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AppRiver Email Security vs Barracuda Email Protection comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AppRiver Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
37th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (3rd), Security Incident Response (6th), Office 365 Protection (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of AppRiver Email Security is 0.7%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 2.4%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Protection2.4%
AppRiver Email Security0.7%
Other96.9%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

John Zupancic - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President / Branch Manager / Senior Technician at Aperion Information Technologies, Inc.
Pricing that is competitive, excellent technical support, and email security
They do a better job of distinguishing between what's real and what's not than most of the other solutions we've tried. They are very easy to use. We don't have as many problems with email security. They have some areas that could be improved. For example, we also use Zix email Encryption for email encryption, which was clunky and could be improved, but the email security itself has been excellent.
Xavie Simons - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
Improved email security has reduced spam, simplified encrypted mail, and strengthened user trust
The best features Barracuda Email Protection offers include good spam filtering and very good sandboxing of all links, as well as good encryption. It also has integrated logging for user management of their own spam. It has better filtering technology, so few are false positives as well, with excellent anti-spam engines and logging. It is extremely easy to install, configure, and set up, and there is excellent message tracking for folks that say they have not received an email they were expecting. Integrated logging and user management make my daily work easier because it is very easy to log in and to manage this tool, hence making it a very good tool for email protection. It also has excellent, easy-to-add designated users as site administrators, and it is competitively priced. It has a user-friendly portal, strong cloud-based features, and no additional maintenance cost, along with responsive support. Barracuda Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by handling encryption better than any other tool I have used before, which has increased our email protection significantly. Our security has also increased from forty percent to sixty-five percent, especially when dealing with all the threats that come through emails. It has been a great tool because we can handle email delays and delays on file scanning. When our partners are happy, we are very happy, and it has helped us have less time chasing bad emails. The fast implementation of encrypted mail keeps employees working with less interruption since they are happy, satisfied, and secure.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"They are very easy to use."
"It's easy to use and user-friendly. Users can also easily release spam emails."
"They do a better job of distinguishing between what's real and what's not than most of the other solutions we've tried."
"I would rate the solution nine out of ten."
"This is one of the easiest, safest, and most secure solutions for security and email archival."
"The most valuable feature is the gateway."
"The best feature of Barracuda Email Protection is that it provides protection for Microsoft 365."
"At the moment, I am working with Sophos Cloud, Sophos Intercept X; when they introduced the XDR, we used it, and then when they introduced the Optix, we used it, and then we upgraded our subscription with them to MDR, so we are now utilizing Sophos Cloud Central MDR."
"Barracuda Email Protection has positively impacted my client's organization by reducing almost 50 to 60 percent of phishing emails, making it more secure and allowing us to feel safe from phishing incidents."
"I don't see any other email security solution that stacks up against them."
"The most valuable features of Barracuda Essentials are it's a trusted name and is rated very high on review sites. It blocks high percentages of spam and junk email and it's in the cloud. They have hardware appliances, but this is in the cloud. The solution is very effective at blocking malware and blocking spam and this is what we are looking for. There's not a whole lot of complexity, you want a solution that is very good at blocking out all of the unwanted emails."
 

Cons

"Email security checks contain a small number of false positives."
"Technical support is no longer as good as it once was."
"It needs to make sure that the application is up to date with new attacks. They should also send us the demo or introductions for their new incoming features."
"Two to three months back, we got fraudulent emails in which someone in the organization was being blamed."
"The customer service and support could be improved if the support were available directly in Europe. Currently, the support is often managed from India, so we sometimes need to wait due to the time zone difference. It would be quicker and better if the support were provided by European staff."
"I would like to see some additional functionality in terms of employee monitoring, as part of a work-from-home security solution."
"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."
"Barracuda Email Protection can be improved by enhancing the reporting feature."
"The licensing and pricing need to be improved."
"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platforms and third-party solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I can rate it five out of ten because there are different platforms that also offer the same services for lower prices. But AppRiver is more flexible."
"They're fairly inexpensive, but they're right in the ballpark of most of the other online products like that."
"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"We pay annually. They never charged us for anything else. And they were quite a bit under that $20,000 mark. It was $19,074. And they've been pretty good about not skyrocketing the price or anything like that. It has gone up. It's gone up to $24,000 in 2020."
"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."
"The price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Retailer
9%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Barracuda Email Protection?
Barracuda Email Protection is easy to deploy and maintain. It doesn't require a specialized resource to manage this tool.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Protection?
I would say the price for Barracuda Email Protection is very nice; the solution is not expensive.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?
Considering it integrates with Azure, I would like to be able to effectively set up policies where people are by default included in certain settings. For instance, for email quarantine, I can't se...
 

Also Known As

AppRiver Advanced Email Security
Barracuda Essentials, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

IHMC
ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about AppRiver Email Security vs. Barracuda Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.