I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for the emails that we receive to determine if there is any suspicious attachment or content. It will detect and give us an alert on our dashboard. From there we can pick up the alerts and review and take action to mitigate the risk.
Manager Technology - Advanced Analytics and Data Management at Mashreq
Useful central management, reliable, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk."
- "Proofpoint Email Protection could improve by allowing more customization of the reports, such as exceptions and black-and-white lists."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk.
What needs improvement?
Proofpoint Email Protection could improve by allowing more customization of the reports, such as exceptions and black-and-white lists.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for approximately four years.
Buyer's Guide
Proofpoint Email Protection
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection is good because it is cloud-based.
We have approximately 5,000 people using this solution in my organization.
How are customer service and support?
If we need to understand how to use the solution better we contact the support.
I rate the support of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Proofpoint Email Protection is easy, it does not take more than a couple of weeks. However, it can depend on the business.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
My company is using the solution because it is one of the leading email security providers, and it has gone through a review by the application security team. The features were in line with our requirements.
I recommend Proofpoint Email Protection because it provides everything in one place, such as security control. I would suggest having a separate solution for security control and another for email business flow. This way it would give a separation of duties instead of having everything in one place, the business policy as well as the security policy. Sometimes it is not the best way to manage both policies in one place. It's better to have a dedicated security, email security gateway where we can control the security of the organization.
I rate Proofpoint Email Protection a nine out of ten.
I gave my rating because the solution provides everything in one place and it has a lot of features for more insight regarding suspicious emails. I can see how many users received it, the attack vector, and the repetition of the email.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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CTO at DSM Technology Consultants, LLC
Straightforward installation, little maintenance, and good support
Pros and Cons
- "Proofpoint Email Protection's initial installation is straightforward. It took us less than a day to complete the implementation."
- "Proofpoint Email Protection could improve the Mail Trace feature and make navigation easier."
What is our primary use case?
Proofpoint Email Protection is used to protect your entire email.
How has it helped my organization?
Proofpoint Email Protection has improved the organization by reducing spam emails.
What needs improvement?
Proofpoint Email Protection could improve the Mail Trace feature and make navigation easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Proofpoint Email Protection within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Proofpoint Email Protection is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not had an issue with the scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection.
We have had projects with 5,000 users and some with 50 users using Proofpoint Email Protection. We are using this solution extensively and we plan to increase our usage of the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Proofpoint Email Protection is very good.
I would rate the support from Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Proofpoint Email Protection on-premise to Proofpoint Email Protection on the cloud.
How was the initial setup?
Proofpoint Email Protection's initial installation is straightforward. It took us less than a day to complete the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution charges per user per month to use it. There are not any additional fees in addition to the standard living fees.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate other options before we choose Proofpoint Email Protection.
What other advice do I have?
Proofpoint Email Protection is a very robust solution. I would advise others to read the manual before use.
I rate Proofpoint Email Protection an eight out of ten.
It does have some issues, but it's very good.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Proofpoint Email Protection
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Marketing Manager at Veronym
User-friendly and stable
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very user-friendly."
- "The flexibility of the solution can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
The solution protects our mailboxes from phishing and scanning.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation is completed in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
We have almost 1000 people using the solution.
I recommend the solution to others.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Senior Manager - Cybersecurity Operations at Likewize
Mature with great targeted attack protection and good filtering
Pros and Cons
- "It's a mature product. It does a good job in detection."
- "The false positives are an issue."
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and support?
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.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Consultant (SIEM Admin) at IBM
Good at identifying threats, helpful sandboxing capabilities, and useful support
Pros and Cons
- "It's very good at identifying threats."
- "Sometimes it detects false positives."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is primarily used for email protection. However, it is not as good as EDR. It is good at handling privacy.
How has it helped my organization?
It's helped us when one of our senior managers got a fake email about getting a payment. The solution automatically flagged and notified us.
What is most valuable?
It's great for email protection.
It's very good at identifying threats.
There is useful sandboxing available.
The pricing is very reasonable. This is an affordable product.
Technical support is very good.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes it detects false positives.
We'd like the sandbox to integrate with the on-prem device.
It needs to identify the paths and signatures. We'd like advanced machine learning for detection.
We'd like the have more lunch and learns to get more out of the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for around two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'd rate the stability five or six out of ten. It's okay. It's not perfect.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd rate the scalability around six or seven out of ten. It's decent.
We have around 100 people using it.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is quite good. We are happy with the level of support we receive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
It was quite easy to set up.
We have about four people able to deploy and maintain the product.
What was our ROI?
I have witnessed an ROI after using it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable. I'd rate the pricing one out of ten in terms of affordability. It is not expensive at all.
What other advice do I have?
I've been using the latest version of the solution.
If you understand email technicalities like email authentication, you will have an easy time with the solution. I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Country Manager at PT Symcaw Solutions Indonesia
Easy to set up with good protection but could be cheaper
Pros and Cons
- "The solution scales well."
- "The solution could lower its price."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution to protect email. It's primarily used for security purposes.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has improved the productivity of the users. It works in the background protecting us.
What is most valuable?
The protection has been fair so far. We haven't had any issues.
It's easy to set up. The deployment is also fast.
The solution has been stable.
The solution scales well.
What needs improvement?
So far, the protection on offer is okay. There are no improvements needed at this time.
The solution could lower its price.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for quite a long time at this point. I'm not sure how long it has been
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had any stability issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It is reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. It's easy to expand. We have about ten people using it in our environment.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It is not overly complex at all.
The deployment itself is very quick. It doesn't take long to set up. You only need one person to set up the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution could be cheaper. The pricing is transparent. There are no extra costs.
What other advice do I have?
I am a customer and end user.
I'm not sure which version I'm using.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It's okay.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Chief Information Security Officer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
A stable and capable anti-phishing, anti-malware, and threat protection solution
Pros and Cons
- "Its anti-phishing functionality is the most valuable. Certainly, the biggest problem I have is phishing."
- "It has too many screens. It is kind of a conglomeration of products. In other words, they built product A, product B, and product C, and they are yet to integrate them into a single administrative console. I would certainly like to see a more seamless administrative interface. I would also like to see them include more bang for the buck, by including features like email fraud protection, rather than making their product so piecemeal, where you are buying little pieces. I agree with the idea of having multiple tiers or layers, but maybe as small, medium, and large, as opposed to an a la carte menu."
What is our primary use case?
We use it in front of Office 365 for anti-phishing, anti-malware, and threat protection.
How has it helped my organization?
Proofpoint Email Protection has reduced the analyst overhead in responding to phishing incidents by several orders of magnitude. We did not have the resources to respond directly to all Phishing Reports under the old system With automated responses, we are able to address all Phishing Reports automatically.
What is most valuable?
Its anti-phishing functionality is very valuable to the organization. As outlined above, we are able to automatically respond to Phishing Reports as well as stop as much as 80% of most Phishing Attacks at the front end leaving only a small percentage to be handled after the fact.
What needs improvement?
It has too many screens. It is kind of a conglomeration of products. In other words, they built product A, product B, and product C, and they are yet to integrate them into a single administrative console. I would certainly like to see a more seamless administrative interface.
I would also like to see them include more bang for the buck, by including features like email fraud protection, rather than making their product so piecemeal, where you are buying little pieces. I agree with the idea of having multiple tiers or layers, but maybe as small, medium, and large, as opposed to an a la carte menu.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is fairly scalable. When we had a problem with capacity on one of the clusters, we simply added more members. We have probably 32,000 to 34,000 users in a given period.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is mediocre. It could be better. They're a little slow to respond at times, and depending on the product, they're not always very knowledgeable. In one case, I had to fix it myself and show their tech how to fix it.
How was the initial setup?
I found it to be fairly straightforward. It had medium complexity. The deployment was very fairly fast. I did it in about three to four hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Microsoft ATP or Microsoft Advanced Threat Protection. I also evaluated Mimecast at least at face value. I also looked at GreatHorn technologies.
What other advice do I have?
They're the best in the breed. I would rate Proofpoint Email Protection a ten out of ten for the capability of doing its job. I am happy with this solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Data Security Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Excellent quarantining function and very powerful
Pros and Cons
- "Provides better control over emails, especially those sent via Office 365 on the cloud."
- "Integration for reporting needs to be improved, it's too complex."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is the encryption tooling of email security. Emails sent externally are automatically encrypted as is all the information included. There are some DLP related options available in Proofpoint, which we enabled with the help of classifying the emails, like internal, external, private, public, sharing. That's our main use. We are customers of Proofpoint.
What is most valuable?
The value for us is that we now have much better control over emails, especially those sent via Office 365 on the cloud. We've configured it so that all emails go to Proofpoint and are quarantined or encrypted. I believe the quarantine email function is very rare to find in other solutions. It's a powerful tool and I believe cost effective.
What needs improvement?
Integration for reporting needs to be improved, it's a little complex. Right now we have integrated with Power BI to get logs and information from Proofpoint. That has to be improved with the API and there are also latency issues which need to be simplified and improved. Those are the areas I've observed that need improvement.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is hosted by Proofpoint on Amazon AWS, with some on servers on-prem. We've done the load balancing and I believe it's pretty strong now. We haven't experienced any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good, we have around 100,000 employees. For now, we have implemented two data centers. It covers 60% of traffic. We're moving ahead so that by the end of the year we'll have 100% implementation.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is relatively good although the solutions and ticketing system requires a lot of improvement.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using Symantec but switched to Proofpoint because Symantec didn't offer the email quarantine function. Cost was another issue with Symantec being a more expensive solution. But the main reason we switched was because we were looking for more control over the cloud email, especially with the sensitive information we have.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a mixed experience. Nothing is simple nowadays and we were dealing with both cloud and on-prem, dividing the load blancing. As a result, it's taken almost six months to get full implementation. We were testing for a lot of that time. We initially implemented only in the cloud. And later on we integrated it with the reporting applications, and lastly we implemented on-prem. We are a team of seven, and implemented ourselves. I did a lot of demos and trainings which helped us a lot when it came to deploying ourselves.
We now have around 10 staff who have access to the administration portal; the project manager, a couple from the messaging team, architects, and security engineers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Forcepoint and McAfee but both dropped out in the middle stage and we moved on to testing with Proofpoint. Both solutions had an easy environment, with an easy to configure and straightforward dashboard. However, when it came to security controls, including inscription and quarantine options, those things were more available in Proofpoint.
What other advice do I have?
We've observed that we have almost 99.9% control over our emails now in an easy to configure and easy to implement solution. It's simple and easy for the administration as well. We're looking forward to any upgrades or updates they provide. I recommend this solution if it suits your needs and requirements. If you have concerns about data floating in emails, it's a good solution. If that's not an issue then you can choose something else.
I rate the solution nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid 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.
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Updated: February 2025
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