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Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs N2W comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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 Email Gateway Defense improved security, reduced incidents, and increased efficiency, providing significant cost savings and operational stability.
Sentiment score
1.9
<p>N2WS Backup &amp; Recovery users saved time and money, improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and achieved better data protection and ROI.</p>
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
In my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I have seen a return on investment as there are definitely fewer employees required to manage the backups, and there is definitely a major time save due to the single pane of glass.
Sr. Manager Data Protection at Epsilon
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.6
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense customer support is praised for responsive, proactive 24/7 assistance, achieving high ratings from users.
Sentiment score
3.3
N2W's technical support is efficient, responsive, accessible, proactive, and highly rated for knowledgeable, friendly service and clear communication.
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
Their support is amazing. They get back to you in a timely manner and work with you.
Sr. Manager Data Protection at Epsilon
We would rate the customer support of N2W a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, as they are very easily accessible, friendly, and absolutely knowledgeable.
Director of Information Technology & Customer Success at Maplewave
Customer support for N2W is excellent, as they are able to answer quickly.
Director, Cloud Infrastructure and Systems Operations at d1g1t Inc.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.0
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers high scalability and reliability, efficiently supporting medium to large businesses' email protection needs.
Sentiment score
3.2
N2W efficiently scales, supporting numerous AWS accounts, enhancing backup processes, and enabling seamless expansion across diverse environments.
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
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is highly rated for stability, with most users experiencing no downtime, ensuring reliable operation.
Sentiment score
5.7
N2W is praised for exceptional stability, managing backups reliably with high performance and commendable support.
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

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs UI, pricing flexibility, better documentation, improved integration, and enhanced phishing detection and support.
N2W needs a modern UI, streamlined onboarding, advanced features, and improved automation for enhanced usability and cost efficiency.
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
Adding an 'auto-delete after X days' option to manual backups, similar to scheduled policies, would be a fantastic addition for cost management and general housekeeping.
Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
An automated account enrollment or bulk import feature integrated with AWS Organizations or Control Tower would save significant time and reduce administrative overhead.
VP, Solutions Architecture at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Improved disaster recovery options and expanded multicloud support are two areas where N2WS has already made significant advancements in the latest version.
Cloud Manager at St. John's University
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is valued as budget-friendly for small organizations, despite being pricier than some alternatives.
N2W offers competitive pricing and automation, justifying costs with flexible cloud billing and a helpful free trial.
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
Pricing can increase as backup volumes grow, so it is important to balance the level of protection with cost-optimization strategies such as tiering snapshots to S3 or Glacier.
Platform Engineer at a tech consulting company with 501-1,000 employees
While N2W is a paid product, the cost is easily justified by the significant reduction in engineering hours spent on managing and troubleshooting custom backup scripts.
Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I believe N2WS offers a highly competitive pricing model, delivering excellent value.
Cloud Manager at St. John's University
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Essentials enhances email security with advanced threat protection, anti-phishing, and user-friendly monitoring for increased productivity.
N2W offers comprehensive backup and recovery features, including automated scheduling, cost-efficient management, and robust disaster recovery capabilities.
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
Lifecycle management and automated transitions to lower-cost storage tiers have been instrumental in optimizing costs while meeting compliance and retention requirements.
Cloud Manager at St. John's University
We had a ransomware event in 2023, and we were able to recover every machine with minimal effort.
IT Operations Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The ability to define backup schedules, retention periods, and disaster recovery policies and have them apply automatically based on resource tags scales perfectly with our environment and enforces a consistent data protection strategy across the organization.
Cloud Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

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
N2W
Ranking in Cloud Backup
5th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (6th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N2W is 1.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
N2W1.6%
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)0.5%
Other97.9%
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.
reviewer2802048 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Delivery Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Automated backups have transformed our multi-account recovery and now streamline compliance reporting
While N2WS has served us well, there are areas for improvement. The user interface feels somewhat dated and could benefit from modernization. Navigation between sections could be more intuitive, and the dashboard design could be more streamlined compared to contemporary AWS tools. The initial setup process has a steeper learning curve than we’d prefer, especially for complex multi-account configurations. More guided setup wizards would help new team members get up to speed faster. Reporting capabilities could be more granular, particularly around cost optimization metrics and backup performance analytics. Currently, we need to gather information from multiple screens to get comprehensive insights. For future releases, we’d value enhanced integration with AWS native services like Config and CloudTrail for better compliance reporting. More advanced scheduling options that adjust based on application load would also be beneficial. Better support for newer AWS services as they’re released would help us maintain comprehensive coverage as our infrastructure evolves. Additionally, native integration with popular ITSM tools beyond email notifications would improve our workflow automation.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Media Company
26%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N2WS Backup & Recovery?
Pricing is reasonable considering the features provided, especially for organizations heavily invested in AWS. The cost savings from automation and lifecycle management can offset the licensing cos...
What needs improvement with N2WS Backup & Recovery?
While the platform is strong overall, the user interface could be further modernized and made more intuitive in certain areas, especially when navigating complex environments. Reporting and analyti...
What is your primary use case for N2WS Backup & Recovery?
Our primary use case is automated backup and disaster recovery for AWS workloads across multiple accounts and regions. We use N2WS to protect EC2 instances, EBS volumes, and critical application da...
 

Also Known As

No data available
N2WS Backup & Recovery, N2WS Cloud Protection Manager, N2W Backup & Recovery for AWS Free Trial/BYOL
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Deloitte, NASA, Johnson & Johnson, Dyson, Deuthsche Bahn, Skechers, Allan Gray, Hewlett Packard, St. John's University, City of Oakland
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs. N2W and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.