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AppRiver Email Security vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AppRiver Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
37th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th), Digital Risk Protection (5th), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of AppRiver Email Security is 0.7%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 5.9%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection5.9%
AppRiver Email Security0.7%
Other93.4%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

John Zupancic - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President / Branch Manager / Senior Technician at Aperion Information Technologies, Inc.
Pricing that is competitive, excellent technical support, and email security
They do a better job of distinguishing between what's real and what's not than most of the other solutions we've tried. They are very easy to use. We don't have as many problems with email security. They have some areas that could be improved. For example, we also use Zix email Encryption for email encryption, which was clunky and could be improved, but the email security itself has been excellent.
Siva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Email defenses have reduced phishing incidents and protect sensitive data across our enterprise
As things are evolving and threats develop in unpredictable ways, Proofpoint must adopt AI solutions and agentic solutions more aggressively and provide them to customers as part of service offerings. Inbuilt AI solutions would add more value and make Proofpoint a more premium choice for customers. With the help of AI solutions, agentic AI, and generative AI capabilities, the product would be more efficient than it currently is. Filtering false positives is highly challenging because it is impossible for humans to identify which emails are genuine and which are spam. Proofpoint should focus more on this area with back-end agents or other tools. Proofpoint should decide which emails are genuine and which are spam so it is not a challenge for end users. When receiving an email, end users should not have to determine whether to respond or not. Proofpoint should not release such spam emails and should strictly block such spam and spoof emails based on connection IPs. Currently, false positives occur in the product, and while this occurs in every product, it is an area where Proofpoint can focus on improving and reducing false positives. One email is enough for an end user to be deceived and lose money, so addressing this area is critical.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's easy to use and user-friendly. Users can also easily release spam emails."
"They are very easy to use."
"They do a better job of distinguishing between what's real and what's not than most of the other solutions we've tried."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is a strong and reliable solution for defending against advanced email threats, especially phishing and targeted attacks."
"Out of these three, no other email gateway can be compared with Proofpoint Email Protection."
"Using Proofpoint Email Protection has significantly improved SOC analyst workloads for my customers by enhancing response times and adding value through built-in threat investigation tools."
"On a day-to-day basis, Proofpoint Email Protection has saved me about 50% of my workload, which has been a real godsend."
"It was easy to set up."
"From a mail gateway perspective, I think Proofpoint Email Protection is one of the most complete options compared to others."
"The solution scales quite well."
"As a cloud-based product, it can scale well."
 

Cons

"It needs to make sure that the application is up to date with new attacks. They should also send us the demo or introductions for their new incoming features."
"Email security checks contain a small number of false positives."
"Technical support is no longer as good as it once was."
"I want Security Awareness Training in there as a package deal. A lot of companies are starting to value email security a little bit more and take it a little bit more seriously, and the great product that we link together with a lot of these sales is a training product called Security Awareness Training. It is an upsell that we do with Proofpoint, and it is definitely something that I recommend everybody with email security to look into. It would be great if Security Awareness Training is included with the email security."
"Proofpoint should have better integration with complex environments that need more than one instance of Proofpoint, as there are issues with nested instances."
"As mentioned on the Proofpoint website, it blocks almost around 99.99%, but as far as the last six months of data which we have analyzed, it is slightly on the lower side, around 97 to 98%."
"The false positives are an issue."
"If I had to pick one minor thing I would like to see improved in Proofpoint Email Protection, it would be integration with AutoTask or ConnectWise because I saw a few tickets where, when there is a notification on Proofpoint Email Protection, it takes a few minutes to maybe an hour to generate a ticket with ConnectWise and AutoTask."
"I have noticed some lagging and issues with the Proofpoint Protection Server, which is not the cloud solution or the Admin Portal solution. It seems to lag quite a lot when we try to work with folders, quarantine folders, or configure anything in there."
"The email DLP portion could be a bit easier."
"I have not noticed much change in operational efficiency after implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, but the process execution is light."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They're fairly inexpensive, but they're right in the ballpark of most of the other online products like that."
"I can rate it five out of ten because there are different platforms that also offer the same services for lower prices. But AppRiver is more flexible."
"The solution is expensive."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has comparable pricing."
"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."
"The licensing model for Proofpoint Email Protection is simple. It's based on the number of users. Price-wise, Proofpoint Email Protection is a five out of ten because it's a pretty expensive solution."
"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
"They are competitively priced, but I have been forced to get quotes for other solutions now because they haven't been responding to requests to do the work that we would like them to do."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"We sell annual licenses for this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Retailer
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
To improve Proofpoint Email Protection, I suggest breaking down the URL into one versus three different GUIs. Regarding Proofpoint Email Protection's AI capabilities, I think its governance and sec...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection includes phishing emails, spam, URL isolation, and training. I utilize the email protect portal to ensure that none of our employees in any of the b...
 

Also Known As

AppRiver Advanced Email Security
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

IHMC
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about AppRiver Email Security vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.