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KnowBe4 vs Proofpoint Email Protection vs Webroot Security Awareness Training 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 May 2025, in the Security Awareness Training category, the mindshare of KnowBe4 is 26.6%, down from 34.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 8.9%, down from 14.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Webroot Security Awareness Training is 0.7%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Awareness Training
 

Featured Reviews

Brad Mathis - PeerSpot reviewer
Lowers human element risks and has innovative training
Some more AI-driven automation for creating training and phishing testing campaigns, as well as automated reporting would help. The Phish Alert button could be improved, although it is understood this is due to Microsoft's constant changes. Any improvements in wizards and documentation are always a good thing!. Additonal areas for improvement could be around the technical training and best practice training areas such as NIST CSF, CISv8, Cyberinsurance, and more. Clearer whitelisting requirements are always appreciated. However, the current levels are significant and appreciated.
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…
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 solution is very well priced and very affordable."
"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."
"The ability to have business leadership be aware of their users' security posture as well as any kind of security awareness training being pushed by cybersecurity insurance and underwriters is valuable."
"Their customizable nature allows us to create scenarios that closely resemble real-world phishing attempts, making them highly relatable to our end users."
"There are many valuable features. It's already deployed in the cloud, and you don't have to install anything. You just upload your users to the cloud and tweak something if needed. You can whitelist some servers to work with this properly. When everything is ready, you can start using the platform and its many automated features."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to remove bad messages that were delivered, prior to being classified as unwanted."
"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are ease of use, data loss prevention, antivirus, and spam protection."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is stable enough and does its job of virus, malware, and email scam detection. Setting it up is not too complicated."
"The Phish Alarm button allows users to submit questionable emails for review and complete analysis."
"Proofpoint Email Protection offers an additional layer of protection compared to other brands like Microsoft, Mimecast, and Barracuda. While these major companies excel at detecting malicious attachments, the solution goes further by analyzing the context of emails, allowing for more nuanced decision-making."
"The solution scales quite well."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The solution blocks malicious emails containing viruses and malware and reduces them out of spam."
"The GUI works well and it is really well built."
 

Cons

"I would like to see Novo4 expand to other channels outside of emails to things such as text messages."
"It can be more interactive with users. We want to put the users in different scenarios and let them make decisions. For example, instead of making users go through a video and then asking questions, it can have a video where they click on the scenarios and have to make decisions. It can maybe have something like a live simulation. It would be nice for users."
"Enhancing the product's emotional intelligence, particularly by providing training content tailored to specific audiences, is an area for improvement."
"It could be more localized for Ukrainian users. This platform is international, and it has a lot of material in different languages, but not in Ukrainian and Russian languages. There's plenty of different content updated regularly for English, French, and German users. They have a lot more information, and Ukrainian users also want more."
"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."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve by allowing more customization of the reports, such as exceptions and black-and-white lists."
"Integration and filtering out who you want and don't want to have integrated ID could be improved."
"Some use cases haven't been dealt with yet."
"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 Email Protection could improve by reducing the price."
"The initial setup is complex."
"One major threat is QR code phishing, along with TOAD (Telephone-Oriented Attack Delivery). TOAD attacks don't include links, URLs, or attachments in emails. Instead, attackers try to trick you into calling them, often by offering something enticing like a 50% discount on football matches."
"The ability for customization has limitations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's about five dollars a seat per month."
"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."
"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."
"Clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive."
"Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees."
"The price is reasonable."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"The end customer is buying our solution, which can be for monthly or annual usage depending on our payment and business model."
"The solution is expensive."
"The tool's pricing depends on the customer's preference, offering options for an annual license or a monthly subscription. The cost varies based on factors such as the number of users and specific requirements. Overall, the pricing is competitive."
"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."
"We were able to find an alternative that had more open-source and more customization that was at a cheaper price point."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

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?
The solution is very well priced and very affordable. It's about five dollars a seat per month.
What needs improvement with KnowBe4?
I would like to see Novo4 expand to other channels outside of emails to things such as text messages.
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?
In terms of improvement, the price could be better. Additionally, more security could be implemented.
Ask a question
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Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

West Aurora Public School District 129
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Pink Hat Technology Management
Find out what your peers are saying about KnowBe4, Proofpoint, Sophos and others in Security Awareness Training. Updated: April 2025.
851,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.