Proofpoint Email Protection is used for email security, threat protection, and email fraud defense, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protection.
Senior Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Email security has blocked phishing and fraud and provides clear insight into targeted users
Pros and Cons
- "Proofpoint Email Protection is very effective because they are very proactive, always ahead of the attackers, and were already detecting new kinds of attacks before customers thought about them."
- "For Proofpoint Email Protection, when it comes to support, there are times when they do not meet the SLAs for support, mostly on Fridays."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The best features for me in Proofpoint Email Protection are the URL protection and attachment defense, along with phishing protection and spam detection. The solution is very effective in those aspects.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides huge visibility because we can see who are the most attacked people, for example, and we can enforce our security awareness on these individuals. This is the main feature that we use because we do not have other features configured. I know that Proofpoint has other solutions to analyze user risk and so on, but we did not purchase those.
Proofpoint Email Protection helps significantly because we have the product called Proofpoint TAP, which stands for Targeted Attack Protection. In this console, we receive notifications and alerts related to phishing campaigns and malware campaigns. We are able to be quick and fast in detecting and preventing these situations.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides significant value when compared to M365. A huge amount of emails are being rejected before being delivered to the mailboxes. This helps tremendously. The goal is to deliver only legitimate emails to users with a minimum of false positives as possible, and that is the case with Proofpoint Email Protection.
What needs improvement?
For Proofpoint Email Protection, when it comes to support, there are times when they do not meet the SLAs for support, mostly on Fridays. If I open a case on a Friday, they will take more time than the agreed SLA. Another area for improvement is that the solution does not currently support Infrastructure as Code. We use Terraform in other security solutions to automate the configurations and to guarantee that we have a copy in our repository. The retention period for the logs is just 30 days, and it would be beneficial to have 60 days or 90 days to analyze the logs. Additionally, the pricing is expensive. Apart from that, I do not have other cons.
With Proofpoint Email Protection, there are some solutions that I consider expensive. We conducted a proof of concept, and at the end, the SOC team was involved, including our CISO. We decided not to purchase those solutions because they are too expensive. It is not a cheap product overall.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for three and a half years.
Buyer's Guide
Proofpoint Email Protection
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability for Proofpoint Email Protection as a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For scalability, I would rate Proofpoint Email Protection as a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate their technical support an eight because of the situations I referred to before regarding SLA performance.
How was the initial setup?
It is easy to maintain Proofpoint Email Protection. Regarding deployment, I cannot speak to that because I was not involved in the deployment process.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I can compare Proofpoint Email Protection with Cisco, and there is a huge difference, mainly when it comes to DMARC reporting. Proofpoint's email fraud defense console is very effective. We can analyze the DMARC reporting, identify what is failing, and determine what we can fix in our domain in an easier way because the dashboards are very user-friendly. We are not just analyzing poor reports with text data that are sometimes hard to analyze. This is the main difference when comparing to Cisco and comparing to M365.
We do not use the unified admin console in the Threat Protection Workbench frequently for Proofpoint Email Protection. However, I think this console would be more important for SOC teams to analyze threats because sometimes they need to switch from one console to another, which is not easy when they are analyzing a security incident. I recommended that console to them, but I do not have feedback on whether they are using it.
What other advice do I have?
Proofpoint Email Protection is very effective because they are very proactive. They are always ahead of the attackers. For example, we have the example of QR code attacks. When we started thinking about that in the company and tried to understand if Proofpoint is blocking this kind of attack, they were proactive and were already detecting those kinds of attacks before customers thought about them. This proactive approach means they do not wait until customers ask for protection for a new vector of attack.
The positive impact and benefits my company has seen from using Proofpoint Email Protection is the protection that we have right now. In terms of DMARC, we do not have issues in terms of reputation because we can manage our domains effectively. We can see and control our SPF and DKIM and DMARC records. We have not suffered any important attacks related to email during that period.
We are protecting approximately 26,000 users with Proofpoint Email Protection. We have about 15 administrators because there are several teams using the solution for different purposes. We have the SecOps team, the SOC team, and the security architecture and engineering teams.
Personally, I would rate Proofpoint Email Protection between a seven and an eight.
I would say to others looking to implement Proofpoint Email Protection that they should choose it because it is a great solution, and Proofpoint has an expert for DMARC implementation who is very effective. We have meetings every month for the follow-up with the DMARC implementation. If they want to improve and move to the next level on email security, they should choose Proofpoint Email Protection. My overall rating for this product is an eight.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Mar 6, 2026
Flag as inappropriateSenior Solution Delivery Lead Cybersecurity at International Olympic Committee – IOC
Email threats have been managed effectively while investigation workflows still need improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Although it is a bit costly compared to Mimecast, Defender, and Cofense Vision, it is efficient and strong in security, so I do not mind the cost because I will not reduce my security risk."
- "I have not noticed much change in operational efficiency after implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, but the process execution is light."
What is our primary use case?
I use Proofpoint Email Protection as an email gateway, and we mainly use this for the email gateway only.
What is most valuable?
What I appreciate most about Proofpoint Email Protection is that we rely on it for phishing, malware, and spam email detection, including malicious login pages, email purging, and required actions based on those detections. We check and validate advanced threat protection and monitor a couple of insider threat activities based on email, including confidential and personal data, as well as bulk downloading or sending data. Proofpoint has its own threat intelligence platform for identifying attackers' IP domains, analyzing phishing campaigns targeting companies, and integrating with SIM rules and cloud protections for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Using Proofpoint Email Protection has a major impact on our SOC analyst workloads by managing security alerts. Examples include workflows for malicious emails, checking attachment sandbox reports, and investigating URL detonation results. Typical steps involve reviewing whatever the user has reported as a phishing email, identifying who received it, and searching Proofpoint logs to identify campaign scopes.
What needs improvement?
What I believe could be improved in Proofpoint Email Protection is the SOC investigation workflow by providing single investigation dashboards and dashboards for common threat actors related to spear phishing attacks. The correlation based on AI-based phishing detections should include their own LLMs to read the phishing campaigns and detect urgency patterns. Enhancing attack path visualization would be beneficial; if a person clicks an email, it should show where it is coming from, the attacker domain, whether the phishing email was clicked, account login attempts, and everything, ideally as a graphical representation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Proofpoint Email Protection for close to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do not see any crashing or lagging in Proofpoint Email Protection so far. It is a very efficient product with separate consoles for purging, Proofpoint TAP, and email gateway, which is managed across different entities in a good way.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is considered to be highly scalable, designed for large enterprises, with a cloud-based architecture that offers an enormous number of options, including multi-organization support and high-volume email handling. It scales using horizontal nodes and applications on the servers effectively.
How are customer service and support?
We have not yet connected with technical support for Proofpoint Email Protection. It offers 24/7 access, but we typically raise support cases through email for installation documentation, troubleshooting guides, or if anything needs fixing, such as false positive phishing detections. For critical issues, we directly raise tickets in the portal, and with our premium subscription, we receive faster responses and proactive assistance.
The speed and quality of Proofpoint Email Protection's answers are much better in all perspectives, especially when compared to Mimecast and Cofense Vision, as we typically get replies within the next 24 hours.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Mimecast and Cofense Vision as alternatives, but I find Proofpoint Email Protection is much more user-friendly, reliable, and easy to use.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up Proofpoint Email Protection initially is relatively easy, as we just connect with the MX record routed to Proofpoint, configure the inbound and outbound email flow, and perform domain sync-ups and spam and phishing policy setups. However, handling multiple domains, setting up encryption policies, and configuring SPF and DKIM requests can be more complex. Reducing false positives and configuring phishing detection is the hardest part, but the initial setup is quite straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Proofpoint Email Protection does not require any maintenance on my end. We just check the exchange server list as needed, and it is handled completely by a separate team, so we do not engage in maintenance activities.
What was our ROI?
I have not noticed much change in operational efficiency after implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, but the process execution is light. It depends on the exchange server and the configuration of the agents, which I have not monitored closely so far.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding pricing, I generally propose Proofpoint Email Protection for most email gateway needs. As the delivery solution lead for my current organization, I am currently working for the Olympic Games for LA 2028 and have pushed for Proofpoint. Although it is a bit costly compared to Mimecast, Defender, and Cofense Vision, it is efficient and strong in security, so I do not mind the cost because I will not reduce my security risk.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Mar 18, 2026
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Proofpoint Email Protection
May 2026
Learn what your peers think about Proofpoint Email Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2026.
896,467 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Email protection has transformed daily security work and keeps users safe from targeted attacks
Pros and Cons
- "We have noticed a huge improvement in productivity of the users by clearing up their inbox of malicious emails and spam, and it has also prevented and secured our environment on a daily basis, making the security team's job much easier."
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection is for protecting email and email security to prevent business email compromise and malicious email from reaching our users. Proofpoint Email Protection helps in stopping malicious emails from getting to our users, such as phishing emails and emails with malicious attachments. Proofpoint Email Protection does quarantine multiple malicious emails in our environment, and an example would be an email recently with a malicious website asking the user to log in; Proofpoint was able to detect that the URL was malicious and block and discard the email.
What is most valuable?
The best features Proofpoint Email Protection offers include an easy-to-use dashboard and administrative tools, an easy-to-use quarantine filter for users, and continuous protection. Proofpoint Email Protection has very good reporting capabilities as well as integration with Microsoft 365 email.
We have noticed a huge improvement in productivity of the users by clearing up their inbox of malicious emails and spam, and it has also prevented and secured our environment on a daily basis, making the security team's job much easier. Proofpoint Email Protection has changed my security team's day-to-day tasks; instead of reviewing malicious emails or assisting users, Proofpoint blocks those emails automatically and filters them, saving time for my team.
Using Proofpoint Email Protection has freed up my SOC analysts' time and helps them focus on more important activities. Proofpoint Email Protection provides very deep visibility into insider risk and also has a category called Very Attacked Persons, which highlights which users in the environment are receiving malicious emails and at what level. Proofpoint has helped our environment to be more secure by protecting us from threats, especially over email.
What needs improvement?
There is nothing in particular that needs improvement; I am very happy with the solution. There is a bit of a learning curve to get started in the unified admin console in Threat Protection Workbench, but once I am familiar with the settings and the tool itself, the day-to-day experience becomes very easy.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is a very stable product, and we have been using it for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection is excellent; the solution is very scalable regardless of the number of users in your environment, and while the licensing costs may change, the product remains very stable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Proofpoint Email Protection has been very efficient and effective. I would rate the customer support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Office 365 ATP; I felt that solution was not a premium product and many malicious emails got through to user inboxes, but after switching to Proofpoint, the malicious emails were pretty much stopped.
What was our ROI?
We have definitely seen a return on investment, particularly in time saved for the security team as well as the users in the organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Proofpoint Email Protection is not a cheap product; it is priced probably a bit on the higher end compared to other similar solutions, but I feel the pricing is justified by the quality of the product, and the experience with negotiating pricing was good and fair.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options before choosing Proofpoint Email Protection.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Proofpoint Email Protection is that it is a very solid product, a very mature solution in the email protection space, especially if you are using Microsoft 365 emails; Proofpoint integrates very well with the solution and makes life easier for users as well as the security team. I would rate this product a ten out of ten overall.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Feb 26, 2026
Flag as inappropriateSr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Email defenses have become more granular and investigations now consume less analyst time
Pros and Cons
- "The power, flexibility, configurability, and Proofpoint Email Protection's professional services were some of the biggest selling points for me at the time and the things that I benefited from the most."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
My use case with Proofpoint Email Protection was primarily as a secure email gateway, and all of those sound like they describe the same thing. I know Proofpoint Email Protection has a big product portfolio, and we had other products that filled some of the other services that they also offered.
What is most valuable?
The best features I liked the most about Proofpoint Email Protection are difficult to pinpoint because it changed its user interface. Initially, it was a very old, clunky user interface, and during the time that I used it, they upgraded to a new modernized user interface. The power, flexibility, configurability, and Proofpoint Email Protection's professional services were some of the biggest selling points for me at the time and the things that I benefited from the most. The solution was very granular and very configurable.
Using Proofpoint Email Protection has impacted my SOC analyst workloads by lessening it over prior tooling that was in place and making it more focused. The tooling is more mature, more modern, and easier to use.
Proofpoint Email Protection did influence the quality of threats my organization needed to protect against. The help Proofpoint Email Protection provided with my threat protection and managing security operations comes from being easier to work with overall than the legacy interface. The new unified interface was a more modern, streamlined interface. It was very granular and very configurable, so the old interface exposed all that and you had to know how to navigate it to get to where you needed to do all those little granular tweaks. The unified interface streamlined that and made it much easier.
What needs improvement?
There are areas that have room for improvement in Proofpoint Email Protection, particularly regarding the interface, since I used the old legacy interface so much. I think they are making strides in that direction already, so I would say continue there. I am not sure how completed the new unified interface is or if they have actually finished and rolled all of the features up in there or not. That is a good area for continued focus. Proofpoint Email Protection was a very powerful product. 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.
For how long have I used the solution?
My experience with Proofpoint Email Protection ended about six months ago since I changed jobs, but I used it for three or four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Proofpoint Email Protection somewhere between a nine and ten. It was very rock solid.
How would you rate stability?
Positive
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Proofpoint Email Protection is probably an eight or nine.
How would you rate scalability?
Positive
How are customer service and support?
I would rate Proofpoint Email Protection's vendor technical support a nine out of ten. The support was very good. It would be tough to get a ten in technical support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used other products before implementing Proofpoint Email Protection. The other solutions I have tried include Postini before they got purchased, Mimecast, Microsoft's 365 Defender, and on-premises products from decades ago, such as the old Barracuda email firewalls.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Proofpoint Email Protection was not overly complex. It required their professional services, and they walked us through the deployment. Working with them, I would say it was not difficult.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment of Proofpoint Email Protection was not overly complex. It required their professional services, and they walked us through the deployment. Working with them, I would say it was not difficult.
What was our ROI?
Proofpoint Email Protection did save me some time or resources. I do not have a hard and fast metric that we calculated for that, but it certainly did.
The time required for email investigations and responses has changed with Proofpoint Email Protection's visibility and automation. There is certainly less manual time spent on any of those tasks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The purchase of Proofpoint Email Protection was through a partner, although I did not make the purchase directly. I only helped with the decisioning, and I imagine it was with one of the large resellers.
My thoughts on the pricing of Proofpoint Email Protection are formed by my lack of direct involvement in the purchasing, as I was more engaged in the proof of concept and evaluation. 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. The pricing is not exorbitant or out of line, but on the pricier side than some of the other competitive products.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The other solutions I have tried include Postini before they got purchased, Mimecast, Microsoft's 365 Defender, and on-premises products from decades ago, such as the old Barracuda email firewalls.
What other advice do I have?
Approximately one thousand to two thousand users use Proofpoint Email Protection.
The usage is global, not limited to the United States.
Proofpoint Email Protection requires maintenance, and the patching and updating were typically handled by them, and then we just kept it under active maintenance. Since it was a SaaS-delivered solution, they kept it updated.
Whatever was required on my end for Proofpoint Email Protection was easy.
I would rate the solution overall as an eight out of ten.
I would compare Proofpoint Email Protection to other products and vendors on the market as one of the leaders, for sure.
I would recommend Proofpoint Email Protection to other users, as I did not have any negative experience, and I would definitely recommend a proof of concept just because the landscape is changing so quickly. There are new and emerging technologies that would be worth considering in a bake-off or proof of concept along with any of the core vendors now, but Proofpoint Email Protection would definitely be in the mix.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Jan 31, 2026
Flag as inappropriateSystem Administrator at Tutt Bryant Group
Email security has improved and SOC investigations gain clearer visibility and faster response
Pros and Cons
- "Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted our organization's protection and has maintained security very well."
- "I would like to see improvements in Proofpoint Email Protection's portal as it is sometimes slow."
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection is to protect our company emails from suspicious attacks as it serves as an email security gateway.
What is most valuable?
Proofpoint Email Protection has helped block risky content by alerting us when someone clicks on a link in a delivered email post-delivery, allowing us to block it after the user opened the email or clicked on the link, or preventing the user from clicking the link while it is on the isolated browser.
I review Proofpoint Email Protection activity every week, checking reports through the Proofpoint admin and using the workbench to check for exposed users, statistics, and to release emails.
All the features that we use in Proofpoint Email Protection are really important to us.
We rely on quarantine management significantly in Proofpoint Email Protection because we receive numerous multimedia and encrypted attachments almost every day.
Quarantine management is the main protection feature for us in Proofpoint Email Protection, although the threat detection is also one of the good features because it is very active and responsive.
Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted our organization's protection and has maintained security very well.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvements in Proofpoint Email Protection's portal as it is sometimes slow.
The performance of Proofpoint Email Protection's portal needs to be more responsive, and we would like more features added to the admin interface.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is stable, showing about 99% stability for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection's scalability is easy; if the company grows, expanding is straightforward with the team.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Proofpoint Email Protection is very useful and helpful; we always contact them if we need support, whether it's for setting up features or technical support, which is very responsive.
I would rate the customer support of Proofpoint Email Protection a ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were previously using Mimecast before switching to Proofpoint Email Protection because Mimecast was not sufficiently effective and didn't provide adequate visibility.
How was the initial setup?
The management reviewed some options before choosing Proofpoint Email Protection, but I didn't evaluate them personally.
What about the implementation team?
We are looking at some other features that we might add from Proofpoint Email Protection, but so far, we are still discussing this as a team.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment through saved time and more efficient management, but it is not about needing fewer employees.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not handle the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Proofpoint Email Protection, but I think it's a bit pricey compared to other solutions, even though we found no competitor with comparable features.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Proofpoint Email Protection is a very great product that has improved significantly since we implemented it, and I believe it will continue to improve, especially in the AI field. We may also consider using data protection from Proofpoint in the future, although we are not using it now.
What other advice do I have?
Using Proofpoint Email Protection has made SOC analyst workloads easier because the reporting and analytics are very useful and explain a lot for us.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides a clear level of visibility into people-based risk within our organization, helping us know which users are most at risk.
Operational efficiency has improved significantly since we switched to Proofpoint Email Protection from another product that was less effective. With Proofpoint Email Protection, we can manage our SPF, DMARC, and handle emails with attachments, releasing emails and other tasks more efficiently.
My experience with the Unified Admin Console in Threat Protection Workbench is that it is easy to use, but we face issues when releasing some emails to users, where they sometimes do not get released and need to be released from the portal.
Proofpoint Email Protection has changed the time required for email investigations and responses, saving us time by providing greater visibility that we lacked before.
I feel that the overall scope and range of Proofpoint Email Protection's threat protection capabilities are comprehensive enough for our needs as a small organization focused on email protection at the moment.
I advise others considering Proofpoint Email Protection to go for it if they can afford it, as it is a very great product.
I have given this review a rating of 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Feb 26, 2026
Flag as inappropriateCyber Security Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
Email defenses have reduced threats and manual triage but submission workflow still needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Proofpoint Email Protection positively impacts my organization because it is a simpler solution in terms of user interaction compared to my previous email gateway, and its detection capabilities are considerably more advanced."
- "There are a couple of pain points regarding uploading false negatives and other related issues."
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection is email defense. A specific example of how I use Proofpoint Email Protection for email defense is through malicious email detection, phishing detection, and malicious email removal.
What is most valuable?
Proofpoint Email Protection offers malicious email detection, phishing detection, malicious email removal, and phishing removal as its best features. I find malicious email detection most valuable day-to-day because we don't get infected.
Proofpoint Email Protection positively impacts my organization because it is a simpler solution in terms of user interaction compared to my previous email gateway, and its detection capabilities are considerably more advanced. It has saved time for us with less triage for responders. For administrators, the number of positive incidents we now test has decreased, and end users have less spam and malicious emails. It has reduced triage time and improved response times. Compared to my previous provider, the triage time is reduced by more than 70%.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides considerable visibility through the risk ratings and awareness training results. It has reduced threats by a considerable amount; I would estimate probably over 30%, though this is also due to technical improvements on my end, so I believe it would be less than that.
What needs improvement?
It would be better if I could submit a false negative without having to download the email message from the user's inbox.
The addition of not having to submit a false negative email from a user's inbox would be a beneficial feature. If Proofpoint Email Protection worked out their portal configuration into a single pane, it would be appreciated.
There are a couple of pain points regarding uploading false negatives and other related issues. We don't have the integration with the messaging applications yet, so it hasn't achieved full coverage, though I understand that depends on our organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is stable. I conducted extensive research before the migration, and having used Mimecast for three years, I can confirm that Proofpoint Email Protection maintains strong stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is scalable; it requires adding more licenses to scale up.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service is pretty good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Mimecast for three years before switching to Proofpoint Email Protection because I heard it was a better product.
How was the initial setup?
The pricing, setup, and licensing were all straightforward and standard.
What was our ROI?
There has been a measurable return on investment compared to my last provider. I was spending much more time on manual triage and removal of potentially malicious or phishing emails from user inboxes, whereas Proofpoint Email Protection does that for us. This saves the admin and support team considerable time.
What other advice do I have?
Proofpoint Email Protection does what it says it does, and it does it quite well. The detection engine is excellent, the threat response workbench is good, and overall the user interface is easy to understand and straightforward. I would rate the Threat Response Workbench quite highly because it provides a single pane of glass where I can manage on-premises and messaging services. The pricing, setup, and licensing were all straightforward and standard. I would give this product a rating of 7.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Mar 3, 2026
Flag as inappropriateInformation Security Analyst at a government with 11-50 employees
Email defenses have blocked malicious senders and provided clear insight into phishing trends
Pros and Cons
- "Proofpoint Email Protection has definitely impacted my organization positively."
- "There have been a few cases where an obvious phishing email has not been blocked, but perhaps Proofpoint Email Protection was still learning and needed some extra time to figure out that the email was malicious."
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection is to block malicious or suspicious emails as per my role. Proofpoint Email Protection is our email filtering tool and we do our DMARC using Proofpoint Email Protection as well. So basically it's our email security tool overall.
I use Proofpoint Email Protection almost every day. As a security analyst, I'm responsible for investigating suspicious emails that the staff report. Once I investigate the email and determine that the sender is suspicious or malicious, I take their email address, or even the domain and block it in Proofpoint Email Protection so that they cannot send any further email.
For me that's my main use case, my day-to-day thing.
What is most valuable?
Some of the best features of Proofpoint Email Protection are that the user interface is very simple to navigate and the changes are pretty quick. I submit the block request and it's implemented almost right away. I also use TAP in order to look at the blocked domains and how many domains were blocked. This comes very handy to understand the security posture of your organization, especially from the email side of things, in terms of how many threats from email were blocked.
From the TAP dashboard, I go through what is in the wild or what URL is being spread out or what URLs these attackers are trying to use. This gives me an idea as to which area is being targeted. For example, if most of the URLs are related to an e-commerce website, I know that they're using the e-commerce as the main phishing attempt. Or if it's a gift card scam, which usually happens around the Christmas time and holiday seasons, that gives me an idea of what to look for, and if I'm training my users I can train them on a gift card scam. This does help me in that sense as well.
Proofpoint Email Protection has definitely impacted my organization positively. I cannot imagine not having an email protection, and Proofpoint Email Protection is pretty good at doing its job. Nothing is 100%. There are hardly a couple of emails that get slipped through it, but as soon as that happens, we go ahead and block it. There have been cases where we reach out to support, open a case, and then get a particular URL and domain blocked as well, which helps in the security of not just our organization but the overall other Proofpoint Email Protection users globally as well.
Proofpoint Email Protection definitely reduces incidents. If the emails are already blocked by Proofpoint Email Protection, it does not land in the user's inbox, which will definitely save the users from clicking into a malicious link. Additionally, because it gives you the ability to block your own domains, if you get information from a different source that says one of your other vendors has been seeing a lot of phishing attempts from a particular email, we can actually go and add it as well. This gives us the opportunity to block those domains, which makes things even easier for us.
What needs improvement?
There have been a few cases where an obvious phishing email has not been blocked, but perhaps Proofpoint Email Protection was still learning and needed some extra time to figure out that the email was malicious. The detection piece could be improved a little bit more. If one email goes through and somebody clicks it, that's the end of it, regardless of whether further emails were blocked. If Proofpoint Email Protection could detect that first email at the right moment and block it right away, that would be great.
I would appreciate some additional dashboards, enhancements showing the trends, and some reporting. I don't have a lot of complaint about Proofpoint Email Protection interface. It's pretty basic, but I'd like to see some GUI improvements, just from a visual perspective, not from the functional perspective, but maybe from a visual perspective.
I think it would be nice to separate the admin and the security console in Threat Protection Workbench for managing security operations from a segregation of duties perspective. Since we are a smaller organization, I do have access to both, which is okay. But in a bigger organization, they might need a different dashboard for admin and the SOC analyst or the user, again from a segregation of duties perspective. I think it would be nice to have the option to have both in one or maybe split them out, depending on the organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been good so far.
How are customer service and support?
Honestly, customer support has been great. We have had a few calls with our customer engagement team and they have been very helpful. Even the engineers have been helpful, and if we open a case, they get back to us right away. I have no complaints.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We've been using Proofpoint Email Protection for a while and have not used previous solutions.
How was the initial setup?
Proofpoint Email Protection was already implemented when I joined the company, so I did not have involvement with the initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
That would be a question for the administrator. Unfortunately, I do not have access and that's not something I do, so I don't want to give the wrong answer.
What was our ROI?
Proofpoint Email Protection has helped a lot. If a lot of emails are being blocked in the first place, they don't go through the user's inbox, meaning users don't get them and they don't report them. If they don't report them, I don't have to investigate them. In that sense, it has definitely saved me a lot of work. From a security perspective as well, that's how it should work. You don't want a lot of things slipping through.
I don't have a specific number, but definitely fewer employees are needed for investigating security incidents. It's not just about the number, it's about the security that it provides overall.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not heavily involved in that, but we are satisfied with the pricing and licensing so far.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Proofpoint Email Protection is doing a lot of enhancement and adding a lot of features. I attended the Proofpoint Protect conference and they did talk about a lot of additional tools they are implementing, including agents. They have solutions for DLP and security awareness. Definitely they're going to have one of the best tools in the near future, and I see people are going to leverage it a lot.
I would say don't just look into one of their products, but try to bundle it up because they have cool products, and you can get a lot of advantage by using their other products such as DLP and security awareness. They work well together, rather than having to use different vendors. It would be a nice idea to just have one product do all or most because they work pretty well.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Feb 26, 2026
Flag as inappropriateSenior Software Developer at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Advanced email defenses have protected users and now reduce phishing workloads for analysts
Pros and Cons
- "I have witnessed a positive impact of Proofpoint Email Protection on my organization, having worked for one of the world's largest organizations that uses Proofpoint consistently for email security."
- "While Proofpoint is better, I find Abnormal to be much more effective because it uses an advanced AI engine to detect email spams and phishing."
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection is working as an anti-spam and phishing analyst, where I need to protect the organization and public users from spam and phishing.
In my daily work, I use Proofpoint Email Protection based on ML models that score each email based on sender reputation, IP reputations, and certain AI ML technologies, allowing us to decide whether an email is phishing, spam, or legitimate.
While Proofpoint is better, I find Abnormal to be much more effective because it uses an advanced AI engine to detect email spams and phishing. In Proofpoint, we observe a false positive rate of ten percent, where out of one thousand users, ten users will be improperly scored, causing their emails to move into spam or junk while occasionally, junk emails mistakenly reach the inbox.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Proofpoint Email Protection offers include its excellent reputation engines, as their IP reputation and PDR reputation are among the best I have encountered due to the daily feeds into their system protecting us from spam and phishing emails from bad IPs and domains.
The specific benefit of those reputation engines in protecting my organization is their capability against zero-day attacks; Proofpoint has an advanced technique that retrieves emails even after they reach the inbox, regardless of whether the user opens them.
I have witnessed a positive impact of Proofpoint Email Protection on my organization, having worked for one of the world's largest organizations that uses Proofpoint consistently for email security.
Most of the time, it removes phishing and spam from email inboxes, but in rare cases, some emails may reach user inboxes. Nevertheless, we can retrieve them using one of the Proofpoint modules.
What needs improvement?
I believe Proofpoint Email Protection can be improved; currently, it does not allow organizations to create their own IP listings, so whatever comes into Proofpoint is what helps to remove spam and phishing, and organizations should be allowed to tune Proofpoint Email Protection engine.
I chose eight out of ten because the remaining two points are for their AI detection, which is way behind and needs improvement; they need to collaborate with AI providers to fine-tune their reputations with the help of AI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Proofpoint Email Protection for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Proofpoint Email Protection is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Proofpoint Email Protection's scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is one of the best I have experienced.
I rate the customer support a nine on a scale of one to ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Proofpoint, we solely relied on our internal spam filter. We chose Proofpoint because it is the number one email security provider, although compared to Abnormal, it is less efficient; however, its cost is lower.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Proofpoint Email Protection; it handles most processes independently while only requiring employee rotation for fine-tuning.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Proofpoint Email Protection, we evaluated O365 spam filter.
What other advice do I have?
Proofpoint Email Protection has affected my SOC analyst workloads because we have built our own internal spam engine that catches what is missed by Proofpoint, though Proofpoint helps us most of the time.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides a good level of visibility into people-based risk within my organization, as it scores emails effectively, but occasionally scores abnormally, so we can raise FN cases with Proofpoint.
I have noticed significant changes in operational efficiency after implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, as it can handle lakhs of emails in a day.
My experience with the Unified Admin Console in Threat Protection Workbench has been beneficial because it helps us release quarantined emails immediately, rescoring them, and we can use those in a whitelist for further processing. The unified UI is effective, especially since they recently improved it, making it easier to find emails and the user list.
My advice for others looking into using Proofpoint Email Protection is to not aggressively score the emails initially; let the ML learn, as it takes around six months to understand the email flow before scoring correctly.
I suggest exploring Abnormal, which is a bit costlier but currently the best solution in the market.
I would rate my overall experience with Proofpoint Email Protection as an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: May 4, 2026
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Updated: May 2026
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