Hoxhunt vs. KnowBe4: Which Is Best for 2026?

Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 are prominent names in the security awareness training (SAT) space, and If you're evaluating SAT platforms, there's a good chance they're already on your shortlist. Both offer extensive simulation libraries, phishing tests, and training modules to improve employee behavior. On paper, the features look similar enough that many teams struggle to see the real differences that actually matter.

Most comparison articles stop at UI screenshots or the size of the content catalog. But as a CISO, security director, or GRC lead, you're not choosing a learning platform, but something that can reduce human risk in your organization.

That requires understanding how each vendor performs in real-world conditions like when an employee receives a WhatsApp vishing attempt, when a deepfake voicemail lands in a manager's inbox, or when generative AI mimics internal communication patterns.

This guide reaches beyond surface-level feature lists. You'll get a practical breakdown of how Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 differ in terms of organizational fit, culture, reporting needs, and readiness for AI-driven threats.

Hoxhunt vs. KnowBe4: the market context

Attackers aren't using templated, easily recognizable phishing emails anymore. They now have access to sophisticated generative AI, voice cloning, deepfakes, and hyper-personalized pretexts that look identical to real internal communication.

A global survey by Arctic Wolf revealed that 64% of IT and security leaders (trained professionals, not entry-level staff) clicked a phishing link in the past year, even though 80% believed they were resistant to such attacks.

Traditional "watch-and-quiz" SAT isn't enough anymore. Not because awareness is unimportant, but because behavior changes with practice, not with passive e-learning content. Organizations now need to introduce cybersecurity programs that equip their teams to recognize, resist, and report real-world attacks across channels.

A 2024 longitudinal analysis of 1,300+ employees across a global enterprise tracked performance across more than 13,000 phishing simulations and found that the introduction of continuous, adaptive simulations caused compromise rates to fall by 50% within six months.

Both Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 have evolved and now offer AI-assisted security awareness training, larger content libraries, and smarter personalization than they did a few years ago. But across the industry, the conversation is shifting again.

Enterprises in 2026 are prioritizing measurable risk reduction and asking questions, including:

• Can the platform show fewer successful phishing attempts over time?
• Can it identify high-risk users and help reduce their susceptibility?
• Does it realistically simulate modern attacks (AI-generated emails, deepfakes, vishing) to change real-world behavior?
• Does the reporting give CISOs evidence that human-layer risk is decreasing, not just that content engagement is increasing?

While Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 both incorporate AI, next-generation SAT platforms like Adaptive Security place their emphasis on behavioral data and simulation realism. They focus on preparing teams for real-world, AI-driven threats across channels, including email, SMS, voice, deepfake audio, and personalized attack scenarios.

And since these simulations generate behavioral data across touchpoints (who clicked, who reported, who escalated), security teams gain visibility into real-world susceptibility patterns, rather than just engagement metrics from training modules.

Real-world fit: matching SAT solutions to security maturity

Choosing between Hoxhunt, KnowBe4, and Adaptive Security also includes considering where your security program sits on the maturity curve. Different tools address different stages of the human-risk lifecycle, and understanding this helps prevent teams from over- or under-buying or from forcing a platform into the wrong environment.

For growing programs (maturity level 1–2):

These teams are establishing awareness, encouraging employee participation, and building a basic reporting culture.

Hoxhunt works well here because it quickly increases engagement. If your team struggles with participation in phishing tests or employees ignore security emails, Hoxhunt's adaptive phishing simulations and instant feedback loops help build the habit of reporting.

KnowBe4 also fits the early-stage, compliance-driven needs with its large libraries, standardized content, and broad rollouts. For organizations just starting SAT, its ready-made courses reduce the operational burden.

For risk-driven programs (maturity level 3–4):

Security teams at this level already have basic participation and reporting. The next step is to reduce risk by identifying high-risk users, understanding behavioral patterns, and preparing for complex attacks.

This is where traditional SAT begins to show limits. As programs mature, both Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 struggle to keep pace with AI-driven attacker behavior, making the limitations below more visible and costly.

• Both platforms still focus heavily on email phishing attacks, even though modern attackers increasingly use multi-channel deception (SMS, WhatsApp, Teams, voice, deepfakes).
• Simulations often use templates rather than personalized, context-rich scenarios that match internal workflows.
• Neither provides deep behavioral analytics, like role-based risk clusters or patterns of repeated failures across departments.
• AI-generated attacks evolve faster than most template libraries.

That's where new-generation SAT platforms like Adaptive Security help. Adaptive is built for programs that want to measure and reduce human-layer risk by preparing teams for AI-native attacks, not just phishing links.

Adaptive simulates:

• Deepfake voicemail attacks used in recent CFO fraud cases that caused multimillion-dollar losses
• Voice-clone vishing that exploits internal tones and communication styles
• Context-aware spear-phishing that mirrors internal processes (HR updates, finance approvals, vendor payments)
• Cross-channel deception mapping, teaching users to recognize patterns across email, SMS, chat, and voice, not just inboxes

Research and real-world cases back the need for this shift. Attackers are now exploiting context, tone, timing, and internal communication patterns, not just misspellings or generic phishing templates.

According to DeepStrike's 2025 fraud analysis, deepfake-enabled scams increased by more than 3,000% in 2023 compared to 2022. Keepnet Labs reported similar spikes in synthetic-voice attacks.

Adaptive's AI-enabled simulations mirror this reality. For mature programs, this matters because actual, practical readiness means preparing employees for deception wherever it appears, not just via email.

If your challenge is awareness, Hoxhunt and KnowBe4 solve it. But if your challenge is reducing risk in this AI era, only a platform built for AI-driven, cross-channel threats can keep pace.

Evaluating Hoxhunt: gamified engagement meets AI-personalization

Hoxhunt is one of the go-to KnowBe4 alternatives that takes a different approach from traditional awareness vendors. Instead of relying on long training modules or policy-heavy lessons, the SAT platform delivers frequent, adaptive phishing simulations directly to a user's inbox and relies on gamification to keep them motivated.

Every simulation that lands in an employee's inbox mirrors a realistic attacker technique, timed around work hours, written in the user's local language, and tailored to their role. When someone clicks or reports the email, the system immediately responds with short, contextual micro-training.

This "learn in the moment" loop helps teams drive higher engagement and behavioral change than static content delivery.

Strengths

• High engagement and user adoption: On platforms like G2, Hoxhunt consistently receives top scores (overall 4.8/5), with users describing it as "easy to use," and even "fun."
• Realistic, adaptive simulations: Rather than generic templates, phishing simulations are personalized by language, role, and department. Some scenarios extend beyond email, including multi-step flows that replicate actual attack vectors.
• Behavior-based metrics: Hoxhunt delivers indicators like reporting rate, dwell time (how quickly a user reports a suspicious email), detection of real threats, and improvement over time, not just whether someone "completed training."

Limitations

• Over-reliance on gamification: If users treat simulations as a game (rather than learning), they may click or report carelessly just to improve their score, undermining real-world vigilance.
• Repetition in simulation difficulty and variety: Several reviewers note that some phishing scenarios feel predictable or too easy over time, thereby reducing their training value for more experienced employees.
• Granularity and depth of feedback: Many reviewers suggest that the post-simulation explanations need to go further. For example, providing clearer threat context, links to real-world incidents, or a breakdown of specific red flags they missed.
• Limited dashboard usability and basic reporting: Admins find it challenging to navigate analytics, especially when trying to drill down into risk cohorts, compare departments, or customize insights.

Best for

Hoxhunt is suitable for organizations that want to move away from checkbox compliance and toward continuous behavioral conditioning. The platform works especially well for distributed global teams due to its multi-language simulation engine and for lean security teams that need automation.

Howhunt's entire security culture, including gamified training, email security, role-based simulations, adaptive difficulty, and micro-learning, focuses on improving real behaviors such as reporting speed, reporting accuracy, and declining click-through rates.

Evaluating KnowBe4: scale, content, and compliance

KnowBe4 is a long-standing SAT platform whose big strength is breadth. This includes an extensive content library, many integrations, and mature administrative tools that help large organizations roll out training at scale with minimal friction.

The platform's multi-format content library includes training modules, videos, quizzes, games, newsletters, and policy templates. This helps organizations serve learners with different learning styles (visual, quick-read, and interactive).

KnowBe4 also lets you send phishing tests across thousands of employees with:

• Prebuilt templates (e.g., HR updates, SaaS login requests, "urgent" messages)
• Reporting dashboards showing your "phish-prone percentage," repeat offenders, and high-risk groups
• Automated follow-up micro-training for anyone who clicks

Strengths

• Large and diverse content library: KnowBe4 offers hundreds of training modules, videos, compliance courses, and phishing templates. This reduces the need to create or maintain internal content libraries.
• Easy to deploy at enterprise scale: A recurring theme in G2 reviews (4.7/5 across thousands of ratings) is that KnowBe4 is easy to roll out at scale. Adding employees, assigning training, and checking completion data is straightforward, even for huge teams.
• Strong integrations and ecosystem: KnowBe4 integrates with most common IT environments (including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and HRIS systems), making it easier to sync users, track completion, and push mandatory training without manual overhead.
• Suitable for regulatory and audit requirements: Because KnowBe4 provides standardized content, structured modules, and clear completion records, it fits neatly into compliance-driven programs (financial services, healthcare, government, etc.).

Limitations

• Legacy UX and dated learner experience: Multiple reviewers describe the platform as functional but not modern. For some employees, especially those who have used KnowBe4 for years, the interface and module style can feel repetitive.
• Generic phishing templates with limited realism: KnowBe4 offers breadth, but many templates follow older, recognizable patterns.
• Slower adaptation to emerging threats: While KnowBe4 updates its content regularly, newer attack types (AI-crafted messages, deepfake voicemails, hybrid vishing) aren't replicated with the same level of realism as newer platforms that specialize in simulation quality.

Best for

KnowBe4 is best for organizations looking for a Hoxhunt alternative that need a straightforward, easy-to-manage training program at scale. It's particularly suitable for enterprises that must deliver mandatory training to thousands of employees across regions and need proof of completion for audits or regulatory requirements.

The platform is also a go-to for organizations seeking convenience when adding employees, assigning training, and tracking who has completed it. If your main goal is consistent coverage and compliance, rather than highly customizable or deeply realistic simulations, KnowBe4 usually gets the job done with minimal effort from the security team.

Beyond the comparison: Adaptive Security's perspective

Adaptive Security represents a new approach to security awareness training that addresses AI-era threats. Where Hoxhunt focuses on engagement, and KnowBe4 focuses on scale, Adaptive focuses on realism and measurable behavioral improvement.

Adaptive is a SAT platform that prioritizes AI-driven simulation realism over content volume or gamification. Instead of sending the same old phishing emails and offering theoretical firewall security defense manuals, it recreates actual attack techniques emerging today, like:

• Deepfake audio calls targeting finance teams
• AI-generated emails that mimic internal writing styles
• SMS and messaging app lures
• Multi-step social engineering sequences

These techniques make training feel less like a test and more like a rehearsal for real attacks. This aligns with findings from multiple studies that show behavior improves fastest when training closely mirrors real-world risk.

Adaptive also gives security teams a clearer picture of how people actually behave during attacks. Instead of just showing completion rates, the dashboards track particular patterns, such as how accurately employees report suspicious messages, how quickly they respond when something looks off, and whether certain users repeatedly fall for the same types of lures.

Over weeks and months, this creates a clear trendline indicating whether human risk is increasing, decreasing, or remaining static.

Strengths

• AI-driven simulation realism: Adaptive's strongest advantage is the realism of its simulations. Deepfake audio, role-based lures, and generative AI emails enable teams to practice defending against the same tactics attackers currently use.
• Behavioral risk scoring: Adaptive generates risk scores from real behaviors, not on whether employees "completed training." These scores are also contextualized by role and industry benchmarks, so security teams can see how each role performs.
• Scenario-based learning that feels real: Employees receive short, high-context training tied to the simulations they just experienced. This mirrors how real people learn from mistakes and aligns with academic findings that practice, not passive modules, drives behavior change.
• Multi-channel, scenario-based learning: Adaptive goes beyond email and includes SMS, voice, WhatsApp, and deepfake simulations.
• Integrations that reduce manual upkeep: Adaptive integrates with the tools you already use for employee accounts and team chat (such as Okta, Rippling, BambooHR, Slack, and Microsoft Teams). That means employee lists and groups stay up to date automatically, eliminating the need to upload spreadsheets every time someone joins, leaves, or changes roles.
• Streamlined reporting: Adaptive includes user-reported phishing triage and automated inbox actions across the environment. This means, when employees report a suspicious email, your team can review it faster and, if it's real, take action across mailboxes sooner, so you spend less time manually sorting reports and reduce the chance others get hit by the same message.

Limitations

• Implementation requires some upfront tuning: Because Adaptive's simulations are personalized, you'll get the best results when scenarios match your teams, roles, and workflows. It isn't difficult, but it takes a bit more initial setup than sending generic templates.
• Less familiar to procurement teams: While KnowBe4 has brand saturation and Hoxhunt is widely reviewed, Adaptive is newer, so some organizations may need to run a pilot before fully adopting.

Best for

Adaptive is ideal for organizations that want realistic, AI-era defense, not just awareness. It fits teams that have outgrown generic training and now need measurable risk reduction across channels employees actually use (email, SMS, WhatsApp, voice, deepfake audio).

It works especially well for midsize and large enterprises that prioritize reducing real compromise rates, not just boosting engagement metrics. It also makes sense for security teams who want to gain visibility into behavioral risk scores, high-risk cohorts, and how resilience improves over time, helping them demonstrate human-layer risk reduction to leadership.

Overview: Hoxhunt vs. KnowBe4 at a glance

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Choosing a security awareness training platform that grows with you

If your program is in its early stages and needs higher participation, a consistent phishing training culture, and stronger security awareness, Hoxhunt's engagement-driven model is a good place to start. If your priority is scale, standardized content, and global compliance coverage, KnowBe4 still offers one of the easiest administrative experiences on the market.

Neither, however, is entirely built around the multi-channel, AI-native threats defining 2026: deepfake voice attacks, cross-channel impersonation, and spear-phishing targeting internal workflows. These patterns differ from traditional phishing templates, so organizations increasingly need personalized training that mirrors how real attackers operate.

Adaptive Security helps with this shift. Its AI-driven simulations mirror the deception techniques attackers use today across email, SMS, voice, and deepfake audio. Instead of tracking "module completions," it measures behaviors that reduce risk, like reporting accuracy, response time, repeated failure patterns, and department-level or role-specific risk scores.

If you're comparing Hoxhunt and KnowBe4, you're asking the right questions—but newer threats need more modern solutions than legacy tools can offer. Adaptive Security goes further by measuring, simulating, and strengthening human resilience against today's sophisticated phishing attacks. See the difference.

FAQs about Hoxhunt vs. KnowBe4

What's the main difference between Hoxhunt and KnowBe4?

Hoxhunt focuses on personalized phishing simulations and user engagement, rewarding employees for reporting suspicious emails and learning from real inbox scenarios. KnowBe4's training materials focus on scale, offering a vast content library of phishing campaigns, policy-based cybersecurity training, and simplified rollout across large global teams.

While Hoxhunt is stronger at behavior shaping through continuous simulations, KnowBe4 proves superior at compliance, coverage, and administrative simplicity.

Does Hoxhunt or KnowBe4 offer AI-powered phishing simulations?

Both training solutions use some AI to personalize email templates and vary in difficulty, but their simulations remain email-centric and template-driven. They don't typically include deepfake audio, voice-clone vishing, WhatsApp/Slack-style lures, or multi-step spear-phishing flows tied to internal workflows.

Adaptive surpasses competition by using generative AI and deepfake-based scenarios to replicate emerging attack patterns in real time, helping teams practice against the kinds of cross-channel deception attackers now use.

What's the best alternative to Hoxhunt and KnowBe4?

If you want a platform that combines realism, AI-driven threat simulation, and behavioral risk scoring, Adaptive Security is the definitive new-age SAT alternative to Hoxhunt and KnowBe4. It's suitable for organizations preparing for deepfakes, voice-clone scams, contextual spear-phishing, and multi-channel impersonation—not just traditional email templates.

Adaptive sits between Hoxhunt's engagement model and KnowBe4's scale, offering measurable cyber-risk reduction in the AI era.