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AWS Backup vs Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
AWS Backup enhances ROI through data protection, compliance readiness, and cost-effective, efficient backup management with strong time savings.
Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense improved security, reduced incidents, and increased efficiency, providing significant cost savings and operational stability.
If your staff can become aware and trained to have minimal incidents, that is a huge return on investment for any organization.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
We have seen a return on investment evidenced by fewer breaching incidents and less workload for our security team.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
I have seen a return on investment with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) as it has protected our customers against targeted phishing emails, set up training campaigns easily, and trained the human firewall.
Marketing Director at Unisys
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
AWS Backup customer service is generally appreciated for quick responses, though satisfaction varies with complexity and support plan level.
Sentiment score
8.6
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense customer support is praised for responsive, proactive 24/7 assistance, achieving high ratings from users.
The customer service is top-notch, rated ten out of ten.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
In the first interaction, I have already provided the logs, and they are asking again and again for the same logs.
Senior Analyst at ESRI INDIA
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very responsive and supportive 24/7.
Marketing Director at Unisys
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very proactive and responsive.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very proactive and supportive.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
AWS Backup is scalable and suitable for various businesses, despite limited platform support and certain feature constraints.
Sentiment score
9.0
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers high scalability and reliability, efficiently supporting medium to large businesses' email protection needs.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable, with no downtime noticed, and it is really fast.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is scalable because I do not need to manage anything; it will be managed on their end.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
AWS Backup is highly stable and reliable, boasting 99.99% uptime, with minor issues for less experienced users.
Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is highly rated for stability, with most users experiencing no downtime, ensuring reliable operation.
AWS Backup is very stable, rating nine out of ten.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very stable; I have not experienced any downtime or reliability issues.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Room For Improvement

AWS Backup needs better reporting, faster restores, enhanced hybrid support, cost efficiency, improved UX, and better database compatibility.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs UI, pricing flexibility, better documentation, improved integration, and enhanced phishing detection and support.
Stronger automated recovery testing capabilities and enhanced governance features for larger, multi-account, and multi-regional environments would make AWS Backup even more valuable for enterprise-scale operations.
Head Of IT, Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Currently, it only includes around ten services, while AWS offers over three hundred plus services.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
Regarding disadvantages of AWS Backup, it can be expensive and not particularly user-friendly.
Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The cost could be more affordable, especially for smaller organizations working on a tight budget.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
We need to enhance detection capabilities for phishing emails.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The price increased about two years ago, which is a big concern, especially for small organizations working on a tight budget.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Setup Cost

AWS Backup costs depend on storage and usage, requiring monitoring despite competitive pricing, with non-transparent enterprise terms.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is valued as budget-friendly for small organizations, despite being pricier than some alternatives.
AWS Backup has a moderate cost, rated at two or three out of ten regarding pricing.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that this tool is very cost-effective, but the price was increased around two years ago.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost is very effective and affordable.
Marketing Director at Unisys
I find the price to be cost-effective.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
 

Valuable Features

AWS Backup provides centralized management, cross-region support, scalability, and security, with seamless AWS integration and user-friendly automation.
Barracuda Essentials enhances email security with advanced threat protection, anti-phishing, and user-friendly monitoring for increased productivity.
The ability to maintain all backups via one service simplifies compliance with regulations such as NIST, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group
If we encounter any service-related issues, such as when someone accidentally deletes a table in production or testing, we can immediately restore the data from backup.
Lead Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The integration with AWS Organization allows backup policies to be applied consistently across multiple accounts, which is very important for large organization environments where governance and compliance are critical.
Head Of IT, Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The URL filtering is excellent, as it reviews every link sent in an email and rewrites it to open in a sandbox first if clicked on.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
I value their ability to protect against various online threats such as spam, phishing, ransomware, and malware.
Marketing Director at Unisys
It has been a very good tool, increasing email security by 70%, improving compliance and risk management, and providing adequate training, making our staff more aware and alert, as they check more often and report more spam emails.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS Backup
Ranking in Cloud Backup
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
SaaS Backup (5th)
Barracuda Email Gateway Def...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of AWS Backup is 2.1%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Backup2.1%
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)0.5%
Other97.4%
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

Chukwudi Uzoma - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of IT, Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Automated backups have strengthened governance and compliance while simplifying recovery
AWS Backup offers several valuable features. I think the fact that it is an AWS organization-wide service is significant. It is a centralized management system that allows me to manage AWS Backup policies, retention periods, and monitoring from a single place instead of configuring these backups for each AWS service. This helps with governance and control. Another feature I appreciate is the integration with AWS Organization, which allows backup policies to be applied consistently across multiple accounts, which is very important for large organization environments where governance and compliance are critical. I also appreciate the automated backup plans that reduce operational overhead and ensure resources are protected without relying on manual intervention. Additionally, cross-account and cross-region backup support improves resilience against accidental deletion, ransomware, or regional outages. The compliance and reporting features help provide visibility into backup status, recovery points, and policy adherence, making audits much easier.
Kelly  Perry - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
Email defenses have reduced phishing risk and now protect our remote workforce every day
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) has had a very positive impact on our organization, especially since the pandemic with many remote workers. Our IT objective is 99.9% uptime with many redundant fail-safes in place. Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) helps to meet that objective by protecting the vast amount of email we receive on a daily basis. I can share specific metrics or results: we've reduced risk by 60% and increased visibility by 70%. Now we have peace of mind in our organization since we know our email is protected. Email protection has dramatically reduced attacks via spam, phishing, and malware in all sectors, enhancing protection and encryption of input and output and preventing data from being leaked from the internal network.
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Media Company
25%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Backup?
Pricing for AWS Backup is based on storage and backup frequency. Although it is reasonable, it requires monitoring, especially with long retention periods.
What needs improvement with AWS Backup?
AWS Backup is a great service, but I think there could be improvements on the reporting and dashboard side. More visibility into backup-related costs would be beneficial because I am very FinOps-mi...
What is your primary use case for AWS Backup?
I utilize AWS Backup to automate and centralize backup operations across AWS services in my AWS organization. It helps me ensure compliance with retention requirements, reduce operational overheads...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is competitive compared to other solutions. They provide costs in a similar manner to their competitors.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) can be improved, as it offers advanced phishing features but still needs fine-tuning. While it is strong, some advanced and highly targeted ph...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is an email filtering gateway for inbound and outbound that integrates with platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Barracuda Email...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TransferWise
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Backup vs. Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.