CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cofense vs UpGuard

Cofense sells a phishing defense platform that identifies and removes phishing campaigns reaching employee inboxes, along with phishing training built from real attack data. UpGuard sells tools that move third-party risk monitoring from static snapshots to continuous oversight. CISO Tribune files both under Human risk management. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cofense
  • UpGuard
Cofense vs UpGuard: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CofenseCofense sells a phishing defense platform that identifies and removes phishing campaigns reaching employee inboxes, along with phishing training built from real attack data.cofense.comUpGuardUpGuard sells tools that move third-party risk monitoring from static snapshots to continuous oversight.upguard.com
What it sells
  • Cofense Phishing Defense Platform[2]A phishing defense platform powered by phishing-specific AI trained on billions of data points and signals from millions of reporters.
  • Cofense Phishing Remediation[8]Removes confirmed phishing threats from inboxes, including every variant of a confirmed campaign.
  • Cofense Command Center[2][6][8]One place to run a phishing defense program and prove it is working.
  • Cofense Phishing Training[3]Phishing training that uses real phishing data for adaptive simulations and awareness programs.
  • User Risk[1][5][10]Human risk management that gives visibility into human risk and enables safe AI adoption.
  • Risk Automations[1][10]Risk automation that connects a risk stack to system APIs to automate discovery, notification and remediation.
  • Questionnaire AI[11]Automatically completes questionnaires using a customer's own security documentation.
Categories
Headquarters
Arlington, United States[1]Hobart, Australia[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2012[2]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[2][3]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • September 23, 2026Cofense added a Competency Dashboard to its Command Center that measures how ready an organization is against phishing threats, rather than only training completion.[4]
  • February 4, 2026Cofense released a threat intelligence report titled The New Era of Phishing: Threats Built in the Age of AI.[9]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 4, 2026[5]
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Cofense sells mainly to security teams that run phishing defense at enterprise scale. Cofense describes its automated remediation as transparent, explainable, and safe to operationalize at enterprise scale. Cofense offers experts who can manage detection, remediation, and training end to end for teams that want to take the operational load off. Cofense positions its products as adding to existing email defenses.Not written yet
Last verified
November 2, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cofense and UpGuard are both filed under Human risk management.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cofense's primary category is Email security; UpGuard's is Third-party risk and security ratings.
  • Cofense is also filed under Security awareness training. UpGuard is also filed under External attack surface management.
  • Cofense lists Cofense Phishing Defense Platform, Cofense Phishing Remediation, Cofense Command Center and Cofense Phishing Training. UpGuard lists User Risk, Risk Automations and Questionnaire AI.
  • Cofense is headquartered in Arlington, United States. UpGuard is headquartered in Hobart, Australia.
  • UpGuard was founded in 2012.
  • UpGuard is privately held.

What it sells: Cofense

What Cofense Phishing Defense Platform does[2]
The Cofense Phishing Defense Platform is powered by phishing-specific AI trained on billions of data points and signals from millions of reporters. Cofense says threat intelligence from real attacks connects remediation and training into a single defense rather than separate tools. Cofense says its phishing-specific AI classifies and processes reported threats at scale, and every decision it makes is explainable and analyst-verified.
What Cofense Phishing Remediation does[8]
Cofense says it can remove confirmed threats in seconds and automatically eliminate similar threats going forward. Cofense says it quarantines every variant of a confirmed campaign in under a minute. Cofense describes AI-powered clustering to detect polymorphic attacks before threats are confirmed.
What Cofense Command Center does[2][6][8]
Cofense Command Center is one place to run a phishing defense program and prove it is working. Cofense says Phishing Remediation data in Cofense Command Center adds real-world threat and remediation context alongside training and competency insights.
What Cofense Phishing Training does[3]
Cofense Phishing Training uses real phishing data for adaptive simulations and awareness programs. Cofense says simulations can replicate smishing, vishing, and QR-code phishing. Cofense says employees can report threats with one click into a global intelligence network.

What it sells: UpGuard

What User Risk does[1][5][10]
User Risk continuously detects unsanctioned applications running across a workforce and exposes over-privileged permissions and credential leaks. User Risk nudges employees mid-workflow and redirects them to approved corporate alternatives. User Risk sits in the browser and blocks unauthorized file uploads and copy-pastes.
What Risk Automations does[1][10]
UpGuard describes risk automation that connects a risk stack to system APIs to automate discovery, notification and remediation. The offering automates discovery, notification and resolution by integrating a risk stack.
What Questionnaire AI does[11]
Questionnaire AI automatically completes questionnaires using a customer's own security documentation. Customers upload documents such as a SOC 2 report, an information security report and previously completed questionnaires.

Questions about Cofense and UpGuard

What do Cofense and UpGuard sell?
Cofense sells Cofense Phishing Defense Platform, Cofense Phishing Remediation, Cofense Command Center and Cofense Phishing Training. UpGuard sells User Risk, Risk Automations and Questionnaire AI.
Are Cofense and UpGuard in the same category?
They share Human risk management. Cofense's primary category is Email security and UpGuard's is Third-party risk and security ratings.
Where are Cofense and UpGuard headquartered?
Cofense is headquartered in Arlington, United States. UpGuard is headquartered in Hobart, Australia.
When were Cofense and UpGuard founded?
UpGuard was founded in 2012.
Who owns Cofense and UpGuard?
UpGuard is privately held.
Who are Cofense and UpGuard sold to?
From its own pages, Cofense sells mainly to security teams that run phishing defense at enterprise scale.
What have Cofense and UpGuard announced recently?
September 23, 2026: Cofense added a Competency Dashboard to its Command Center that measures how ready an organization is against phishing threats, rather than only training completion.

About Cofense

Cofense sells a phishing defense platform that identifies and removes phishing campaigns reaching employee inboxes, along with phishing training built from real attack data. Cofense says it is the only cybersecurity platform focused exclusively on stopping phishing. Cofense says it is purpose-built for phishing, the most persistent and costly cyber threat.[2][6][7]

Cofense says its expert-supervised AI, combined with real-time intelligence from 35M+ trained users, detects advanced phishing attacks other solutions miss and remediates them in minutes. Cofense says its phishing-specific AI is continuously trained and validated by human analysts.[2][7]

The problem Cofense says it addresses starts after delivery. Cofense says polymorphic campaigns slip past secure email gateways and AI-only defenses. Cofense says removing one email at a time leaves entire campaigns active in inboxes. Cofense combines purpose-built phishing AI, trained on real attacks, with expert validation for post-perimeter detection. Cofense says it augments existing email defenses, covering phishing detection and response gaps.[6][7]

The Cofense Phishing Defense Platform is powered by phishing-specific AI trained on billions of data points and signals from millions of reporters. Cofense says threat intelligence from real attacks connects remediation and training into a single defense rather than separate tools. Cofense says its phishing-specific AI classifies and processes reported threats at scale, and every decision it makes is explainable and analyst-verified. Cofense Command Center is one place to run a phishing defense program and prove it is working. Cofense says Phishing Remediation data in Cofense Command Center adds real-world threat and remediation context alongside training and competency insights.[2][8]

Cofense says Cofense Phishing Remediation goes further than detecting threats that evade perimeter defenses, and that Cofense removes threats with 99.998% accuracy. Cofense says it can remove confirmed threats in seconds and automatically eliminate similar threats going forward. Cofense says it quarantines every variant of a confirmed campaign in under a minute. Cofense describes AI-powered clustering to detect polymorphic attacks before threats are confirmed. Cofense also describes email triage and response with precision clustering, AI-driven auto classification, and click tracking to process reported threats in minutes.[2][8]

Cofense Phishing Training uses real phishing data for adaptive simulations and awareness programs. Cofense says its training turns verified attacks into real-world simulations instead of generic templates. Cofense says simulations can replicate smishing, vishing, and QR-code phishing. Cofense says employees can report threats with one click into a global intelligence network. Cofense says it turns real attacks into the simulations employees train on, then measures competency against what attackers are actually sending.[2][3]

Cofense says its experts can manage detection, remediation, and training end to end, taking the operational load off the customer's team. Cofense connects to the tools customers already use, and says intelligence and remediation extend across the existing stack.[2][3][6][8]

Cofense on the record

Sources

Cofense full record

  1. [1]ContactCofense · cofense.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Unified Phishing Defense Platform Built to Learn & Adapt | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]PhishMe Security Awareness Training (SAT) Platform | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cofense Expands AI-Driven Phishing Defense Platform to Advance Secure Behavior ManagementBusiness Wire · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cofense Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  6. [6]Phishing Defense Powered by AI & Human Insight | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]About Us | Cofense Email SecurityCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Phishing Detection & Rapid Response Platform | Cofense PDRCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cofense Report Reveals AI-Powered Phishing Accelerated to One Attack Every 19 SecondsCofense · published February 4, 2026 · Tier A

UpGuard full record

  1. [1]upguard.comUpGuard · upguard.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Upguard raises 75m in series c funding to accelerate market leadership in cyber risk posture managementUpGuard · upguard.com · published February 26, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]UpGuard Vendor Risk Reviews & Product DetailsG2 · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier C
  4. [4]Continuous Third-Party Risk Monitoring | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]The #1 Cyber Risk Posture Management Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Pricing For The UpGuard CRPM Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Third-party Risk Assessment Software | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Lucid Security Rating & Data Breaches | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]GiftPay Security Rating & Data Breaches | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]User Risk: A Human Risk Management Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Free AI-Powered Security Questionnaires Done in MinutesUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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