Material
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Material is a credible, a16z-backed email and phishing security vendor best suited to mid-market or larger teams on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
New check
Comparison
Material vs Proofpoint
Material and Proofpoint both land on Depends.
Proofpoint
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a large or regulated organization with dedicated security admins and enterprise budget . the depth and threat intel justify it.
| Compare | Material | Proofpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Teams securing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email | Large enterprises with security teams |
| Who it's not for | Small teams fine with built-in mail filtering | Small teams that just need spam filtering |
| Privacy | Runs a public bug bounty program; no known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.⁵ | Mature vendor with a public advisory program; one NVD-listed CVE (2024) plus a Sept 2025 third-party Salesforce breach.14 |
| Support quality | No support evidence found | Recurring Reddit complaints; smaller customers deprioritized |
| Public sentiment | G2 reviewers cite an intuitive interface, and a r/sysadmin thread discusses using Material for mail and phishing protection.¹ | Reviews are mixed: enterprises credit its detection depth while MSPs and sysadmins complain about price, complexity, and support.10 |
| Biggest gotcha | Demo-gated sales; expect negotiated enterprise quotes, not self-serve pricing⁶ | Sept 2025 Salesloft Drift breach exposed Proofpoint Salesforce instances15 |
Pick Material when
- Teams securing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 email
- Orgs worried about phishing and account takeover
- Mid-market and enterprise security teams
When Material is not a fit
- Small teams fine with built-in mail filtering
- Buyers wanting transparent, published pricing
- Anyone needing endpoint or network security from one vendor
- Teams with no IT or security staff to run a tool
Pick Proofpoint when
- Large enterprises with security teams
- Regulated industries (finance, education)
- Microsoft 365 shops needing advanced email defense
- Compliance and insider-risk monitoring
When Proofpoint is not a fit
- Small teams that just need spam filtering
- Startups without dedicated security admins
- Buyers wanting transparent upfront pricing
- Anyone on a tight security budget
Sources
review
review
- Careers at Material Security (a16z)jobs.a16z.comnews
- Material Security . Company Profile, CB Insightscbinsights.comnews
- Material Security . Bug Bounty Programbugbase.aisecurity
- Product security pagematerial.securityofficial
- The Composio Breach . Material Security researchmaterial.securityofficial
- Latest Material Security news . BleepingComputerbleepingcomputer.comnews
news
review
- CVE-2024-3676 Detail . NVDnvd.nist.govsecurity
- Cloudflare, Proofpoint say hackers gained access to Salesforce instancescybersecuritydive.comnews
- Proofpoint Supervision . Compliance Monitoringproofpoint.comofficial