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OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​ vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

OpenText Core Security Awar...
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Security Awareness Training (19th)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
94
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​ and Proofpoint Email Protection aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​ is designed for Security Awareness Training and holds a mindshare of 2.0%, up 1.1% compared to last year.
Proofpoint Email Protection, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Email Gateway (SEG), holds 21.1% mindshare, down 21.8% since last year.
Security Awareness Training Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Core Security Awareness Training​2.0%
KnowBe416.3%
Riot7.4%
Other74.3%
Security Awareness Training
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection21.1%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36519.9%
Mimecast Email and Collaboration Threat Protection17.1%
Other41.9%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1584120 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. IT Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
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.
AshishKochhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Team Lead at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Advanced email protection has blocked targeted attacks and reduces manual threat handling
I feel Proofpoint Email Protection is overpriced. I cannot say that the security level being provided does not justify the cost, but when comparing the similar level of security with other applications or security systems, it is overpriced. If Proofpoint could provide offers or discounts for customers who are already using the product or for new customers implementing it, along with some free services or add-ons, that would be helpful in terms of financial expense. Proofpoint Email Protection has recently introduced AI functionality in terms of data security capabilities and protecting AI assistance from targeted attacks. This is important since everything is now related to AI. The solution is doing threat detection and real-time threat detection and response pretty well. There are a few things I would like to see improved. Sometimes Proofpoint Email Protection takes time to analyze the workflow and the nature of the email. In this age of AI, the solution should analyze an email on the first receipt and determine whether it should pass or be marked as spam without checking previous data. Another improvement would be to have a more user-friendly dashboard. Additionally, if Proofpoint could add the same features in BCP as part of email protection in BCP, it would be helpful since I currently have to take a different add-on for BCP, and integrating it would save costs. I cannot say that threats have increased or decreased with Proofpoint Email Protection because it depends on the mail flow. The solution captures and filters out all threats, and the email threats vary every day depending on how many users are receiving how many emails per day. Today there might be 1,000 emails, tomorrow 5,000, and the day after 500. Proofpoint Email Protection does its job by scanning all emails and threats are reduced to some extent. Since I am aware that virus definitions are updated every day, I cannot blame Proofpoint Email Protection if they take time to determine the nature of an email being received. There are sometimes emails that are false positives, and Proofpoint Email Protection is a bit strict in analyzing false positives, sometimes stopping emails that are actually required. It analyzes the previous nature of an email and if a template looks like an informational template or related to spam, it blocks it because it looks similar to one blocked earlier. However, the template might actually be required. If I receive the same template today that is also blocked by Proofpoint Email Protection, that particular template might be useful and should not be blocked. In such cases, I have to raise it as a false positive stating that this is something in use or my users use and should be released. When AI starts doing its work, it analyzes the email from a sender with a particular template and releases it, but if the same email and template come from another sender, it blocks it according to the policies.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The GUI works well and it is really well built."
"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."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by making things safer; when we rolled it out, it gave us better filtering than the previous product that we were using, capturing a lot more of the malicious material and being easier to use."
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the central location dashboard for viewing all the related information for risk."
"It's easy to use, even for those new to IT."
"On a day-to-day basis, Proofpoint Email Protection has saved me about 50% of my workload, which has been a real godsend."
"It was easy to set up."
"Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization because when people know that we are using Proofpoint and they know we have set up a mailbox for protection, they forward issues to that mailbox and we search for them."
"From a business perspective, the solution was very helpful as it speeded our business flow and increased email delivery."
 

Cons

"The ability for customization has limitations."
"Proofpoint Email Protection provides a solution for user training, which I did not end up going with because I chose KnowBe4. That is the only part I did not appreciate about it."
"I feel Proofpoint Email Protection can be improved by providing a better user experience."
"Sometimes it detects false positives."
"There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats."
"Regarding improvements or enhancements in Proofpoint Email Protection, I find the platform somewhat chaotic. It has too many different sections that perform the same function, which is very confusing."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is an expensive solution."
"The email DLP portion could be a bit easier."
"The stability and UI are the two areas of the solution with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We were able to find an alternative that had more open-source and more customization that was at a cheaper price point."
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
"The solution is expensive."
"We sell annual licenses for this solution."
"Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is a reasonably priced product, which means that it is neither too low nor too high in terms of price."
"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."
"The licensing model for Proofpoint Email Protection is simple. It's based on the number of users. Price-wise, Proofpoint Email Protection is a five out of ten because it's a pretty expensive solution."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise43
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?
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...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
Some of the old portal features of Proofpoint Email Protection are missing in the new portal, so some of the settings could be modernized. The TRAP mail gateway product of Proofpoint Email Protecti...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
Proofpoint Email Protection is primarily used for anti-spam purposes. As other companies receive a lot of malware, phishing emails, and unwanted bulk email, Proofpoint Email Protection stops unwant...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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, Huntress, Proofpoint and others in Security Awareness Training. Updated: March 2026.
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