CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Exaforce vs KnowBe4

Exaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats. KnowBe4 sells attack simulation and training, email and collaboration security, and agent security through the KnowBe4 Platform. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security. 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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  • Exaforce
  • KnowBe4
Exaforce vs KnowBe4: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
ExaforceExaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats.exaforce.comKnowBe4KnowBe4 sells attack simulation and training, email and collaboration security, and agent security through the KnowBe4 Platform.knowbe4.com
What it sells
  • Exabot Triage[1][4]Investigates security alerts and classifies them.
  • Exabot Investigate[1][6]Supports natural language search and visual exploration for investigations.
  • Exabot Respond[1][7]Executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email.
  • Security Awareness Training[4][5][7]Education on recognizing threats, reinforced with phishing and vishing simulations.
  • Cloud Email Security[10]A suite of AI-driven products for inbound and outbound email.
  • Defend[1][4][5][6][10][11]Inbound email protection against phishing, ransomware and business email compromise.
  • Prevent[5][10][12]Outbound email protection and data loss prevention.
  • Compliance Plus[13]Compliance training platform.
  • Student Edition[5]Security awareness training for academic institutions.
  • BreachSim[14]A free tool to identify network vulnerabilities.
  • Weak Password Test[15]A free tool that finds users with weak passwords.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesClearwater, United States
Founded
Not stated on its pages2010[1]
Ownership and funding
Privately heldOwned by Vista Equity Partners since 2023[2][4][8][9]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • May 5, 2026KnowBe4 launched a two-tier Security Awareness Training offering and a new AI defense agent for custom content creation.[7]
  • April 6, 2026Dashlane announced an integration with KnowBe4 that links credential risk detection to security training for at-risk users.[18]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[8]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 4, 2026[9]
Who it fits
Not written yetNot written yet
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Exaforce and KnowBe4 are both filed under AI model and agent security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Exaforce's primary category is AI SOC analysts; KnowBe4's is Security awareness training.
  • Exaforce is also filed under MDR and managed SOC and SIEM. KnowBe4 is also filed under Human risk management and Email security.
  • Exaforce lists Exabot Triage, Exabot Investigate and Exabot Respond. KnowBe4 lists Security Awareness Training, Cloud Email Security, Defend, Prevent, Compliance Plus and 3 more.
  • KnowBe4 is headquartered in Clearwater, United States.
  • KnowBe4 was founded in 2010.
  • Exaforce is privately held. KnowBe4 is owned by Vista Equity Partners, since 2023.

What it sells: Exaforce

What Exabot Triage does[1][4]
Exabot Triage investigates security alerts across SIEM, EDR, phishing tools, and Exaforce detections. Exabot Triage classifies alerts as False Positive, Benign, or Needs Investigation.
What Exabot Investigate does[1][6]
Exabot Investigate supports natural language search, visual exploration, and simplified queries across data sources. Exabot Investigate operates independently of any SIEM. Query Builder in Exabot Investigate combines behavioral events and configuration context into a single query.
What Exabot Respond does[1][7]
Exabot Respond executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email, with out-of-the-box playbooks for common scenarios. Customers can build custom workflows in a visual drag-and-drop builder using nodes for conditions, actions, approvals, AI reasoning, loops, and branching. Automation Agents can run workflows autonomously or with human approvals.

What it sells: KnowBe4

What Security Awareness Training does[4][5][7]
KnowBe4 says it delivers timely, personalized education that helps people recognize threats. Lessons are reinforced with realistic phishing and vishing simulations.
What Cloud Email Security does[10]
KnowBe4 Cloud Email Security is a suite of AI-driven products designed to detect and prevent advanced email threats across inbound and outbound communication. Contextual banners and prompts are delivered at the point of risk.
What Defend does[1][4][5][6][10][11]
Defend detects and blocks phishing, ransomware and business email compromise with behavioral AI and self-learning threat models. Defend inserts color-coded banners on flagged email and rewrites links, checking them at time of click. Defend integrates with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 through API-based connectivity.
What Prevent does[5][10][12]
Prevent monitors outbound email in real time and alerts users to risky behavior, such as accidental sends or misdirected emails. Prevent is integrated with Microsoft Outlook and Office 365. Prevent Enterprise adds misdirected content detection and custom DLP policies.
What Compliance Plus does[13]
Compliance Plus has a training library of 1000+ items of compliance training content. Compliance Plus offers targeted training for requirements such as HIPAA, PCI and GDPR. Organizations can upload SCORM-compliant content to the KnowBe4 LMS.
What Student Edition does[5]
The KnowBe4 Student Edition enables academic institutions to prepare students to identify and prevent modern cyberattacks. Its training content covers phishing, BYOD risks, password hygiene, social media risks and campus scams.
What BreachSim does[14]
BreachSim is a free tool from KnowBe4 to identify network vulnerabilities. BreachSim tests over 12 realistic data exfiltration scenarios following the MITRE ATT&CK framework.
What Weak Password Test does[15]
The Weak Password Test is a free tool to help IT Administrators know which users have passwords that are easily guessed. It checks the Active Directory and generates a report of users with weak passwords.

Questions about Exaforce and KnowBe4

What do Exaforce and KnowBe4 sell?
Exaforce sells Exabot Triage, Exabot Investigate and Exabot Respond. KnowBe4 sells Security Awareness Training, Cloud Email Security, Defend, Prevent, Compliance Plus and 3 more.
Are Exaforce and KnowBe4 in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Exaforce's primary category is AI SOC analysts and KnowBe4's is Security awareness training.
Where are Exaforce and KnowBe4 headquartered?
KnowBe4 is headquartered in Clearwater, United States.
When were Exaforce and KnowBe4 founded?
KnowBe4 was founded in 2010.
Who owns Exaforce and KnowBe4?
Exaforce is privately held. KnowBe4 is owned by Vista Equity Partners, since 2023.
What have Exaforce and KnowBe4 announced recently?
May 5, 2026: KnowBe4 launched a two-tier Security Awareness Training offering and a new AI defense agent for custom content creation.

About Exaforce

Exaforce sells a platform built on a unified data layer and real-time knowledge graph, with agents that help security teams detect, triage, investigate, and respond to threats. Four Exabots cover detection, triage, investigation, and response on a unified, real-time view of the customer environment. Exaforce lets customers run the platform with an in-house team, or have Exaforce run it with its analysts and Exabots working as an extended SOC.[1][3][4][5]

Exaforce pairs its agentic AI with a global team of experts to deliver MDR. The global Exaforce SOC pairs responders with agentic AI to deliver hands-on monitoring, investigation, and containment around the clock.[5]

Exaforce builds on a dedicated data layer that ingests logs and configuration across identity, cloud, endpoint, code, and SaaS. Exaforce ingests logs, alerts, and telemetry from over 100 sources, including GitHub and Google Workspace, and normalizes them into a single security data layer. Exaforce stores all raw data in real time, then normalizes and enriches telemetry. Exaforce's data platform uses storage tiering to keep hot data accessible while retaining full history for audits. Exaforce connects through agentless, API-based connectors that pull telemetry from cloud, identity, SaaS, endpoint, and code platforms. Exaforce has prebuilt integrations for AWS, Google Cloud, Okta, GitHub, Microsoft 365, CrowdStrike, Wiz, and more, each mapped to a common schema. Exaforce reads from where customer data lives, so customers can start without re-routing pipelines.[3][4]

At the core of Exaforce is a Multi-Model AI engine that combines data semantics, behavioral baselining, machine learning, and large language models. Exaforce's Multi-Model AI separates data relationships, anomaly detection, and expert reasoning into dedicated models. In the Exaforce platform, the Semantic Model transforms raw data into actionable intelligence, and the Behavioral Model separates real threats from normal activity.[3][4]

Exabot Detect monitors IaaS and SaaS environments with the Multi-Model AI engine to identify breaches that evade traditional rules and UEBA. Exabot Detect correlates behavioral baselines and contextual intelligence to surface attacks across environments like AWS, Okta, OpenAI, and GitHub. Exabot Triage investigates security alerts across SIEM, EDR, phishing tools, and Exaforce detections. Exabot Triage classifies alerts as False Positive, Benign, or Needs Investigation. Exabot Investigate supports natural language search, visual exploration, and simplified queries across data sources. Exabot Investigate operates independently of any SIEM. Exabot Respond executes response across endpoint, identity, IaaS, SaaS, and email, with out-of-the-box playbooks for common scenarios. Exabot Respond can isolate cloud instances, quarantine or delete malicious emails, block IPs, disable endpoints, reset MFA or passwords, suspend users, and revoke sessions.[1][4][5][6][7]

Exaforce provides an inventory of human, non-human, AI agent, and third-party identities, with their effective permissions, credentials, and actions. Exaforce monitors collaboration, version control systems, and other apps with ML-based detections. Exaforce detects threats in Google Workspace without manual rule creation. For insider threats, Exaforce combines cloud logs, permissions, and HR data into one insider threat narrative. For phishing, Exaforce supports triage and investigation of phishing incidents across the email ecosystem.[8][9][10][11]

Exaforce can either be a customer's primary SOC tech stack or augment an existing SOC investment. Many teams deploy Exabots alongside their current SIEM, EDR, and security stack to handle high-volume tier-1 triage and tier-2 investigation. Exaforce ingests alerts from existing tools, enriches them with unified context, and delivers investigated findings with recommendations. Exaforce is audited and certified by third party standards.[1][2][4][6][7][12][13]

Exaforce on the record

Sources

Exaforce full record

  1. [1]exaforce.comExaforce · exaforce.com · undated page, accessed November 6, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Exaforce unveils 75 million in series a funding to revolutionize security and operations with agentic aiExaforce · exaforce.com · published April 17, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Exaforce — Agentic SOC and MDRExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Agentic AI SOC Platform Overview | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Find an MDR Partner | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Exabot Investigate | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Exabot Respond | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Identity Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]SaaS Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Insider Attack Surface | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Agentic AI SOC Platform & MDR Solutions | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Exaforce MCP Connector for ClaudeExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]AI for SOC | ExaforceExaforce · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

KnowBe4 full record

  1. [1]About usKnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Vista equity partners completes acquisition of knowbe4KnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · published February 1, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Contact usKnowBe4 · knowbe4.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]KnowBe4 | Secure Your Digital Workforce: Human + AIKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]KnowBe4 Student Edition | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Warning: Attackers Are Using Calendar Invite Files to Evade Security FiltersKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]KnowBe4 Launches AI-Native Attack Simulation & Training Product and Twelfth AI AgentBusiness Wire · published May 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Reviews 2026 - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier C
  9. [9]KnowBe4 Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]Cloud Email Security for Microsoft 365 | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Pricing | DefendKnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Pricing | Prevent | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Compliance Plus: Compliance Training Platform | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]BreachSim | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Weak Password Test | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Security Culture Report Analysis Center | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]KnowBe4 Customer Success | KnowBe4KnowBe4 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Dashlane Launches First-of-its-Kind Integration with KnowBe4 to Transform Security Awareness into Proactive DefensePR Newswire · published April 6, 2026 · Tier A

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