Hoxhunt vs Guardey — a detailed comparison

If you need a security awareness training platform, Hoxhunt and Guardey are among the first solutions that come to mind. Both platforms serve the same general purpose, so identifying the differences could be challenging at first.

In this article, you’ll see the two platforms go head-to-head and learn what sets them apart. We’ll go over the features, pricing, and overall user experience to help you find the solution that fits your organization best.

Hoxhunt vs Guardey — key similarities and differences

Hoxhunt and Guardey look quite similar at first glance, but you can see some notable difference when you look long enough. We’ve compared the two according to four factors:

• Features
• Gamification
• (End-) user experience
• Pricing

💡 Main features

Hoxhunt and Guardey have a lot of similarities when it comes to features. They both offer a security awareness training platform that uses gamification to keep users engaged. Both training platforms support multiple languages and use short training sessions (often referred to as nano learning). Besides that, both Guardey and Hoxhunt offer the ability to send phishing simulations to users, to test the effectiveness of the training efforts.

Hoxhunt offers a ‘report phishing’ functionality, that enables users to report an email that looks like phishing from within their email client. Guardey plans to launch this feature in Q1 2025.

Guardey offers a tailor-made spear phishing service. Here, a cybersecurity specialist is deployed to set up a social engineering campaign that is tailor-made for your organization. This always proves to be a much better test of your team’s phishing awareness than a regular phishing simulator (no matter how much automated personalization is added).

🕹️Gamification

Hoxhunt and Guardey both use gamification to keep users engaged during security awareness training. But how are they alike and more importantly, how do they differ?

Both platforms come with a leaderboard that shows users how they’re performing compared to their colleagues. If you do well during the training sessions, you score points that help you rise up the ranks. If you show up during consecutive weeks, you get extra points for streaks. Both Hoxhunt and Guardey also reward users with achievements.

Guardey adds another layer of gamification with a compelling storyline. At the start, each user starts a fictional organization that they need to keep safe from security threats. The better they do, the more points they score and the better their reputation gets. If they fail, their organization’s reputation tanks, which directly shows them the consequences of their actions.

Hoxhunt’s training sessions often begin with short introduction videos, approximately one minute long. While some videos have decent production value, others utilize AI-generated presenters, which may not look the greatest. The questions during the training sessions are a bit monotonous, as they are exclusively multiple-choice without variation. Guardey continuously switches the style of asking questions, keeping the learning experience fresh, without any long-winded videos.

👥 (End-)user experience

If you’re going to regularly use a platform, a smooth user-experience is key. This goes for both the end-user as the admin. Below, we’ll take a look at both the buyer- and user-experience of Hoxhunt and Guardey.

The buyer experience

When trying to learn about Hoxhunt, you have to plan a demo with the sales team. There is no way to thoroughly try out the product before you buy, which can be tricky when purchasing new software. Guardey offers a 14-day free trial, allowing you and your team to test the training content and all other features.

User-experience

Both Hoxhunt and Guardey end-users rave about how easy-to-use the platforms are. Here are some reviews that confirm this.

Users about Hoxhunt

“Easy to navigate and eye catching UI. Simple integration with Outlook and a though-provoking learning journey. I also like the score/progression element.” – Source

“The idea of emails that look real is great. I think it helps people to realize how simple it is to attract someone to click on a link or to open an attachment. It is easy to navigate when in dashboard, the scoring among others within company is interesting. Interactivity on the dashboard is great and invites for more completions. The emails, however, are very easy and can be spotted on the first sight that it belongs to a Hoxhunt. When subscribed for the spicy mode, those emails are not very sophisticated either.” – Source

Users about Guardey

“I’ve noticed that many users are truly fanatic about Guardey, which is a big step up from our previous security awareness solution.” – Source

“The uptick in participation has been fantastic. Most users are regularly performing the training. I think this is because Guardey doesn’t take a lot of time. And most of all, it’s fun. Employees have even set up their own little competitions internally. So we have the company-wide leaderboard, but the teams themselves are now even having their little competitions in Microsoft Teams group chats. Guardey has brought out the competitive nature in them.” – Source

Admin experience

In Hoxhunt, administrators are tasked with assembling the training programs themselves, selecting appropriate modules, deciding when they are sent, and determining the recipients. The admin panel appears clean and easy to navigate, but this process requires considerable time from an admin. Not every admin, especially within SMB and some mid-market organizations, has this type of time, as they have to juggle many other responsibilities. Guardey, on the other hand, can be used as a complete plug and play solution, which complete long-term training programs.

💰 Pricing

Hoxhunt likes to keep their cards close to the chest. Just as their platform doesn’t come with a free trial, their pricing is also not visible on the website. However, from many Hoxhunt customers we’ve spoken to, Hoxhunt is viewed as one of the more expensive security awareness training solutions on the market. This makes sense, as Hoxhunt is primarily built for enterprise organizations.

On the other hand, Guardey quotes within 24 hours, with no minimum team size and no add-ons. Simply navigate to guardey.com/pricing to learn how much you will be paying per seat. The page also shows a complete feature overview, including features that are currently in the works.

After research, we did find out what Hoxhunt charges its customers. Hoxhunt charges $11,000 for 100 users with a 2-year contract, which comes down to €4.85 per user, per month.. Guardey, on the other hand, has no minimum team size and no add-ons, and you can try the full platform for 14 days before you speak to anyone. For SMBs and mid-market organizations, this price difference can be a major deciding factor.

The verdict: which platform should you use?

When we sum up everything discussed so far, it’s too complex to simply pick a winner. The only right answer to the above question is simply: it depends.

Hoxhunt is clearly focused on enterprise organizations that have a big budget. For that, you get a great platform that has a strong focus on phishing simulations and following that up with short training sessions.

Guardey, on the other hand, offers a solution that’s more affordable for small to mid-sized organizations. The focus of Guardey lies mostly on the gamification aspect of the training, which is why they’re often referred to as the Duolingo of security awareness.