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Fortinet FortiMail Cloud vs Proofpoint Email Protection vs Proofpoint’s ZenGuide 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Cloud Email
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
Security Awareness Training
 

Featured Reviews

Pravin Mandlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides enhanced email security with potential agent compatibility issues
There are definitely features that Fortinet should work on. I'm not the right person to implement those features. For a portable cloud solution, a customer has more affinity towards a solution where endpoint security is already in place. In endpoint security, they are not at the latest quadrant. That is why a customer with existing endpoint security solutions like Trend Micro might prefer a main security solution from that vendor. If we go for FortiMail Cloud and have a separate endpoint security solution, there are two agents that have to sit on a customer endpoint. From that perspective, Fortinet policies add an extra load to the endpoint. Maybe other solutions have an advantage when it comes to Fortinet.
AhmedRamadan - PeerSpot reviewer
Optimize email security with effective sandboxing and auto Pull for quarantine
Proofpoint is used as an email security gateway for big enterprises, primarily for their on-premises servers. Many customers also use it alongside Office 365 Proofpoint offers a complete solution for email security with features like DLP, email archiving, and encryption. The most valuable…
DM
Customizable features and seamless setup enhance security training
In my opinion, some of the most valuable features of Proofpoint's ZenGuide include the customization, allowing us to add our own branding and themes to the automated emails that are sent, as well as the training. The phishing simulations, from what I've seen so far, run pretty well. There's a significant amount of campaign options to choose from. I appreciate how customizable they are so that we can fine-tune it to specifically target things related to what we work on. The training content seems comparable based on what I've seen compared to other tools such as KnowBe4. The implementation of Proofpoint's ZenGuide has affected my IT team's workload regarding email security management, but not significantly. Most of these features seem fairly automated and easy to set up. For example, setting up a phishing campaign doesn't take too long, so it hasn't affected us substantially.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The deployment is simple."
"The most valuable features are filtering and sandboxing."
"The product's initial setup is straightforward and simple, making it an easy-to-use tool."
"Cost-wise, it's a bit expensive, but it's totally worth it."
"This solution is easy to install. The deployment takes about forty-five minutes."
"Overall, it is a comprehensive and reliable solution."
"One of the most beautiful benefits is its integration, as it can seamlessly integrate with any third-party email servers."
"I am impressed with the tool's ability to setup rules and destinations. It also helps to monitor suspicious items."
"The solution scales quite well."
"The solution scales well."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk."
"There is no downtime."
"The initial implementation is pretty easy to handle."
"The setup was easy."
"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are the performance from being on the cloud."
"I like all the features with Proofpoint, such as how it filters the spam and marketing mail, lost reality mail, blocks phishing attacks, blocks malicious attachments, and stops phishing links. Also it can defend against the business email compromise impersonation technique. It is a complete solution for all email attacks. It filters for the bad, malicious attachments. If there is any executable file, it can be deleted. It is a good, complete solution."
"Most valuable is the SSO integration with our AD, so the users can employ our federation service to log in."
"I would definitely recommend Proofpoint's ZenGuide to others, as I think the branding and the ability to add your own branding on all different avenues, through the email communications, training, simulations, and everything, is probably the biggest advantage I've seen so far."
 

Cons

"The price is relatively expensive."
"This ease of use and user-friendliness is something we believe could be improved in FortiMail."
"FortiMail needs to develop further, particularly in integrating AI features, to keep up with rapidly advancing technology."
"The URL filtering and handling should be enhanced because it doesn't support all languages. I believe that this would be easy to enhance in the future."
"I've not been able to use more than two domains in the back end. I like to view logs for the different domains. If I add any other domain I'm not able to get a proper cPanel for that domain. I am talking about the login factors. I'm not able to see logs for different domains in a different Window. Basically, it's an issue in the login process."
"I would like to see more advanced sandbox features, where you can actually download to a machine where you can test."
"It is slightly difficult to configure FortiMail in the cloud with Exchange on-premise, especially the quarantine mailbox access for end-users."
"The setup of the rules can be improved. I think it should be simplified and would be the best improvement in the system."
"The solution could lower its price."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve on the training. Every organization is different and to fine-tune it to block everything properly there needs to be better training. Sometimes it can block some of the information it shouldn't."
"There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is an expensive solution."
"The solution's server console and cluster dashboard have been the same for four years so need to be upgraded."
"We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."
"It's scalable, but the devil's in the details — you have to know your email volumes."
"You only receive one model in Proofpoint Email Protection and the other ones you have to purchase at a high price. There should be more available with the solution and additional models should be less expensive."
"We would like to create reports for local IT leaders in a different way, more suitable for upper management."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I see how manageable and flexible the licenses are."
"You only have to purchase one license for multiple participants."
"The price of this solution could be more competitive."
"The licensing is for three years. In the beginning, we did not pay monthly, it was paid once for three years."
"When we're talking about pricing, other products have about the same price. That is normal."
"I rate the price of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud a five on a one to ten scale, where one is the low price, and ten is the high price. It is an averagely priced product."
"A license for our company using FortiMail and FortiCare (filtering and support) was $4000."
"It should cost around $60,000. We bought it as a bundle, so everything comes together in the license. That is standard."
"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
"It is expensive."
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
"In general, the pricing is competitive."
"It is on a yearly basis. Their floor for SMB doesn't matter. The user count is 100 users and below at $2,500 a year. Its cost is higher than other solutions. It is probably about 20% to 30% higher than what you would get with Microsoft. There are no additional costs. All costs are factored in. It can be improved pricing-wise so that it is affordable for the SMB market."
"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 licensing is basically $8/user."
"Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost."
"received very good pricing, as we are also working with the Proofpoint spam appliances."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
Non Profit
6%
Hospitality Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Performing Arts
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
Content disarming and analysis are essential features in our email security setup
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
The price of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud in Egypt is very competitive against other products, including the setup cost a...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
The improvement in Fortinet FortiMail Cloud can be made regarding the classification process itself because it has so...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?
In terms of pricing, it is okay compared to others. I would say it is normal. Additional costs do come in, but it enh...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
It became very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances, and I may advise Proofpoint to adjust marketing so...
What needs improvement with Wombat Security Education Platform?
I do not have many recommendations for improvements for Proofpoint's ZenGuide right now. I am still fairly new to it,...
What is your primary use case for Wombat Security Education Platform?
Our use cases for Proofpoint's ZenGuide involve training company-wide on security awareness, phishing, and running ph...
What advice do you have for others considering Wombat Security Education Platform?
I am not actually sure about the compliance enforcement capabilities of Proofpoint's ZenGuide, so I cannot comment on...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Cofense PhishMe, Proofpoint Digital Protection
Proofpoint Security Awareness Training, Wombat Security Education Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Carnegie Mellon University, Royal Bank of Scotland, City of Garland, Texas
Find out what your peers are saying about MailChimp, Twilio, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Cloud Email. Updated: August 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.