Every category where a model named Proofpoint Email Protection for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant
Email security	Security operations	10%	3 of 71	12%	49	accepted challenger

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Proofpoint Email Protection yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Proofpoint Email Protection across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	0	1	0	2	3
GPT-5.4 mini	0	3	0	0	3
Gemini 3.5 Flash	0	2	0	1	3
Perplexity Sonar	0	1	2	0	3
Grok 4.1 Fast	3	3	0	0	6
Mistral Small	2	0	3	0	5
DeepSeek V4 Flash	1	2	1	1	5
Llama 4 Maverick	0	1	1	0	2
Qwen 3.7 Flash	2	4	0	0	6
Kimi K2	0	1	3	2	6
GLM 4.7 FlashX	0	3	2	0	5
MiniMax M2.5	2	0	0	0	2

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct33 labels10

Paraphrase26 labels12

Comparative35 labels8not counted in share

Budget-constrained24 labels4

Scale-constrained18 labelsNone

Negative22 labels2not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative158 labels in all, every segment counted; 26 of the 36 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“I'd suggest starting with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 if you're on M365, or Proofpoint Core Email Protection if you need more advanced features” MiniMax M2.5 · Email security · direct prompt · first choice

“look toward platforms that specialize exclusively in email security ... such as Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Proofpoint, Mimecast, or Netskope.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Email security · negative prompt · first choice

“Proofpoint Essentials and Barracuda Email Protection are top recommendations due to their balance of advanced features, scalability, and value.” Mistral Small · Email security · direct prompt · first choice

“Proofpoint Email Protection - Enterprise leader with highest execution in Gartner; excels in regulated industries.” Grok 4.1 Fast · Email security · comparative prompt · first choice

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“Proofpoint is priced and configured for enterprise environments with significant operational complexity... it just may not be suitable for smaller organizations.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Email security · negative prompt · soft negative

“Traditional SEGs (like legacy Proofpoint or Mimecast setups) require rerouting your MX records, which is complex to manage and can disrupt mail flow.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Email security · paraphrase prompt · soft negative

“priced and configured for enterprise environments with significant operational complexity and generally positioned above SMB budgets” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Email security · direct prompt · soft negative

“More enterprise-oriented; may be overkill and over-budget for typical mid-market needs.” Kimi K2 · Email security · direct prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Proofpoint Email Protection, over the 155 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Proofpoint Email Protection was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

Microsoft Defender for Office 365132 of 15550Compare →

Mimecast Email Security121 of 1553Not in the top three

Abnormal AI97 of 15516Compare →

IRONSCALES64 of 15517Not in the top three

Barracuda Email Protection64 of 1555Not in the top three

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration54 of 1555Not in the top three

Cisco Secure Email32 of 1550Not in the top three

SpamTitan26 of 1554Not in the top three

Sublime Security22 of 1552Not in the top three

Sophos Email15 of 1550Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Proofpoint Email Protection. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 131 of the 155 answers that named Proofpoint Email Protection and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

gartner.com106

expertinsights.com58

learn.g2.com50

proofpoint.comYour site48

sublime.security44

kaseya.com43

ironscales.com40

cybervendorguide.com39

tech-insider.org39

simplyit.biz37

456 of the 504 domain citations in answers naming Proofpoint Email Protection came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

gartner.com/reviews/market/email-security101

learn.g2.com/best-cloud-email-security-platforms50

expertinsights.com/email-security/top-email-security-gateways43

kaseya.com/blog/best-email-security-solutions43

cybervendorguide.com/guides/email-security38

simplyit.biz/resources/email-security-platforms-small-business-202637

ironscales.com/blog/the-best-email-security-companies-rankings-and-reviews36

esecurityplanet.com/products/best-email-security-software33

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as Proofpoint Email Protection

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Proofpoint Email Protection; a claim can dispute any of them.

Proofpoint 34Proofpoint Essentials 10Proofpoint Core Email Protection 1legacy Proofpoint 1

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Proofpoint Email Protection's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Proofpoint Email Protection, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at proofpoint.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.