3 April 2023 • Cyber security
KnowBe4’s pricing for its security awareness training solution can be a little complex.
No one would argue that KnowBe4 is a robust tool that offers tons of value. But there are certain limitations and complexities to it that made you actually google ‘KnowBe4 pricing’ or something along those lines.
So what are the main issues with KnowBe4’s pricing?
- The pricing plans are only for US and “may be different in other countries”
- You need at least 25 users to get started
- There are four add-ons (that you may or may not need) that each cost extra money
- Many KnowBe4 customers call the solution “expensive”
- The only way to truly find out what you’ll have to pay is by talking to a sales person
At the same time, there are similar solutions that don’t have these types of issues. For instance, Guardey — a security awareness training solution built on gamification — offers transparent pricing, requires no minimum number of users, and doesn’t overcomplicate matters with pricey add-ons.
In this article, we’ll tell you all you need to know about KnowBe4’s pricing plans.
Understanding your security awareness training tool’s pricing shouldn’t be a turmoil. Guardey has a straightforward and transparent pricing system based on the number of users. Just sign up for a free 14-day trial to test our solution in full scale.
KnowBe4 features
KnowBe4’s security awareness solution offers a long list of features. This list is so long, it could be overwhelming. So let’s look at the most important ones:
- Phishing security tests
- Games
- Posters
- Video modules
- Industry benchmarking for phishing scores
If you’re OK with paying for extra add-ons, you can also add:
- SecurityCoach (delivers real time coaching based on risky user behaviour)
- Compliance Plus (training specifically made to meet compliance requirements)
- PhishER (anti phishing protection)
- PhishER Plus (better anti phishing protection)
But let’s stick to the basics. What KnowBe4 offers is a wide variety of training options, such as games, posters, and video modules to make your employees more aware of modern cyber threats. This should decrease the risk of a data leak.
What KnowBe4’s customers say about its pricing
With hundreds of reviews about a big brand such as KnowBe4, there is always bound to be a negative one or two in them. However, we did find a common thread among many of the reviews.
A complaint that we see a lot is that you need at least 25 users to start using KnowBe4’s security awareness training solution. This is obviously a big bottle neck for smaller companies who don’t want to pay for seats that won’t be filled.
Another complaint is that it’s simply too expensive. This depends on which exact plan you choose, but obviously the word ‘expensive’ is a bit subjective either way. What’s expensive for a small company may not be as expensive for an enterprise. However, the review below also adds that KnowBe4 doesn’t release many trainings, which could also make the overall experience feel more expensive for users.
KnowBe4 prices
Now it’s time to get into the nitty and gritty of KnowBe4’s pricing system. But first, let’s have a look at this part of the website.
The first thing you need to know, is that KnowBe4 comes with three training levels. The higher level you pick, the more training modules, posters, and games you get.
With that in mind, we have to move on to their four pricing plans: silver, gold, platinum and diamond. If you only need training level one, you can choose silver. For level two you can use gold and platinum. Training level three only comes with the diamond plan.
Starting at 25 users minimum, you can now start calculating how much you will be paying per user, per month. Notice that when you start adding more users, you pay less per user.
The silver plan seems very affordable, but also is limited in terms of training materials. For instance, it doesn’t come with a single game, which makes the training passive for the user. To get real value for your money and an interactive experience that forces users to actively partake, the only real option is the diamond plan.
But that’s not all yet…
As stated in the image above, the pricing plan only counts for North America and may be different for other countries. Also, if you start a 3-year contract, you may get an ‘attractive’ discount, but it doesn’t say how much.
Overall, this means it’s very hard to draw any form of conclusions from KnowBe4’s pricing page. Your best bet is to simply request a demo and get an offer from the sales team. Especially if you’re based in Europe or anywhere else outside of the US or Canada, there’s no real way to find out what you’ll have to pay.
Bottom line
No matter how complicated and unpredictable its pricing can be, KnowBe4 can significantly help your business to become more cyber aware. But so can similar solutions like Guardey.
The major difference is that with Guardey, you can be sure you’ll pay exactly what’s stated on their pricing page. Before rushing into using KnowBe4, just sign up for a free Guardey trial and give it a shot.
