KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training vs. Microsoft 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
KnowBe4 is a security awareness and compliance training and simulated social engineering product. It is used by organizations worldwide to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk. The product includes a comprehensive suite of awareness and compliance training, real-time user coaching, AI-powered simulated social engineering, crowdsourced anti-phishing defense and an AI suite that enhances human risk management through personalized training and automation. With…
$0.95
per month (billed annually) per seat
Microsoft 365
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Pricing
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Editions & Modules
Silver
$0.95
per month (billed annually) per seat
Gold
$1.10
per month (billed annually) per seat
Platinum
$1.25
per month (billed annually) per seat
Diamond
$1.70
per month (billed annually) per seat
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Considered Both Products
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
In the past I have used ThriveDX/Lucy for security awareness training, and I liked that platform, but I liked the KnowBe4 interface more. I was using Microsoft Defender for O365 as my security awareness training platform, but unless you have an E5 license the cost of fully …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
While similar in offerings, we found that KnowBe4 offered the widest variety of training programs and had the best integration into our system.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is by far the most polished and advanced out of the vendors we reviewed. If you are in an environment with Microsoft E5 licensing, you will want to evaluate Microsoft Attack Simulation Training which comes included with Defender. It lacks …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Great product and quality friendly account managers. We recommend this platform to anybody who is thinking of implementing a cyber security program within their organization. The simulation platform is like nothing we have seen with other vendors. Our employees can't cheat …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 is head and shoulders better.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Although Cofense was a good product, years of limited updates of any substance caused us to look into additional products. We have reduced our time of needing to review phishing emails by almost 90%. For example, 800 messages delivered into our phishing platform resulted in 650 …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Main reason was for the phishing simulation content, not all users get the same content, the content goes out at different times on different days and the targeted phishing element. The training content is also great and very intuitive with videos / games and you can create …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 is easy to integrate with AD and Outlook so onboarding and off boarding users is easy.
The reporting, training, and templates are varied and easily changed to tailor to our business.
PhishMe is strictly a security training and reporting tool, while KnowBe4 includes …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Proofpoint has a more streamlined product that tries to do to many things where Knowbe4 is a more specialized tool focusing on security awareness training without all the other IT tools and data. It's like they say you can be a jack of all trades but a master at none. Knowbe4 …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 is similar in many ways to its competitors, but has an edge in terms of training content, usability, and integration. I would like to see more technical options with our level of subscription.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 integrates seamlessly with Drata to monitor security compliance. It is possible to chose which training campaigns are mandatory to consider the security awareness training control passed. The integration is easy to configure and works with complex scenarios (optional …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
I like how KB4 has more options in the simulations and training as well as more depth of services than the other companies
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We chose KnowBe4, and stayed with them, because of their robust offering of training material/content. We did look at other products, but nothing compared to KnowBe4. Every couple years we'll look at the market and see what else is out there. So far, there is nothing even close …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We have not evaluated any other platforms.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
It isn't the same, but there wasn't an option for nothing. I didn't review or use any other programs before using KB4
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We use FortiGate and I found that the training KnowBe4 Security provided helped us utilize this tool even more.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, relative to the competition, is best-in-class. Superior training materials, simulations, user interface, and customer support. The application integrates particularly well with our other technology offerings. The provider gives us access …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Microsoft's training offering is not as extensive as KnowBe4's. KnowBe4's interface is very easy to use if you're an administrator.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
SANS was good, but the functionality we have gotten with KnowBe4 was what our company needed.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4, by far, has the most complete solution. It has the largest library of simulation emails, as well as training. It is so easy to set up campaigns and automatically have users who fail these campaigns to be added to groups that receive additional training. Those who are …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We used Barracuda for backups and wanted to test their training platform. KnowBe4’s platform is much more intuitive and is much better catered to our users. The metrics that we are able to generate through KnkwBe4 are also much more defined, allowing us to give better reports …
Microsoft 365
Features
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.9
338 Ratings
3% above category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability9.3301 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.6326 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.1
370 Ratings
5% below category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Training Content Library8.4367 Ratings00 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content8.1207 Ratings00 Ratings
Training Gamification7.9306 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training7.0323 Ratings00 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans7.7312 Ratings00 Ratings
Phishing Simulations9.4365 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Reporting8.4355 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack8.3211 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Small Businesses
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Score 8.7 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Hoxhunt
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Score 9.4 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.4 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(707 ratings)
7.9
(243 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(56 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(196 ratings)
7.7
(13 ratings)
Availability
9.6
(20 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.5
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(260 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.8
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.4
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(24 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
8.9
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.1
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.6
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.9
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.5
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.5
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
KnowBe4
I don't have any frame of reference for comparison, but the training that I have used has proved impactful for my staff. Since starting KnowBe4 training, we've seen a great increase in the number of phishing attempts, but also a great increase in the number of attempts that have been recognized by staff, and we have thus not been the victim of phishing or other cyberattact vectors
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Microsoft
The large array of collaboration features are very well suited for large organizations with 100+ end users which can be obtained by assigning a single license such as E5 and by doing this you receive multiple tools for doing the job and large enterprises can make use of these multiple tools for bridging gaps between different user groups, for example within Teams segregated grouping. However considering smaller organizations this might not be the case where they might have simple bought a feature license pack and still much more features which they do not require or hardly use within their corporate environment.
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Pros
KnowBe4
  • Phish tests can be set to various difficulty levels as staff becomes more knowledgeable in catching phish emails.
  • Automated phish tests and training save a lot of admin time. The product can also test for phone and USB stick practices.
  • The phish alert button in Outlook, along with PhishER and PhishFlip allow easy managing and response to actual phishing emails.
  • The interactive training is well designed to cover all types of phishing and safe email and phone behavior.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Chat with teams and the integrations with the other apps, and many more smaller ones, like to-dos, news, and the recent Outlook integration.
  • Easy embedding on SharePoint to broadcast all the content created in the different tools.
  • The office package is still robust with the good things from the past and new additions.
Read full review
Cons
KnowBe4
  • The provided templates for phishing simulations are mainly available in English. There are also some templates available in our native language, but their number is small. We have seen other platforms offer way more phishing simulation templates in our language.
  • Although there is a really huge number of training videos available, some of them are outdated and no longer have much to offer. Some cleaning up could help in this direction.
  • Although there a some games / puzzle like trainings available, we have seen other platforms offer more and better ones (on the other platforms had they had almost no videos at all...). It would help significantly to also invest in enriching the provided puzzles / games.
  • We have seen other platforms offer games, where, for example, employees of the company can compete against each other while working together in groups to achieve a common goal (e.g., eliminate a fictional security threat that has "hit" the company. Plan the steps needed to be taken, take the steps one after another and have a chance to see the impact each action has. At the end the team that has suffered the least cost to end the threat is the one that wins. Just an example. The point is to make this challenging, using gamification and to make the employees part of the prevention force of the company against cybersecurity threats.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Slack is 1000x better than teams. Why put a 250 limit on a chat? Our company hasn't moved fully to channels and it's making us lose transparency. Plus, the teams channels we do have nobody is going to. 90% loss in visibility and engagement.
  • Teams for web meetings. I think the UI/UX should match Zoom which is the standard for all our customers. They don't like it when we use Teams.
  • Chats and Channels need to somehow be on one screen automatically without having to choose that view because majority of our company hasn't opened Teams Channels and only stays in chats.
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Likelihood to Renew
KnowBe4
Between the ease of use, cost effectiveness, functionality and continued improvements Knowbe4 continues to make it would be pretty hard to find another competitive product that wraps it all up like KnowBe4 has. Not saying it couldn't happen, but haven't seen anything that competes at this point.
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Microsoft
So far the Microsoft 365 platform provides features and tools that can cater to 100% of present organizations needs considering both technical and business necessities, however most features are not been effectively utilised at present. The current featureset is able to cover for most of the future needs of the business and technical functions.
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Usability
KnowBe4
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is simple to use, simple to administer, effective, with quality content. It is easy to take the training and we have the reminders set so that the longer a user puts the training off, the more frequently they will receive reminder emails. Eventually they get emailed every day until they take the training. But with a simple click, they can get into the training content.
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Microsoft
Too many disruptive, time-consuming, and productivity-lowering glitches with Outlook keep me from giving it a 10. I never had a problem like this with Outlook until I switched to 365 ( and I've been at it since the dark ages). Fix the glitches, and I will happily give it a 10!
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Reliability and Availability
KnowBe4
There have only been a handful of outages in the 2 years we have had the product. Even during those instances, parts of the system were still operational
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Microsoft
To-date Microsoft 365 platform has offered an amazing uptime and availability percentage per year compared to all other products which provide the stability and overall business resilience of their ecosystem which is a great relief for information technology service entitites which heavy rely on Microsoft offerings as a whole to redeliver their own custom products
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Performance
KnowBe4
Pages load quickly, filter/sort quickly, and don't slow down or freeze. Everything is smooth and very easy to use. There are a places in the UI where you can forget how to get there, but other than that everything is great. We have had no issues using any part of the website.
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Microsoft
The Microsoft 365 tools expects and demands a substantial amount of system resources to operate at optimal level and even more when integrated with other applications which is a downside, however given that external supporting tech factors such as fibre/broadband speed bandwidth, high speed RAM and ample storage resources are allocated the tools work error free providing robust communication
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Support Rating
KnowBe4
Tech prod support is great! I did have to ask for a new customer success rep, needed a more experienced person to match my 12 years of experience running Cybersec training programs. Would suggest that more matching of rep level of knowledge to client level knowledge would help.
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Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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In-Person Training
KnowBe4
Helpful and knowledgeable account managers have helped us navigate and use the system to our full potential
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Microsoft
The resellers involved with selling Microsoft products are reluctant to provide in person specialist trainings to consumers due to the fact of costs of economies of scale and is not provided free of charge most of the time. In Person trainings needs to be agreed to at the initiation of projects and implementations for better ROI.
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Online Training
KnowBe4
confusing question. I inherited this application so I didnt get any formal training other than the person who was leaving. The CSM provided some later on when I asked in a zoom call
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Microsoft
The standard training offered with 3rd part resellers are fairly standard and covers the basic workability however the trainings needs to be specifically customised according to unique requirements of the organizations. for example an MSP would need to master specific communications verticals within Microsoft 365 whereas and online store using Microsoft 365 would needs to master a different set of tools within the suite to get the best ROI post implementation.
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Implementation Rating
KnowBe4
The implementation went really well and KnowBe4 was there the whole time on setup to make sure things were setup correctly. The only thing we had to figure out on our own was to script users automatically being added to security groups. So that when they sync to knowBe4 from AD they are placed into the same/correct groups.
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Microsoft
The Microsoft support partners are more than capable of handling implementations and dealing with unprecedented errors during the implementations. Not part of the implementation though the setup was done with minimum misconfigurations which is evident with present live setup which works fine without any bugs and gaps at present context.
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Alternatives Considered
KnowBe4
KnowBe4 offered a significantly more favorable cost-benefit ratio compared to other solutions. Its seamless integration with our existing infrastructure—particularly Active Directory and email systems—was the most compatible with our operational and security requirements.
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Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
KnowBe4
I was not involved in the pricing, billing or contract terms.
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Microsoft
Microsoft pricing is not very expensive and yet not very cheap as well, and it hovers in between the baseline. The charges are mostly based on the tier level partners who charge based on their individual reputation in the market. Power negotiation will lead to cost effective and attractive pricing
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Scalability
KnowBe4
The product scales greatly. As long as you upgrade the license to support the number of users you are needing, adding in those new users is easy. Also getting those users set up with trainings/campaigns is very easy as well
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Microsoft
Multiple tools within the same platform have been deployed successfully within different functional technical and non technical teams such as Devops, SOC, NOC, Shared services, Managed services, Global Information technology, Cloud operations, Finance, Administration, human resources and all these teams collaborate while maintaining central uniformity in terms of global standards who are dispersed in different geographical locations with ease
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Professional Services
KnowBe4
The team was great to work with and took their time to ensure that we knew what we were doing with the product and that it was set up to meet the specific needs of our organization. This wasn't just a cookie-cutter deployment, but rather they focused specifically on our needs.
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Microsoft
Have not directly obtained professional services from Microsoft but rather obtained specialized services such as implementations and configurations, setting up and integration support with Microsoft authorized suppliers, 3rd parties, and resellers, which has been a pleasant experience. Again the level of delivery quality on professional services is based on the level of hands on exposure of the 3rd party
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Return on Investment
KnowBe4
  • With the implementation of KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have reduced a lot of issues of social engineering attacks like Phishing attacks, Smishing attacks, Vishing attacks, and a lot more. After implementing the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have seen a significant decrease in the clicking on a phishing email. Now users are aware of phishing attacks and they know how to react to them.
  • With KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we got another tool Phish Alert Button that we have installed on the user's outlook and after providing training on these topics, now we are receiving a lot of spam report emails are users are protecting them from clicking and just reporting it to the IT team.
  • With the Phishing test, we are seeing the growth and analyzing how our users will react in the case of a real phishing attack, and with this, we are providing more training to them and going with them as per the test report. This whole process is making our company more stronger against any type pf social engineering attack.
  • After implementing KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have seen a lot of improvements in the account compromise case in our company because users are not clicking on fake links now.
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft 365 has really been effective and cost saving option for our organization in terms of managing the mailboxes, collaboration and messaging.
  • There is multiple must have features which comes all together in one package and therefore is cost effective.
  • The only negative impact according to me is its inability to protect the environment or domain from external attacks effectively.
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ScreenShots

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Screenshots

Screenshot of the Phishing Dashboard. This displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.Screenshot of the Virtual Risk Officer functionality, which helps identify risk to support data-driven decisions about a security awareness plan.Screenshot of KnowBe4's partners, including The Security Awareness Company, Popcorn Training, exploqii, Twist & Shout, El Pescador, CLTRe, Saya University, and MediaPRO. Together, they create security awareness training content available in the ModStore.Screenshot of a security training quiz question showing "Security Moments Series: Spot the Bad Link" asking what Lisa should do when receiving an unexpected email with an HTML attachment, with three answer options and Submit/Cancel buttons.Screenshot of the AIDA Phishing Template Generator interface, which displays a customizable phishing simulation tool with template setup options on the left and a preview of a generated "Annual Bonus Announcement" email featuring a QR code attack vector on the right.Screenshot of the AIDA Configure Training interface, which displays settings for personalized remedial phishing training, including user enrollment options, completion timeframes, knowledge refresher schedules, and notification preferences, with an "Activate Remedial Training" button to implement the configuration.