Proofpoint is an enterprise compliance and cybersecurity vendor.
This comparison breaks down Comma Compliance vs. Proofpoint on the metrics that matter most: capture coverage, security, pricing, and regulatory exam readiness, helping you find the best compliance archiving solution for your business.
At a Glance
Proofpoint’s breadth is real with 80+ channels, enterprise-grade infrastructure, deep ML supervision.
Breadth comes with complexity: capture, archive, and supervision are separate products with separate contracts, separate pricing, and separate implementations. What ultimately matters is whether the capture method is sound, transparent, and auditable.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Comma Compliance | Proofpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | End-to-end — capture, archive, supervision, policy matching, and exam-ready case management, with open source transparency. | Modular enterprise platform — Proofpoint Capture, Proofpoint Archive, and Proofpoint Supervision are separate products |
| Built-in archive | Yes — included in platform | Yes, as one of 3 products |
| WORM storage | Yes — written at point of capture | Yes |
| iMessage capture method | Point-of-delivery — not iCloud-dependent | via Proofpoint Capture |
| WhatsApp capture | Captures both WhatsApp Business and personal WhatsApp | WhatsApp and SMS via Proofpoint Capture |
| Signal capture | Yes — open-source capture code published on GitHub | Yes, Proofpoint Capture |
| Transparency | WhatsApp and Signal capture code published openly on GitHub — no NDA, no request required | Proprietary |
| Channels supported | 35+ channels where conversations happen: iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, SMS, Voice, Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, Gmail, Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Webex, Bloomberg Chat, Salesforce, Telegram, and more. | 80+ |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly pricing, all platforms included. No per-connector fees, no storage overages, no export fees. $33/user active, $15/user archival. | Modular — capture, archive, and supervision priced separately; enterprise contracts required; not publicly listed |
| Free trial | Yes | Not publicly offered |
| Personal vs. business separation | Automatic contact-based filtering — personal contacts can be excluded automatically | Not stated |
| Custom policy matching | Yes | Yes |
| Case management | Exam-ready — built for regulatory examination prep | Oriented toward litigation |
| AI compliance monitoring | Real-time policy scanning; human validation before escalation; no client data used for training without consent | AI-assisted pre-review and post-review |
| Data ownership | Client retains full ownership; never sold or shared outside authorized sub-processors | Not publicly detailed |
| Infrastructure | AWS and Azure, multi-AZ clustering, 99.9% uptime target, RPO 15 min, RTO under 4 hours | AWS; migrating existing customers to Proofpoint Archive on AWS through 2026 |
Competitor feature descriptions reflect publicly available documentation and may not capture all capabilities. Information is reviewed periodically.
When Proofpoint may be a better fit
- Firms that prefer modular integrations
- Firms that need legacy financial terminal coverage - ICE chat, Reuters Eikon
Modular Products
Capture, archive, and supervision are three separate Proofpoint products. That means three contracts, three implementations, and three pricing conversations. Supervision, the part that actually flags policy violations and generates exam-ready cases, is an optional add-on, not a default inclusion. Comma has a set per-user pricing, with no additional add-ons.
The standard WhatsApp compliance approach via WhatsApp Business API and a BSP only covers business-side messages. Personal WhatsApp accounts, which account for most off-channel compliance risk, aren’t captured through that route. Comma Compliance captures WhatsApp by being an authorized endpoint, so can operate personal, business, or enterprise WhatsApp without interruption.
Due Diligence
Questions to Ask Any Compliance Vendor
- 01
Where exactly is the message first captured - at the point of delivery, or after a backup or sync cycle?
- 02
What conditions must be true for a message to be captured? What happens if any of those conditions aren't met?
- 03
If a user edits or deletes a message before capture occurs, what version gets archived?
- 04
Can you show documentation - architecture diagrams, code, or an independent audit - of how your capture actually works?
- 05
Where are encryption keys stored, and who controls them?
- 06
Are all channels included in the base price, or are there per-connector fees?
- 07
Are there export or egress fees?
- 08
Does your case management workflow support regulatory examination prep?
- 09
Can cases be opened directly from flagged message threads?
- 10
Is any client data used to train your models? Under what conditions?
- 11
Can we adjust, refine, or contribute feedback to my policy models? (e.g., different languages, customer-complaint responses)
See why firms switch from Proofpoint to Comma.
A 20-minute walkthrough — real capture, real-time flagging, transparent pricing.
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