Proofpoint Email Protection Reviews

We use it as a corporate or as an exchange email filter to protect, to stop any executables from coming through email, and to halt phishing scams. Basically, the product is for email security. We use it for our network.

Also, if a user thinks that they didn't get an email, we can access the Proofpoint dashboard and go find missing mail that either people didn't get so we can rerelease it to them. Or if it did get quarantined, we can release and approve a sender.

You can blacklist and whitelist sender lists. If you are getting phishing scams that get through the filter, you can end up shutting those down. You can actually block the entire domain so that domain can never email you ever again. 

If there is an external email outside of your network or your company, you can whitelist them if it's an unknown sender, so you don't ever have to worry about missing their emails. 

We had an attempt for a ransomware attack and we were able to block them through Proofpoint Essentials. It's keeping us very safe. Our antivirus shut down the first one and then when the attacker tried again, we were able to block and cease all attacks. In the end, we didn't end up becoming a victim of a ransomware attack.

The solution offers very good flexibility. You can blacklist or whitelist with ease.

Their entire dashboard is excellent. It's completely user-friendly, it's easy to navigate. Anything you need to get done, you can do right from the dashboard, which is incredible. 

What makes it so easy is the features of Proofpoint and how secure it is. 

You could have no IT experience and go in there and control Proofpoint. If your company says "Hey, we need somebody to control Proofpoint," you could hire a kid out of high school to learn it. That's how easy it is.

The Secure Mail aspect should have an Outlook add-in, instead of an external dashboard that outside users have to access. If we send a payment to one of our customers or an ACH or a form to fill out, they have to go through this entire subscription process on a separate website to read the secure mail.

It should be like Ignite, where you can access the internal portal so then our customers aren't having to go through all these hoops just to read an email that we're trying to send them securely. That would be the one thing I would change. Basically, the Secure Mail portal wouldn't be its own portal; it would be an add-in.

I've been using the solution for two years and the company itself has used it for five.

The solution is 100% stable. It's incredible. We haven't had any issues with it. No downtime, no hiccups. Obviously, it's not going to catch everything, however, we have the ability to go in there and block stuff that it does miss. It's an incredible solution.

The scalability capability is based on the packages. We're not at the highest package, however, from what I've read, it's got some incredible scalability. With our package, it does everything we need and we have over 200 users.

It does more than what we need it to. There's stuff we don't even use as we don't use those capabilities of it. The scalability would be incredible as with 200 users we still don't touch all of its features.

As far as I know, we'll continue using it. The company has been happy with it for over five years and I've been around it for two years and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Now that we've added Secure Mail, it's really probably not going anywhere.

I'd rate technical support eight out of ten.

You pay for what you get, and we didn't pay for the enterprise tier, so we're in a middle tier. Sometimes it does take 24 hours to hear back, however, if it's a high priority that they'll call you within 30 minutes. It's pretty incredible how prompt they are. 

Once you do get a hold of them, it's not like, "Okay, well, we'll look this up and we'll call you back." No - they sit there and they'll work you through it. They'll remote into your machine if you need them to. They're excellent.

I haven't previously used any other solution. Before, the company only used the security features in Exchange Online admin center, which obviously wasn't as secure as they wanted it to be. That's why they went to Proofpoint.

The initial setup was straightforward. It's real easy to integrate with Active Directory exchange online. You just pretty much point and click and follow the prompts and it's there. Now, some of the whitelisting, you would have to have some experience, however, not too much. You would want someone knowledgeable to just navigate some of the approved domains and stuff like that to whitelist IPs as that portion was a little more work. 

It probably took about six hours to whitelist IPs. The deployment is a moderate amount of work, however, not much, not a lot.

We didn't do a very complex setup since most of our users are silent users. They have it, however, we don't allow them access as we don't want them to be able to release something onto the network. It probably was a six-hour job to just get everybody added in from Active Directory and integrated into the system.

The maintenance is basically two people. It's all it really takes. It really only takes one person, however, there are usually two of us here that can access it and go in and clean stuff up. And as far as the roles, there's not really assigned roles for who goes in and does what. As far as users, they're silent users and active users, and only active users can actually access the portal, and then the administration is the only one that can change settings.

We did use a consultant to help us with the implementation. Our network admin did most of the work, however, the consultants were there just to guide us through it, just in case we hit a hiccup, which we didn't. 

The consultants were great. They were easy to work with. They were prompt in responses.

The biggest ROI for us was when it stopped a ransomware attack. It could have cost us a ton of money. It could have been detrimental to the company. It basically paid for itself right there.

The licensing is basically $8/user. We pay yearly, however, they do allow for month-to-month billing.

It's just a straight licensing fee. For support, you'll pay extra for that. If you want to move up to a higher tier, I don't know how much it is, however, I know you pay more to get a higher level of support. Tier One support is way cheaper than Tier Four. You are paying pretty much to have your own project manager. Proofpoint literally assigns someone to you. When you call, it's getting taken care of by his or her team. That's pretty expensive, however, I'm not sure of the cost.

I'd advise users to get the package with the Secure Mail feature and then make sure that you whitelist all your important IPs and then add domains of all known users, so you don't run across any blocked or missing mail.

Our users have learned to be more careful and look for more phishing attempts from it, because now they know what a normal email should look like instead of, "Hey, here's a link you need to update your password." And then just clicking away. Through this they've been able to see, because we can show them, "Look, this is blocked, this wasn't, here's why." Right. So we've been actually able to teach that culture and teach the hesitancy. With this solution, our users have become much more informed.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It's a great product and they have great customer service, a great support team.

We use the solution to filter out spam from our end users, block malicious attacks, and add banners to the emails if they're from suspicious senders. 

If there's a suspicious link, we'll have a URL to open it in a browser.

The solution has lowered the amount of spam to our end users. There is a quarantine inbox. Users can go into their quarantine inbox and release emails for them if they are legitimate, but they get blocked. It reduces false positives too.

The solution blocks malicious emails containing viruses and malware and reduces them out of spam.

The email DLP portion could be a bit easier.

I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for nine months.

The product is stable.

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

There are no scalability issues.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

We used our built-in Microsoft Gateway since we used Microsoft Outlook for email. We switched to Proofpoint because more spam emails were getting than we wanted. We're trying to find a better way to stop spam, and Microsoft wasn't getting it done how we wanted it.

The initial setup is straightforward. We had a Proofpoint support guy who did it for us. It would have been really difficult if I tried to do it on my own. Since they did every step with us, it was much easier.

The solution is worth the price. We have noticed that fewer spam emails are getting into our users' inboxes. We have seen a reduction in spam emails.

We were evaluating Mimecast before.

Proofpoint is a solid product.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

The primary use case of Proofpoint Email Protection is to ensure email security for both incoming and outgoing emails.

The most valuable feature is the option to edit the inbound security. 

In terms of improvement, I have some concerns regarding the effectiveness of Proofpoint's phishing protection. There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats. There are other solutions on the market that do a good job with that.

I have been using the solution for three years.

In terms of stability, the solution performs well. We have not experienced any issues or downtime.

The solution is scalable enough for our organization. Approximately 2,000 people use it at our company daily.

We are currently working with both Proofpoint and Abnormal Security, but we plan on completely switching to Abnormal Security soon. Proofpoint needs to work on its performance in handling spam and phishing and to improve its services when it comes to AI or ML-based solutions. Even if Proofpoint decides to roll out such features, it will take some time. There are competitors on the market who already offer those features, and that is why we opted for Abnormal Security.

The initial setup is quite easy. It took one day to deploy the solution because our team needed to edit SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, which took some time as well.

My advice to people who are considering using Proofpoint would be to properly evaluate the services it offers. During the POC phase, you should assess all features offered, including phishing protection, and ensure they are up to date. You should compare Proofpoint with other vendors in the market before making a decision. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten.

I am the CIO, I have consultants.

We use Proofpoint Email Protection to filter out malicious emails.

We have a lot fewer malicious emails coming in since implementing this product.

The setup was easy.

It was easier to use Microsoft than Proofpoint.

We had some issues with their sales consultant. We got into a dispute and he ended up leaving the company. It's unknown if he was unhappy being at the company, or if it was a reflection of the company, but I can say that their sales consultant was not good.

I think they have everything that I would want in the advanced version.

There are certain things, I would want. I would want better spear phishing protection in the essentials package.

I have been working with Proofpoint Email Protection for two years.

It's a subscription, and we are always using the latest version.

The stability is fine.

The scalability is good.

I am going to reiterate. To move to a more sophisticated email security solution was cost-prohibitive. When you compare it to others, it was too expensive.

All users of the company, all departments were using this solution.

The technical support was okay. I think it was good, although it wasn't outstanding.

It would be excellent, f they had chats and instantaneous responses. That would make it better.

We always struggled with getting on the phone with someone.

We were able to get the same security levels using Microsoft that we were getting with Proofpoint.

With this company, we used Proofpoint straight out of the gate.

We have now switched to Microsoft. The features were definitely there. It was more integrated; people don't have to go to a different website to see what was quarantined. They can see it right in their account on Outlook.

Microsoft is easier to use, it's more integrated, and it's cheaper. It was cheaper than their advanced module, for sure, but it was comparable to their basic package.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy to set up.

It took few hours to set up. It was really quick.

We have an admin that would go in to see what was quarantined every now and again a quarter of full-time equivalent approximately 10 hours a week.

This solution was being used every day, 24 hours a day.

We used a consultant to deploy the solution.

I have had a relationship with this consultant for more than 20 years. If I keep a consultant for that long it's because they are worth their weight.

It is always a pleasant experience working with them.

For sure, we have seen a return on investment. It does what it's supposed to do, which is to protects you.

If Proofpoint was the only product out there, I would gladly pay for it. It would be fine and good. But they are not the only game in town. Their competitors managed to give the same level of protection for much less.

The Basic Email Coverage is pretty close to the same price as the Extended Email Security of other companies.

To start basic at Proofpoint, let's say more expensive than other basic packages.

To jump into the Advanced versions of Proofpoint, the costs multiply four or five times, which made it not feasible for us. Being multiple times more expensive, it very much less attractive.

I would advise people to look at the options.

It does what it says it's going to do. The only issue is the cost.

I would rate Proofpoint Email Protection an eight out of ten.

We use Proofpoint Email Protection mostly for email filtering, spam, and phishing.

URL scanning and online relay service are the most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection.

Integration and filtering out who you want and don't want to have integrated ID could be improved. Sometimes it takes longer for an email sent through Proofpoint Email Protection to reach the client.

I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for five years.

Proofpoint Email Protection has no stability issues.

Proofpoint Email Protection is easy to scale. Around 50 users are using the solution in our organization.

The solution’s initial setup is pretty straightforward.

Proofpoint Email Protection has comparable pricing. The solution has a monthly license. Suppose Proofpoint Email Protection can have 50 users, but you have only 30 current employees; then you only pay for those that are active.

We are using the latest version of Proofpoint Email Protection. Depending on the number of users, one or two people are required for the maintenance of Proofpoint Email Protection.

I would recommend others to compare Proofpoint Email Protection with other tools before choosing it.

Overall, I rate Proofpoint Email Protection an eight out of ten.

We use it for our email flow. We use it for our daily operations. For example, it helps in dropping spam and phishing emails.

There is room for improvement. One aspect that could be enhanced is finding a better way to follow outgoing mail. This would be particularly useful in situations where customers or suppliers claim they did not receive our messages.

We have been using this solution for seven years. We are also using a Proofpoint protection server and Proofpoint Threat Response.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. We have about a thousand people using it.

The customer service and support team is okay.

Positive

It was easy to set up. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten. The deployment took half a day. 

We worked on the deployment process together with our provider.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. We are really satisfied with the solution. 

We use this solution as a firewall for our email environment; it's basically a reputation-based service. It denies the connection from known bad sites. That's the biggest protection they have when you go to the antivirus and anti-spam modules. They even have an encryption piece in it.

There's Microsoft Office 365 email protection. The one good thing they have over Microsoft is their incredible search engine. That's why our clients like it. They like the search engine because they can search anything to do with their messages incredibly easily. This allows them to find troubleshooting issues. That's a big selling point.

There are some tools within it that are amazing. Even from a configuration standpoint, it's a hardened system. It's never been penetrated, so that's another great feature about Proofpoint.

They handle combined attacks. Defender for Office 365 does this as well. For instance, if you have an obfuscated URL embedded into an email and the email looks very legitimate, they can track that. Provepoint offers the same flexibility when combined with Office 365 as well. You can do your spam scores, and you can set up policies for people. From here, they can make a decision whether to select a spam policy or not. You can do the same thing with a lot of products, but Proofpoint makes it easy.

They all have quarantines where you can release messages. They're all very on par with each other. However, if you don't have Defender for Office 365, the feature parity is just not there. But there are lots of selling points, Proofpoint, in particular, takes care of. Still, they have a business continuity piece that is lacking in the Office 365 suite.

Not one of them is one hundred percent when it comes to reputation scores. It doesn't matter which solution — none of them are. Not one of them is a hundred percent on false negatives or false positives.

Proofpoint scores way up there along with Cisco. You used to have a choice with Proofpoint which one you use. They may be using multiples now, too. Proofpoint is the main tool for blocking spam because it denies the connection altogether.

I know for a fact that I can set Proofpoint up to what they call SYN attacks. SYN attacks basically open a connection, and then a handshake starts, and thousands of connections form. So, Proofpoint waits for a timeout to occur and then allows you to tie up all your connections, which is basically an out-of-service attack. They have something similar in Office 365, too.

Still, the reputation services, the antivirus modules, none of them are a hundred percent when it comes to false positives or false negatives.

It's the whole industry. The SMTP protocol needs to be totally rewritten. It was designed in the fifties or sixties. Changing it would be very, very difficult.

They put band-aids on it for security — that's essentially what's happened with that. That email is not secure by design because it's still using an old design from many moons ago.

I have been working with Proofpoint Email Protection for 15 years.

It's scalable, but the devil's in the details — you have to know your email volumes. Like anything else, you've got to know those kinds of things. You have to know email volumes, you have to properly scale it, and this is the bottom line. I've seen people do a lot of really stupid things.

I've always had good luck with both. I think Proofpoint has always been superior — they do a very, very good job. They're a small organization though, so it's pretty tightly controlled as far as versioning is concerned. Compared to Microsoft, which is a huge organization, the lack of documentation revisions, that's where you have a harder time finding the information and connecting the dots than you do with Proofpoint.

When it comes to the initial setup, you have to know the product well or get outside help; that's literally what it comes down to it. You have to know what the hell are you doing with email. Literally, I just had one client acquired a company that wanted to put Proofpoint Email Protection behind their email messaging security gateways — they don't know how to do it. If you're running M365 and you decide you want to put it behind Proofpoint, for instance, you have to know how to set up both to route email inbound and outbound, to your message security gateways.

Proofpoint is fairly expensive. Most people, when they go to buy their M365 licenses, they buy them in a bundle. It's more than just email protection. It's actually lots of different protections. 

You need to be able to connect the dots on what the licensing buys you and what that particular module is to accomplish. Therefore, it behooves you to get someone that understands how the product works, what each module's intended for, what the licensing entails, and the cost-effectiveness of it.

It's one of the top products out there. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.

It's just got the BC feature on it. If you get Defender for Office 365 specifically, that is the key to email protection from the Microsoft product. If you don't have that, then you will either have to purchase a third-party product or buy the add-on for Defender for Office 365.

The archive feature is valuable.

The solution can be improved by including a real-time block list and giving the user more control over customizations. 

We have used the solution for ten years.

The solution is stable. I rate it a ten out of ten.

The solution is not very scalable.

We rate our experience with customer service and support an eight out of ten.

Positive

We previously used Barracuda.

The initial setup took half a day to configure, and two people were required for deployment.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good, but the scalability can be improved and the solution can be optimized.