KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training vs. Mimecast Advanced Email Security

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
KnowBe4 is a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform used by more than 65,000 organizations around the globe. Founded by IT and data security specialist, Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud, and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. The KnowBe4 platform offers multi-language support for the Admin Console and end…
$0.90
per month per seat
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
The Mimecast Secure Email Gateway is a messaging security option with anti-spam / anti-malware, data loss prevention, large file send, and other features, from UK company Mimecast.N/A
Pricing
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Editions & Modules
Silver
$0.90
per month per seat
Gold
$1.05
per month per seat
Platinum
$1.20
per month per seat
Diamond
$1.70
per month per seat
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThere are four subscription levels: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Each level is priced per user with a sliding scale based on number of users. Monthly pricing per seat billed on an annual basis.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Considered Both Products
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We use KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training to compliment the Mimecast email security products we have.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We selected KnowBe4 because of the value of the money spent. No one else has the breadth and depth of training, testing, and knowledge articles, as well as a first-class support program to go with it. We would pick KnowBe4 over any other product still today, four years after …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 is a more mature product with greater inventory of training materials.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Better automation and more module content are available than other evaluated solutions. The bundling of modules and competitive pricing made this a very attractive option and one we are happy with. Additional content like training posters and content related to supporting a …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4's catalog of training content is much deeper than the other solutions we looked at. At the same time the cost is significantly lower.
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
Chose Mimecast Advanced Email Security
We found Mimecast to offer the value and features we were seeking at a more competitive price when compared to its competitors. It was a significant enhancement over the cloud-based service we used prior to switching. Therefore, we've been happy with our choice and would …
Chose Mimecast Advanced Email Security
Mimecast was the most affordable and comprehensive solution compared to the competitors, the easiest to manage and arguably the one with the most features and effective filtering. Most of our peer firms use the product and their reviews are excellent. We've had very few …
Chose Mimecast Advanced Email Security
Barracuda - We've previously used barracuda and this has been much more powerful of a product with much more granularity. We also considered IronPort and Trustpoint
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.8
271 Ratings
5% above category average
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability9.1239 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.5261 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.4
296 Ratings
1% above category average
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
-
Ratings
Training Content Library8.9293 Ratings00 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content8.3159 Ratings00 Ratings
Training Gamification8.1240 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training7.7256 Ratings00 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans7.9251 Ratings00 Ratings
Phishing Simulations9.5291 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Reporting8.9285 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack8.0159 Ratings00 Ratings
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
-
Ratings
Mimecast Advanced Email Security
7.9
19 Ratings
6% below category average
Anti-malware00 Ratings8.019 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings7.419 Ratings
Data Loss Protection00 Ratings8.016 Ratings
Threat Detection00 Ratings8.218 Ratings
Sandboxing00 Ratings7.216 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings8.816 Ratings
Management Tools00 Ratings8.019 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Small Businesses
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Score 6.8 out of 10
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Proofpoint Security Awareness Training
Proofpoint Security Awareness Training
Score 9.0 out of 10
Barracuda Essentials
Barracuda Essentials
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Hoxhunt
Hoxhunt
Score 9.3 out of 10
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Cisco Cloud Email Security
Score 7.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(642 ratings)
8.2
(31 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(53 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(161 ratings)
6.4
(6 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(18 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.8
(19 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.4
(258 ratings)
8.9
(5 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.8
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.4
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.1
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.1
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.8
(7 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.4
(19 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.9
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.6
(15 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingMimecast Advanced Email Security
Likelihood to Recommend
KnowBe4
This is a very appropriate training system for a school district. We have the ability to add or remove the number of required training. Originally, we scheduled 4 modules per year, but we reduced it to 2 per year, because teachers shared they felt it was too much, originally.
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Mimecast
Mimecast is good when you are needing a basic email security platform. It does some basic things really well, but when you start hitting some advanced needs, it lacks. Mimecast does not do a good job with BEC detection. Mimecast does spam filtering alright, but it could be much better. It really doesn't care about gmail or other external addresses. It doesn't check for age of accounts, etc.
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Pros
KnowBe4
  • Real World Examples - Many of the training modules show Kevin Mitnick actually gaining access to a machine showing how one click can allow a malicious actor access to a machine or network.
  • Up-to-Date content - They are always adding new training and phishing examples.
  • The ability to schedule training and phishing tests.
Read full review
Mimecast
  • Email retention - convenience for the end-users to access older messages even if they've deleted them from Outlook
  • SPAM management - allows us to prevent SPAM and Phishing attacks with custom policies that fit our organizational needs
  • URL protection - allows incoming emails with a URL to be scanned and protects our end-users from clicking on malicious URLs
Read full review
Cons
KnowBe4
  • Uploading your own SCORM content can be problematic with what seem like arbitrary restrictions (e.g. file size, quiz word count, etc.)
  • Content that once was available at our level was taken away so that they could repackage it as a new "product" for an additional cost. They should have grandfathered in existing clients.
  • Reporting capabilities (key for compliance artifacts) should be better designed with flexibility for users to present content in a manner suited to their specific circumstances
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Mimecast
  • The Admin Management console is absurdly complicated. For every first time we wanted to setup we've had to call their support for assistance. Support is quick and fantastic but it's so difficult to do anything yourself. They seem to have gone out of their way to call features unique things instead of using standard language from other providers so you as an IT professional know what you're looking for to setup.
  • They have lots of KB articles, which their support will point you to. They are written on the most basic level and don't actually provide the help you need. For example, the KB page will tell you the list of options on the page... but not actually tell you what you do, why you might use them, or define their terminology.
  • Their email threat management system has several nice features. One of the features available is that it will rewrite links in emails so that users click the link and it sandboxes the link, testing it on their server space and the user sees it there. This means the actual link in the email gets changed to the address of one of their servers. As a law firm, the EXACT LINKS are important to maintain in our communications and editing actual data from our clients to point to a Mimecast server is an unacceptable practice. I wish they had an alternative that did not edit the link itself on the page.
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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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Mimecast
No answers on this topic
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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Mimecast
Yes using the same administration console is good, as user that you have assigned limited functionality to the console, they are already familiar with it when you increase their functionality. The new portal does take a bit of getting used to, but i can see that it is an improvement on the old version.
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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
Read full review
Mimecast
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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Mimecast
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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Mimecast
When calling them you get best in the world customer services but as previously mentioned their online community and capabilities are a bit lacking. They want you to log into their portal to see updates on issues (vs. using a public facing service) and I rarely find the answers to my issues in electronic format. Their online presence is only helpful with the simplest of issues.
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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
Read full review
Mimecast
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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Mimecast
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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Mimecast
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
KnowBe4
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 and mandatory training campaings, different progress status per each employee, etc.).
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Mimecast
Previously we have only used the default on-premise exchange that comes with SBS. This was very simple and only provided basic filtering of spam and junk mail. We weren't able to filter impersonation mail or emails with malicious code
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
KnowBe4
It's kind of expensive compared to other products on the market although I think this product is likely better than those other products it 3 times better? I think not.
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Mimecast
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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Mimecast
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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Mimecast
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
KnowBe4
  • The smart group feature has provided us insight to users who continually fail phishing simulations and allows automatic training assignment. This has greatly reduced our technician's time spent inside the service, allowing them to focus on more important projects.
  • After switching to KnowBe4, for Cybersecurity training, our business has seen an increase of more than 20% participation in training.
  • I can't say enough about the Cybersecurity Assessment feature, which informs us of end-user weaknesses and strengths. Knowing where the company is strong and weak allows us to adjust training and system configurations, keeping the business more secure.
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Mimecast
  • Reasonably priced solution, even for a small business like ours.
  • It's hard to put a figure on our ROI - I would just say we feel like we've gotten our money's worth with the advanced email protection we receive. We have definitely avoided many potentially dangerous emails since we've implemented this solution.
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ScreenShots

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Screenshots

Screenshot of The Phishing and Training Dashboard 
Displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.Screenshot of Virtual Risk Officer™.
The Virtual Risk Officer functionality helps identify risk to support data-driven decisions about a security awareness plan.Screenshot of Advanced Reporting
A Collection of 60+ Built-in Advanced Reports that Provide Holistic View of Over Time. Executive and enterprise-level reporting gives visibility into an organization’s security awareness performance with insights into correlated training and phishing simulation data over any specified period of time.Screenshot of Engaging, Browser-based Training
KnowBe4’s learner experience offers optional gamification, in the form of leaderboards and badges, so users will be incentivized and motivated to take their assigned training.Screenshot of Library of security awareness training content. KnowBe4’s partners with The Security Awareness Company, Popcorn Training, exploqii, Canada Privacy Training, Twist & Shout,  El Pescador, CLTRe, Saya University, lawpilots, and MediaPRO.