Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Barracuda Email Protection vs KerioConnect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

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 Email Protection
Ranking in Email Archiving
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (13th), Security Incident Response (7th), Office 365 Protection (4th)
KerioConnect
Ranking in Email Archiving
6th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Email Applications (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Archiving category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 17.8%, down from 25.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KerioConnect is 3.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Archiving Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Barracuda Email Protection17.8%
KerioConnect3.3%
Other78.9%
Email Archiving
 

Featured Reviews

Sherif Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
Have raised concerns about scanning engines and automation while continuing to rely on layered protection strategies
Incident response is something that requires more development from Barracuda's side. Regarding room for improvement for Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response, for the product, developing or improving the scanning engine is important, but it's a bit tricky. I know that they are working on it heavily. The difference between Barracuda and Sophos is Sophos focused heavily on cybersecurity while Barracuda tried to increase their product portfolio. Sometimes, in some cases, this might end up with their teams being unfocused or a bit thin and stretched and super busy. However, there is room for improvement. The product is great. The teams that are supporting are great. But there is always room for improvement. Even if you have a product that you would give a rating of 10 out of 10, there is always room for improvement. The day we stop improving is the day we die. Regarding the scanning engine, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response has a very good feature where you can create automated flows for how to handle specific emails that are detected as incidents. This needs a bit of an improvement. That's the only component of Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response that I believe requires improvement.
MM
Senior Systems Tech/Admin at Samco Software Inc.
A seamless setup ensures smooth communication with comprehensive support
We remain a partner with Sophos and use XG S Firewalls without AWS implementation. We only use Sophos endpoint and Sophos Central. We host some clients on-premise while others we host remotely. The VPN connection is easy and proprietary, so it's not open to any other VPN clients. Communication with other mail servers is seamless. It can communicate with Gmail and Outlook without issues, provided the DNS settings are correct. We monitor our servers and security logs, implementing GeoIP blocking. We frequently block China and India IPs due to brute force attacks on our servers. We have extensive experience with KerioConnect. Backing up and maintaining it is straightforward compared to Microsoft Exchange, making it administrator-friendly. On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates an 8.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The archiving and search features are very good."
"The most helpful aspect for me is the out-of-the-box configuration, which is fairly good."
"The solution is straightforward to set up."
"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."
"The beauty of Barracuda Email Protection is that it is easy to manage and simple to deploy."
"I would rate the solution nine out of ten."
"The most valuable features of Barracuda Essentials are it's a trusted name and is rated very high on review sites. It blocks high percentages of spam and junk email and it's in the cloud. They have hardware appliances, but this is in the cloud. The solution is very effective at blocking malware and blocking spam and this is what we are looking for. There's not a whole lot of complexity, you want a solution that is very good at blocking out all of the unwanted emails."
"The best feature of Barracuda Email Protection is that it provides protection for Microsoft 365."
"We use the solution as a mail server. It connects with Outlook and is used for calendaring and similar tasks."
"The most valuable features are its ease of use, excellent pricing, and it is platform agnostic."
"What I like most about Kerio Connect is that it supports ActiveSync, and that is its most critical feature. The solution is also a nice, simple, robust, and stable mail server."
"The most valuable features are security and privacy because you installed it on your server, within your company premises, not in the cloud."
"We have contacted technical support a handful of times and received some assistance."
"It's relatively simple to use."
"KerioConnect has integration with 365. We can use Outlook, which has its client and can be used with Apple devices. It integrates with the App Store and Microsoft Office. It has a smart router. The spam filtering and antivirus are good."
"The user interface is good."
 

Cons

"The customer service and support could be improved if the support were available directly in Europe. Currently, the support is often managed from India, so we sometimes need to wait due to the time zone difference. It would be quicker and better if the support were provided by European staff."
"The product must enable bulk user management."
"Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platforms and third-party solutions."
"Considering it integrates with Azure, I would like to be able to effectively set up policies where people are by default included in certain settings."
"Sometimes, in some cases, this might end up with their teams being unfocused or a bit thin and stretched and super busy."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement."
"Considering it integrates with Azure, I would like to be able to effectively set up policies where people are by default included in certain settings."
"The policies are set up in Barracuda by default; we don't have any control over them."
"I would like to see better support from their support team."
"KerioConnect continues to improve with regular updates throughout the year. They must be added to the roadmap, which requires approval."
"KerioConnect is stable as long as you use a strong password."
"Having a native Outlook map integration would make Kerio Connect better."
"It could be simpler to use and install, but I still wouldn't use it because there isn't a compelling use case."
"The solution could improve the redundancy because we only have one copy of the Kerio Connect server on our hardware. The next step for us is to move to the cloud and if Kerio does not have a cloud version available they should release one"
"The search and archiving documentation capabilities need to be stronger."
"We cannot compete with them because they're fully integrated with their applications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"We pay annually. They never charged us for anything else. And they were quite a bit under that $20,000 mark. It was $19,074. And they've been pretty good about not skyrocketing the price or anything like that. It has gone up. It's gone up to $24,000 in 2020."
"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."
"KerioConnect has a first-time cost and yearly subscription. It is not expensive."
"The pricing is about $3 per mailbox per month."
"The price of Kerio Connect is better when comparing it to others solutions."
"The solution's pricing depends on how long you plan to keep it because you pay on a per-year basis. You might have a one-time setup cost for something like Microsoft Exchange or a Linux mail server. I'd say this solution is expensive on a per-year basis, almost 2000-3000 dollars annually. It doesn't seem to pay off yet, so we're considering switching to another product."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Archiving solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Protection?
Barracuda Email Protection is easy to deploy and maintain. It doesn't require a specialized resource to manage this tool.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Protection?
Their list price is too high, but in India, the selling price is affordable at around $10 per user per year. Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers t...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?
Considering it integrates with Azure, I would like to be able to effectively set up policies where people are by default included in certain settings. For instance, for email quarantine, I can't se...
What do you like most about KerioConnect?
The most valuable features are security and privacy because you installed it on your server, within your company premises, not in the cloud.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KerioConnect?
The pricing is very easy to understand. As a partner, we have a monitoring system that informs us when subscriptions expire, allowing us to handle renewals. The pricing is very competitive.
What needs improvement with KerioConnect?
Since KerioConnect is a setup and go solution, everything works on its own. The only administrative tasks required are keeping it up to date, monitoring security logs, and ensuring protection from ...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Southern Tier Brewing Company, Innotta, Baustoff + Metall, Hamifleurs, Chanson TV, Ryman Stationery
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. KerioConnect and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.