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Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs Norton Small Business 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
9.0
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense boosts security, reduces costs, and decreases incidents by up to 60%, enhancing operational stability.
Sentiment score
8.6
Norton Small Business reduces security threat downtime, enhancing productivity, efficiency, and ROI by allowing focus on critical tasks.
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
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 seen a return on investment; email protection has dramatically reduced attacks via spam, phishing, and malware in all our sectors, thus improving our security.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.5
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense support is highly rated for its 24/7 proactive, efficient service, and effective issue resolution.
Sentiment score
8.1
Norton Small Business's technical support is rated excellent for its efficiency, helpfulness, and responsiveness, though some see room for improvement.
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
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is scalable and reliable, ideal for medium businesses, handling growth and heavy email traffic efficiently.
Sentiment score
8.1
Norton Small Business is highly scalable, allowing easy license expansion and adaptability for diverse business sizes and device platforms.
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) has been very scalable, adapting to my organization's needs effectively.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is highly rated for its stability, with users experiencing no performance or reliability issues.
Sentiment score
8.2
Norton Small Business is highly rated for its stability, with minor password manager issues on mobile devices.
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 Essentials requires UI improvements, enhanced customization, better documentation, and strengthened automation for improved usability and flexibility.
Norton Small Business requires better pricing, enhanced features, and fewer notifications to improve user experience and market availability.
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 more tutorials and videos online showing how to use all the essential and robust tools of Barracuda.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense provides cost-effective pricing, though some small organizations find it challenging due to recent price increases.
Norton Small Business offers affordable yearly licenses but frequent upsells for additional features can be a drawback for some.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost is very effective and affordable.
Marketing Director at Unisys
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
I find the price to be cost-effective.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense enhances threat protection, reduces phishing, and improves compliance with advanced features and customizable security solutions.
Norton Small Business offers comprehensive virus protection, secure features, multi-platform compatibility, and 24/7 support via a user-friendly dashboard.
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
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) has positively impacted our organization by helping to ensure that anyone sending email out of our email system is protected, even if they make a mistake and send sensitive data because it is highly encrypted.
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
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Gateway Def...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Norton Small Business
Ranking in Cloud Backup
39th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (12th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (29th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Norton Small Business is 0.5%, up from 0.1% 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)0.5%
Norton Small Business0.5%
Other99.0%
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.
Balaguru Paramasivan - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager - DBA at HTC Global Services (INDIA) Private
The initial setup phase is very easy and user-friendly
I had tried Kaspersky a long time ago. I think it is available only in India. I don't know for sure. I have used that one for a couple of years, but I didn't like it, and that is the only reason I went back to Norton. Kaspersky was not safeguarding me in all aspects. I had seen some loopholes in the tool, so that is the only reason I went for Norton. The only thing I like about Kaspersky is that it supports the mobile version.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Media Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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 primary use case for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
My main use case for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is for email protection company-wide for email filtering and email management. It is important for our organization becau...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Norton 360?
I have a yearly licensing plan. The cost is not that high. The solution is cost-effective.
What is your primary use case for Norton 360?
I use the solution for the general protection of my computer. It runs in the background.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs. Norton Small Business and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,383 professionals have used our research since 2012.