Proofpoint Alternatives in 2026: Keep Proofpoint, Add Voice and Callback

You do not have to replace Proofpoint to close the gap. Most teams keep the email gateway and ZenGuide, and add Keepnet for the part Proofpoint does not simulate: a real phone call to the employee's own phone, and callback phishing where the employee dials the number and speaks to someone. Licenses can be co-termed to your existing contract, so this is an extension rather than a migration.

One scoping note first. Proofpoint is a large product family, and Keepnet is not an alternative to most of it. Email security, data loss prevention, archiving and insider threat management sit outside what Keepnet does, and if you run them there is no reason to change. This comparison covers one module of that family: ZenGuide, the security awareness training and phishing simulation product.

Teams looking at Proofpoint alternatives are usually not unhappy with the email side. Proofpoint's own 2026 ZenGuide solution brief says its simulations reflect QR code threats, AI exploits, telephone-oriented attack delivery and email bombing, and its simulation pages list email, SMS, smishing and USB campaigns. The gap is narrower than most comparison articles suggest, and it sits in one place: the phone call itself.

What Does Proofpoint Do Well?

Proofpoint starts from the gateway. Most buyers already run its email security, which gives ZenGuide something a standalone awareness tool cannot get on its own: live telemetry about who is actually being attacked. Users identified as Very Attacked People, repeat clickers, or people exposed to active credential threats can be enrolled into training automatically.

ThreatFlip is the clearest example. A real phishing email that reached your organization is cloned, stripped of its harmful parts and turned into a safe simulation template in one click. Teachable Moments then explain the attacker technique at the moment someone interacts with a simulation, rather than in a course weeks later.

On channels, Proofpoint documents email, SMS and smishing, and USB campaigns, with lures modeled on QR code threats, AI exploits, telephone-oriented attack delivery and email bombing. Anyone telling you Proofpoint is email only has not read the current product pages.

Why Teams Look for a Proofpoint Alternative

Three reasons come up most often.

The phone call is a lure, not a channel. Telephone-oriented attack delivery is simulated as an email that carries a number. The failure that matters happens after the employee dials, and neither the email nor the follow-up training measures that conversation. In the 2026 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, phone-centric simulations show a median click near 2 percent against about 1.4 percent for email (p. 50), so the channel that is not being tested is the one people fail more often.

The strongest features assume you also own the gateway. Proofpoint's own brief describes live telemetry, automatic enrollment of Very Attacked People and enriched reporting as benefits of integrating ZenGuide with its Collaboration Security platform. If your email security sits with Microsoft or another vendor, part of what you are paying for stays out of reach.

Reporting stops at the inbox. When a suspicious message arrives as a text or a call, there is no reporting path in the email client, so those events never enter the queue and never appear in the numbers.

How Keepnet Is Different

Keepnet runs simulations on six channels from one platform: email, voice, SMS, QR code, callback and deepfake. Each channel has its own campaign manager and its own susceptibility reporting, so a weak channel stays visible instead of being averaged away.

Voice simulations place an actual call to the employee's own phone, from one of your own local numbers, in their own language, and use a two way AI conversation rather than a recorded message. Callback phishing is simulated as its own channel: the employee dials the number and reaches an agent, which is the point where a telephone-oriented attack actually succeeds or fails.

Your Proofpoint gateway can be tested as well. Email Threat Simulator sends benign versions of current attacks through your own configuration and reports what got through. That is a configuration check on the gateway you already pay for, not a replacement for it.

Every product can be bought on its own. The security awareness training library is optional, so a team that only needs the missing channels can take only those.

The platform is SCORM compatible, so training content you already built or licensed can stay where it is.

The AI layer is agent based rather than a single assistant. Specialized agents plan, create, deliver, measure and improve continuously, and an admin chooses between approval gated and autonomous execution. Generation is grounded in documents you upload, the platform keeps an organizational memory, personal data is stripped before anything reaches the model, and the AI provider is configured for no retention and no training.

Localization goes past translation. Templates are adapted per region, including subject lines, body copy, currency, date format and tone, and the training library ships in more than 30 languages.

Employees can report a suspicious SMS or call from the phone itself through the Keepnet SMS and Call Reporter, and those reports land in Incident Responder next to reported email.

Keepnet vs Proofpoint: What to Compare

Keepnet compared with Proofpoint

Can You Run Keepnet Alongside Proofpoint?

Yes, and for Proofpoint accounts this is usually the sensible order. The gateway stays where it is, ZenGuide keeps running for email, and Keepnet is added for voice, callback, SMS and QR. Additional licenses can be co-termed to your existing contract, so renewal dates line up and nothing has to be torn out mid-term. Reporting buttons can coexist, and phone reports arrive in Incident Responder rather than competing with your email queue.

Which Proofpoint Alternative Fits Your Reason?

If the reason is the phone, look for a platform that places a real call and reports on what happened during it, not one that sends an email carrying a phone number.

If the reason is gateway independence, check which capabilities are only available when you also buy that vendor email security, and price the program without them.

If the reason is content or engagement, be honest that Proofpoint is strong here. ThreatFlip and Teachable Moments are good pieces of product, and a channel gap is not a reason to give them up.

If the reason is measurement, ask what the platform reports beyond completion. 84 percent of security leaders track training completion as a top metric (Gartner, 2025 Secure Behavior Strategies Survey, n=65), while the human element appeared in 62 percent of breaches in the 2026 Verizon DBIR. Completion is not the same as behavior.

See It on Your Own Environment

The fastest way to compare is a short pilot on the channel you cannot currently test. Book a 30 minute walkthrough and run it against your own users.

For a wider view, see our comparison of security awareness training platforms, the KnowBe4 alternative and Hoxhunt alternative comparisons, and why testing your Proofpoint configuration matters.