[Old] KnowBe4 Competitors and Alternatives

KnowBe4 competitors and KnowBe4 alternatives are plentiful because cyberattacks are on the rise, and cybercriminals are no longer targeting organizations, but the employees within an organization. Human error is the cause of 95% of cyber-attacks. 96% of all data breaches start with a phishing email. (Symantec 2021). The average data breach cost $4.35 million in 2022, a 2.6% rise from 2021 amount of $4.24 million (Upguard). Phishing attacks increased by 61% in 2022 (Slashnext 2022). 

Empowering employees with the knowledge to help your company to protect itself against human-centric cyber-threats, is one of the most cost-effective and proactive cybersecurity measures.

SafeTitan and KnowBe4 are both market-leading Security Awareness Training (SAT) solutions. This report will compare the two solutions to help you evaluate what solution is the better alternative for your business. 

Why is SafeTitan the top KnowBe4 competitor?

Deciding what SAT solution may be difficult, this report shows an independent review of what customers are saying about both KnowB4 and SafeTitan. 

Security Awareness Training Ratings

Independent review site Gartner.com shows customer review ratings for SafeTitan Vs KnowBe4. It shows a variety of alternatives to KnowBe4. SafeTitan is ranked higher than the conventional KnowBe4 and KnowBe4 competitors, with a rating of 4.8/5. 92% of users are happy to recommend SafeTitan.  

Insights from Social Media (Reddit) Users on KnowBe4

One User Posted:

“The barrier to entry (for KnowBe4) is a bit higher than the others, mostly because:

• no trial offered,
• must commit to a 1-year contract,
• must commit to either a minimum of 101 licenses OR 25 reseller licenses.

The fact that there is no option for me to really dig into the product to see if it fits my needs is a large concern, so I am curious what others who either have used it and moved away or are currently using it thinks.”

Responses:

One User Responded with:

“KB4 pricing models were too annoying to deal with, too many levels… Quoting with KB4 was difficult and onerous. Their product required too much setup and management.”

Another User posted:

“We use it and are happy enough. Not totally thrilled, but it works. Both the training and the testing work pretty well. 

My biggest annoyances:
• It doesn't really support multi-tenancy. You have to make different accounts for different companies. I think there's an MSP portal, but IIRC it mostly just shows you your different accounts. It doesn't really provide bulk administration.
• You have to give it a lot of access to have it work well with M365. You basically need to give it full access to everyone's mailbox and it drops the messages in, and then is also uses the same method to send the newsletter messages you can send from it, meaning users can't create inbox rules.
• They design things with the assumption that you want to use their button when users report spam. The problem is, Microsoft has their own button which actually interacts to train their spam filter, do zero-hour auto purges, etc. So it makes you choose: do I want to use all of Microsoft's security features, or do I want to get accurate KnowBe4 reporting.”

 

We were also delighted that technology review site Expert Insights rated SafeTitan as the NUMBER ONE competitor and alternative to KnowBe4 in 2023 in their Top Ten Buyer guide for Phishing training solutions. 


Security Awareness Training Feature Comparison

Security Awareness Training (SAT) solutions, consist of similar feature sets to train staff to prevent phishing. So, what sets the KnowBe4 training apart from SafeTitan? SafeTitan and SafeTitan Plus are not complete swap-out for KnowBe4 solutions, features & pricing may vary depending on the features you require for your business.  Information is accurate as of March 10th, 2023.

TitanHQ is renowned for its world-class customer support for all products. It's one of the many reasons why customers have migrated to TitanHQ solutions.  

SafeTitan is the market leading competitor of Knowbe4 for employee phishing training. If you would like to see our phishing simulation in action to compare it to KnowBe4, book a FREE demo. 

The simple set-up and migration for SafeTitan and world-class support ensure that all sized businesses and MSPs migrate to SafeTitan quickly and efficiently. Once set up with SafeTitan, you can schedule your full year of security training in the space of a couple of minutes. This simple ease of use and integration is another core reason why SafeTitan is the #1 Security Awareness Training Solution. 

One of the major benefits of SafeTitan is its extensive reporting features. With SafeTitan organizations can analyze the return on investment, create training reports to comply with regulations, and have a full-user behavior analysis unique to SafeTitan. In order to get company buy-in from key decision-makers, having an advanced reporting suite to show the effects of phishing campaigns is critical. 

Most features in the two solutions are quite similar, However, what sets SafeTitan apart from all other SAT solutions, is that SafeTitan is the only solution that delivers contextual security training in real-time. 

Note - KnowBe4 offer several different packages, each with different features and pricing.

What does Contextual SAT in Real-time mean for Organizations?

SafeTitan’s real-time training is based on actual staff activities that are monitored and alerts are triggered when a high-risk action is taken by an employee.

For example: If a user downloads free software, SafeTitan triggers a message to that user explaining the danger of downloading free software and has the ability to show the user the specific company policy is, related to this risky action.  

Other examples of real-time training and policy notifications include: Saving data with public file sharing, accessing illicit websites, and so on. See how SafeTitan’s real-time training works in a free demo.

SafeTitan is the leading KnowBe4 Alternative offering strong functionality for real-time security training in your organization. Book a free demo to learn why we're the best KnowBe4 competitor.

Security Awareness Training (SAT) Benefits

SafeTitan allows you to create a culture of security awareness in your business by delivering human cyber risk management and behavior change technology that helps staff in their exact moment of need.

It can demonstrate the long-term value of real behavior change through advanced reporting.

Sample Report of Effectiveness of SafeTitan

The above diagram shows how slow nurturing can lead to incredible organizational security.

Impact of SAT

The advanced reporting of SafeTitan shows us how susceptible staff are to phishing emails. Through implementing SafeTitan, here are the following results of SafeTitan effectiveness in training employees. 

Susceptibility of staff are to phishing emails with the use of SafeTitan: 

• Susceptibility of employees targeted by phishing emails across all sectors = 33.33%
• Results after 30-days of SAT & phishing testing = 9.33%
• Results after 90-days of SAT & phishing testing = 2.56%
• Average overall improvement after 90 Days of our clients using SafeTitan= 92.44%

SafeTitan’s advanced reporting features can measure the impact of training on employees and clients, to showcase the effectiveness and the return on investment.

Communication and consistency are vital elements in building a security-first culture in an organization. Prevention is far superior and more affordable than responding to a security breach. Hence, harnessing the value of security awareness training is critical to organizations in all sectors.

What our Customers Say about SafeTitan

"This is an overall good product. Their training is real-time, very engaging, and is of short duration to develop the interest of the workforce. If we didn't deploy this product, there would have been an increased risk of cyberattacks and a lack of employee security awareness. With this product, employees are trained in advance of a cyber threat occurring. It is very important for every organization to protect their data from all threats and hence, this is the best product.” 
IT Manager, Taxation. Using SafeTitan since 2020.

“From the objective they have, that is to make sure that staff are aware of the risk associated with using internet services. This has allowed us to measure the level of our staff...even so it has allowed us to see where we need to improve in terms of awareness to our staff. This is a very good product that we are still working on improving especially in areas of conducting consistent training. This product has allowed us to identify risks and mitigate them accordingly based on user interaction with internet services." 
Cybersecurity Expert, IT Services. Using SafeTitan since 2018

Phishing Simulation Tool

Phishing simulation tools focus on creating phishing campaigns using similar tactics as cybercriminals in order to educate employees about the subtle and sophisticated methods used by cybercriminals when attempting to hack into a company.

Phishing simulations are typically carried out by IT departments or through a managed service provider (MSP).

Historically, KnowBe4 has been the number #1 phishing simulation tool/security awareness training solution. However, SafeTitan by TitanHQ is the leading KnowBe4 alternative, due to its competitive pricing and real-time phishing features.

Phishing simulation tools offer a series of phishing simulation exercises that are designed to reflect phishing campaigns that target a specific industry or role within an organization.

SafeTitan delivers fully automated simulated phishing attacks. The simulated phishing attacks use a library of thousands of phishing email templates, each configurable to reflect a typical and current phishing campaign. This library is regularly updated to ensure that phishing campaigns are current.

Learn more about TitanHQ’s phishing simulation in a FREE DEMO.

Phishing Training for Employees

Globally cybercrimes are expected to rise by 15 percent over the next few years and cost businesses $10.5 trillion in losses annually by 2025.

According to a 2021 Cybersecurity Threat Trends Report by CISCO, nearly 90% of data breaches can be attributed to phishing and 80% of reported security breaches that year were on account of phishing attacks.

Nevertheless, organisations of all sizes, including all sectors and industries must conduct phishing training for employees to create phishing security awareness.

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) or in-house IT managers charged with protecting their clients and companies' businesses would agree that no amount of technical measures is 100%

effective in blocking phishing attacks. Phishing awareness across all levels of the organization will instead be more effective in preventing phishing attacks.

Phishing training for employees involves educating and empowering them to spot and report questionable or dubious emails with malicious intent. Awareness is the best form of defense, and it involves knowing what to look for.

TitanHQ clients that use SafeTitan Security Awareness Training, have had a 92% average improvement rate.

 

The above results show the percentage of employees taking a risky activation after the SafeTitan Phishing Trainig.

Here are some of the learning outcomes employees must be aware of to identify phishing emails:

• Emails from legitimate businesses will never ask for your personal information, including usernames and passwords.
• Do not click on any links in an unsolicited email or text. Better still, refrain from opening such emails or text messages. Alternatively, look up the said company’s contact information online and call them to verify the legitimacy of any request.
• Carefully examine the email address by hovering over it, the URL, the spellings in the body text, and the logo or brand image if any. On careful observation, you will be able to notice slight differences that might not otherwise be obvious.
• Be aware of what you download and be wary of opening attachments you receive from unknown sources.
• Remember to set up multi-factor authentication wherever possible and do not ever disable it.
• Be careful about the information shared online, especially on social media platforms. People tend to share a lot of personal information on social media, from kids’ names and pet’s names, to birthdays and everything else. They don’t realize that they’re giving scammers all the information they need to figure out passwords or answer your security questions.

How to Spot a Phishing Email?

Phishing attacks are one of more dangerous and effective used by cybercriminals to gain access to an organization, targeting employees in order to steal critical data. It’s important that employees have the ability to spot phishing emails, even if there is an anti-phishing solution in place. Here are the common indicators of a phishing attempt:

1. The feeling of urgency and threats

2. Inconsistencies in email address

3. Identification and personal data

4. Grammatical or spelling errors

5. Self-initiated conversation

6. Brief descriptions

7. Unrealistic demand or request

Focusing on common indicators of a phishing attack enables companies to teach employees to differentiate between fake and genuine email sources. This could be the difference in a $1M ransomware attack. If a SafeTitan user spots suspicious mail, they can flag it as phishing mail with the ‘PhishHuk Alert’ button.

SafeTitan provides advanced cybersecurity awareness in the form of real-time training with a full content library of phishing simulated emails, based upon monitoring employees actions.

 

Business Email Compromise

BEC is a cyberattack that targets your business emails using various social engineering and impersonation tactics to trick unsuspecting employees into handing over information. This form of fraud is hard to detect.

Hacking email accounts and creating lookalike emails and domain names are the common methods criminals use to trick targets into abiding by malicious requests.

There are 3 types of BEC scams:

1. Email Accounts Compromise - cybercriminals will hack your business email account and use it to email clients or vendors looking to transfer funds into a fake account.
2. Impersonations - An impersonator will pretend to be a CEO or senior executive sending out an email to an individual looking for money transfers or login details etc.
3. Malware Attacks - Malware can gain complete access to your systems or the entire network. The attackers will use this to steal valuable data, including financial account details, login ids, and passwords.

The aim of cybercriminals is to defraud organisations by compromising your business email accounts and stealing valuable information or impersonating employees to transfer money.

Employees will play a vital role and be your first line of defense to prevent any BEC attacks. Therefore, you must train your employees to identify phishing emails and potential account compromises.

SpamTitan Email Security protects BEC attacks and SafeTitan SAT can train employees how to identify suspicious emails.

 

Office 365 Phishing Protection

Office 365 / Microsoft 365 is the number one email service provider in the world. However, email is the main point of attack for hackers, it needs additional security layers to stop phishing threats.

Office 365 does have its own security features, but cyberattacks can still break through, which is why extra protection for Microsoft 365 email accounts is essential.

An email security solution such as SpamTitan Plus can prevent phishing attacks from occurring.

SpamTitan Plus offers cutting-edge protection for your Microsoft 365 email accounts to keep your data protected. SpamTitan Plus has an advanced AI that is the best at picking up phishing links, no matter how well disguised the email is. SpamTitan Plus uses the best predictive technology available to anticipate new cyberattacks to keep your inboxes protected from new tricks cybercriminals have up their sleeves.

The human layer is critical in employees identifying threats and preventing phishing attacks. SpamTitan Plus in conjunction with SafeTitan will ensure your Microsoft 365 accounts are protected against phishing. SafeTitan is the leading KnowBe4 Alternative offering strong functionality for real-time security training in your organization. Book a free demo to learn why we're the best KnowBe4 competitor.

Note : The information provided by TitanHQ  on TitanHQ.com is for general informational purposes only. All information on the website is provided in good faith and accurate at the time of posting. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on the site. All opinions on this comparison page are from TitanHQ research and freely available facts and information across the web as of June 2022. We constantly strive to keep this information relevant and up-to-date as best we can.

KnowBe4 Alternatives & Competitors - FAQs

Why Should I Consider SafeTitan as an Alternative to KnowBe4?

SafeTitan offers a higher customer rating and is independently rated as the top competitor to KnowBe4. Expert Insights also named SafeTitan the NUMBER ONE alternative to KnowBe4 in their 2023 Top Ten Buyer guide.

Who competes with KnowBe4?

SafeTitan is the only solution in the Security Awareness Training market that offers contextual training in real-time. It's one of the leading KnowBe4 competitors and has a customer rating of 4.8/5 from Gartner.com

How Does SafeTitan Compare in Terms of Security Awareness Training Features?

SafeTitan and KnowBe4 offer similar feature sets. However, SafeTitan provides contextual security training in real-time, setting it apart from other SAT solutions.

What is Contextual SAT in Real-time?

SafeTitan's real-time training is based on actual staff activities, triggering alerts for high-risk actions. For instance, if a user downloads risky software, SafeTitan provides immediate guidance and company policy information.

How Does SafeTitan Measure Up in Terms of Advanced Reporting?

SafeTitan offers extensive reporting features, allowing organizations to analyze ROI, compliance, and user behavior. This reporting suite is invaluable for securing company buy-in from key decision-makers.

What are the Benefits of Using SafeTitan for Security Awareness Training?

SafeTitan helps create a culture of security awareness by delivering human cyber risk management and behavior change technology. It demonstrates the long-term value of real behavior change through advanced reporting.

How Effective is SafeTitan in Training Employees to Spot Phishing Emails?

After 90 days of using SafeTitan, clients experienced an average overall improvement of 92.44% in employee susceptibility to phishing emails.

How Does SafeTitan Compare to Other Solutions in Phishing Simulation and Training?

SafeTitan provides fully automated simulated phishing attacks with a regularly updated library of phishing email templates. Its competitive pricing and real-time features set it apart from other solutions.

How Does SafeTitan Address Business Email Compromise (BEC) Attacks?

SafeTitan helps train employees to identify and prevent BEC attacks, a significant threat to organizations. It empowers employees to recognize suspicious emails and potential account compromises.