Proofpoint has provided security solutions to businesses for over twenty years, preventing cyberattacks like SPAM and malicious content.

What does Proofpoint do?

With Proofpoint's secure email gateway (SEG) solution, you can protect your organization from email threats such as domain spoofing, malware, SPAM, and basic phishing attacks.

Proofpoint vs. IRONSCALES

IRONSCALES employs artificial intelligence via an API to detect advanced email threats, while Proofpoint uses a secure gateway to apply rule-based protection. Additionally, IRONSCALES engages employees directly within the platform with phishing simulation and training campaigns to harden user defenses.

Security Email Gateway (SEG) vs Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES)

Security Email Gateways (SEGs), like Proofpoint Email Protection, protect organizations from malicious emails with a signature/rule-based approach. Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES), like IRONSCALES, is a more advanced approach that utilizes an API-based platform to provide protection at the mailbox level using AI and ML for anomaly detection.

Why Choose IRONSCALES over Proofpoint

Choosing the right email and messaging security platform is foundational to the protection of your organization. This page compares two of the top-rated email security platforms — IRONSCALES™ and Proofpoint® — to help you choose the platform that’s right for you.

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Comparison Table

IRONSCALES provides a self-learning, AI-driven email security platform that continuously detects and remediates advanced threats like BEC, credential harvesting, ATO, and more, in milliseconds. The platform also incorporates employees into the organization’s fight against phishing with integrated email alert banners, report buttons, personalized phishing simulation testing, and advanced security awareness training (SAT).

For over two decades, Proofpoint has created a legacy by providing businesses with reliable and comprehensive security solutions to protect their data and networks. Their products have been trusted by enterprises around the globe for preventing a wide range of cyberattacks, namely SPAM and malicious content.

The Gap Legacy SEGs Can't Close

Proofpoint was built for a different threat landscape, one where phishing meant bad grammar, suspicious links, and spoofed domains. Today's attacks look nothing like that. AI-generated messages are grammatically flawless. Social engineering targets specific employees with context scraped from LinkedIn and company websites.

Gateway-based detection wasn't designed for this. They don't know how to detect subtle signs of malicious intent. They can't see what happens after delivery, can't learn from user reports in real-time, and can't adapt to attacks that evolve mid-campaign.

The result? A gap between what your SEG catches and what actually reaches your users.

SEG Vendor

Mailboxes

—

Attacks missed by Mimecast
over 30-days for your org size.

Is This Legit?

You're probably wondering, "Is this real, or just vendor hyperbole?" Yeah, it's real, it's built on data from 1,921 customers who use IRONSCALES to catch what their SEGs miss. See the proof here.

Attacks by Category

Select mailbox count to see breakdown

Features
Inbound Email Protection
URL / Link / Attachment Inspection
AI-Powered Advanced Phishing Protection (ATO, BEC, VIP attacks)
Adaptive AI Platform
Manual MX Record, YARA Rule Updates
Phishing Simulation Testing		Add-on
Security Awareness Training (SAT)		Add-on
API-Based Cloud Email Integration		Add-on / Limited
Non-Disruptive DMARC Integrity
Continuous Inbox Scanning for Time Delayed Attacks		Add-on
Crowdsourced Threat Intelligence
Dynamic Inbox Banners warnings/guidance
Email Archiving & Encryption
Native Mobile App for Incident Response

How IRONSCALES Delivers Smarter Protection

No MX Record Changes – Easy Deployment

Unlike Proofpoint, our solution integrates with your Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other platforms seamlessly via API, eliminating the need for complex MX record modifications. Get up and running in minutes with minimal IT involvement.

Threat Intelligence Approaches

❌ Utilizes NexusAI for threat detection, focusing on pre-delivery analysis to identify threats like phishing, BEC, and ransomware.

✔ IRONSCALES Employs Adaptive AI combined with human intelligence to detect threats both pre- and post-delivery. This mailbox-level anomaly detection allows for real-time identification and remediation of sophisticated attacks.

Scalability & Administrative Overhead

❌ Proofpoint is designed primarily for large enterprises, the platform may require dedicated resources for management and maintenance, potentially leading to increased administrative overhead.

✔ IRONSCALES offers a scalable solution suitable for organizations of all sizes, with an emphasis on automation and user-friendly interfaces. This design reduces the need for extensive administrative oversight, making it accessible even to teams with limited security personnel.

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Join 17,000+ Companies and Counting

Advanced Threat Protection

Protect Better

Block advanced phishing and BEC attacks (and never seen before threats) with our Adaptive AI—dynamically sharpened by real-world user insights and a community of over 25,000 threat hunters.

SOC Automation

Simplify Operations

Slash the time your team spends remediating email incidents from 30 minutes per incident to 30 seconds.

Our Adaptive AI scans every email for malicious indicators. When it finds a threat, it doesn’t just block it, it automatically finds and remediates all others like it in your environment.

SIMULATIONS & TRAINING

Empower your Org

Triple the email security awareness of your workforce and transform your employees into a crucial line of phishing defense. We make it dead simple to sharpen your employees' understanding of real-world threats with:

Phishing simulation testing
Security awareness training (SAT)
Dynamic email banners

...and a GPT-powered chat assistant

Case Studies

"The ability to provide real-time feedback on both positive and negative performance has proven very effective. It’s a wake-up call for our employees.”

Itzik Menashe Global IT Director of Telit

Read the Case Study

Back

Why Choose IRONSCALES over Proofpoint

The Gap Legacy SEGs Can't Close

SEGs like Proofpoint miss an average of 67.5 phishing attacks per 100 mailboxes every month.

That's not a guess, it's what we see across 1,921 customers who layer IRONSCALES with their existing SEG.

See what that looks like for your org.