Is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense suitable for small businesses?

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense is primarily designed for enterprise-level organizations with complex needs. Its comprehensive feature set and associated cost structure may be considered overkill for most small businesses (SMBs). SMBs might find more value in solutions tailored to their scale, or a self-hosted option like Open-DMARC-Analyzer if they have the technical expertise.

What are the main advantages of an open-source DMARC analyzer?

The primary advantages of an open-source DMARC analyzer like Open-DMARC-Analyzer include zero licensing costs, full control over your data (as it's self-hosted), and the ability to customize the software to your specific needs. It offers transparency in its operation and can be a cost-effective solution for organizations with the necessary technical resources to deploy and maintain it.

Does Proofpoint provide hosted DMARC services?

Yes, Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense offers hosted DMARC services as part of its comprehensive email authentication suite. This service simplifies the administrative tasks associated with managing complex DMARC records, ensures compliance with high reliability, and provides near-instant DNS updates, which is a significant benefit for large organizations.

How do these products handle DMARC reporting data?

Both Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense and Open-DMARC-Analyzer process DMARC aggregate reports to provide insights into email authentication, source identification, and spoof detection. Proofpoint offers a highly refined interface with advanced analytics and actionable recommendations, often supported by dedicated consultants. Open-DMARC-Analyzer provides a functional dashboard for visualizing the core DMARC data directly from your self-hosted instance.

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense vs Open-DMARC-Analyzer

Choose Proofpoint for comprehensive enterprise security, or Open-DMARC-Analyzer for an open-source, self-hosted option.

4.3 / 5(12)

Compare to Suped

0 / 5(0)

Compare to Suped

Compare product functionality

Feature set

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense delivers a robust, enterprise-grade solution focused on comprehensive email fraud prevention. It goes beyond basic DMARC reporting, offering a full suite of hosted authentication services for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which is invaluable for managing complex DNS records and ensuring compliance.

We found its ability to streamline DMARC deployment with dedicated consultants, customizable project plans, and a virtual takedown service for malicious lookalikes particularly impressive. It provides 360-degree visibility across the email ecosystem, dynamically identifying lookalike domains and showing which ones attackers have targeted, which is crucial for proactive defense.

Open-DMARC-Analyzer is a dedicated open-source DMARC report analyzer, primarily focused on parsing and visualizing DMARC aggregate reports. Its core strength lies in providing a self-hosted solution that offers fundamental DMARC insights without the need for recurring subscription fees.

While it effectively helps us understand DMARC compliance, source identification, and spoof detection, it generally lacks advanced features such as hosted SPF/DKIM, BIMI, MTA-STS, or integrated threat intelligence. Its feature set is focused on the analysis of DMARC data, making it a straightforward tool for those who prioritize control and a hands-on approach to their email security infrastructure.

How easy is each product to use

User experience

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense is designed for enterprise environments, which means its user interface can initially feel complex due to the sheer depth of features and configuration options. However, once familiarized, the dashboard provides extensive data and control over DMARC policies and email authentication.

While some users report a steep learning curve, the platform's guided workflows and dedicated support aim to simplify deployment. We found that the detailed analytics and reporting capabilities, though powerful, require some time to master for optimal utilization. The overall experience is geared towards security professionals who need granular control and comprehensive visibility.

Open-DMARC-Analyzer, being a self-hosted open-source solution, offers a user experience that is inherently different. Installation and initial setup require technical expertise, including familiarity with web servers, PHP, and databases. There is no managed service to onboard you, so the initial hurdle can be significant for non-technical users.

Once set up, the interface for DMARC report analysis is functional and clear, focusing on presenting DMARC data in an understandable way. However, it lacks the polish and advanced interactive elements often found in commercial products. The user experience is straightforward for analysis but demands technical proficiency for deployment and maintenance.

Which product has the best support

Support

Proofpoint offers comprehensive enterprise-level support, which includes dedicated consultants for DMARC deployment, guided workflows, and a robust support team. This level of assistance is a significant advantage for organizations navigating complex email security challenges and ensures that implementation is handled by experts.

However, some user feedback indicates that responsiveness can occasionally be an issue, requiring follow-ups. Despite this, the depth of knowledge and the strategic guidance provided by Proofpoint's support team in areas like hosted authentication services and threat intelligence are substantial benefits for large organizations.

As an open-source project, Open-DMARC-Analyzer relies on community-driven support. This means that formal support channels, such as dedicated support teams or SLAs, are not available. Users typically find assistance through forums, documentation, and the broader open-source community.

While community support can be incredibly helpful for common issues, it lacks the guaranteed response times and personalized assistance that commercial solutions provide. For organizations requiring rapid problem resolution or assistance with complex, unique configurations, this model may present challenges. Essentially, you are your own support team, or you hire one.

Who should use each product

Suitability

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense is best suited for large enterprises and organizations with complex email infrastructures that require an all-encompassing security solution. Its extensive features, managed DMARC deployment, and integrated threat intelligence are ideal for mitigating sophisticated email fraud. We see it as a strong fit for highly regulated industries.

For MSPs, Proofpoint offers robust capabilities for managing multiple clients, although its enterprise focus means it might be overkill for smaller clients without customization. SMBs would likely find the cost and complexity prohibitive, as the product is built for scale and advanced security requirements.

Open-DMARC-Analyzer is an excellent choice for technically proficient individuals, small businesses (SMBs) with IT resources, and organizations that prioritize cost control and data sovereignty. Its self-hosted nature appeals to those who want full control over their DMARC data without relying on third-party cloud services.

MSPs with strong technical teams might consider deploying and managing instances for their clients, but it lacks built-in multi-tenancy features, which could complicate management at scale. For large enterprises, while functional, it would typically require significant internal development and maintenance to match the comprehensive features of commercial alternatives.

How does Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense compare with Open-DMARC-Analyzer?

DMARC report analysis

Ability to parse and present DMARC aggregate reports.

Source detection

Identifies legitimate and illegitimate sending sources.

Forward detection

Helps identify email forwarding issues affecting DMARC compliance.

Spoof detection

Identifies unauthorized use of your domain in email headers.

Notifications and alerts

Automated alerts for DMARC compliance changes or policy violations.

Requires custom integration

Reporting

Comprehensive dashboards and customizable reports.

Advanced, customizable reports

Basic, functional reporting

API

Programmatic access to DMARC data and management features.

Requires direct database access

Multi-tenancy

Manages DMARC for multiple domains or clients within a single interface.

Separate instances needed for true multi-tenancy

SPF flattening

Helps overcome the 10-lookup limit for SPF records.

Offered via Hosted SPF

Hosted DMARC

Managed DMARC policy hosting and record generation.

BIMI

Support for Brand Indicators for Message Identification.

MTA-STS/TLS-RPT

Support for Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security and TLS Reporting.

Blocklists and reputation

Monitors domain reputation on various blocklists (blacklists) and provides insights.

Extensive threat intelligence

Relies on external monitoring

AI copilot

Assisted analysis and recommendations using artificial intelligence.

DNS monitoring

Continuous monitoring of DNS records for changes or malicious lookalikes.

Comprehensive domain discovery

Self hostable

Ability to host the software on your own infrastructure.

Free trial/free tier

Availability of a free version or trial period.

Contact for demo

Free and open-source

Drawbacks and what to watch out for

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense, while powerful, can be seen as overkill for smaller organizations, with some users reporting legitimate emails being excessively filtered and a complex UI. Open-DMARC-Analyzer, on the other hand, requires significant technical expertise for setup and maintenance, and it lacks the advanced features and dedicated support of commercial platforms, making it less suitable for those without in-house IT resources.

We have pulled the average ratings from G2 for each product, and also included the most recent negative reviews for each product in full. Positive reviews tend to have less detail and have a higher chance of being fraudulent, so negative reviews are a better signal for your decision.

4.3 / 5(12)

0 / 5(0)

Overkill

2.0 / 5

What do you like best about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? Great filters for junk and spam. Easy widgets in email notifications to release legit email that is not spam What do you dislike about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? Too much filtering. At times, overkill. Filters out legitimate emails. What problems is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense solving and how is that benefiting you? Protect network from illicit email spoofing. Employees that are non tech savvy that click on fishing emails.

Verified User in Food & Beverages

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

No G2 reviews

G2 is the most popular review platform for DMARC products, so this is a strong signal that this product is not popular.

Not sure if it's worth the hassle

2.5 / 5

What do you like best about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? I do like that it auto scans my emails and sorts out the scam/fraudulent ones. What do you dislike about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? I greatly dislike having to wait for the flagged emails, that are actually not fraudulent, but something that I am looking for. It does not send me the alert until the next day, and then once its been released and approved, it ends up taking another 10 minutes or so (Max) to get to me. What problems is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense solving and how is that benefiting you? I am getting significantly fewer fraudulent/scam emails

Verified User in Construction

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

Email Protection by Proofpoint Fraud Defence

4.0 / 5

What do you like best about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? This product provides email protection for both Inbound and outbound emails from all the domains which help in securing the mailboxes. This adds the advantage of the analytics features alike continuously shows the volume of mails as phishing /secures messages. What do you dislike about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? Like other proofpoint products this also has implementing and configuring problems as they are not easy to configure in the organization environment. Recommendations to others considering Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense: This product offers you great security over emails and customers can leverage the support and different product portfolio they offer. What problems is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense solving and how is that benefiting you? We are securing our emails from phising mails /messages for all the domains and for both inbound outbound messages.

Anjali V.

Cyber Security Analyst Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

Reliable tool for spam emails!

4.0 / 5

What do you like best about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? It's a great reliable tool and keep your inbox more secure and spam free. As a security measure this is great tool which prevents from any fraudulent emails and send alerts as necessary. I am currently using at my company and find all the spam emails being avoided. We usually receives too many on our generic email alias and this help in securing. What do you dislike about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? It's a great tool, though I find the use of it a very little. Only being capable of avoiding spam emails. Also the dashboard is not much interactive Recommendations to others considering Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense: It was always better to have precaution than being penalized by unwanted threat. It's always good to be more secure and spam free and take preventive steps towards running your business securely. What problems is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense solving and how is that benefiting you? We consider our emails to be safe and spam free. And probably easy to set up

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

We use it as our Email Proxy.

4.5 / 5

What do you like best about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? Ability to filter by most likely spam emails. We also have the ability to open up domains. What do you dislike about Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense? The UI can be a bit more intuitive if it was up to me. Recommendations to others considering Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense: I would recommend for the ease of use and security features offered. What problems is Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense solving and how is that benefiting you? Fraud emails and Spam emails for our Enterprise account.

Verified User in Computer & Network Security

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

Pricing

Proofpoint Email Fraud Defense uses a contact-for-pricing model, indicative of an enterprise solution, while Open-DMARC-Analyzer is open-source and free, though it incurs self-hosting costs.

Small

Up to 10k emails / month

Contact for pricing

Self-hosting costs only

Medium

Up to 100k emails / month

Contact for pricing

Self-hosting costs only

Large

Up to 1 million emails / month

Contact for pricing

Self-hosting costs only