Security Awareness Training Buyers’ Guide 2026

Security Awareness Training (SAT), also known as “human risk management”, prepares end users to spot cyberthreats and follow best practices to keep their company’s data safe. SAT platforms typically comprise a virtual training element that teaches users about key cybersecurity concepts, and a testing element (e.g., quizzes or phishing simulations), which assess each user on what they’ve learned. 

• The security awareness training market was valued at USD 5.7 billion USD in 2023 and is predicted to display 15% year-on-year growth to reach a value of USD 10 billion by 2027. 
• Growth is largely being driven by compliance requirements, with most cybersecurity certifications requiring ongoing employee training, and many common data protection regulations also mandating end user training to mitigate risks. Some cybersecurity insurance providers also require organizations to implement SAT in order to be eligible for cover.
  • Unfortunately, this has led to the wide criticism of SAT as being a compliance-driven “check box” exercise, with organizations prioritizing completion rates over behavioral change. 
  • However, in recent years, we’ve seen increased interest in SAT programs designed to engage users and drive meaningful cultural change. This is reflected in the increased adoption of the term “human risk management”.
• As the market evolves and this demand grows, we can expect more SAT providers to utilize AI to create realistic, highly customizable threat simulations based on real-world threat intelligence, deliver more granular human risk analytics, and place a more concerted effort on offering high-quality, engaging training materials that drive measurable behavioral change.

Why trust us: We’ve researched, demoed, and tested several leading SAT solutions, spoken to organizations of all sizes about the challenges they’re facing and the features that are most useful to them, as well as interviewed executives from leading providers in the security awareness training and simulation space.

You can find our product analysis reports, interviews, and Top 10 shortlists of the best SAT products on the market in our Security Awareness Training Hub.

Know Before You Buy: Our Recommendations

Before we jump into the details, here are our top tips on how to get the most out of your SAT implementation:

• For long-term results: Avoid treating security awareness training as a punishment; instead of pitting IT and end users against one another, collaborate to create a positive culture around cybersecurity. Choose a solution that focuses on reward and support, rather than one that penalizes users who fail tests or simulations. 
• For maximum participation: Some users may require more training than others or learn in different ways. Choose a solution that a) allows you to assign further training where needed, b) provides a broad range of training materials to accommodate different learning styles, and c) supports desktop and mobile learning. 
• For end user engagement: Look for a tool that offers multi-media, bite-size lessons and modular “learning paths” that save users’ progress so they can dip in and out of training as needed. 
• For effective testing: Phishing simulations can be an effective way to test your users’ responses to cyberthreats, but only if implemented properly. Try to make them realistic, rather than obvious. Make use of personalization, and base simulations on real-world threats that users are likely to encounter. For more simulation-specific recommendations, read our Phishing Simulation Buyers’ Guide.

Getting Started: Deployment And Management

SAT solutions are delivered via a Learning Management System (LMS), which is a software that helps admins to manage and deliver training materials. LMSs can be self-hosted or cloud-hosted:

• With a self-hosted LMS, you install the LMS software onto your server and manage any updates or maintenance yourself. Usually, the SAT provider sends you the training materials, and you sign into the LMS to upload that content. 
• With a cloud-hosted LMS, the SAT provider manages the LMS. You don’t have to install or maintain any software; you simply sign into the application to access your admin portal. 

Most organizations opt for cloud-hosted SAT, because it’s quicker to deploy, easy to integrate with M365 or Google Workspace via API, easy to budget for (thanks to recurring monthly or annual subscriptions), typically comes with a robust support offering, and enables end users to access training across any device. 

However, cloud-hosted LMSs are less customizable and give you less control over course delivery. So, if you have specific in-house training materials you want to send to your users on top of the SAT materials, or you need to customize the platform in certain ways to meet specific compliance requirements, a self-hosted LMS may be the better option. 

Once deployed, admins can log into the management portal to browse training materials, create and schedule training campaigns, and view reports into course completion and responses. Some SAT tools also enable admins to create and send simulation phishing emails, to help them measure users’ susceptibility to phishing threats. 

Head down to the “Features” section for our recommendations on what to look for in terms of training content and management functionality!

Does SAT Actually Work?

There have been many studies into the effectiveness of security awareness training solutions, and the consensus is, when you choose the right solution and implement it properly, yes, it works!

There are two big factors that can affect your solution’s effectiveness. The first is how often you deliver training. Delivery schedules vary between organizations, depending on your risk profile (i.e., industry, geolocation, size, what threats are likely to target you and any relevant regulatory requirements. As a general rule, you should deliver initial training to all new employees and conduct training at least annually. However, to maintain continuous awareness and maximize knowledge retention, we recommend scheduling regular, bite-size training modules and simulated phishing campaigns. 

The second factor is the type of training content that the solution offers. Look for a solution that offers a broad library of interactive training materials in different mediums, including videos, presentations, and quizzes. This will not only support different learning styles and make the training more accessible, but it’ll also help improve retention. 

If you’re not sure whether you’ve chosen the right SAT tool, there are also several ways that you can measure its effectiveness. Instead of focusing on training completion rates, try to measure an increase in the behaviors you’re trying to instil and a decrease in undesirable bad practices:

1. Track the percentage of end users that fall victim to phishing simulations before and after training to assess improvement.
2. Monitor the number of security incidents caused by human error over time to evaluate whether there is a reduction as end users continue to complete their training. 

“Most security training tries to reduce phishing click throughs, increase reporting rates and encourage more mindful malware practice,” Masha Sedova, Co-Founder and President of Elevate Security, tells Expert Insights in an exclusive interview. “By measuring those behaviors to begin with, we can see that if people already have a perfect score on real world actions and are already detecting attacks, we can conclude that any training we give them is obsolete, because they’re already performing at the level we would be expecting them to.”

Benefits Of Security Awareness Training

There are three main benefits to implementing a SAT solution:

1. Reduce the risk of your end users falling victim to a cyberthreat.
   • Cyberattack methods are constantly evolving as different tools and technologies move in and out of fashion—but one thing that organizations will always need is people. Because of this, end users will always be an attractive target for cybercriminals—and it only takes one person not being aware of a threat for a threat actor to compromise a network.
   • SAT teaches users to be aware of that threat and to make the right call when they encounter it. It also helps them think critically about their data hygiene and communication practices on a daily basis. It also enables IT or security admins to identify which users are most susceptible to threats and assign further training or support to those individuals. 
   • “Security awareness training encourages people to be curious about what they see in front of them, to ask the right questions, and not just blindly and instinctively click, but do the right thing.” – Seán Morris, Chief Technology Officer at TitanHQ
2. Create a strong culture of security. 
   • When implemented properly, a strong SAT program can foster a security-conscious environment where end users understand their role in protecting sensitive data. 
   • For that to work, end users need to feel like part of the solution— not part of the problem!“Having people feel comfortable to tell their organization that they received a phishing email and fell for it is much better than punishing them for clicking on something they shouldn’t have.” – Arnout Van de Meulebroucke, Founder and CEO at Phished
   • “You want to show people you’re there to help them. You want to be in a position where, if someone clicks on something, they don’t think, ‘Oh my God, how can I cover this up?’—they say, ‘I’ve clicked on something and I need your help.’” – Tim Ward, CEO and Co-Founder at ThinkCyber Security Ltd
3. Fulfil requirements for compliance and cyber insurance. 
   • Many common compliance frameworks, including GDPR, GLBA, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS, require organizations to carry out some form of security awareness training.
   • Cyber insurance providers often require proof that you’re training your employees on cyber risks before they’ll offer you cover—particularly if you’ve previously experiences a cybersecurity incident.

Common SAT Challenges

There are three main challenges that you might come across when implementing a security awareness training solution. Here’s what they are and how to overcome them:

1. Security awareness training software can’t force end users to complete training modules.However, they can highlight which users aren’t performing well so you have a record of this and can send a reminder to those individuals. If your reminders are going unheard, you may need to report the issue to HR. 
2. Most users don’t want to spend hours on mandatory cybersecurity training when they already have other job responsibilities and limited time in the day, so using lessons that are too long or complex may drive users to click through the training as quickly as possible, without retaining any knowledge. Instead, look for a solution that offers bite-size training sessions that users can access across different devices, and saves their progress. This will allow them to dip in and out of training when they have time to really focus on it. 
3. If end users aren’t aware of training requirements, they may ignore emails prompting them to complete assignments or mistake them for spam. To avoid this, your organization’s leadership needs to communicate clearly with your end users when rolling out the new SAT solution and when carrying out simulations. 
   • “We always recommend that our clients send out a communication to their employees just to say, ‘We’re going to perform a phishing test to see how you react.’ After the test, we also encourage clients to be open with their employees about the results.” – Arnout Van de Meulebroucke, Founder and CEO at Phished
   • “The senior management team must explain that, as part of the company’s security awareness training program, they’re going to run phishing simulations […] and that the whole goal is just to highlight to staff what a real attack may look like, so they know to report anything suspicious so it can be analyzed and responded to properly. They need to say, “I’m trying to help you, so you can help us as a company avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime.” – Stephen Burke, Product Director at SafeTitan

Best SAT Providers

Our team of software analysts and researchers have put together a shortlist of the best providers of security awareness training solutions, as well as adjacent lists covering similar topics:

• Top Security Awareness Training Solutions For Business
• Top Phishing Awareness Training Solutions
• Top Phishing Simulation And Testing Solutions
• Top Security Awareness Content And Development Solutions

Features Checklist

When comparing SAT solutions, Expert Insights recommends looking for the following features:

1. Comprehensive training topics: The platform should cover a broad range of topics, including data management and handling, data privacy compliance, internet safety, mobile device security, remote working best practices, removable media risks, malware, ransomware, and phishing (inc. email and other mediums). 
2. Engaging content: The solution should offer a broad library of interactive training content in several different forms, such as presentations, animated or stylized videos, quizzes, and even gamified role-play scenarios that users can “walk through”.
3. Accessibility: To enable all your users to really engage with the training at a pace that suits them, look for an intuitive interface, micro-learning modules, mobile-readiness and offline availability, multi-lingual support, and basic customizations such as the ability to change font size and color. 
4. Self-directed learning: End users should be able to monitor their own progress and keep track of what they’ve achieved throughout the program. Solutions that use learning paths are really effective for this. 
5. Personalization: You should be able to target training and testing towards specific users or user groups, customize the level of difficulty of each training campaign, and if your solution offers phishing simulations, you should be able to base them on real-world threats and stagger their delivery. 
6. Assessment: You should be able to assess your end users’ receptiveness to the training. This could be through simple drag-and-drop quizzes, end of unit quizzes, or more complex phishing simulations. 
7. Realistic simulations: We highly recommend choosing an SAT tool that offers simulations for email phishing, Smishing, and USB attacks. You should be able to create simulations easily using a pre-built template library or AI, and stagger delivery to mimic real-world threats. Users should be able to report simulations directly to their IT/security team via an email plug-in.
8. Reporting and analytics: You should be able to access reports into users’ training progress, completion rates, and behavioral risk scores, as well as any results collected from simulated phishing campaigns. 
9. Regular updates: The provider should frequently update the solution with new training modules based on the latest threats being seen in the wild. 
10. Integrations and compatibility: The solution should be compatible with any desktops and mobile devices your end users are using. For improved reporting, it should integrate with your SIEM/SOAR tools. If you’re using phishing simulations, it should integrate with your email client via API. Finally, if you’re using a self-hosted LMS, it must be easy for you to plug training content into the LMS platform. 

Future Trends: Where Is The SAT Market Headed?

As the SAT market continues to grow, SAT providers will evolve the training topics they cover in order to reflect changes in technology adoption in the workplace, such as adding passwordless authentication training into their password hygiene modules and cloud data security into their data handling and management modules. This type of update is something that all SAT providers have to be aware of, all the time. 

However, there are three major evolutions that we expect to see in this market over the next few years.

First, with the proliferation of GenAI and realistic deepfakes, SAT providers will have to make a concerted effort to keep up. To do this, it’s likely that we’ll see more providers: 

• Shifting away from long training sessions that only cover basic security topics, and towards snappy, micro-learning modules
• Utilizing AI to create realistic email phishing and even vishing simulations that are based on real-world threat intelligence and can be tailored to an organization’s specific needs (according to industry, employee risk level, etc.)

Second, and closely related to this, we can expect providers to build out their reporting capabilities to offer more granular human risk analytics. According to Mika Aalto, CEO of Hoxhunt, this will allow organizations to “analyze user behavior patterns and training performance data to pre-emptively identify vulnerable employees and target dynamic interventions.”

While some solutions are already doing this, we expect it to become more commonplace.

Third, as more organizations embrace SAT as being a means to cultivate real behavioral change, rather than a compliance-driven exercise, we expect more providers to introduce gamified elements such as quizzes, leaderboards, reward systems, and role-play scenarios to further drive end user engagement. 

Further Reading

You can find all our articles on SAT software in our Security Awareness Training Hub.

Want to jump right in? Here are a few articles we think you’ll enjoy: 

• Shortlist: Top Security Awareness Training Solutions For Business
• Article: How To Choose An Engaging, Bitesize Cyber Awareness Training Solution
• Article: Security Awareness Training For Cyber Insurance
• Interview: Training The Right Part Of Your Brain: PsySec Security Awareness Training
• Interview: You Can’t Patch A Human Being: How Behavioral Science Can Secure The Workplace