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ClearScale Windows Server 2025 vs Gophish comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ClearScale Windows Server 2025
Ranking in AWS Marketplace
450th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Gophish
Ranking in AWS Marketplace
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2858658 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Automated hardening has standardized our servers and reduces effort for secure Windows workloads
The first-boot time is longer than a stock Windows AMI. Sysprep and the initial hardening pass add a noticeable delay before the instance is reachable, which is something to account for if you autoscale and need nodes ready quickly. The hardened defaults also occasionally trip up common installers and agents. A few of our deployment and monitoring tools assumed services or policies that the image had locked down, so we had to add exceptions. A short compatibility checklist of what the hardening changes from a default Windows install would have saved us that debugging. I would also like the option of a CIS Level 2 build for our more sensitive workloads since the image currently only ships a Level 1 baseline. Thanks.
JC
Administrador de sistemas informaticos en red at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Phishing awareness campaigns have improved training impact but still need smarter automation
I think Gophish could be improved with more automation, for instance. It is great that you can create templates, schedule them, and do everything you want in Gophish, but it would be nice to have a small integrated AI model with which you could create email templates and phishing templates. It would be nice if Gophish implemented artificial intelligence. I wish Gophish could provide more support and be more advanced and that they continue developing it because it seems that Gophish does not get many updates, and I think they need to implement more features. It is great because it is free, but it needs more features. It would be cool if there was an artificial intelligence model that could create phishing campaigns or templates or email templates for you integrated within Gophish. I would rate it a seven. It is quite good and free software, but it needs more substance. It also depends on the number of clients a company has; it may be necessary to launch Gophish in a staggered way, which I also think is a drawback Gophish has. The issue is that if there are many people being targeted, for example, 5,000 employees in a company and you send 5,000, it may be that sending so many messages gets blocked by the security systems companies have. I think that Gophish could also improve the message sending flows. I gave it a seven because there are things to improve and it is not perfect. As I said before, it would be nice if templates could be created with AI, integrated into Gophish using an API with Gemini or ChatGPT or whichever, but the point is that it would be nice if the sending flows at large scale were better managed. When you send a phishing campaign to 5,000 people, you have to send it in sections in a staggered way, for example: to these 5,000 people it is going to be sent between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. If you send them all at once, the phishing may get blocked and then the campaign has no effect. I would like it if Gophish implemented more improvements because they are needed, as it is kind of a bit stagnant. I hope that in the future they add more improvements including creating personalized templates with artificial intelligence and improving the message sending flows.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Windows Server 2025 is a strong fit for enterprise environments heavily reliant on Microsoft technologies."
"Because the image arrives CIS Level 1 hardened with the AWS tooling already in place, our servers come up patched, locked down, and ready to join the domain without a separate build out pass."
"Gophish is one of the easiest tools that I can see available online, and a significant advantage is that it is free of cost and open source."
"My advice to other professionals who are considering using Gophish is that it is a platform for people who are just starting out and do not have the resources and also do not have knowledge."
"I think Gophish is a fantastic tool that, at least for my use case, worked perfectly."
"Gophish is a good structure and a good technological innovation that deserves to be studied and much better known by the world because not everyone knows Gophish."
"The impact it has had is that we have been able to sell it to clients who, for example, do not have the money to pay for a platform because they are small startups, and so with Gophish we create a solution that is cheaper for them."
"Gophish has positively impacted my organization by helping my team reach our goals."
"I really appreciate using Gophish because it is open-source and non-paid, which provides cost savings for the company and allows modifications so you can use it in your own way."
"With Gophish, I am able to work in a more appropriate way on phishing awareness, and I am also able to make employees aware in an easy and appropriate way because they see how a phishing attack works in a real way."
 

Cons

"The hardened defaults also occasionally trip up common installers and agents: a few of our deployment and monitoring tools assumed services or policies that the image had locked down, so we had to add exceptions."
"Initial configuration complexity can still be high for teams without prior Windows Server expertise."
"Gophish can be improved by adding more languages and maybe a web version for it, a SaaS platform."
"The one improvement I would like to see in Gophish is the booting up of the images, as it sometimes takes a lot of time and could be improved."
"For Gophish, there is a lack of integration with MFA and cookie captures that are more advanced attack methods."
"Currently, we do not think Gophish requires much improvement other than a better graphical user interface."
"I believe Gophish can be improved by adding new features based on attack types in the future, particularly for new zero-day attacks, and incorporating AI-based tools to enhance analyzing and automation."
"I think Gophish could be improved because it is effective for its purpose, but there are certain features that can be enhanced."
"Regarding how Gophish can be improved, the latest update is from 2022."
"Although the tool is very good, I think there could be some improvements, especially when it comes to leveraging AI for testing and also when it comes to the expansion beyond email phishing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
26%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ClearScale Windows Server 2025?
The software charge sits on top of the underlying Windows EC2 cost, which is already higher than Linux, so model both together before you commit to a large fleet. The hourly model suited our autosc...
What needs improvement with ClearScale Windows Server 2025?
The first-boot time is longer than a stock Windows AMI. Sysprep and the initial hardening pass add a noticeable delay before the instance is reachable, which is something to account for if you auto...
What is your primary use case for ClearScale Windows Server 2025?
We use ClearScale Windows Server 2025 as the base image for our .NET and IIS application servers on EC2. These instances host internal line of business web applications and Windows services, and se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Gophish?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing shows that the setup cost is not very high; Gophish is completely free, as it is an open-source tool.
What needs improvement with Gophish?
I believe Gophish can be improved in a few areas. First, the user interface could be made more modern and beginner-friendly. The current setup is simple, but for a new user, campaign creation, land...
What is your primary use case for Gophish?
My main use case for Gophish is to run a phishing awareness campaign inside an organization in a safe and controlled way. For example, instead of waiting for a real attacker to send a fake email to...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about ClearScale Windows Server 2025 vs. Gophish and other solutions. Updated: July 2026.
909,948 professionals have used our research since 2012.