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KnowBe4 vs OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​ vs Proofpoint Email Protection 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

As of October 2025, in the Security Awareness Training category, the mindshare of KnowBe4 is 25.8%, down from 33.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​ is 1.4%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 9.6%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Awareness Training Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
KnowBe425.8%
Proofpoint Email Protection9.6%
OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​1.4%
Other63.2%
Security Awareness Training
 

Featured Reviews

Amran Hossain - PeerSpot reviewer
Training program enables comprehensive security awareness and cautious email practices
One feature that would be highly beneficial in a future release is the ability to automatically send training articles or security tips to users on a regular, scheduled basis—for example, weekly or monthly. While the current training modules and phishing simulations are highly effective, ongoing awareness is equally important to keep security top of mind in day-to-day operations. These short, digestible articles or micro-learning content could cover recent phishing trends, real-world examples of security breaches, or quick tips on secure online behavior. Periodic delivery would serve as a continuous learning touchpoint, reinforcing key concepts from the main training and adapting to evolving threats. Ideally, this feature would also include personalization, allowing content to be tailored based on a user’s role, previous training performance, or common mistakes observed in phishing simulations. This kind of proactive, lightweight training approach could significantly enhance employee engagement with security practices and help maintain a strong security posture over time.
reviewer1584120 - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly, has a good training content library and training videos, but it is not effective and the customization has limitations
We used it with one or two of our clients and were not impressed with it, so we stopped using it. We started using an alternative. We had a client who was looking for Security Awareness Training. We were using Weber but the client was not happy with it. We are using a different solution. The ability for customization has limitations. With the different phishing emails and different templates, you weren't really able to change specific things that we had wanted, or make specific changes that we felt comfortable with. When it came to sending it out to our users, it seemed to make it more confusing than it did to actually solving anything. It wasn't as effective as we had originally hoped just based on the content we were able to send out. They may have made some changes but during the time we used it, it just was not effective, and it didn't work with as many of the users as we would have liked.
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I appreciate the training methodology. It is detailed with videos and real examples about handling phishing emails and dealing with social media links received through WhatsApp, email, or other platforms."
"Their support is very quick and informative, deserving a rating of 10."
"KnowBe4's formulas for risk reduction simply work. Being a technical company, our initial phish-prone percentage wasn't super high, but it was still around 18%. Since we have been requiring ongoing training and simulated phish testing, our average phish-prone percentage hovers in the 0 to 3% range now."
"Since we did not have any security program initially, this training program was introduced by our CTO as the first training program in our company."
"KnowBe4 has been quite useful for us as a mid-size company, providing a lot of information."
"KnowBe4 has a lot of high-quality content, and their interface is very user-friendly."
"KnowBe4 has a training program that lasts approximately 15 or 30 minutes, and we provide this security training for our employees so they learn which emails they should open, which links they should click, which links they should not click, and which software they should install."
"The main thing is the overall report card. We get to tell the percentages of users who click on links and who don't click on links. We also get an overall score or risk score from them, which also helps us."
"The GUI works well and it is really well built."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"There is no downtime."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the dashboards and their visibility, easy configuration, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the reports are very important and helpful."
"The anti-spam features are excellent on the email firewalls."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to remove bad messages that were delivered, prior to being classified as unwanted."
"They have customized security rules, mature rules, anti-virus protection, as well as email authentication similar to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC."
"The setup was easy."
"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are the performance from being on the cloud."
 

Cons

"Much of the content they have might not be required, and that might cause frustration, especially when you're trying to implement a cybersecurity program where you're training your entire workforce, as it may frustrate someone if they're forced to do training on how to set a password."
"Some courses have the same type of content, the same type of page. But not too much, I think some repeated content exists in multiple courses in KnowBe4."
"This product has a questions and answers section which is in text form. It could be updated to include a video game format where an employee uses the game to answer these scenarios."
"A lot of their training is designed for people who are almost entirely computer illiterate, which is fine because you want to be comprehensive in your cybersecurity training, but much of the content they have might not be required, and that might cause frustration, especially when you're trying to implement a cybersecurity program where you're training your entire workforce."
"I would like to see Novo4 expand to other channels outside of emails to things such as text messages."
"I feel that the marketing of KnowBe4 needs improvement because many people need to know more about the types of cyber securities that exist."
"If a new feature is introduced and a user without an IT background faces difficulty in operating the new feature, chat bots would be very helpful to ask questions and get responses."
"During the last downtime, it caused significant disruption as users couldn't access the system."
"The ability for customization has limitations."
"I believe they still need to improve by consolidating some portals, as currently, you have to log in separately to a few of them."
"Integration and filtering out who you want and don't want to have integrated ID could be improved."
"The reporting section could be enhanced. I like some reports but if they could allow us to create custom reports with more flexibility it would enhance the reports more."
"Some use cases haven't been dealt with yet."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has a new approach to email security with its API feature. Currently, it only works with Office 365. In the future, it would be beneficial if it also works with Gmail, as Check Point is currently the only brand that has API email security for Gmail. It would be beneficial if Proofpoint Email Protection could add this integration, they would be more competitive with other vendors."
"The incident reporting on offer needs to be improved. It's lacking right now. It should be on the platform somewhere."
"There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats."
"I would want better spear phishing protection in the essentials package."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's about five dollars a seat per month."
"Licensing is paid on a yearly basis. You can go to the official site to check their approximate pricing. It's based on the number of users or staff. It can vary from country to country, but for Ukraine, it works as it's stated on the site."
"I don't know the cost, but I believe we are paying yearly. We did like a three-year or five-year contract. I am not aware of any extra costs in addition to a standard licensing fee."
"I rate the product pricing as four out of ten."
"We were able to find an alternative that had more open-source and more customization that was at a cheaper price point."
"The price is reasonable."
"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."
"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 cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"Annually, it costs us about $92,000. This is pretty much what it costs us. There is no additional cost."
"Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees."
"It is multiple times more expensive, which made it very much less attractive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
No data available
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about KnowBe4?
Their customizable nature allows us to create scenarios that closely resemble real-world phishing attempts, making th...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KnowBe4?
I would not know about the pricing because it has been subsidized for us, so I am not fully aware of the actual cost.
What needs improvement with KnowBe4?
I have a challenge with the stability while using KnowBe4. I have made an observation regarding the login process. Fo...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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?
I believe they still need to improve by consolidating some portals, as currently, you have to log in separately to a ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Cofense PhishMe, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

West Aurora Public School District 129
Pink Hat Technology Management
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about KnowBe4, Proofpoint, Sophos and others in Security Awareness Training. Updated: September 2025.
869,160 professionals have used our research since 2012.