have clients who use a product for email protection that I provided: Proofpoint Email Protection. They use it in their corporate offices.

At this point in time, there's nothing that needs to be changed or improved in the tool. We have regular updates for Proofpoint Email Protection, so there's no specific need to change anything.

I have two to three clients using the tool, but globally, within our group, I don't have information on the total number of clients using Proofpoint Email Protection.

My company provides L3 support, and we reach out to Proofpoint for typical, vendor-type support, L4 support via a ticketing system.

I'm rating Proofpoint Email Protection eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
ManishKumar18 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Technology - Advanced Analytics and Data Management at Mashreq
Real User
Reliable, easy to set up, and centralizes visibility
Pros and Cons
  • "As a cloud-based product, it can scale well."
  • "We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."

What is our primary use case?

The product looks at the emails that we receive. If there are any suspicious emails with attachments or strange content, it will detect that and give us an alert on a dashboard. From there, we can pick up the alert, and then we can review and take action to mitigate any risk.

What is most valuable?

Overall, it is a good product.

We like that it provides everything in a single dashboard. On that, we can find all the information related to the risks involved within a suspicious email.

The initial setup is very, very easy.

It's a stable, reliable product.

As a cloud-based product, it can scale well. 

Customer support is very helpful and responsive. They are great at answering questions. 

What needs improvement?

We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports.

It would be ideal if we could customize exceptions more effectively and have more control over blacklisting and whitelisting. 

The solution can be expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for the past three or four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We find it scales well. It is cloud-based, which makes the process very easy.

We have about 5,000 people using the solution right now.

How are customer service and support?

We do contact support regularly. We do get in touch to understand certain features or if we want to know more about how to use something. We frequently get in touch with support. They offer excellent assistance.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

This is an easy product to set up. It's not complex at all in terms of implementation.

How long it takes to deploy depends on the business. If they approve and agree to everything readily, it should only take a couple of weeks. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not sure of the exact cost. My understanding is it is expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have been recently attempting to compare Microsoft 365 and Proofpoint. 

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer. We are not a partner.

I'm not sure which version number we're using.

It is one of the leading email security providers and has gone through reviews by our application security team. They evaluated all of the features to make sure they aligned with our needs, and so far, it has not disappointed me. 

I would recommend the product as it provides everything users need right in one place, especially security controls. 

It may be a good idea, however, to have a separate product for security control and a separate product for email business flows to give a separation of duties. Instead of having everything in one place, it is sometimes best to manage business and security policies separately. Companies should have dedicated security and an effective email security gateway where they can control the security of an entire organization.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It's very useful to be able to see everything in one central place. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Security Presales Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
A user friendly solution fro protection against email threat and bypass email authentication
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to stop email attacks, such as credential phishing, impersonation, and some forms of spear phishing. It also helps prevent attacks that bypass email authentication protocols like SPF and DMARC.

What is most valuable?

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. It effectively stops sophisticated attacks launched by advanced threat actors. It can identify attacks related to impersonation, deception, identity theft, business email compromise, and more.

What needs improvement?

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. Once you call, they may try to get your two-factor authentication code or send malicious links to your personal email, bypassing security controls. Proofpoint has consistently detected and prevented these kinds of deceptive attacks.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's top-rated for scalability because of its architecture. It uses a central management solution called Master and supports adding up to 25 or 30 agents. Each agent can handle a significant number of users, so with 2 agents, you can cover 5,000 to 10,000 users. Given this setup, 25 to 50 agents can manage even larger user bases. These agents are servers, not software installed on individual machines, which allows for excellent scalability.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and user-friendly, but it does require experts to implement. It's not something that regular users can handle. You need skilled professionals who have a good understanding of email systems, Office 365, Exchange, email flow, and SMTP protection. While the process is simple, having knowledgeable people is essential for a successful implementation.

It starts with an offline configuration in the first phase, keeping everything inactive and not migrating traffic right away. This allows you to validate policies, mail traffic, and mail flow without affecting live operations. Once everything is validated, the cutover happens in phase two. After ensuring the cutover is successful, you can then move on to the tuning phase.

I’ve done this many times. The initial setup duration depends on the company size, the complexity of the policies, the rules in place, and whether the setup is complex or straightforward.

They have their own dedicated Protection Services team and rely on certified professional service engineers on the ground.

What other advice do I have?

To protect email effectively, you need to secure it across multiple channels—external, internal, and even after delivery. Proofpoint is the top choice for comprehensive email protection because it covers all these aspects. Gartner has stated that to fully protect email, you need coverage across all channels, and Proofpoint is the only vendor with a platform capable of doing that.

It operates using the MLX engine along with AI to protect against business email compromise. Some of the engines within the solution rely purely on AI. The system can be left to learn normal behavior over two to three weeks. Once it understands this behavior, it provides protection based on what it has learned. We also acquired a vendor called TCL, which excels in detecting attacks through advanced analysis and AI.

Tuning requires time; it's not difficult to maintain but needs careful adjustment. It may take about a week to ensure everything is optimized according to best practices, focusing on tuning rather than just configuration.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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PeerSpot user
Santhosh Kandadi - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Vice President at Synchrony
Real User
Top 10
A reasonably priced product that offers protection to emails, along with spam filters
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
  • "The stability and UI are the two areas of the solution with certain shortcomings that need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

I use Proofpoint Email Protection as an email protection system.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is the protection it offers to emails, along with the spam filters.

What needs improvement?

The stability and UI are the two areas of the solution with certain shortcomings that need improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for four or five years. My company is a customer of the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I wouldn't say that the solution's stability is imperfect since it has been a stable tool. In our company, we see some notifications in the tool stating that certain login attempts are not happening successfully, but it is important to note that these issues happen rarely. The issue in the solution may be because of our lack of experience with the solution in our company.

A lot of people rely on the solution's UI. I often see the solution's UI go down, like once a month, which doesn't happen very often, in my opinion.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.


How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I had previously worked with an email protection system from Symantec.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Proofpoint Email Protection is easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model, along with a SaaS version. A PnP deployment is enough with the on-premises version, which is an appliance.

The solution's deployment process took around a week.

I was a part of the solution's deployment process, which was pretty much engaging professional services, putting requirements and other stuff in place before going for the validation part, making it a simple process.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Proofpoint Email Protection is a reasonably priced product, which means that it is neither too low nor too high in terms of price.

I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high.

What other advice do I have?

Proofpoint has many modules, allowing one to opt for the right module that fits into their business. Oversubscribing to modules in Proofpoint may not help, and it can get expensive after a certain point. I work for a financial organization, so I know emails and stuff coming over emails are considered critical in our company, and because of this, we are pretty much subscribed to most of Proofpoint's modules. I see a benefit from the product. The solution may not fit into some other organizations.

Though Proofpoint Email Protection has been a strong and stable product, I feel that Proofpoint can still do better. The support for the product has been great since the solution's support team has been very responsive and accommodating to our requests, especially regarding the enhancements we have put in the solution.

Proofpoint Email Protection has been a very good tool that has been very accommodating to our company's needs. The tool helps my company since it has a lot of capabilities, especially the feature to provide protection to emails. I don't have anything that I could complain about. My experience with the solution has been good, as it works the way I expected it to function.

The stability can get redundant because of ensuring the email system in an organization where every minute counts, and since it is deployed on a SaaS model, it becomes a critical infrastructure where an organization doesn't have much visibility. Organizations rely on vendor infrastructure, so I hope that Proofpoint does a better job there and ensures that the solution functions with the least downtime or on a no-downtime kind of model.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Proofpoint Email Protection Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Proofpoint Email Protection Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.