Phishing Simulation Tools 2026
Phishing simulation tools fire controlled, fake phishing at your own employees, increasingly across smishing, vishing, QR, and deepfake lures, so you can see who clicks, who reports, and who surrenders credentials, then route the people who fall for it into targeted training. They sit in the Human Risk space because a slide deck nobody remembers is a poor proxy for how staff behave under a real lure. CISOs use them to convert "are our people a liability?" into a number they can trend, benchmark, and bring to leadership, and to give auditors and cyber insurers the evidence of an active testing program they now expect over annual click-through courses.
We cover 71 Phishing Simulation tools, 4 free and 67 commercial.
Accuracy and depth improve over time. Last reviewed Sep 2026. Is something off? Reach out.
FEATURED
USE CASES
New to this category? What is Phishing Simulation?
Automated phishing simulation platform with training for at-risk employees
AI-driven phishing simulation platform for employee security awareness training
Phishing simulation platform with automated attack simulations and training
Phishing simulation platform with automated testing and just-in-time training
Phishing simulation platform with behavioral insights and automated campaigns
AI-powered callback/voice phishing simulation platform for employee training
AI-driven voice phishing simulation platform for employee training
QR code phishing simulation platform for security awareness training
AI-driven SMS phishing simulation platform for employee security training
AI-powered phishing simulation platform for security awareness training
AI-powered phishing simulation platform for security awareness training
Simulates phishing attacks to test employee security awareness and response
AI-powered phishing simulation & training using real blocked threats
Cloud-based phishing simulation platform with training and gamification
Phishing simulation tool for training employees to recognize social engineering
AI-powered phishing simulation platform with personalized training experiences
Phishing simulation and security awareness training platform for employees
Phishing simulation platform for security awareness training and testing
Extended Human Risk Mgmt platform with AI phishing simulation & training
Human Risk Management, phishing simulation, and security awareness training platform
King Phisher is a phishing campaign toolkit for testing and promoting user awareness through simulated attacks.
A platform for creating and managing fake phishing campaigns to raise awareness and train users to identify suspicious emails.
An open-source phishing toolkit for businesses and penetration testers.
How to choose Phishing Simulation tools
- Look past raw click rate: the metrics that actually move risk are report rate and repeat-offender trends over time, so confirm the platform tracks both and benchmarks against peers.
- Match the attack channels to your real threat model. Email alone falls short if your people face smishing, vishing, QR-code lures, or AI-generated deepfake voice and video.
- Judge the template library on realism and localization, not size. Stale or obviously fake templates train people to spot the simulation, not the attack, and global teams need lures in their own language and context.
- Verify deliverability and mail-gateway handling so simulations actually land. A tool that gets caught by your own filters, or that trains users to whitelist the sender, undermines the test.
- Insist on tight links to your identity provider, mail platform, and surrounding awareness stack, so failures auto-enroll users in training without manual list wrangling.
- Match the remediation model to your culture. Decide between just-in-time micro-training at the moment of failure, manager visibility, or a no-blame approach, and confirm the tool supports the path you can sustain.
Articles About Phishing Simulation
Tool roundups, buying guides, and strategic analysis from the CybersecTools resource library.
Phishing Simulation Tools FAQ
Common questions about Phishing Simulation tools, selection guides, pricing, and comparisons.
It is a platform that launches realistic but harmless phishing campaigns against your own staff, then tracks who opened, clicked, submitted credentials, or reported the message. Results feed dashboards and trigger follow-up training for those who fell for it. The point is to measure and reduce human susceptibility to social engineering with real behavioral data, not course completion rates.
Awareness training delivers the lessons: videos, modules, and policy content that teach people what phishing looks like. Phishing simulation is the exam that proves whether the lessons stuck, exposing employees to live lures and recording real behavior. Most vendors bundle both, but they answer different questions. Training tells you what people were taught; simulation tells you what they do under pressure.
Match the template library and attack channels to the threats your workforce actually faces, including smishing, vishing, QR, and deepfake lures where relevant. Confirm reporting goes past click rates to report rates and repeat-offender trends, that it connects to your mail gateway and identity provider, and that automated remediation training fits your culture. Localization and a one-click report button matter for global or non-technical teams.
Open-source frameworks like GoPhish can run campaigns for free if you have the engineering time to host, template, and maintain them, which suits teams that want full control. Commercial platforms add managed deliverability, large localized template libraries, automated training assignment, benchmarking, and reporting that satisfies auditors and insurers. Past a small scale, most organizations find the operational overhead and reporting gaps of DIY outweigh the licensing cost.
