Editor Sebastiaan Smits ·
Published November 5, 2026 · Updated November 5, 2026
Buyers look past Proofpoint when they want a printed price, a lighter product than a large security suite, or an owner other than private equity. Most compare Mimecast, Cisco Secure Email and Barracuda first, then API-only options such as Abnormal, or European gateways such as Libraesva, Retarus and NoSpamProxy.
Short answer: The closest replacements for Proofpoint in our email security software ranking are Mimecast, Cisco Secure Email and Barracuda. Choose Mimecast if you want a like-for-like enterprise gateway or API product, bought on a quote. All 11 sit in Best Email Security Software in 2026; what follows contrasts them with Proofpoint only and says when Proofpoint should be kept.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. The first three alternatives go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure · editorial process.
The Core Email Protection page we fetched on 5 November 2026 closes with a demo request and shows no amount. Cost per mailbox, term length and add-ons are settled with sales. A budget owner cannot compare Proofpoint with a printed price without starting a sales process.
Proofpoint's navigation lists email fraud defense, awareness training, enterprise DLP, insider threat management, data security posture management and AI security next to email protection. A team that only wants inbound filtering on Microsoft 365 reads through a much larger portfolio to find the part it needs.
Thoma Bravo acquired Proofpoint in 2021, according to the company page. On 8 December 2025 Proofpoint completed its acquisition of Hornetsecurity. Buyers who treated Hornetsecurity as the independent European choice now find the same owner behind both products.
These 11 are sorted by suitability as a Proofpoint replacement, and the final column gives their position in our 12-product list.
| # | Alternative | Headquarters | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mimecast | United Kingdom | you want a like-for-like enterprise gateway or API product, bought on a quote | #12 |
| 2 |  Cisco Secure Email | United States | you want a per-user subscription with multi-year terms and Cisco support included | #1 |
| 3 |  Barracuda | United States | you want to test protection on live mailboxes before moving the MX record | #4 |
| 4 |  Abnormal AI | United States | your main fear is payload-free fraud and you do not want a gateway | #11 |
| 5 |  Libraesva (LibraCyber) | Italy | you want a quote by mailbox count and the choice of running it on premise | #2 |
| 6 |  Retarus | Germany | you want European processing and a modular gateway with add-ons bought later | #6 |
| 7 |  NoSpamProxy | Germany | you need a gateway you can host yourself, with built-in mail encryption | #3 |
| 8 |  IKARUS | Austria | you want an Austrian provider with in-house support and a sandbox as an add-on | #9 |
| 9 |  SpamTitan (TitanHQ) | Ireland | you are a service provider or small team and want a plain anti-spam filter | #8 |
| 10 |  Mailinblack | France | you want filtering bundled with awareness training from a French vendor | #7 |
| 11 |  Hornetsecurity | Germany | you accept the same owner but want a smaller Microsoft 365 plan structure | #5 |
The closest peer in scope. Mimecast sells email security by quote only ('Get a Quote'), with either MX-based or API-based deployment. Continuity, DMARC, awareness training and archiving are bundled in one platform. The company page gives London as headquarters and 2003 as its founding year.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want a like-for-like enterprise gateway or API product, bought on a quote.
Priced per user, meaning one knowledge worker, on 1-, 3- or 5-year terms, with monthly to full-payment billing at no extra charge. Gateway and API deployment share one console. Cisco's 24/7 technical support is in every subscription, and a free trial covers Microsoft 365.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want a per-user subscription with multi-year terms and Cisco support included.
Read the full Cisco Secure Email review · Open vendor site →
Connects to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace through an API with no MX change, and the page says it runs in minutes. A free Email Threat Scan checks mailboxes already delivered. Archiving and backup sit in the same platform. No price is printed; there are Try Free and demo buttons.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want to test protection on live mailboxes before moving the MX record.
API-only: the vendor says it deploys in 60 seconds with no MX change and builds a behavioral baseline per employee and vendor. It is pitched as an addition to Microsoft or Google, not a gateway, so mail routing stays as is. Access begins with a demo; no price is shown.
Switch from Proofpoint if your main fear is payload-free fraud and you do not want a gateway.
From Lecco, Italy. The pricing page is a request form asking for product, mailbox count and deployment, either on premise or private cloud, and the site offers 30 days free. Libraesva joined Cyber Guru to form LibraCyber. Gateway filtering with archiving and DMARC add-ons.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want a quote by mailbox count and the choice of running it on premise.
Read the full Libraesva (LibraCyber) review · Open vendor site →
Sells a secure email gateway or an ICES connector for Microsoft 365, with Google Workspace listed as planned. Continuity, archiving, encryption and routing are modular add-ons. The page says all AI components run inside the EU. No price is published, and the buying path is a booked demo.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want European processing and a modular gateway with add-ons bought later.
Runs as NoSpamProxy Cloud or as NoSpamProxy Server on your own infrastructure, with the vendor claiming full feature parity. Encryption (S/MIME and PGP), large file sending and disclaimers are modules. Price is on request, and a free trial of either edition is offered.
Switch from Proofpoint if you need a gateway you can host yourself, with built-in mail encryption.
A multi-tenant cloud service from IKARUS in Vienna, with development, data processing and support in-house in Austria. Sandboxing (Trellix) and S/MIME certificates (Certum) are paid add-ons. The page directs buyers to sales for free trials and quotes, with no price shown.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want an Austrian provider with in-house support and a sandbox as an add-on.
TitanHQ's SpamTitan, a trading name of Copperfasten Technologies in Ireland, has greylisting, dual anti-virus and outbound scanning. Its pricing page lists standalone products and bundles in five currencies, but we read no amount. The site says TitanHQ is now part of CyberSentriq, aimed at MSPs.
Switch from Proofpoint if you are a service provider or small team and want a plain anti-spam filter.
Read the full SpamTitan (TitanHQ) review · Open vendor site →
A publisher in Marseille whose Protect filter integrates with Microsoft 365 by API and sits beside phishing simulations, a password manager and a risk score. The site cites 26,000+ organisations. Pricing is not shown; every call to action is a demo request.
Switch from Proofpoint if you want filtering bundled with awareness training from a French vendor.
Not independent any more: Proofpoint completed its purchase on 8 December 2025. Plans are Business, Enterprise, Enterprise Backup and Compliance and Awareness, with a free trial and no printed price. It is built for Microsoft 365 and for MSPs, with backup in 12 regional data centers.
Switch from Proofpoint if you accept the same owner but want a smaller Microsoft 365 plan structure.
Proofpoint is still the right answer for a large organization that wants email protection, DLP, awareness training and insider-risk tooling from one vendor. Its Core Email Protection page lists both API and gateway deployment, combined protection across inbound, internal and account threats, and a 48-hour Microsoft Graph rollout. Teams using several of those modules would rebuild them elsewhere.
Proofpoint offers both inline gateway and API deployment. If your MX records point at Proofpoint, an exit means repointing them to a new gateway or cutting them back to Microsoft 365 or Google. Abnormal, Barracuda and Mimecast describe API options that need no MX change, which lets you run beside the incumbent first.
Barracuda's free Email Threat Scan and Abnormal's proof of value both read delivered mail. Use one to count what your current filter missed, over a few weeks, before you give notice. Check the end date of your Proofpoint term first, because the pricing page we fetched does not say how it renews.
Proofpoint 365 Total Protection, for example, bundles archiving, DMARC management, backup and awareness training with the mail filter. Make a list of what is switched on, then ask each shortlisted vendor for the equivalent module. Archive exports and retention are the slow part, so request the export route in writing.
No. The Core Email Protection and Microsoft 365 pages we fetched on 5 November 2026 showed no amount and route buyers to a demo request. Ask for a written quote that lists mailbox count, term and each module separately before you compare.
Not always. The Core Email Protection page lists both API and gateway deployment, and cites an API rollout through Microsoft Graph in 48 hours. A gateway setup routes mail through Proofpoint, so leaving it means changing MX records again.
Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, bought the company in 2021 in a deal the company page values at $12.3 billion. Proofpoint is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It added Hornetsecurity to the group on 8 December 2025, according to its own press release.
No. Proofpoint completed its acquisition of Hornetsecurity on 8 December 2025, and Hornetsecurity's site now describes the firm as Hornetsecurity by Proofpoint. It still sells its own plans, so list it only if the owner is not your reason for leaving.
NoSpamProxy offers a Server edition on your own infrastructure, and Libraesva lists on-premise and private-cloud deployment on its pricing form. IKARUS and Retarus describe cloud services with processing in Austria and in the EU, rather than customer-hosted installs.
Libraesva (30 days), Cisco (Microsoft 365 trial), NoSpamProxy, Barracuda (Try Free) and Hornetsecurity all show one. IKARUS arranges trials through sales. Abnormal and Mimecast start with a demo or quote.
The facts below on Proofpoint and the other products were copied from official vendor pages visited on November 5, 2026, a date after which any of them may have moved.
Sebastiaan Smits, Founder, wrote, edited and fact-checked this page.
Founder of The Interregnum and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page here; research and drafting are AI-assisted. Last reviewed November 5, 2026.
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