KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

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
Proofpoint Email Protection
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Proofpoint Email Protection is available as an on-premise or cloud based solution and blocks unwanted, malicious and impostor emails with granular search capabilities and visibility into all messages. Outbound controls include encryption and data loss prevention, while continuity capabilities ensure business communications can continue as normal in the event of an email outage. With Proofpoint's Email Protection, you can protect your people, data, and brand from today’s threats…N/A
Pricing
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
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 TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
Free Trial
NoYes
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 TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
Considered Both Products
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
The report phish alert button was easy to set up on the user Outlook ribbon. It is also much cheaper than the Proofpoint training option.
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.
Proofpoint Email Protection

No answer on this topic

Features
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.9
350 Ratings
3% above category average
Proofpoint Email Protection
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability9.0312 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.7338 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.3
382 Ratings
2% below category average
Proofpoint Email Protection
-
Ratings
Training Content Library8.6379 Ratings00 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content8.3215 Ratings00 Ratings
Training Gamification7.7316 Ratings00 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training7.5334 Ratings00 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans8.2324 Ratings00 Ratings
Phishing Simulations9.3377 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Reporting8.5367 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack8.1219 Ratings00 Ratings
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
-
Ratings
Proofpoint Email Protection
8.0
79 Ratings
5% below category average
Anti-malware00 Ratings10.077 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings7.076 Ratings
Data Loss Protection00 Ratings6.049 Ratings
Threat Detection00 Ratings8.076 Ratings
Sandboxing00 Ratings7.058 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings10.059 Ratings
Management Tools00 Ratings8.075 Ratings
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User Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(705 ratings)
10.0
(96 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(56 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(196 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.6
(20 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.6
(21 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(260 ratings)
8.3
(5 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)
8.2
(1 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 TrainingProofpoint Email Protection
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
Read full review
Proofpoint
Well suited: Proofpoint does a pretty good job at protecting us from spam emails. I was able to block a lot of emails coming from SendGrid by blocking SendGrid emails with a custom spam filter. However, SendGrid has a lot of legit emails too so I was able to create another rule to allow those emails from certain people, then block the rest. That way business need was met but spam emails are blocked. Less Appropriate If you are trying to monitor internal to internal emails Proofpoint is probably a little over featured for that.
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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
Proofpoint
  • Spam - catches these emails before hitting the inbox.
  • Daily digest - provides users with a list of the emails that were blocked and allows them to choose to release them if they are legitimate emails.
  • Ensures that emails coming into our organization is safe for our users and verifies the email is coming from stated senders email server.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Proofpoint
  • Proofpoint could offer more frequent training opportunities to customers at all levels of expertise.
  • Proofpoint can always continue to strive to keep its product a leader in the industry.
  • Proofpoint's support site could be overhauled to provide a more logical flow.
Read full review
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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Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
Very robust and solid product in protecting our emails. The engineers who assisted with our implementation was very knowledgable and great to work with. Easy to use by end-users. Administration and management are also easy for IT. Great dashboard and reporting tools for business reviews.
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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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Proofpoint
There were no appliance errors or unplanned outages during five years of operation.
Read full review
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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Proofpoint
Most important thing is the performance of processing mails. Even in a complex environment the system keeps performing on a very high Level.
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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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Proofpoint
We use ProofPoint support quite often to fix issues and assist with setting up features and rules. Each time we have created a ticket, they have been very helpful and respectful. Each ticket has been treated with the appropriate SLA time and attention. We also enjoy the regular check-ins from the engineers when tickets are open but we get busy with other tasks.
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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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Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
We previously used halon anti-spam, which lasted us well until our organization really started to grow and it was not able to keep up with the amount of mail we were receiving. The support is also nothing compared to Proofpoint's professional services offering. Halon was also not able to have the complex rules that Proofpoint can offer.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
KnowBe4
I was not involved in the pricing, billing or contract terms.
Read full review
Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
You can add a lot of agents to your environment if you need them. And you can operate hardware appliances and virtual appliances in the same cluster.
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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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Proofpoint
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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Proofpoint
  • Having easy-to-reach backups of all employee emails has made Proofpoint worth it by itself. That plus the countless times that spam/malicious emails did not make it through to the intended person that could have potentially cost the organization a lot of money.
Read full review
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.