Arsen Phishing Simulation vs King Phisher: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Arsen Phishing Simulation is a commercial phishing simulation tool by Arsen. King Phisher is a free phishing simulation tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best phishing simulation fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Security teams at mid-market and enterprise companies who need unlimited phishing variations without burning out their security staff should run Arsen Phishing Simulation. The platform's AI generates unique scenarios across email, SMS, voice, and BEC simultaneously, which means you're testing employee behavior against realistic threats instead of recycled templates. The adaptive difficulty engine adjusts based on individual performance, so struggling employees get harder campaigns while your security-aware staff don't waste time on trivial tests. One honest limitation: Arsen maps directly to NIST PR.AT awareness training but doesn't offer the post-breach investigation or forensics layers that larger enterprises sometimes expect in a full security awareness platform.
Security teams with limited budgets who need hands-on control over phishing simulation will find King Phisher's open-source design and zero licensing cost hard to beat; you build campaigns directly rather than waiting for vendor-managed templates. The 2,442 GitHub stars reflect active community contributions and real-world deployments across mid-market organizations. Skip this if your team lacks Linux administration chops or needs polished UI workflows and managed reporting; King Phisher demands more operator effort than commercial alternatives like Gophish or Evilginx2, and you'll spend time on infrastructure instead of just running tests.
