Proofpoint Email Protection Reviews

I use Proofpoint Email Protection as an email protection system.

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

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

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

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

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

Positive

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

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.

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.

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.

The targeted attack protection that we use has been great, as has the email filtering and the rules that we have set for Proofpoint. The quarantine capabilities are very useful.

You can scale the solution.

It's a mature product. It does a good job in detection. 

The false positives are an issue. There are many false positives that come in, which you report to Proofpoint. Sometimes they take time to update those things. They say there's an option that we can use to report false positives. However, it is not a quick remedy. You go and report it, and still, you have to take action on it and clear those emails getting blocked. It's too cumbersome. 

We don't have the option to scan a password-protected attachment. I have to either blindly whitelist it as it will get blocked since an email with attachments normally gets scanned. We'd like to have some mechanism in place where we can scan these protected attachments or whitelist the domain.

I've been working with the solution for two years. 

We purchased some licenses, and we are using all of them. For us, scalability is not a problem. We have been able to scale it. 

We have more than 5,000 people working on the product.

Technical support is good. The expertise that they offer is good. The only thing that I have a problem with is we have our support operations in India and their availability for a call can be mismatched. That would normally take some time. You don't get a suitable person in the time zone available around the clock.

We did not previously use a different solution.

I was not there when it was deployed. We only manage at the application level.

We do not need that many admins to maintain it. We might need three or so. Most of the time, it's only checking on the blocked emails, which are actually good emails, and sometimes if there are investigations required and maintenance, they would handle those tasks. At a minimum, you need three, depending on the size of your organization. They would maintain it for the shift, for fixed operations hours, not on a rotational basis. You might have to put in more resources if you have rotational.

Depending upon your company's revenue, you can make up your mind about whether you want to invest that money or not. However, the offering is niche in the market today compared to other products, like Exchange Online Protections, which is an evolving product. It's growing. In contrast, Proofpoint has been around in the listing for quite some time, so they mature in terms of detection of suspicious emails and its email filtering system. Of course, while the pricing is rather fair, clients would always prefer to pay less. 

I cannot speak to the exact price. 

The price is fixed. It doesn't change according to companies. It gives you multiple package options, so you can pick what suits you. 

You also get other add-on services, which if you've got a subject matter expert within Proofpoint, then you don't have to buy additional personnel from them to coordinate. You wouldn't need a customer success manager or somebody doing a health check for it. That might increase your cost. 

Next time, if I get an opportunity to reapply for a license, I might think of removing some of the add-on services, which might reduce the cost or the overall price that we are paying today. I don't know the actual standalone product cost, meaning what would be the product cost alone. It's dealt with by our procurement team, or they can check with Proofpoint to see the product pricing.

I have cross-checked this solution with Defender right now. We're doing a cost-benefit analysis and seeing if it makes sense for us to use it at all or not.

I'm a customer and end-user.

We are using Proofpoint Essentials right now. 

When you are an SME, every product company is trying to promote a product and sell it to you; however, if you don't know how it functions and its capability and effectiveness, then you probably end up buying what you need. Constantly evaluate any product you're buying. I've seen Proofpoint used in the last three companies that I worked with, so I have a lot of experience with this particular solution.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

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.

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. 

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. 

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

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

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.

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.

Positive

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. 

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

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

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. 

Our organization is large and has multiple entities that use the solution. 

Our department includes two senior information security analysts and two network analysts. We use the solution and as our main security filter for 90% of emails. Emails come into the domain, hit the gateway firsthand, and the solution filters for spam, phishing, malware, and virus attachments. 

The TAP service integrates with the PPS API connection and analyzes every bit of email that goes through the system. Troublesome domains are blocked automatically without needing to be analyzed. If a specific email address is not blocked, the email gets released. TAP still analyzes the email, identifies whether it is a threat, and details its attributes such as the IP address, subject and content, and URL name. 

All metadata for a threat email is sent from TAP to TRAP which goes back to the user's mailbox and automatically pulls the email so that it disappears. TRAP also identifies if the email has been distributed, even to 10,000 users, and attempts to pull back all instances. TRAP can pull internal emails but not external emails because it does not have access to external systems. 

Our company uses the solution to its fullest potential. 

A organization's security culture and investment defines how extensively they will use the solution. For example, Bank of America is a big company where security is important so they will spend millions of dollars improving their product. A smaller company with just 10,000 users might only do a certain level to improve.  

Spam scoring is a feature for which usage varies. The solution scores emails from zero to 100 and companies can decide the level of acceptance. A level of 70 might block too many emails so users will complain. If you have 2,000 users, the complaints might cause you to loosen the rating constraints to 85 or so. 

The solution's whole server is valuable because has robust algorithms, AI that learns what goes through a company's email server, and strong rules for analyzing data. Competitor's products are just standard email filters that block or pass with no ongoing AI for learning. 

The security is very strong and comparatively better than Cisco CES. For example, in the last six months there has been an uptick in phishing campaigns or malicious email attachments purporting to come from Geek Squad. I see a substantial number of these troublesome emails pass through CES, Barracuda, and Mimecast but I have not seen a single email pass through the solution. 

The Phish Alarm button allows users to submit questionable emails for review and complete analysis. A submitted email is analyzed in the cloud sandbox and the results are provided along with the actual email. Substantial information is included in this dynamic analysis such as email details, URLs, links, domains, ages of accounts, and what the email is intending to do. No other product offers this type of built-in email analysis. I have reviewed three different products including Cofense and they all send the email with its metadata to the user's security response team for manual review.  

The solution's server console and cluster dashboard have been the same for four years so need to be upgraded. There is no feature-rich dashboard so searching emails is cumbersome and slow. The way Facebook, Gmail, and LinkedIn looked five years ago is not the same as today. Everything today is feature-rich and user-friendly.

I have been using the solution for four years. 

The solution is very stable with no issues in six years. I never have situations with the cloud going down or email going haywire. However, I have seen other products have these issues. 

The solution is scalable depending on your licenses. 

Technical support is excellent, very easy to access, and fast. It is easy to chat with support via the online community portal. They will point you in the right direction during chat sessions or set up a call with a support agent. 

This is the first solution our company has used. 

The deployment process is pretty easy. 

The solution builds your cluster in the cloud and gives you a gateway, URL, MX records, and IP addresses. You then set up your DMS and MX records for your cluster and tie it to your email gateway. The process is pretty simple and can be done within a week. 

Suppose all your emails and servers are from Microsoft 365 with mailboxes in the cloud. Once your domain is on the solution's cluster, it needs to be connected with the Microsoft email gateway. Think of a pipe where water goes from one end to the other. The solution sits at the entrance of the pipe to filter out bad particles. Filtered items go into the pipe or Microsoft's email gateway. Down the pipe there is an open tap which pours right into the user's glasses. 

We implement the solution for customers. Implementation takes one to three people depending on the size of the organization. 

Our team handles any ongoing maintenance which is minimal. 

The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products. I rate pricing a nine out of ten. 

I appreciate the solution because it is purely for email security. 

The solution is a great product and the best existing option in 2022. You will be very happy with the solution's security features. 

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

I am an administrator. I manage it as an admin for each and every inbound and outbound email.

The phishing and spam filters are the most effective features. There is also a trap feature that is most effective.

Sometimes it doesn't detect actual spam emails, and sometimes it catches normal emails, which is not spam. So I think the filtering should be improved in the future. I believe Proofpoint is already working on that.

The pricing is also something that could be improved. It's literally high.

AI is not yet fully enabled in this tool. Hopefully, in the future, it will work.

I have been using it for 3+ years.

I would rate the stability 8/10.

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. There are around 70,000 end users. It is used daily. As a admin, I have to use it daily for various use cases.

The customer service and support are good.

Positive

I believe Proofpoint is more effective in blocking spam and malicious emails than Exchange Online Protection because I've worked with both.

It has a better spam filter than Exchange Online Protection.

I don't have much experience with any other tool, but I know the basics of Exchange Online Protection (EOP). Mostly, I use Proofpoint.

EOP is included with Microsoft and is free. But even though Proofpoint is paid, it gives a lot of features. Its filters are better than EOP.

The initial setup has average complexity. It is on the cloud. 

It takes days, not hours. For the organization I work in, most of the data is on-premises. So, syncing takes time.

The deployment was done in-house.

It's time-saving because it catches a lot of spam and phishing emails. Users are fine with it, even though it's a little costly. It does its work.

It is expensive.

I would recommend Proofpoint Email Protection to other people. 

It's easy to use, even for those new to IT. The UI is simple and easy to learn. Many courses and articles are available if you want to learn more. It's easy and efficient.

Overall, I would rate it 9/10.

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

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

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.

In a feature release, phishing blocking could improve.

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

Proofpoint Email Protection is a stable solution.

The scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection is good.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

We evaluated other options before choosing Proofpoint Email Protection.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The solution protects our mailboxes from phishing and scanning.

The solution is very user-friendly.

The flexibility of the solution can be improved. We have a history of a white labeling project that we completed with one of the largest worldwide telecom companies. We encountered a major issue with some blending cases, as it was almost impossible to meet the blending of colors or requirements expected by our customers within the white labeling project. This is not only a technical issue, but from a marketing perspective, it is also very important. A white hyperlink means that we have prepared a dedicated infrastructure specifically labeled. All parts of our service had to be labeled with a very specific brand, and it was very challenging to make it all happen.

I have been using the solution for a few years.

The solution is stable.

For customers unfamiliar with DNS settings, we created very specific instructions with informative graphics to make the process less complicated. If we had no knowledge, it could have been difficult, so we created several infographics to show the steps that needed to be taken, and it worked.

The time to deploy depends on if we have a dedicated person or team working on the deployment or if we have to pull someone off another job.

The implementation is completed in-house.

We have a very specific licensing setup for all the vendors we use for our infrastructure. The end customer is buying our solution, which can be for monthly or annual usage depending on our payment and business model. If someone is trying to test the imaging, the shortest period for testing is a free trial of either fourteen days or seven days or a paid period of one month. The customer does not need to worry about any licensing with Proofpoint, as this is included with our solution.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

We have almost 1000 people using the solution.

I recommend the solution to others.