Phishing Simulation Cost: KnowBe4 vs Proofpoint vs SecurEveryone (2025 Pricing Breakdown)

If you're price-shopping security awareness training right now, here's the brutal truth: most vendors want to hide their pricing from you until you're locked into a sales call. This guide cuts through that.

Bottom line: At 50+ users, flat-rate pricing wins.

Book a demo or claim your $900 flat-rate plan →

Why This Guide Exists

Every security leader price-shopping in 2025 hits the same wall: vendors bury pricing behind "contact sales" forms. You spend weeks in discovery calls only to find out the per-seat math makes the actual cost 3―5x what you budgeted.

We built this guide to give you real numbers, real fast. No sales call required — though we’ve made it easy to book one if you want to see SecurEveryone in action.

The Pricing Comparison Table (2025)

KnowBe4

KnowBe4 is the world’s largest security awareness training platform — over 65,000 organizations use it. Their pricing is tiered and published.

Published pricing (MSRP, billed annually, US pricing as of 2025/2026):

• Silver (Base): ~$1.30–$1.90/user/month
• Gold: ~$1.51–$2.10/user/month
• Platinum: ~$1.78–$2.50/user/month
• Diamond (flagship): ~$2.35–$3.25/user/month

What’s included in base:

• Unlimited phishing simulation campaigns
• Core training content library
• Phish-prone percentage reporting
• Virtual Risk Officer dashboard

Common add-ons (each billed per-user/month):

• AIDA AI Coach: +$0.20–$0.50
• SecurityCoach (real-time coaching): +$0.17–$0.40
• Compliance Plus library: +$0.25–$0.60

Deal-breakers for SMBs:

• 25-user minimum
• Annual billing required
• 3-year terms get 15–20% better pricing, but lock you in
• Implementation fee: $2,500–$25,000 for enterprise deployments

Proofpoint Security Awareness Training

Proofpoint positions awareness training as part of a broader email security bundle. Their standalone SAT via partners runs $12–$24/user/year, but most enterprise buyers get it bundled with their email security contract — which obscures the true cost.

Pricing range:

• Standalone SAT: $12–$24/user/yr (via MSP/partner)
• Bundled with Proofpoint email security: effectively $6–$12/user/yr in total package
• Enterprise: custom quote (typically $25–$40/user/yr)

What’s included:

• Threat-guided phishing simulations
• Content library (presentations, PDFs, videos)
• Risk scoring and reporting
• Integration with Proofpoint email security telemetry

The catch: You almost certainly need to talk to sales. Proofpoint doesn’t publish public pricing for most deployments.

Cofense (PhishMe)

Cofense builds phishing simulations from real attacks that got past email filters. This gives their training a credibility edge — employees see scenarios that mirror actual threats.

Pricing:

• No public pricing — custom quote required
• Enterprise-focused; not designed for small businesses

Strengths:

• Real-world phishing intelligence driving simulation templates
• Cofense Reporter button integrates into incident response workflows

Not ideal for:

• Companies under 200 employees
• Organizations that need fast, self-service deployment
• Teams without dedicated IT/security staff

The Hidden Cost That Ruins Your Budget: Per-Seat Math

Per-seat pricing seems cheap until you do the math at your actual headcount.

Annual Cost Comparison at Different Team Sizes

SecurEveryone wins at every size past 25 users. At 500 employees, you’re looking at $900/year vs. nearly $16,000 — an 18x cost difference.

But there’s more hidden cost buried in per-seat pricing:

Annual price escalation: Most vendor contracts include 5–8% annual price increases at renewal. Your $1,590/year KnowBe4 contract becomes $1,720 the next year, $1,850 the year after — without any additional value.

User count ambiguity: Did you include your seasonal contractors? Your part-time staff? Your new hires? Per-seat pricing means every warm body costs money.

Add-on stacking: AIDA AI Coach, Compliance Plus, SecurityCoach — each is a separate line item that your account manager will gently suggest you "need" during renewal conversations.

What’s Actually Included vs. What Costs Extra

What’s Usually Included

Common Add-Ons That Inflated the Real Price

KnowBe4 add-ons:

• AIDA AI Coach: +$0.20–$0.50/user/month
• SecurityCoach: +$0.17–$0.40/user/month
• Compliance Plus: +$0.25–$0.60/user/month

Proofpoint add-ons:

• Content customization: $2,500–$10,000 setup
• Managed services: Typically 15–25% of software spend annually

SecurEveryone philosophy: Everything is included. No add-ons. No feature gating.

Is Per-Seat Licensing Right for You?

Choose per-seat if:

• You have fewer than 25 users and expect to stay small
• You need advanced AI features that flat-rate platforms don’t offer
• You’re an enterprise with 2,000+ users where volume discounts make sense

Choose flat-rate if:

• You have 25+ users and growing
• You’re a small-to-midsize business without a dedicated security operations team
• You want predictability in your budget — not renewal surprises

What to Look For in a Phishing Simulation Vendor

1. Delivery rate: Can the platform actually land simulated phishing emails in inboxes, or do they get blocked by email security?
2. Content freshness: Phishing tactics evolve monthly — your library needs to match current attack patterns.
3. Teachable moment landing pages: When an employee clicks a simulated phishing link, the landing page is where real learning happens.
4. Reporting that matters: A CISO needs board-level risk metrics; an IT manager needs actionable data on who’s clicking and why.
5. Setup time: KnowBe4 requires significant configuration. A simpler platform with faster time-to-value may serve small businesses better.

The SecurEveryone Alternative

Most security awareness vendors optimize for enterprise sales cycles. We built SecurEveryone for businesses that don’t have a dedicated security team.

Why we’re different:

• $900 flat, unlimited users. No per-seat math. No budget surprises.
• Everything included. Phishing simulation, training library, reporting, support — no add-ons.
• Deploys in under an hour.
• Built for businesses without a CISO.

See how SecurEveryone works — book a 15-minute demo →

Or go straight to pricing: Claim your $900 flat-rate plan →

Sources & Data Notes

• KnowBe4 pricing: Published MSRP as of May 2026 on knowbe4.com/products/security-awareness-training/pricing. Volume discounts available; actual negotiated pricing may be 10–20% below MSRP.
• Proofpoint SAT: Partner-reported pricing of $12–$24/user/yr; enterprise pricing custom-quoted. Sources: constantedge.com, symbolsecurity.com.
• Cofense: No public pricing; custom quote required. Sources: trustradius.com, getapp.com, cofense.com.
• Industry benchmarks: $12–$36/user/yr for mainstream platforms as cited by consilien.com (2025) and symbolsecurity.com (2026).

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