# Security awareness training for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "security awareness training platform" and as "phishing simulation and training tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/security/security-awareness-training/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/security/security-awareness-training/smb/index.md

**Standing:** KnowBe4 leads with 20% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [KnowBe4](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/knowbe4/index.md) | 20% | 45% | 60 |
| 2 | [Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/huntress-managed-security-awareness-training/index.md) | 16% | 0% | 39 |
| 3 | [Hook Security](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hook-security/index.md) | 16% | 0% | 31 |
| 4 | [Wizer](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wizer/index.md) | 10% | 0% | 23 |
| 5 | [EasyLlama](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/easyllama/index.md) | 6% | 0% | 15 |
| 6 | [CanIPhish](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/caniphish/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 18 |
| 7 | [Hoxhunt](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hoxhunt/index.md) | 4% | 21% | 19 |
| 10 | [usecure](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/usecure/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 12 |
| 11 | [Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Attack Simulation Training](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-defender-for-office-365-attack-simulation-training/index.md) | 2% | 23% | 13 |
| 18 | [SoSafe](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sosafe/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 19 | [Infosec IQ](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/infosec-iq/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 67 | [Proofpoint ZenGuide](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/proofpoint-zenguide/index.md) | 0% | 52% | 31 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 67 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Hook Security; alternatives Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Wizer, usecure
- GPT-5.4 mini: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training; alternatives Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, MetaCompliance
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Wizer; alternatives Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, NINJIO, usecure
- Perplexity Sonar: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training; alternatives CanIPhish, Hook Security, KnowBe4, Wizer
- Grok 4.20: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4; alternatives Hook Security, Wizer
- Mistral Small: Hoxhunt, Phished; alternatives SoSafe
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Hook Security; alternatives KnowBe4, usecure
- Llama 4 Maverick: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training; alternatives Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SoSafe
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: KnowBe4; alternatives Cisco Secure, Proofpoint ZenGuide, SecurityMetrics
- Kimi K2: KnowBe4; alternatives Defendify, Hook Security, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, usecure
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: EasyLlama; alternatives Hoxhunt, KnowBe4
- MiniMax M2.5: Hoxhunt, KnowBe4; alternatives Guardey, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, Proofpoint ZenGuide
- GPT-6 Luna: Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training; alternatives Attack Simulation Training, KnowBe4 Foundation
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Hook Security; alternatives EasyLlama, Hacker Rangers Free Edition, Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, KnowBe4

## Sources the answers cite

76 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- g2.com: 51 answers, 127 citations
- adaptivesecurity.com: 49 answers, 131 citations
- learn.g2.com: 37 answers, 37 citations
- knowbe4.com: 36 answers, 51 citations
- hooksecurity.co: 35 answers, 58 citations
- easyllama.com: 33 answers, 42 citations
- expertinsights.com: 33 answers, 39 citations
- huntress.com: 24 answers, 35 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://learn.g2.com/best-security-awareness-training-software (37 answers)
- https://easyllama.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training-providers (33 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/security-awareness-training (31 answers)
- https://hooksecurity.co/blog/best-security-awareness-training-small-business (28 answers)
- https://adaptivesecurity.com/blog/best-security-awareness-training-small-businesses (24 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/security-awareness-training/the-top-security-awareness-training-platforms-for-businesses (21 answers)
- https://adaptivesecurity.com/blog/security-awareness-training-small-business (20 answers)
- https://hookphish.com/articles/best-security-awareness-training-for-small-businesses (18 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/security-awareness-training/small-business (17 answers)
- https://spotsaas.com/category/security-awareness-training-software (17 answers)

## Warned against

- KnowBe4: 27 of 60 labels negative. "Red flags come up in reviews: outdated UX, long training modules, aggressive upselling, and a heavy focus on compliance rather than actual behavior change" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- Proofpoint ZenGuide: 16 of 31 labels negative. "High price and complexity for small teams... "Users find the high pricing for Proofpoint ZenGuide, especially as an MSP, to be a significant drawback."" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Hoxhunt: 4 of 19 labels negative. "Repetitive content causing "training fatigue"" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)
- SANS Security Awareness: 3 of 5 labels negative. "Has a high learning curve for non-technical users and is an expensive option, particularly for smaller organizations" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Hook Security (34%) to KnowBe4 (23%). Margin 9 points, within noise.

- Hook Security: 34% to 14%, −20. Cleared the floor by 9 points · rank 1 → 3 of 60.
- Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training: 2% to 14%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 6 → 2 of 60.
- Wizer: 20% to 9%, −11. Inside the floor by 0 points · rank 3 → 4 of 60.
- KnowBe4: 28% to 23%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 → 1 of 60.
- EasyLlama: 2% to 7%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 8 → 5 of 60.
- Hoxhunt: 2% to 5%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 7 → 6 of 60.
- CanIPhish: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 9 of 60.
- usecure: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 10 of 60.
- SoSafe: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 17 of 60.
- Proofpoint ZenGuide: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 47 → 60 of 60.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.