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Proofpoint Email Protection vs Sophos Email comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

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
5.0
Proofpoint Email Protection reduces phishing, streamlines operations, improves email hygiene, lowers security incidents, and enhances financial management.
Sentiment score
5.8
Sophos Email delivers cost savings, enhanced security, reduces workload, and is crucial for government contractors, proving valuable and efficient.
The ideal situation would be to have all these portals combined into one unified dashboard.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
After Proofpoint Email Protection, phishing has been completely eliminated, so it is working very efficiently.
Security Engineer at News Corp
Instead of individually logging into five portals, we can log into one and they all connect as if we had logged into all of them.
SOC at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Proofpoint Email Protection receives high praise for support, with minor suggestions for improving response times and consistency.
Sentiment score
6.9
Sophos Email support is generally competent with multiple contact options but can be slow for complex issues.
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
Even the engineers have been helpful, and if we open a case, they get back to us right away.
Information Security Analyst at a government with 11-50 employees
We always contact them if we need support, whether it's for setting up features or technical support, which is very responsive.
System Administrator at Tutt Bryant Group
When I reported a problem with our firewall, they acted promptly and delivered another piece of equipment.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
The technical support from Sophos Email deserves a rating of 10 out of 10.
Technical Head at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
After-sales support for Sophos is very good.
Founder at Computech infosysetm
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Proofpoint Email Protection is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and seamless integration, effectively supporting large enterprises and diverse environments.
Sentiment score
7.5
Sophos Email is scalable for various business sizes, though some encounter technical and licensing challenges despite its strong performance.
Proofpoint is scalable for multi-site organizations with thousands of users.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
The solution provides a graphical representation and dashboard view showing how many threats are getting blocked on a daily and monthly basis.
Information Technology Team Lead at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
Senior Solution Delivery Lead Cybersecurity at International Olympic Committee – IOC
It can go up to around fifty thousand users or something that can be accommodated in one tenant.
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Proofpoint Email Protection offers reliable performance, handles high volumes well, and ensures dependable stability with minimal disruptions.
Sentiment score
7.9
Sophos Email is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime, though occasional legitimate email quarantines are noted.
If Proofpoint Email Protection has an outage, we are either not receiving emails or not blocking the right threats.
Senior Security Engineer at Cloudflare
Regarding the stability and performance of Proofpoint Email Protection, I have not experienced any crashes, downtimes, or performance issues.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Proofpoint Email Protection is very stable and reliable, as it remains accessible at all times without issues, ensuring that data is available in real time.
Principal Consultant at Infosys
I've had more than a 99.5% uptime rate.
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Proofpoint Email Protection requires better AI, usability, and support, addressing high costs and inefficiencies to improve security and productivity.
Sophos Email struggles with usability, security, pricing, and support, with users seeking enhanced features and competitive pricing.
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
In addition to the UI improvements, I would appreciate an increase in the speed of the tasks being processed on the pod.
Security Specialist at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
There are pros and cons to that, but I would suggest maintaining a good balance between security protection and operational impact.
Senior Security Engineer at Cloudflare
Sophos Email does not work with split delivery.
Operations Technical Lead at IT Supporters
The main competitor for Sophos in the market is Palo Alto, which has reduced their price by more than 35 to 40%, making it a very challenging part to sell this product.
Founder at Computech infosysetm
Some existing functionality in the product needs better articulation in how data is displayed.
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Setup Cost

Proofpoint Email Protection costs $2-$7/user/month, seen as high, but justified by its robust security features.
Sophos Email provides cost-effective subscription plans with discounts for annual or bulk purchases, though opinions on pricing vary.
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
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.
Senior Solution Delivery Lead Cybersecurity at International Olympic Committee – IOC
Sophos Email pricing is a bit high, especially since I purchase through a partner, and they sell it at a higher price since they also seek to make a profit.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
 

Valuable Features

Proofpoint Email Protection enhances security with advanced threat detection, customizable policies, and integration, reducing phishing and administrative workload.
Sophos Email delivers robust email security with AI integration, intuitive spam detection, and seamless integration with Office 365 and Google Workspace.
Without Proofpoint Email Protection, most of these emails would have come through, slipped through Exchange, gotten into the user's mailbox, and created a lot of trouble for the organization.
Cyber Security Engineer at IT Naturally
Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by ensuring we are not at risk of a breach through email.
Release lead at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
TAP alerts, where Proofpoint Email Protection scans emails and sends alerts, provide the ability to review suspicious emails and validate them in a sandbox environment.
Infrastructure Analyst at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
It provides a defense layer for email protection, scanning every incoming and outbound email for malware and spam.
Operations Technical Lead at IT Supporters
Sophos already has Sandbox, and if any issues are identified, Sophos blocks that particular mail and site instantly, which is why customers are very happy and safe from other attacks.
Founder at Computech infosysetm
XDR stands for extended detection and response, and it's a technology where the system automatically exchanges security signals between the endpoint, the email, and other similar products of the same brand.
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Ranking in Office 365 Protection
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
Sophos Email
Ranking in Email Security
13th
Ranking in Office 365 Protection
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 5.9%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Email is 1.6%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection5.9%
Sophos Email1.6%
Other92.5%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Siva_Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Email defenses have reduced phishing incidents and protect sensitive data across our enterprise
As things are evolving and threats develop in unpredictable ways, Proofpoint must adopt AI solutions and agentic solutions more aggressively and provide them to customers as part of service offerings. Inbuilt AI solutions would add more value and make Proofpoint a more premium choice for customers. With the help of AI solutions, agentic AI, and generative AI capabilities, the product would be more efficient than it currently is. Filtering false positives is highly challenging because it is impossible for humans to identify which emails are genuine and which are spam. Proofpoint should focus more on this area with back-end agents or other tools. Proofpoint should decide which emails are genuine and which are spam so it is not a challenge for end users. When receiving an email, end users should not have to determine whether to respond or not. Proofpoint should not release such spam emails and should strictly block such spam and spoof emails based on connection IPs. Currently, false positives occur in the product, and while this occurs in every product, it is an area where Proofpoint can focus on improving and reducing false positives. One email is enough for an end user to be deceived and lose money, so addressing this area is critical.
ManojNair2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Comprehensive detection has protected email traffic and now simplifies endpoint security work
Sophos Email security is the primary product I use. It scans all your inbound and outbound email for malware. It also has a capability for looking for phishing and spear phishing content and blocking it. Email has an extended capability that includes what's called a secure web gateway. All user traffic gets managed through that, making it a combination product. The version of the product you run determines which features are available. Reporting is competent. There is scope for more improvements, which they will do as they do every year regularly. They keep updating the product. Reporting gives you the relevant details of what is happening, so it's mature on that front. The main benefit is security for your email. The beauty of the Sophos system is that the XDR functionality runs across the system. Sophos, Trend Micro, and Microsoft are the only three that have a very strong system with this concept. XDR stands for extended detection and response, and it's a technology where the system automatically exchanges security signals between the endpoint, the email, and other similar products of the same brand. If you have Sophos Endpoint and Sophos Email, you have very good connectivity from the endpoint to the cloud at the email level and to some extent onto the browsing traffic. You have a very rounded security aspect.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise62
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
To improve Proofpoint Email Protection, I suggest breaking down the URL into one versus three different GUIs. Regarding Proofpoint Email Protection's AI capabilities, I think its governance and sec...
What is your primary use case for Proofpoint Email Protection?
My main use case for Proofpoint Email Protection includes phishing emails, spam, URL isolation, and training. I utilize the email protect portal to ensure that none of our employees in any of the b...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Email?
Regarding Sophos Email pricing, I would rate it between six or seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with Sophos Email?
Some existing functionality in the product needs better articulation in how data is displayed. In one place there is data, but the way the data should be shown is not being shown right now. I have ...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Email?
I work on the endpoints. I work on endpoint, email, and firewall. Email, I use it on my personal domain, so I know what it does.
 

Also Known As

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
Sophos Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Del Monte Foods, Terra Verde, spicerhaart, RIVERLITE, Dataprise, SureBridge, Reed's School, Sayfol International School
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint Email Protection vs. Sophos Email and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.