All our Office 365 emails will first go through Barracuda. It checks for any EXEs and the like, checking the email contents to allow or stop those. We also use the solution for archiving and backups.
Network Administrator at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport
The solution did a great job of blocking EXEs and phishing emails
Pros and Cons
- "Its backups are valuable."
- "The dashboard's UI could be improved to make changes to the blocklist."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
From a security point of view, Barracuda Email Security improved our mail environment. Other than that, its backups are valuable.
What needs improvement?
The dashboard's UI could be improved to make changes to the blocklist. We currently have to go into the mail and check the list and the dashboard, and it would be better if we could directly block particular domains or emails instead.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this solution for almost four years.
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda has been stable till now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 100 users using Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
How are customer service and support?
Barracuda's technical support is fine.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to have FortiMail, and we migrated to Barracuda. Barracuda is much more effective than FortiMail. Barracuda handles spam better.
What about the implementation team?
An integrator handled the initial setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We find the solution's pricing okay.
What other advice do I have?
Our management wants to migrate to E5 from E3 and says we don't need Barracuda Email Security. However, we are unsure if E5 will have the same features as Barracuda.
I recommend Barracuda, and from a security point of view, I would rate it a nine out of ten. It didn't let any EXEs or phishing emails through.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Head of Engineering at Fentons Limited
Useful zero-day protection, effective reporting, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the cloud ATP functionality not available on the on-premise version. Most of the zero-day attacks can be mitigated with ATP. Additionally, the reporting functionality is good."
- "My customers were sending OPT bulk emails and Barracuda Email Security Gateway was not able to handle it. We have to go with another different solution, such FortiMail for the task. We are implementing these combinations of the Barracuda and FortiGate, for email security. The FortiGate FortiMail security gateway we use to send only the bulk email, not for receiving emails."
What is our primary use case?
We are Barracuda Email Security Gateway for protecting our user's emails.
How has it helped my organization?
We use Barracuda Email Security Gateway for receiving an email from the corporate.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the cloud ATP functionality not available on the on-premise version. Most of the zero-day attacks can be mitigated with ATP. Additionally, the reporting functionality is good.
What needs improvement?
My customers were sending OPT bulk emails and Barracuda Email Security Gateway was not able to handle it. We have to go with another different solution, such FortiMail for the task. We are implementing these combinations of the Barracuda and FortiGate, for email security. The FortiGate FortiMail security gateway we use to send only the bulk email, not for receiving emails.
In a future release, they should provide machine learning capabilities on the on-premise version. Other vendors, such as Palo Alto and Check Point are coming out with machine learning and artificial intelligence features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used Barracuda Email Security Gateway within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We had an issue with the solution but the vendor immediately fixed it. The solution is stable.
I rate the stability of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 5,000 users using this solution.
I rate the scalability of Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The support from the vendor is very good.
I rate the technical support of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with a number of other similar solutions to Barracuda Email Security Gateway, such as Symantec. The features have been similar to one another, but Barracuda Email Security Gateway is better.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of the solution took approximately three months. We had to test the solution thoroughly before we started using it. Overall, the deployment was simple.
I rate the initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.
What about the implementation team?
We do the consulting and implementation of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is priced low. We have received a good price discount here in Sri Lanka. There are additional licenses we have to purchase a license for the ATP.
I rate the price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway a ten out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cloud Engineer at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Straightforward to set up with good threat visibility and a nice interface
Pros and Cons
- "We find the product to be scalable."
- "The pricing is a little bit high, and it is causing the company to rethink renewal. If they could lower the pricing, that would be ideal."
What is our primary use case?
I'm still new to the Barracuda. We're using the Email Security Gateway, however, I'm not sure about the cloud, or the archive capabilities. It's a new system for me.
How has it helped my organization?
Email security has been quite helpful. It acts as a protector, especially for the inbound emails every day. I can see if there are a lot of phishing emails or scam emails being blocked by the system. That's very important for the company. The organization is so big, and with so many emails coming in, having it as the first line of defense is great.
What is most valuable?
The interface is good, and it offers good integrations.
The solution offers very good email security. It protects us from spam and scam emails.
It offers good visibility of any potential threats trying to enter the system.
The initial setup should be straightforward.
It is cloud-based.
So far, the solution has been stable.
We find the product to be scalable.
What needs improvement?
The pricing is a little bit high, and it is causing the company to rethink renewal. If they could lower the pricing, that would be ideal.
For how long have I used the solution?
I'm still pretty new to the solution. I haven't used it for that long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't heard of the term having issues with reliability. It is stable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. It's easy to expand.
We have about 2,000 people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had a chance to work with technical support. I don't know how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Mimecast. I used it about two or three years ago. Barracuda is a bit different from Mimecast. I recall Mimecast having good integration with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online. We used it to protect email and block malware mostly.
How was the initial setup?
I'm new to the company. I wasn't involved in the initial setup of the product. That said, my understanding is that it is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't deal with the licensing and can't speak to the exact cost of the solution.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users, not partners.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Information Technology Specialist at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great message tracking and messaging logs but has a complex setup
Pros and Cons
- "It can scale."
- "The initial setup can be a little bit complex."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for email security.
What is most valuable?
The solution is largely stable.
It can scale.
Overall, it has been working fine without issue.
The message tracking and messaging logs have proven to be quite useful.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup can be a little bit complex.
When we implemented Barracuda three years back, although the deployment went smoothly, we also needed to implement some changes regarding the configuration, which were affecting the stamp control rate. Some options were not so easy to remember and we had to search for directions.
For example, if I want to change the mail flow settings, there are two different options available in Barracuda. If I apply a change on one option and didn't change the configuration on the other option, the mail flow doesn't work. Yet the second option is always hidden. I always need to search for it when I need to change some mail flow settings.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for more than three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. Sometimes some spamming issues occur, however, we manage to control those after making some changes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a model that supports 5,000 users. We currently have 3,500 users. We have room to scale.
The solution does work fine with a large number of users.
How are customer service and support?
I administer the solution and provide troubleshooting and issue resolution as required. The support from Barracuda is pretty good overall when I reach out.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have an experience with Barracuda Email Security, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Defender.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup and implementation process is complex. It is not exactly easy.
I'd rate it 2.5 out of five in terms of ease of setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is moderate. It was neither cheap nor expensive.
I'd rate the cost 3.5 out of five in terms of affordability.
What other advice do I have?
We're a Barracuda customer.
We are using virtual appliances, not the cloud version of the solution. That said, we do plan to move to the cloud.
While we are not planning to change Barracuda, we are planning to improve Barracuda after purchasing the cloud solution. Our plan is to enhance our email security when we integrate our appliance with the Barracuda Cloud solution.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. Some of the exposed emails were not blocked by our Barracuda clients. Although we have engaged the principal, and they helped troubleshoot and tweak some configurations, it's still an issue. We still face some exposed emails delivered to our management level.
I'd advise potential new users that if they plan to implement Barracuda, they should find someone knowledgeable in implementations. They need someone who will follow best practices and understand procedures laid out in the documentation. After configuration and implementation, there may still be some fine-tuning required.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Engineer at Pronet
It has strong support and good cloud features, but spam filtering could be improved
Pros and Cons
- "I like Barracuda's cloud sandbox feature."
- "Barracuda's spam database isn't on par with its competitors. Users complain about the spam email they're receiving, and we report the issue. Barracuda said they are going to update their system to block the malicious email we received, but we're still getting the same spam. The signatures are not in their database. They need to update their spam signatures because spam is bypassing Barracuda."
What is our primary use case?
Barracuda is similar to FortiMail. There is a cloud component that acts like a sandbox. The email enters, and you can open a suspicious attachment to see if it's malicious. If you find that it's malicious, you can block it and send it to Barracuda's on-prem device.
The on-prem device looks for other details like URLs and particular types of content. If everything looks okay, it's forwarded to the SMTP server and the user. We have around 20 to 30 users.
What is most valuable?
I like Barracuda's cloud sandbox feature.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda's spam database isn't on par with its competitors. Users complain about the spam email they're receiving, and we report the issue. Barracuda said they are going to update their system to block the malicious email we received, but we're still getting the same spam. The signatures are not in their database. They need to update their spam signatures because spam is bypassing Barracuda.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Barracuda for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Barracuda scales as well as FortiMail. You can scale up based on the number of users per box and the email receiver.
How are customer service and support?
Barracuda provides solid support, but they have a different model. They open the terminal, check the issue, and then tell us the problem.
How was the initial setup?
Barracuda is just like Kaspersky or FortiMail. The initial setup is seamless. They provide the box, and we must mount and configure it according to the customer's environment. It takes about a day or a half-day if you're familiar with the Barracuda environment.
I can easily configure it because it's so typical. When I configure any box, I go over the features. For example, I will first configure the SMTP server if I want to create an inbound flow. I look for that feature and configure it. The fundamentals don't vary much between devices. Some options might be different, or the features may have another name. There may be some additional features that FortiMail has, but Barracuda doe not. It varies from device to device, but the basic configuration is the same.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway six out of 10. Based on my experience, we are recommending FortiMail or Barracuda because we find these two solutions the most stable. FortiMail has fewer issues with spam.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
IT Manager at BUTEC s.a.l.
Effective ATP, high availability, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP."
- "Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for ATP, anti-spam, antivirus, and everything related to enabling flow.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening.
In the future, having a schedule reporting for quarantine for all users or for selected users, without reading the content of the message would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is stable. We had issues with the on-premise version where they used to freeze from time to time, but with the cloud version, we have not had any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a scalable solution.
We have approximately 500 people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have used the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
I rate the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway a three out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway took approximately two months to complete here in Lebanon. It was not an easy implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We used Barracuda Email Security Gateway partners to complete the implementation of the solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is approximately $17 per user annually.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate another solution prior to selecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
What other advice do I have?
We chose the solution because it was high on the rating sites and some of my friends from other companies recommend it.
My advice to others is to make sure that their business use case is well optimized, to allow the solution to be set up in the right way.
We are a construction company and we make sure that the emails related to construction pass through the solution. Other companies, such as in marketing, will want to make sure that the marketing campaign passes through. We don't want any marketing campaigns to pass through. You need to see your business use case and your business needs, and you will have to adapt the solution.
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Security Engineer at Pronet
A security for managing both inbound and outbound email and preventing it from threats
What is our primary use case?
The solution helps manage both inbound and outbound email. It prevents email phishing, spam attacks, and major attacks, securing email communication against various threats, including social engineering and compromised addresses. It has multiple features to prevent the user from being the victim of attacks.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda does not provide support for DMARC for outgoing emails. DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance.
For troubleshooting it at the core, We have to open a separate support to provide accessibility to the IT team, facilitating engineers to get into it and offer support. We have to establish a separate support tunnel at the customer site to make it accessible to the cloud, allowing the tagged engineers, potentially situated in another country, to provide remote support to the customers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
After three or four years, you can switch the hardware. When a new technology becomes available or the existing hardware needs an upgrade, they replace the customer's hardware box with a new one without additional charges. Barracuda does not charge extra for deploying the new boxes or for replacement. The best feature is their box is refreshed after some time according to their hardware renewal policies.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable.
We deployed the solution on different company and customer sites.
We’ve around nine to ten customers using the solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
FortiMail Security Gateway is far better than Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
Barracuda’s reporting feature allows you to locate particular logs and issues. The solution analyzes the issue if an email is not received at the recipient site. It also monitors email in the queue. FortiMail is difficult to handle from a reporting perspective. You have to dig deep into the logs to understand why a specific email is not being sent or received.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup and configuration are straightforward. It requires no MF records to be enabled. The platform provides two distinct interfaces for easy domain and IP address management with blacklisting and whitelisting capabilities.
To configure the system, you must set up SMTP servers, mail servers, and email addresses, enabling various security features such as anti-phishing, antivirus, content deployment, email reconstruction, etc. It is very simple to configure and use.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is cheaper than FortiMail.
What other advice do I have?
I have deployed one box on-site but also provided support for deployed boxes in many customer sites, Government sites, and private sectors.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Co-Founder at I A M IT Technologies LLC
A security solution to protect email, domain, and users with rate controlling feature
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to protect our email, domain, and users against spear phishing, spamming, malware, and malicious attacks regarding attachments and URLs.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are filtering and rate controlling. They are good and are required to avoid having low IP, email, and domain reputations.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, Barracuda Blacklist blocks the general IP list from the source domains. They block the genuine sources, too.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway as an integrator for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is 100% stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very much scalable. We have ten customers in the Middle East and five customers in India.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is very good compared to other solutions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We’ve used Mimecast before. We had a support issue that we couldn't resolve. Barracuda offered a more scalable and cost-effective solution with the features and support we needed.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy, compatible to manage, and takes a maximum of three hours to complete.
Since we are using MP65, we procure the SaaS model. We generally follow the same process for SaaS to deploy the solution.
What was our ROI?
We’ve already invested 100 Euros, roughly 10lakh rupees, and received 30-50% ROI.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution, especially for email security, load balancing, and journaling.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator

Buyer's Guide
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Updated: April 2025
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