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KnowBe4 vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.9
KnowBe4 enhances cybersecurity, yielding positive ROI by reducing security incidents, increasing awareness, and improving skills and reporting.
Sentiment score
6.3
Proofpoint Email Protection excels in blocking threats, reducing breaches, improving efficiency, despite higher cost compared to competitors.
We learned extensively about cybersecurity with the training, and the automated trainings are very convenient and feasible for us.
Senior Compliance Officer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
This soft ROI shows value within the company and how security and data are being protected.
Information Technology Solution Specialist at Toyota South Africa
The solution proved valuable for audit reporting and successfully raised awareness while reducing phishing click rates.
Cybersecurity Governance Specialist at Suse
The ideal situation would be to have all these portals combined into one unified dashboard.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
The time required for email investigations and responses has changed with Proofpoint Email Protection's visibility and automation.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
If you implement these kinds of solutions in your security stack, the first beneficial thing will be that you will not suffer any malware, and you will not face attacks, which ultimately leads to financial benefit.
Senior Security Engineer at DCIPHERS IT SOLUTIONS (P) LTD
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
KnowBe4 offers efficient, proactive customer support with quick resolutions, earning high praise for responsiveness and effective issue handling globally.
Sentiment score
7.1
Proofpoint Email Protection's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays with complex issues.
Their support is very quick and informative.
Owner at Ekforce LLC
We have escalated questions to KnowBe4's technical support, and it has been quite helpful in guiding us, especially when we request feature edits or face buggy issues.
Cyber Security Analyst at Ideagen PLC
The content is regularly updated to reflect current threats.
Senior Executive Assistant at Zenith Bank
I am familiar with the granular policy control feature of Proofpoint Email Protection, and I find their support excellent for modifying those policies.
Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
I rate customer support a three out of ten mainly because of the phishing attacks that are getting through.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
Sometimes I get some really great responses and analysts, but sometimes when their cloud services have a failure, they are slow to respond and tell me about it, though they have been improving.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
KnowBe4 efficiently scales for any organization size, offering seamless deployment and empowers cybersecurity training for all enterprise levels.
Sentiment score
7.5
Proofpoint Email Protection is scalable and adaptable, supporting enterprise growth despite cost challenges, rated highly for handling email traffic.
I would evaluate the scalability of KnowBe4 as quite scalable, giving it an 8.5 on a scale of one to ten.
Information Technology Solution Specialist at Toyota South Africa
The product is pretty much scalable.
Business Intelligence Developer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Proofpoint is scalable for multi-site organizations with thousands of users.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
Proofpoint Email Protection is a scalable solution that very much fits our capacity requirements.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
Proofpoint Email Protection is quite scalable.
Threat Hunter at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
KnowBe4 is stable, with users rating it highly for performance and reliability, despite rare disruptions and escalations.
Sentiment score
8.1
Proofpoint Email Protection is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and effective performance, despite occasional minor issues.
KnowBe4 works without interruptions and is very stable.
Information Technology Solution Specialist at Toyota South Africa
In terms of stability, KnowBe4 is stable; based on the training we are receiving, I would rate it at nine out of ten.
Senior Software Engineering Manager at Field Nation
During the last downtime, it caused significant disruption as users couldn't access the system.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It was very rock solid.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Sometimes, when creating connectors for implementing with Google Workspace, we encounter challenges because both Google Workspace and Proofpoint Email Protection do not have very good documentation on how to do this.
Senior Security Engineer at DCIPHERS IT SOLUTIONS (P) LTD
When evaluating the stability of Proofpoint Email Protection in regards to downtime, bugs, and glitches, it comes and goes in waves.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
 

Room For Improvement

KnowBe4 should enhance interactivity, localization, and personalized training while improving UI, login stability, and spam filter integration for Ukrainians.
Proofpoint Email Protection needs better integration, user interface improvements, enhanced features, customizable reporting, and cost-effective support.
KnowBe4 could educate people about OWASP Top 10 in web security testing and API security.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
KnowBe4 should focus more on these issues and provide guidance on dealing with links received from individuals who attempt to manipulate our emotions, particularly on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
EPC Environmental Manager at Nesma & Partners
The more complicated things they do about phishing, AI, and social engineering are very important, and the way they do it is very structured and good.
Manager, Strategic Risk Management at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The older legacy user interface just took a little to work with, and the new unified interface, as it was able to do more and more of the functionality of the old one, the product just got easier and easier to use.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Proofpoint could expand its phishing detection capabilities to improve its efficiency.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
More security could be implemented.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

KnowBe4 pricing varies, averaging $5 per seat monthly, with contract terms of three to five years.
Proofpoint Email Protection offers good value despite higher costs, averaging $8 per user monthly, with flexible payment options.
It's about five dollars a seat per month.
Solution Architect at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
The solution was considered expensive, particularly in government contexts.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
As an exceptional product, they are relatively expensive, but it is worth it because compared to offline education with hired dedicated people, it would be much more expensive and not obviously more efficient.
Owner at Ekforce LLC
Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
Given my other experience with other vendors, I think they are a bit on the high end and a bit on the pricey end for the email security functionality that we were using.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

KnowBe4 provides scalable phishing simulations and reporting, enhancing security awareness and risk assessment with AI integration and multilingual support.
Proofpoint Email Protection offers robust security with advanced features, user-friendly interface, and seamless Office 365 integration.
Modern phishing emails appear authentic, as if from friends. This enables full-blown ATP operations using AI to generate convincing phishing emails, making it crucial to focus on AI-based detection against AI-generated threats.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This is the biggest benefit to raise caution in the digital world, making people aware of the importance of verifying the sources of information.
Information Technology Solution Specialist at Toyota South Africa
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.
EPC Environmental Manager at Nesma & Partners
The main feature I find most effective is that Proofpoint Email Protection scans emails and quarantines the doubtful ones.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The most beneficial feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is mostly spam filtering; it was very efficient, and we were very happy with the functionality as only relevant emails were allowed for mailboxes.
Manager, IT Director at Cakmak Avukatlik Ortakligi
I appreciate that it's the industry leader, and its firewalling is very easy to manage and implement.
Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

KnowBe4
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Security Awareness Training (1st)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

KnowBe4 and Proofpoint Email Protection aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. KnowBe4 is designed for Security Awareness Training and holds a mindshare of 16.6%, down 32.1% compared to last year.
Proofpoint Email Protection, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Email Gateway (SEG), holds 20.9% mindshare, up 21.1% since last year.
Security Awareness Training Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
KnowBe416.6%
Riot6.4%
Proofpoint’s ZenGuide6.3%
Other70.7%
Security Awareness Training
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection20.9%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36521.4%
Mimecast Advanced Email Security16.5%
Other41.2%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

Amran Hossain - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineering Manager at Field Nation
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.
IS
Threat Hunter at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Email protection has reduced phishing workload and keeps unwanted messages out of inboxes
A few things about how Proofpoint Email Protection can be improved include implementing artificial intelligence within their platform to start really understanding the organization that is using their product, what sort of emails they are expecting and if the emails that are being expected should be let in and if the emails that are not being expected should not be let in. I'll give you a further example for this. If someone just tries to send an email from a Gmail address, which is a free public service email service provider, then because anyone in the world can create a Gmail account, I think it is nice and good for Proofpoint Email Protection to actually first check and do a reality check if we have received an email from this address and look at the intent of the email to really see what the email is trying to do and then classify based on that. I still see there is a lack. Hence why I started this conversation with AI and hoping that Proofpoint Email Protection will bring AI in and to really start analyzing these emails, the intent, and whether they really fit the customer organization. We are a manufacturing company, so whether it really fits that profile. I would say if we can get a better user experience from Proofpoint Email Protection products, that would be good. For example, other service providers that provide secure email gateway have the functionality where you can split promotional and bulk email and have them sent to a separate folder. I think if we can have that sort of feature, that would be great where Proofpoint Email Protection just keeps the important emails in the inbox folder and move everything else that is not really business related into a promotional, spam, bulk folder. This is an improvement that I would really like to see. I give it an eight because I am expecting a lot more from Proofpoint Email Protection, more automations, more understanding of who their customer is, what sort of business they do, and what sort of email they are supposed to be receiving and letting through. I think the day when I really have only 1% of work to do and 99% is automated by whatever automation services Proofpoint Email Protection uses would be ideal. I think I have covered any other improvements needed for Proofpoint Email Protection pretty well right from AI to splitting emails based on priorities. I think I have given some pretty broad and good examples.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise21
 

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 them highly relatable to our end users.
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. For every login attempt, because my organization uses KnowBe4 with a large staff s...
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 enhances security.
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
I have not seen specific outcomes or metrics since implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, such as a reduction in phishing incidents or improved response time. Proofpoint Email Protection can imp...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

West Aurora Public School District 129
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about KnowBe4, Huntress, Proofpoint and others in Security Awareness Training. Updated: January 2026.
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