No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs N-able Cove Data Protection 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
9.1
Barracuda Essentials reduces breaches and workload, enhances security, decreases costs, and lowers phishing incidents by up to 60%.
Sentiment score
7.8
N-able Cove Data Protection provides high ROI, efficient backups, cost savings, seamless transitions, and reduced downtime compared to competitors.
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
I have experienced time savings and money savings.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
We think the ROI is very good; we are very satisfied with our return on investment, even though I don't sit and calculate what would be better.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.5
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense's customer service is praised for efficiency, professionalism, and 24/7 responsiveness, overcoming minor demand-related delays.
Sentiment score
7.6
N-able Cove Data Protection offers fast, knowledgeable support via multiple channels, ensuring high user satisfaction despite minor frustrations.
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
if it gets complicated, the backend support comes in quickly
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
If I raise a ticket, they get back to me.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers scalable, reliable performance, efficiently handling high email volumes, suitable for medium businesses, and highly rated.
Sentiment score
7.8
N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for adaptability, ease of integration, scalability, advanced features, with minor storage issues.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
We first deployed it for one line of business (LOB) and then for multiple LOBs, all while maintaining stability without any lag.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable, with no downtime noticed, and it is really fast.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
There are some limitations, such as storage, where I cannot support a large number of employees who need to back up their data.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is praised for its consistent stability and reliability, with users highly rating its performance.
Sentiment score
8.1
N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for stability, minor issues, compatibility, and reliability with minimal downtime over years.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very stable; I have not experienced any downtime or reliability issues.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is stable in my experience, as there has been no downtime since it has been deployed.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs improved usability, integration, pricing, support, role-based control, visibility, and deployment for better user satisfaction.
N-able Cove Data Protection needs improvements in dashboard, cloud integration, backup speed, disaster recovery, and support response.
There is a need for stronger automation, role-based access control granularity, and advanced threat visibility for multi-tenant environments.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
The cost could be more affordable, especially for smaller organizations working on a tight budget.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
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
There should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
N-able Cove Data Protection does not provide a lot of SaaS backup products, which is an area they can improve.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers competitive pricing but recently increased costs, varying compared to alternatives like Trend Micro and Cisco.
Enterprise users appreciate N-able Cove Data Protection's fair pricing, flexibility, no lock-ins, and competitive costs compared to others.
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
In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Essentials offers comprehensive email security with URL filtering, anti-phishing, advanced threat protection, and analytics for businesses.
N-able Cove Data Protection provides reliable cloud-based data protection with easy management, fast setup, and seamless integration for diverse needs.
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
The feature I find myself relying on the most is anti-phishing and impersonation protection because phishing is the highest incident volume across the tenants, leading to direct financial and reputational risk exposure.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
The most valuable feature of N-able Cove Data Protection is its ease of use.
Senior Product Owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The integration of N-able Cove Data Protection into our existing infrastructure is easy.
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Gateway Def...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
N-able Cove Data Protection
Ranking in Cloud Backup
18th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (34th), SaaS Backup (8th), MSP Backup (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able Cove Data Protection is 1.9%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)0.4%
N-able Cove Data Protection1.9%
Other97.7%
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Per MøllerJacobsen - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior consultant at Azend A/S
Delivers cost-effective data backup with room for search improvements
The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for something—you need to know where it was and when it was there to restore it, plus it would be nice to take out data from Microsoft 365 in some portable format, which is currently not an option. I would like to extract the data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format, something like a database or maybe just to take out a PST file or SharePoint and Teams files to the file system. Especially in these times, where we discuss potential risks with the Microsoft cloud for European companies, companies would want to know how to access their data from the backup if they suddenly don't have a tenant. I believe there should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format. I know that Cohesity is working on making such a thing. It's not there yet; I asked last week for something for forensics, and the support team said it's not possible yet, but I know from our technical account manager they are working on some solutions.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Backup solutions are best for your needs.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Media Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
If a customer faces an email security issue, we'll do some initial troubleshooting. If the issue isn't resolved, we work with the Barracuda team for further assistance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
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, which worries me for small organizations using Bar...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) can be improved since the DLP is a bit inflexible and cannot handle custom additions. It is either you turn on the group of regulations you wa...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N-able Backup?
In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.
What needs improvement with N-able Backup?
The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for s...
What is your primary use case for N-able Backup?
Our main use cases for enabling N-able Cove Data Protection include backing up our customers' data on servers hosted in data centers and servers hosted in our own data center, as well as a few onsi...
 

Also Known As

No data available
N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs. N-able Cove Data Protection and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.