Why Tartan
GoPhish is free and open source. The rest is on your team: running the server, setting up mail sending, adding staff by hand or from a CSV file, and writing or importing every phishing email. Tartan App handles all four, and $191 a year covers a district with one school.
Free onboarding. Same-day support via email, phone, or video call.
What You Pay
GoPhish costs $0 under the MIT license, and your school supplies the server, the mail relay, and the staff time. With Tartan, $191 a year covers a district with one school: phishing simulations, staff videos, and the report button with Threat Manager.
Transparent pricing and no expensive onboarding fees. Compare security awareness training prices across vendors.
Built for schools
Why Tartan wins
These are the jobs GoPhish leaves to your team, and what Tartan does for each one.
GoPhish is a program you download and run on your own server. The links in its phishing emails point back to that server, so staff have to be able to reach it when they click. Tartan runs in the cloud, so there's no server to host, and most schools are set up in under 30 minutes.
GoPhish sends through an SMTP relay you configure, and its FAQ suggests allowlisting the server's IP address during tests. Tartan delivers simulations straight into Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 inboxes, so allowlisting usually isn't needed.
In GoPhish, you add people to groups one at a time or from a CSV file. Tartan syncs staff from Google Workspace OUs and groups, or from Microsoft 365 groups and departments.
In GoPhish, you create or import each template in an HTML editor. Tartan's simulations are tailored to the services your school uses, with AI-generated templates and adaptive difficulty.
Comparison
A clear view of where Tartan fits K-12 needs compared with GoPhish.
Comparison details can vary based on plan and configuration. Contact us for a tailored assessment.
Texas Cyber Command certified Tartan App’s cybersecurity awareness training program for the 2026–2027 program year.
K-12 proof
Measured result
Between July and October 2026, Verona Area School District staff reported 152 suspicious emails with Tartan App Shield.
Testimonial
"The problem was that everything created entirely by us for every campaign took precious time away from our other responsibilities in the district."
Jason Rubo, Director of Technology and Digital Learning, Verona Area School District
Contact us
Get a personalized walkthrough and see how Tartan fits your district's security awareness goals.
FAQs
Yes. GoPhish is open source under the MIT license, and its docs call it "completely free for anyone to use." You still need a server to run it on, an SMTP relay to send through, and time to build each campaign. Tartan's prices for 1 to 10 schools are on our pricing page.
The latest GoPhish release is v0.12.1, published September 14, 2022. The last commit to its GitHub repository was on September 23, 2024 (as of October 2026).
Not yet. GoPhish's docs say it doesn't have email extensions or add-ons for reporting. It can check a mailbox over IMAP for reported simulation emails. Tartan App Shield adds a report button to Gmail and Outlook, and every report goes to Threat Manager.
GoPhish's user guide has no training content. Its landing pages can send people to another website after they submit a form, so the training has to come from somewhere else. Tartan includes 60+ short videos and micro-training after a click.
GoPhish's user guide covers adding people by hand or from a CSV file and lists no Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 sync. Tartan syncs staff from Google Workspace OUs and groups, or from Microsoft 365 groups and departments.