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Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs Rubrik 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
7.1
Rubrik enhances ROI with time savings, reduced costs, data protection, improved productivity, seamless backups, and compliance benefits.
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
Rubrik provides long-term return on investment for my customers, as well as immediate benefits because of deduplication and compression, drastically reducing the cost on the storage side from traditional to Rubrik.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

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
8.3
Rubrik's support excels with quick responses, proactive issue resolution, and incorporates user feedback, surpassing other vendors in service.
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
They offer 24/7 support and even have a dedicated ransomware hotline with a team ready to engage immediately.
Rubrik administrator at Freelance
Rubrik's support has been good, better than many other vendors like Microsoft, VMware, and Dell.
IT Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rubrik provides excellent customer service and technical support.
Senior System Engineer at Goya Foods
 

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
Rubrik offers scalable, high-performance data management with seamless integration and expansion, praised for adaptability and non-intrusive scaling.
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
It can scale out horizontally as well as vertically, and the availability of expansion is very quick.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Azure Backup solution offers faster restoration for data over six terabytes compared to on-premises.
Information Technology Specialist at LIGHTHOUSE DOCUMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC
Rubrik is highly scalable, with a rating of nine out of ten based on its seamless integration.
Sales Manager at Beta Information Technology
 

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
Rubrik is praised for stability and reliability, offering seamless integration and prompt support for minor issues.
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
Rubrik has been stable, and we have not experienced any downtime.
IT Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
When you do the restore, it is also stable and quickly delivering what we have been looking for.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The prerequisite dependencies with the cost team site, infrastructure, port opening, and adding the complete Rubrik console module take time, depending on the volume of servers and storage occupancy.
Information Technology Specialist at LIGHTHOUSE DOCUMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs improved usability, integration, pricing, support, role-based control, visibility, and deployment for better user satisfaction.
Rubrik users suggest improvements in UI, integration, database compatibility, and pricing while praising their receptiveness to feedback.
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
We need more efficient search capabilities that allow searching by last name or login ID.
IT Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
I need a better output from the existing reports as they currently do not provide comprehensive metrics.
Senior System Engineer at Goya Foods
Including packaged training with the product at the time of purchase would be beneficial.
Rubrik administrator at Freelance
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers competitive pricing but recently increased costs, varying compared to alternatives like Trend Micro and Cisco.
Rubrik's cost is justified by its simplicity, comprehensive features, and potential TCO savings through multi-year agreements.
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
Rubrik is considered expensive, with a price rating of three out of ten.
Sales Manager at Beta Information Technology
We could mix and match to optimize costs for our needs.
IT Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rubrik is expensive due to its robust hardware.
Rubrik administrator at Freelance
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Essentials offers comprehensive email security with URL filtering, anti-phishing, advanced threat protection, and analytics for businesses.
Rubrik features instant recovery, a user-friendly interface, automation, and immutability, providing efficient, secure, and cost-effective backup management.
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 Rubrik is its concept of a 'backup airbag', which provides a robust defense against attacks.
Sales Manager at Beta Information Technology
Since switching to Rubrik, our backup times have decreased significantly, going from two and a half days to one and a half hours for certain systems.
IT Program Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Even if my network is compromised by ransomware, the file system does not allow overwriting of the backups, ensuring that my backups remain safe.
Rubrik administrator at Freelance
 

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
Rubrik
Ranking in Cloud Backup
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (3rd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (5th)
 

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 Rubrik is 5.6%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rubrik5.6%
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)0.4%
Other94.0%
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.
KB
Information Technology Specialist at LIGHTHOUSE DOCUMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC
Technical support has improved my data management process but I encounter GUI and cost challenges
The solution is available in the Azure Marketplace, but approaching directly is more cost-effective. The Marketplace approach incurs additional platform and reporting costs. We initially built Rubrik at host level and DB level. We encountered latency issues when reverting back, with numerous snapshots available. This resulted in increased costs and occupied spaces. I performed manual deletion of snapshots and verified with the Rubrik team for confirmation. The GUI reporting functionality lacks flexibility. For instance, obtaining specific server reports considering drive space and backup quantities is not possible, as it only provides overall reporting.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Media Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
 

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 Business23
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise55
 

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...
Which would you choose - Rubrik or Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam Backup & Replication provides an easy-to-set-up solution to the issue of data storage and recovery. Setting it up is a relatively simple affair. For the most part it prompts you from scre...
What do you like most about Rubrik?
It's easy to manage and has an innovated solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rubrik?
Regarding pricing, Rubrik is a costly solution, and I would rate it an eight.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Driscoll's, Red Hawk Casino, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Wabash National, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Galliker Transport & Logistics
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs. Rubrik and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.