KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Score 9.0 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 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 risk management through personalized training and automation. With…
$1.63
per month (billed annually) per seat
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a security solution used to protect Office 365 against advanced threats, such as phishing and business email compromise. It helps prevent volume-based and targeted attacks, including business email compromise, credential phishing, ransomware, and advanced malware with a robust filtering stack, as well as to detect malicious and suspicious content like links and files across Office 365.N/A
Pricing
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Editions & Modules
Foundation
$1.63
per month (billed annually) per seat
Diamond
$1.70
per month (billed annually) per seat
Advanced
$2.79
per month (billed annually) per seat
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing listed is for 501-1000 seats. Other levels available. For organizations with over 1,000 seats, get a quote.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Considered Both Products
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
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
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 …
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Chose Microsoft Defender for Office 365
They are not entirely in the same category, or have the same functionality, but before we had Microsoft Defender for Office 365, the only security we had was in the form of Zscaler products, and filtering and inspection, etc done by our service provider which was Orange …
Features
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.9
349 Ratings
3% above category average
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability9.0312 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.7337 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.3
381 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
-
Ratings
Training Content Library8.6378 Ratings00 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content8.2214 Ratings00 Ratings
Training Gamification7.7315 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training7.6333 Ratings00 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans8.1323 Ratings00 Ratings
Phishing Simulations9.3376 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Reporting8.4366 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack8.1219 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(705 ratings)
8.5
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(56 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(196 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.6
(20 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.6
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(260 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.8
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.4
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(24 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.9
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.1
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.5
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.6
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.9
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.6
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.6
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMicrosoft Defender for Office 365
Likelihood to Recommend
KnowBe4
I think the most important factor is that our risk has decreased significantly among staff. Our staff is well below the industry (Education) benchmark in terms of users that are "prone to phishing". We also have multiple instances over the years where employees have stopped real efforts to access data illegally or an attempt to take funds from our institution
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Microsoft
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is found to be well suited for our size company, and easily for smaller or larger companies as well. It does have a few places where improvements can be made, but at least it also asks you to provide feedback to Microsoft, which I have done with certain suggestions or complaints. However, overall it is a very thorough and useful tool when it comes to securing and defending yourself against trending threats.
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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.
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Microsoft
  • It has been seamlessly working for us. We have not faced any issue as an end user. I've not faced many issues around accessing my apps, securely accessing and I've also seen certain links being blocked if I do not have correct access based on the security level that is defined for each user.
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Cons
KnowBe4
  • Many items in the library aren't applicable to our use case, and it's sometimes difficult to filter out what I'm looking for.
  • I don't love the training dashboard, but maybe that's just a "me" thing.
  • Setting up groups can be tedious.
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Microsoft
  • I think it needs to be tuned correctly. For example, afterwards I tried to go in and print once after the implementation was done, I went in and tried to print a file or export a document. Just not possible, which just means it's great, works really well, but it also means that you have to tune your data categorization very carefully.
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Likelihood to Renew
KnowBe4
No question, KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is a great value to our organization. Properly training our users in the proper use of email and how to be aware of possible dangerous emails is incredibly important now. Also, training users in the best practices for phone calls, as well as internet browsing can prevent data or information from being stolen or exposed. Users have even benefited when using their personal devices as a result of the trainings they have received at work.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Usability
KnowBe4
The training videos we have access to are high quality, and provide a wide variety. The Inside Man videos has a cult following within our organization, and has driven a much greater interest in security awareness. And KB4's willingness to negotiate pricing for us as a nonprofit has been very valuable to us as well.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
Sentinel One. Well, we have two different products at the same time. Just see which one is the best fit for our business. So nowadays we're using both at the same time.
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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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
KnowBe4
  • There is really no way one can make all the needed trainings with in house resources anymore! The cost for this would be way way more than that of any platform!
  • There is no way to even calculate the damage a company would suffer in case of a cybersecurity breach! So the cost for the use of the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training platform if minimal compared to that of a possible breach!
  • The cost of creating content for security awareness training is no longer realistic for a company. This is really no option, and it is in no way comparable to the cost of access to the training material available in the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training platform. Also the training content needs to be constantly updated!
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Microsoft
  • The positive aspect is the security of the employees, security of the data. There is no breach I can say. So it is a good impact. I mean there is not any bad or negative impact.
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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 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.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Screenshots

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