IT AI Index
Index › Security operations › Awareness training › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Security awareness training for small business buyers

Asked as “security awareness training platform”, and as “phishing simulation and training tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Hook Security
Contested
34% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

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%ContestedThis pageMid-marketKnowBe442%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseKnowBe465%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Hook Security34%0%38endorsed leader
02KnowBe428%51%57criticized challenger
03Wizer20%0%39accepted challenger
04CanIPhish4%0%25accepted challenger
05Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training2%0%39accepted challenger
06Hoxhunt2%14%21accepted challenger
07EasyLlama2%8%12accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Proofpoint ZenGuide0%53%15criticized challenger
08SoSafe0%10%10accepted 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
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Hook Security34%
02KnowBe428%
03Wizer20%
04CanIPhish4%
05Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training2%
06Hoxhunt2%
07EasyLlama2%
08SoSafe0%
09Proofpoint ZenGuide0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX 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
51%
29 of 57 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“**Why avoid/caution for SMBs:** Overkill for small teams—starts at $25-35/user/year but scales poorly with admin time.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Proofpoint ZenGuide
53%
8 of 15 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Enterprise-focused with high costs (custom, often $50+/user/year); reviewers say it's expensive and heavy for small teams.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
GoPhish
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“completely **free** but requires technical self-management (hosting, server setup). Only worth it if you have technical staff” DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Hoxhunt
14%
3 of 21 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“negotiates down to $2.90–$3.60—only if you commit to 500+ seats. That's out of reach for most small businesses.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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

68 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. 860 links across 165 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

adaptivesecurity.com
vendor site · Adaptive Security38 answers · 91 citations · 10 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights36 answers · 51 citations · 10 models
hooksecurity.co
vendor site · Hook Security36 answers · 48 citations · 10 models
hoxhunt.com
vendor site · Hoxhunt33 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
smallbizsecurityguide.com
30 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
learn.g2.com
29 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
knowbe4.com
vendor site · KnowBe423 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
easyllama.com
vendor site · EasyLlama23 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
g2.com
22 answers · 48 citations · 9 models
guardey.com
vendor site · Guardey17 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
usecure.io
vendor site · usecure15 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
cipherssecurity.com
13 answers · 15 citations · 7 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.

hooksecurity.co/blog/best-security-awareness-training-small-business
34 answers · 9 models
smallbizsecurityguide.com/best-security-awareness-training-platforms-2026
30 answers · 9 models
hoxhunt.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training
29 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-security-awareness-training-software
29 answers · 10 models
expertinsights.com/security-awareness-training/the-top-security-awareness-t…
25 answers · 9 models
easyllama.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training-providers
23 answers · 10 models
adaptivesecurity.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training-small-businesses
21 answers · 9 models
guardey.com/security-awareness-small-business
14 answers · 8 models
adaptivesecurity.com/blog/security-awareness-training-small-business
13 answers · 9 models
dataconomy.com/2026/06/10/which-security-awareness-training-solution-is-rig…
11 answers · 6 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 a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which phishing simulation and training tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top security awareness training platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best security awareness training platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a security awareness training platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which security awareness training platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5EasyLlama
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4Changed
Four alternativesDefendify, Hook Security, Hoxhunt, Symbol Security
Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Three alternativesCyberSentriq, Hoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
against: KnowBe4KnowBe4
Four alternativesBob's Business, CyberSentriq, EasyLlama, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4
GPT-5.4 miniKnowBe4
One alternativeMicrosoft Attack Simulation Training
KnowBe4Held
Three alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, Hoxhunt, usecure
Infosec IQ
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
KnowBe4
One alternativeHoxhunt
no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, MetaCompliance
Gemini 3.5 FlashHook Security
Three alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, NINJIO, Wizer
against: KnowBe4Hook SecurityHeld
Two alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
against: KnowBe4Hook Security, Wizer
Three alternativesCanIPhish, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, usecure
against: KnowBe4Wizer
Three alternativesCanIPhish, Hook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuideHook Security
Two alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
against: KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuideagainst: GoPhish, Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, Mimecast Engage, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SANS Security Awareness
Perplexity SonarKnowBe4
Four alternativesHook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, SoSafe, Wizer
KnowBe4Held
Two alternativesHook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: GoPhishAwareGO, SoSafe, Wizer
Five alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, CanIPhish, EasyLlama, Hook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: KnowBe4Hook Security, Wizer
One alternativeCanIPhish
against: KnowBe4no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, Mimecast Engage, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Grok 4.1 FastHook Security
Two alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4
KnowBe4Changed
Two alternativesHook Security, PhishingBox
against: Cofense PhishMe, GoPhishno first choiceagainst: EasyLlama, NINJIOCanIPhish, Wizer
One alternativeHook Security
against: KnowBe4Hoxhunt
Two alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4
against: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Mistral SmallHook Security
Three alternativesCanIPhish, EasyLlama, Wizer
ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training, KnowBe4Changed
Two alternativesHoxhunt, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Three alternativesAwareGO, EasyLlama, Wizer
Hook Security, Wizer
Two alternativesCanIPhish, usecure
no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, NINJIO
DeepSeek V4 FlashKnowBe4
Three alternativesHook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
KnowBe4Held
Two alternativesHook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: GoPhishHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
Three alternativesHoxhunt, KnowBe4, SoSafe
Wizer
Two alternativesCanIPhish, Hook Security
against: KnowBe4Hook Security
Two alternativesCanIPhish, Wizer
against: KnowBe4, Mimecast Engage, Proofpoint ZenGuideagainst: Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, MetaCompliance, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
Llama 4 MaverickHook Security
Two alternativesCanIPhish, Wizer
no first choiceChanged
One alternativeESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training
EasyLlama
Five alternativesAwareGO, Barracuda, ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
CanIPhish, Hook Security, Wizerno first choiceagainst: KnowBe4
Qwen 3.7 FlashHook Security
Two alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
against: KnowBe4KnowBe4, Tactical TrainingChanged
One alternativeSecurity by Proxy
Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Four alternativesArctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, EasyLlama, Hoxhunt, SoSafe
against: KnowBe4Microsoft Attack Simulation Training
Four alternativesHook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4, Wizer
Hook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Two alternativesKnowBe4, Wizer
against: Cofense PhishMe, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide
Kimi K2Hook Security
Four alternativesEasyLlama, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4, Wizer
KnowBe4Changed
Two alternativesCofense, Proofpoint ZenGuide
against: HoxhuntGuardey, Hook Security
Three alternativesHuntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Mimecast Engage, Wizer
against: KnowBe4Wizer
Three alternativesCanIPhish, Hook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
against: KnowBe4no first choiceagainst: Arctic Wolf Managed Security Awareness, KnowBe4
GLM 4.7 FlashXHook Security
Four alternativesGuardey, Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, Wizer
Microsoft Attack Simulation TrainingChanged
Two alternativesHookPhish, PhishDrills
against: GoPhish, KnowBe4KnowBe4
Four alternativesHoxhunt, Infosec IQ, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
Wizer
Four alternativesCanIPhish, GoPhish, Hook Security, Microsoft Attack Simulation Training
no first choiceagainst: Barracuda Security Awareness Training, CybeReady, KnowBe4, Nimblr
MiniMax M2.5Hook Security, Wizer
Three alternativesCanIPhish, EasyLlama, Infosec IQ
Hook Security, KnowBe4Changed
Three alternativesCanIPhish, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer
Hoxhunt, KnowBe4
Four alternativesDoozy, EasyLlama, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, SoSafe
Hook Security, Wizer
Three alternativesCanIPhish, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Microsoft Attack Simulation Training
against: KnowBe4no first choiceagainst: KnowBe4, MetaCompliance
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 11:17yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:57yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:34yes821 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:31yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:35yes3115 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:37yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:45yes1214 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:38yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:18yes1265 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:30yes1326 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:37yes832 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:55yes518 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:31yes169 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:12yes44 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:37yes817 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:00yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:06yes3721 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:32yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:44yes1916 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:48yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:04no037 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:25yes930 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:35yes28130 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:58yes1027 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:28yes1511 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:56yes410 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:14yes1528 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:04yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:50yes4615 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:57yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:35yes2823 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:15yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:39yes1141 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:15yes1528 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:02yes1982 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:50yes518 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:18yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:56yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:57yes2123 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:47yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:47yes3719 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:23yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:52yes1312 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:54yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:07yes523 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:46yes824 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:11yes23159 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:41yes521 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:38no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:50no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:35yes1323 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:37yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:20yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:17no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:32yes1018 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:36yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:37yes534 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:27yes1571 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:07yes1346 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:15yes525 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:43yes1710 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:17yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:20yes2323 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:59yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:31yes3818 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:24yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:21yes2534 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:49yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:04yes1942 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:07yes2329 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:41yes12111 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:20yes2449 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
ESET read as ESET Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Fortinet read as FortiSAT
Huntress read as Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Huntress Managed Security Awareness read as Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training
Mimecast read as Mimecast Engage
Proofpoint read as Proofpoint ZenGuide
Unresolved, counted raw
Bob's Business
ClearPhish
Fortinet’s complimentary training offerings
HookPhish
Microsoft Security Awareness
NIST/CISA Resources
Nimblr
PhishDrills
Security by Proxy
Symbol Security
Tactical Training
UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
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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