Hoxhunt Alternative for Small Companies
Looking for a Hoxhunt alternative? Compare gamified phishing simulations with five-minute lessons, and see which suits a small company or non-office team.
If you want a Hoxhunt alternative for a small company, the useful question is what you want people to learn from: practice attacks or short lessons. Hoxhunt is built around simulated phishing that adapts to each person. DefSafe teaches the same habits through five-minute lessons. Each can be the right choice. Here is how to tell which one is yours.
What Hoxhunt is
Hoxhunt describes itself on its own site as a human risk management platform. It describes automatically delivered, personalized and gamified training. Its main parts are:
- Adaptive phishing training. Simulated attacks arrive by email, text message, phone call or Teams. They are personalized by department, location and more, and followed by a short micro-training.
- Training packages. A library of customizable training packages, or training generated with AI.
- Handling of reported emails. Its automation resolves false-positive reports and sorts incidents, so the security team can focus on real attacks.
- Gamification. The site says it uses gamification and personalization to keep employees engaged.
Its site says it is built for enterprise, and its customer examples come from large organizations. That tells you who it is built for: companies that run training at scale.
The idea is sound in principle. People learn to spot a phishing message by meeting realistic ones in a safe setting, then being told straight away what gave it away.
Simulations versus lessons
A simulation and a lesson teach in different ways.
A simulation is practice. You get a message that looks real. If you click, you see a short explanation. If you report it, you are told well done. You learn from the moment itself.
A lesson is instruction. You are told what to look for, you see an example, and you answer questions. You learn before the moment.
Both work. They also need different things around them.
Take a small bakery with eight staff and two delivery drivers. The owner wants everyone to be careful with invoices and sign-in links.
With simulations, the owner needs a way to send them to the right people, a plan for what happens when someone clicks, and a view of the results. Many of the staff rarely use email at all. A fake email to a baker who only checks the shared inbox once a day teaches little.
With lessons, the owner shares one link. The baker learns on a phone during a break that a supplier's "new bank details" email must be checked by phone, using a number already on file. The driver learns what a fake parcel text looks like. Everyone gets the same plain advice without any email being involved.
A simulation tells you how people behave when they are tested. A lesson prepares them before. A mature program uses both. A small team can begin with lessons and add simulations later.
Who finishes which
Training works only if people finish it. Think about who is on your team.
- Desk staff with company email all day meet phishing often, so practice attacks are relevant and frequent.
- Frontline staff such as cleaners, drivers, kitchen teams and shop assistants may use a shared computer or only their own phone. Training has to reach them there.
- Staff with English as a second language need plain words. A message designed to look tricky can be confusing for the wrong reason.
- Managers and owners are targeted for payments and passwords, and they carry the cost of a mistake.
DefSafe is written for the middle two groups as much as the others. Lessons are about five minutes, use short sentences and concrete examples, and run on a phone. The manager's track, "Managers and Executives", covers making cyber safety part of daily work, setting rules people can follow, making it safe to report mistakes, finding the systems that matter most, and preparing leaders for targeted attacks.
Side by side
| Hoxhunt | DefSafe | |
|---|---|---|
| Main idea | Adaptive simulated attacks with instant feedback | Short lessons that teach one habit each |
| Typical buyer | Enterprise security teams | Owner, manager or team lead |
| Learning style | Practice on realistic messages | Instruction with examples and questions |
| Channels | Email, text, phone and Teams | Lessons in a phone app |
| Engagement | Gamified | Short lessons with questions |
| Language level | Check a sample module | Plain words, short sentences |
| Reporting of real threats | Automated handling of reports for the security team | Not included |
| Price model | Described on the vendor's site | Described on our pricing page |
| Effort to run | Needs a team to use the data | Little to run |
The vendor's own pages show the full list of features, so read them before you decide.
Who should pick which
Pick Hoxhunt if you have a security team, most staff work in email all day, and you want ongoing practice with data you can report on.
Pick DefSafe if you are a small company, many staff work away from a desk, nobody is free to manage a program, and you want everyone to learn the basics.
Plan for both if you expect to grow. Build habits first with lessons. When someone owns security, add practice attacks on top.
When you compare more products, the guide to security awareness training for small business lists the questions to ask each seller. For a practical first habit, teach how to protect your online accounts. And to decide who needs what, read cyber security responsibilities by job role.
Questions people ask
Is gamified training better than short lessons?
Neither is better in every case. Games help when people have time and interest. Short lessons help when people have a few spare minutes and no desk. Ask which your team will actually do every week.
Will DefSafe test my staff with fake phishing messages?
Not as its main method. It teaches people what to look for and what to do. If you need to measure how people react to practice attacks, choose a platform made for that.
What if one of my staff clicks a real phishing link?
Follow your employer's procedure. Tell your manager or the person who handles IT straight away. Speed matters more than blame, which is why the manager's track teaches how to make reporting safe.
Does a company of ten people need this at all?
Yes. Small companies often pay invoices by transfer and hold customer details, and attackers know it. A few habits, taught well, cover most of the risk.
Learn this in five minutes
The "Managers and Executives" track in DefSafe offers short lessons for people in charge. They practise setting rules people can follow, making it safe to report mistakes, and preparing leaders for targeted attacks.