Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai comparison

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Download the complete report

Helped 879,422 peers since 2012

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

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

24th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (34th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (14th), IoT Security (7th), WAN Edge (13th)

The NodeZero Platform by Ho...

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

13th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (9th), Penetration Testing Services (1st), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (2nd), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 1.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai	0.5%
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall	1.6%
Other	97.9%

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Talha Bashir

Offensive Security Analyst at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees

Centralized security management has protected our hybrid network and supports secure remote work

Overall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is very effective, but there is always room for improvement. One area that could be enhanced is the user interface, making it slightly more intuitive for new users. Additionally, advanced reporting and analytics could be more customized to provide deeper insights. Despite this, the firewall performs reliably and meets most of our organizational needs. One additional improvement that could enhance the experience is faster troubleshooting support or more detailed guided documentation for complex configurations. While the firewall is reliable, having more step-by-step tutorials or video guidance could help new users set up and optimize. Overall, the enhancement would make the platform even more user-friendly without affecting its current strong performance.

Read full review

Shaun Hunt

Chief Information Officer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has unified our IT teams by providing clear visibility into network vulnerabilities and accelerated remediation with real-world attack testing

One of the things that we've shared with Horizon is just the reporting. They've made a lot of changes over time, but when examining computers, most average normal people don't look at a computer and identify it as 114.82.117.180. They identify it as 'the printer for accounting.' When many of the reports give the very detailed technical IP address or serial number, that's really not helpful for anyone other than the person, the hands-on person that's trying to remediate it. All the managers, all the leaders, having information in that format isn't helpful. Being able to have information about what those devices are would be very helpful. There's a technical reason they can't just have an easy button because some people have really complicated networks. When examining things for the average company, the average executive, that 114 number, there's only one of those. But if examining an AT&T or a Walmart, it isn't unique. They haven't solved that problem. But for the 90% of companies, being able to have just a human readable name for all devices on your network in all of the reports all of the time would be the most beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's great for handling complex items."

"Inbound and outbound traffic analysis, rule creation wizard, and the GUI portal are among the key features."

"The most valuable features of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall include antivirus protection, anti-DDoS, and IPS."

"Live monitoring of what is happening inside and on the interfaces, either ingress or egress."

"Most people are using enterprise applications remotely, and there is no license for SSL VPN, or in other words point-to-site. There is no limit on that. On other devices there is a specific limit and you have to pay per use for SSL VPN."

"The interface is very user-friendly and it is quite easy to use."

"Since implementing the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we've seen significant benefits, particularly in stopping a lot of unnecessary or dangerous emails. One key feature we value is the ability to train the solution with emails categorized as threats, giving it a learning capacity."

"The solution is stable."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pros

"Honestly, it's one of the most transformational technologies we've implemented in our company."

"Penetration testing and scans are useful features."

"Overall, I'd rate NodeZero at nine to 9.5 out of ten."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help identify vulnerabilities on my on-premise systems by adding an element of validation and offensive security testing on top of known vulnerabilities. The feature that allows security teams to fix and retest vulnerabilities instantly is very useful, even though it may not happen literally 'instantly.' It's a necessary tool for any organization to understand whether vulnerabilities are genuinely exploitable by attackers. With its near-real-time testing capabilities, it's an essential part of any security portfolio."

"My favorite feature about The NodeZero Platform is that it's autonomous, and it truly delivers on that promise—it can be set and forgotten while it performs its tasks, and it does exactly what it claims to do."

"We experienced a threat that could have severely crippled us, but we were able to shut it down before it escalated, thanks to internal vulnerability testing and addressing critical vulnerabilities using their tool."

"For us, The NodeZero Platform is literally the single best security solution we have because the way that it works is we're able to scan every part of our network, both internally and externally, and then get completely actionable feedback that doesn't matter if it's for an application developer or a network admin."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help in identifying vulnerabilities on our on-prem systems because it provides actual vulnerabilities by attacking our systems."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai pros

Cons

"The usability for the administrator's experience needs improvement. My system administrator has some questions about its overall connectivity and flexibility."

"There could be improvements in licensing."

"While using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we encounter issues with VPN profiles for Windows."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"It would be better if they had a trace and trap feature. It's hard for me to say anything bad about Barracuda. This is because we had a firewall go down in the town of Kirkland Lake, and it was a blown-out port, and they had an instant replacement."

"The price is a bit higher than other vendors."

"It's a little bit complex in terms of handling. If you implement a change, there is a specific point where you have to commit it. It's not like you just push a button and it's always committed. If you don't know to check whether your commit command has been executed or not... that is something Barracuda needs to work on."

"There is room for improvement in performance and the support language. The support they're providing right now is from a different country, and in our country, there are people—network admins and IT heads—who don't speak English properly. So Barracuda needs to provide support agents who speak additional languages, such as Bangla."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall cons

"They've added a chatbot which isn't particularly useful, but when it can't answer questions, it forwards messages to human support."

"The reports are quite useless."

"You need to be cautious about what it scans, as it could potentially cause issues."

"The speed of the scans takes some time, but in my opinion, it is not surprising for what it is doing."

"Sometimes even their support doesn't know why we're seeing certain issues."

"I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good."

"The areas for improvement for The NodeZero Platform involve integration and automation. It would be beneficial if it could integrate directly with vulnerability management tools that would allow the platform to automatically import data, identify vulnerable systems, and test targets immediately, potentially even enabling automated feedback loops for rescanning since the process is currently manual."

"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not the most expensive, but it's certainly not cheap."

"The platform is inexpensive compared to other vendors."

"The solution's price is reasonable."

"We evaluated a lot of different options. We concluded that Barracuda NG Firewall provided the most features for an exemplary price. "

"It is a product with a very transparent model of licensing. In the sense of hidden expenses, they do not exist with this model. "

"Purchasing through AWS Marketplace was good. We did it because it was easy."

"When the corporation purchases something, it follows a request-for-proposal process and the best price wins. So, I think Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is reasonably priced, though I’m not sure of the exact amount"

"The product is a bit cheaper than some solutions."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

Our experience with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and licensing has been reasonable and transparent. The setup cost was aligned with the features and security it provided. The licensing is fl...

What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

What is your primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

My main use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is for our network security and network traffic management. I rely on it most often for protecting the networks from threats and ensuring secure con...

What do you like most about Horizon3.ai?

Penetration testing and scans are useful features.

What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?

I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good.

What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?

We use The NodeZero Platform for control validation and we are also looking for the likelihood of vulnerabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Comparisons

Compared 14% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Juniper vSRX vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Competitors

Pentera vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 30% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 7% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 6% of the time

vPentest vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 6% of the time

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai Competitors

Product Reports

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Download Barracuda CloudGen Firewall product report

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Download The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai product report

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai report

Also Known As

Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls

Horizon3.ai

Overview

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a comprehensive network security solution that provides advanced protection for organizations of all sizes. It offers next-generation firewall capabilities, including application control, intrusion prevention, and web filtering.

With its integrated VPN functionality, it ensures secure remote access for employees. CloudGen Firewall also includes advanced threat intelligence, leveraging real-time updates to detect and block emerging threats. Its centralized management console simplifies administration and provides visibility into network traffic.

CloudGen Firewall can easily adapt to changing business needs based on its scalable architecture.

Barracuda Networks

NodeZero by Horizon3.ai is an offensive security platform that enables users to adopt an attacker’s perspective, reveal vulnerabilities, and verify defense effectiveness with evidence-backed insights.

NodeZero provides autonomous pentesting, showing how attackers exploit misconfigurations, credentials, and exposures into attack paths. It helps focus on real risks rather than hypothetical ones, integrating seamlessly into existing IT and security workflows to streamline processes. The platform drives risk-based vulnerability management and CTEM by validating vulnerabilities and measuring resilience.

What standout features improve your security?

Autonomous Pentesting at Scale: Executes extensive pentests across broad IT landscapes swiftly.
Hybrid Cloud Coverage: Navigates on-premises and cloud domains to find attack paths.
Proof of Exploitation: Offers evidence for every finding.
Fix Validation: Allows quick retesting to ensure vulnerabilities are resolved.
NodeZero Tripwires: Uses deception tokens for real adversary detection.

What benefits should you expect from reviews?

Reduced Vulnerability Noise: Prioritizes exploitable risks with ServiceNow integration.
Automated Workflows: MCP Server automates processes, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing efficiency.
Immediate Fix Validation: Ensures defenses work during attacks.
Real-Time Resilience Measurement: Helps schedule routine assessments without external help.

NodeZero assists in automated penetration testing and vulnerability management in industries like finance and healthcare. It enhances security processes by complementing or replacing existing solutions, enabling efficient testing, feedback, and control validation.

Horizon3.ai

Sample Customers

ARZ, Bauer, CBCX Technologies, Diamant-groep, Eissmann Group Automotive, European Youth Olympics, Exalo Drilling, FineLine Technologies, Geocell, Grimaldi, Infront Sports & Media, Odlo, Schenker Deutschland AG, Tilak, Verbandsgeneinde Zell, Conservas El Cidacos S.A., Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management, Erwin Muller GmbH, Info-Tech: NGF is Champion, Schoellerbank, IZB Informatik-Zentrum, RHI AG, Berglandmilch, Antenne Bayern, Sanochemia

Government agencies, Defense Industrial Base organizations, and enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and criticalinfrastructure rely on NodeZero to meet rigorous security and compliance requirements with continuous, scheduled, and on-demand testing.

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai