IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Security operations › Awareness training › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Security awareness training for enterprise buyers

Asked as “security awareness training platform”, and as “phishing simulation and training tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
KnowBe4
Clear leader
65% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessHook Security34%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketKnowBe442%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseKnowBe465%Clear leaderThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01KnowBe465%18%60endorsed leader
02Hoxhunt28%4%45accepted challenger
03Infosec IQ2%17%12accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness0%36%11criticized challenger
06MetaCompliance0%27%15criticized challenger
07Mimecast Engage0%20%10accepted challenger
04Proofpoint ZenGuide0%13%55accepted challenger
05SoSafe0%8%25accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
KnowBe4 vs WizerKnowBe4 vs HoxhuntWizer vs Hoxhunt

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative80%
Key
01KnowBe465%
02Hoxhunt28%
03Infosec IQ2%
04Proofpoint ZenGuide0%
05SoSafe0%
06MetaCompliance0%
07Mimecast Engage0%
08Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness0%

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
KnowBe4
18%
11 of 60 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“The platforms to be most cautious about are the ones that: Have a huge gap between admin satisfaction and user satisfaction (like KnowBe4).” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Proofpoint ZenGuide
13%
7 of 55 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“If you evaluate legacy enterprise leaders (like **KnowBe4** or **Proofpoint**)... use these negotiating levers” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness
36%
4 of 11 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Why avoid**: Limited visibility into metrics, heavy reliance on manual setup or engineering support for changes” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
MetaCompliance
27%
4 of 15 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“should avoid or proceed with extreme caution when considering KnowBe4 and MetaCompliance due to widespread user dissatisfaction” Mistral Small, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 907 links across 149 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

hoxhunt.com
vendor site · Hoxhunt44 answers · 98 citations · 11 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights41 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
adaptivesecurity.com
vendor site · Adaptive Security32 answers · 99 citations · 10 models
brside.com
32 answers · 57 citations · 10 models
knowbe4.com
vendor site · KnowBe423 answers · 45 citations · 7 models
ransomleak.com
vendor site · RansomLeak23 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
learn.g2.com
23 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
gartner.com
20 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
usecure.io
vendor site · usecure20 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
g2.com
19 answers · 49 citations · 8 models
easyllama.com
vendor site · EasyLlama13 answers · 13 citations · 5 models
symbolsecurity.com
12 answers · 13 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

hoxhunt.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training
34 answers · 11 models
expertinsights.com/security-awareness-training/top-security-awareness-conte…
24 answers · 9 models
expertinsights.com/security-awareness-training/the-top-security-awareness-t…
23 answers · 11 models
learn.g2.com/best-security-awareness-training-software
23 answers · 8 models
brside.com/blog/best-cybersecurity-awareness-training-platforms
20 answers · 9 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/security-awareness-computer-based-training
17 answers · 8 models
ransomleak.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training-2026
17 answers · 9 models
hoxhunt.com/blog/knowbe4-competitors
15 answers · 6 models
hoxhunt.com/blog/knowbe4-vs-proofpoint
14 answers · 5 models
knowbe4.com/compare/leading-security-awareness-training
14 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best security awareness training platform for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which phishing simulation and training tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade security awareness training platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best security awareness training platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a security awareness training platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which security awareness training platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Hoxhunt
Two alternativesKnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4Changed
One alternativeProofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
One alternativeProofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
One alternativeHoxhunt
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniKnowBe4
Three alternativesHoxhunt, Mimecast Engage, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4Held
Two alternativesMicrosoft Attack Simulation Training, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
Four alternativesHoxhunt, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
against: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Mimecast EngageKnowBe4against: Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafeno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashHoxhunt
Three alternativesKnowBe4, NINJIO, Proofpoint ZenGuide
HoxhuntHeld
Three alternativesKnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
Hoxhunt, KnowBe4
Five alternativesMimecast Engage, NINJIO, OutThink, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
Microsoft Attack Simulation Training
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, CybeReady, Hook Security, Hoxhunt, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuideHoxhunt, KnowBe4
Two alternativesNINJIO, Proofpoint ZenGuide
against: GoPhish, Guardey, Wizer
Perplexity SonarHoxhunt, KnowBe4
Two alternativesProofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
KnowBe4Changed
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
Six alternativesHoxhunt, Infosec IQ, MetaCompliance, Mimecast Engage, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
KnowBe4
Two alternativesProofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
against: Hoxhuntno first choiceagainst: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, CyberSentriq, ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Infosec IQ, NINJIO, PhishingBox
Grok 4.1 FastKnowBe4
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4Held
One alternativeProofpoint ZenGuide
against: Hoxhunt, Infosec IQ, Mimecast EngageKnowBe4
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
against: Cofense, TerranovaKnowBe4
Four alternativesAdaptive Security, Hoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide, usecure
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Mistral SmallKnowBe4
Three alternativesCofense PhishMe, Hoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Hoxhunt, KnowBe4ChangedKnowBe4
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, Hoxhunt, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
KnowBe4no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, MetaCompliance
DeepSeek V4 FlashKnowBe4
Three alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
HoxhuntChanged
One alternativeProofpoint ZenGuide
against: KnowBe4Hoxhunt, KnowBe4
Two alternativesProofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
Hoxhunt
Two alternativesKnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
against: DefendWiseno first choiceagainst: Adaptive Security, Cyber Aware, KnowBe4against: ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training, KnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeld
One alternativeKnowBe4
no first choiceKnowBe4no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashKnowBe4
Two alternativesProofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
KnowBe4Held
Three alternativesCofense, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
KnowBe4
Three alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
KnowBe4
Two alternativesCofense, Proofpoint ZenGuide
no first choicenothing named
Kimi K2KnowBe4
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Hoxhunt, KnowBe4Changed
Two alternativesCofense PhishMe, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
Seven alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, Cofense PhishMe, Hoxhunt, Infosec IQ, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
KnowBe4
Three alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide, Riot
no first choiceagainst: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
GLM 4.7 FlashXHoxhunt
Four alternativesKnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
HoxhuntHeld
Four alternativesCofense PhishMe, FortiSAT, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Hoxhunt
Six alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, Cofense PhishMe, KnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
Infosec IQagainst: IRONSCALES, Jericho, KnowBe4no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, MetaCompliance, SoSafe
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceKnowBe4Changed
Three alternativesCofense, Hoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Hoxhunt
Three alternativesKnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide
DefendWise
One alternativePhishNext
against: KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuideKnowBe4
Three alternativesHook Security, Proofpoint ZenGuide, Symbol
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, KnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:06yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:44yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:24yes1725 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:53yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:36yes3318 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:30yes1712 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:47yes2822 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:02yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:31no039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:57yes1021 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:12yes2555 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:43yes517 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:01yes1911 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:55yes54 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:52yes1119 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:02yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:20yes3717 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:59yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:37yes2538 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:15yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:25no035 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:54yes1929 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:44yes1835 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:25yes526 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:04yes025 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:07yes517 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:40yes1229 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:02yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:05yes5223 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:34yes99 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:13yes1821 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:41yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:31yes532 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:24yes1970 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:59yes9176 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:06yes516 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:26yes1810 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:53yes58 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:21yes1426 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:35yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:16yes3418 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:10yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:02yes2650 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:39yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:01yes537 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:30yes1546 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:33yes1352 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:10yes523 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:59no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:11no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:56yes1027 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:30yes2014 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:18yes1513 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:03no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:55yes2729 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:21yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:27no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:37yes1335 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:18yes1489 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:03yes2039 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:05yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:33yes57 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:43yes1524 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:10yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:00yes2717 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:45yes1410 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:41yes2649 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:46yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:06no040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:11yes2856 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:14yes2541 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:03yes1557 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Arctic Wolf read as Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness
Huntress read as Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Mimecast read as Mimecast Engage
Proofpoint read as Proofpoint ZenGuide
Proofpoint (Bundled) read as Proofpoint ZenGuide
Proofpoint (ZenGuide) read as Proofpoint ZenGuide
Unresolved, counted raw
Arsen
Brightside
Cyber Aware
Gremlin Security
Jericho
OutThink
PhishNext
Symbol
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in security operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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