Barracuda Email Protection vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

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Helped 879,259 peers since 2012

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 Security

12th

Ranking in Office 365 Protection

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (2nd)

Proofpoint Email Protection

Ranking in Email Security

3rd

Ranking in Office 365 Protection

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 3.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 7.7%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection	7.7%
Barracuda Email Protection	3.1%
Other	89.2%

Email Security

Featured Reviews

LeeMiles

Director, Information Technology at St Albans High School For Girls

Very good threat protection, spam filtering, and cloud backups

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 set up a global setting. Users must go through an induction session where I guide them in configuring quarantine alerts rather than having default settings based on group membership. This seems like an oversight since they already use Active Directory details. They should assign policies based on group membership, which configures these settings by default.

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reviewer2500410

Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Has provided reliable threat detection and simplified policy management

I do not have experience with Microsoft Purview products, but I know some Proofpoint products. I apologize, I do not have experience with the Purview one, but I do know the Proofpoint products. I'm not sure about the features of the Purview one. Compared to other products, Proofpoint's real-time threat intelligence makes it less noisy. They collect and share threat information effectively, which benefits all customers. I have seen a lot of improvements in Proofpoint's reporting and analytics compared to earlier days. As a leader in the market, I find the pricing for Proofpoint Email Protection is a little high. Their licensing models vary, and even the premium model adequately supports awareness campaigning, so I find it acceptable. Normally, they sell their products through resellers, not directly through AWS Marketplace. For us, we are clients of Proofpoint. I rate Proofpoint Email Protection a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's most valuable feature is impersonation detection."

"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."

"I'm quite satisfied with the graphical user interface for Barracuda products."

"The archiving and search features are very good."

"I would rate the solution nine out of ten."

"We now have a secondary backup of Office 365 that's much easier to retrieve compared to Microsoft. If someone deletes something in Office 365, we can get it back within Office 365, but it's difficult. Barracuda is much easier. There is a lot less management needed using Barracuda. The management becomes much easier for Office 365 and it's no longer on-prem, so there are fewer hours managing on-prem devices, servers, and things of that nature. We don't have network appliances anymore for the backup of our information."

"The most valuable features of Barracuda Email Protection are flexibility and customization."

"The most helpful aspect for me is the out-of-the-box configuration, which is fairly good."

More Barracuda Email Protection pros

"Its anti-phishing functionality is the most valuable. Certainly, the biggest problem I have is phishing."

"The Phish Alarm button allows users to submit questionable emails for review and complete analysis."

"It was easy to set up."

"The most valuable feature is the option to edit the inbound security."

"I like all the features with Proofpoint, such as how it filters the spam and marketing mail, lost reality mail, blocks phishing attacks, blocks malicious attachments, and stops phishing links. Also it can defend against the business email compromise impersonation technique. It is a complete solution for all email attacks. It filters for the bad, malicious attachments. If there is any executable file, it can be deleted. It is a good, complete solution."

"It's detection of true positives are great, as it's cloud based it's very scalable and stable."

"From a business perspective, the solution was very helpful as it speeded our business flow and increased email delivery."

"I recommend all of my customers to migrate and start using Proofpoint as it is secure, minimizes risk, and eliminates phishing attacks."

More Proofpoint Email Protection pros

Cons

"Barracuda Essentials can improve by continually adding more features."

"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."

"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."

"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."

"Two to three months back, we got fraudulent emails in which someone in the organization was being blamed."

"I would like to see better integration with other products."

"The policies are set up in Barracuda by default; we don't have any control over them."

"I would like to see some additional functionality in terms of employee monitoring, as part of a work-from-home security solution."

More Barracuda Email Protection cons

"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve the Mail Trace feature and make navigation easier."

"The false positives are an issue."

"The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge."

"The largest complaint that we hear from our customers is that there is no local support."

"It has too many screens. It is kind of a conglomeration of products. In other words, they built product A, product B, and product C, and they are yet to integrate them into a single administrative console. I would certainly like to see a more seamless administrative interface. I would also like to see them include more bang for the buck, by including features like email fraud protection, rather than making their product so piecemeal, where you are buying little pieces. I agree with the idea of having multiple tiers or layers, but maybe as small, medium, and large, as opposed to an a la carte menu."

"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve on the training. Every organization is different and to fine-tune it to block everything properly there needs to be better training. Sometimes it can block some of the information it shouldn't."

"Some use cases haven't been dealt with yet."

"We find the cost to be prohibitive."

More Proofpoint Email Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Barracuda licensing model is good."

"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."

"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."

"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."

"The price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."

"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."

"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."

"The product is expensive."

More Barracuda Email Protection pricing and cost advice

"It is on a yearly basis. Their floor for SMB doesn't matter. The user count is 100 users and below at $2,500 a year. Its cost is higher than other solutions. It is probably about 20% to 30% higher than what you would get with Microsoft. There are no additional costs. All costs are factored in. It can be improved pricing-wise so that it is affordable for the SMB market."

"The end customer is buying our solution, which can be for monthly or annual usage depending on our payment and business model."

"In general, the pricing is competitive."

"It is expensive."

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"Proofpoint Email Protection has comparable pricing."

"Proofpoint is fairly expensive."

"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."

More Proofpoint Email Protection pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	17

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?

What do you like most about Proofpoint Email Protection?

It is a very scalable solution.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?

In terms of pricing, it is okay compared to others. I would say it is normal. Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.

What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?

I believe they still need to improve by consolidating some portals, as currently, you have to log in separately to a few of them.

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Product Reports

Barracuda Email Protection

Download Barracuda Email Protection product report

Proofpoint Email Protection

Download Proofpoint Email Protection product report

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection

Overview

The popularity of Microsoft 365 means criminals test and design their attacks to bypass its native security features. And that means you need additional layers of defense. With Advanced Threat Protection enabled, Barracuda uses multiple layers of detection, including signature, static, and behavioral analysis, along with CPU-emulation sandboxing to accurately detect and block zero-hour targeted attacks and ransomware.

Traditional email gateways use static rules and policies—reputation analysis, block lists, and malicious payloads—to determine if an email is malicious.

Barracuda protects your Microsoft 365 inbox against evasive threats with a powerful AI engine that learns the unique communication patterns within your organization through access to internal and historical emails. Once it understands what legitimate emails looks like for each user, it can detect anomalies that signal malicious intent. This context-based detection is more effective at blocking targeted attacks, which are designed to bypass traditional rule-based email security.

Barracuda Networks

Proofpoint Email Protection provides powerful filtering against spam, phishing, and malware, leveraging effective threat detection and blocking capabilities. This solution integrates smoothly with platforms like Office 365, offering a user-friendly dashboard for seamless operations.

Proofpoint Email Protection focuses on email security, ensuring protection against phishing, malware, and spam. It includes features like URL scanning, anti-phishing, anti-virus protection, and sandboxing for comprehensive threat analysis. Its advanced analytics through TAP and TRAP, along with strong integration abilities, make it appealing for handling email threats. While scalability and ease of deployment are advantages, challenges such as integration in complex environments, the cost, and limited local support require attention. Enhancements in search functionality, email encryption, and improved phishing detection are also needed.

What are the key features of Proofpoint Email Protection?

Effective Filtering: Blocks spam, phishing, and malware with high accuracy.
URL Scanning: Protects against malicious links.
Advanced Analytics: Provides insights through TAP and TRAP.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with platforms like Office 365.
User-friendly Dashboard: Simplifies email management and monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Adaptable to organizational growth without losing performance.
Strong Threat Protection: Comprehensive defense against email threats.
Easy Deployment: Streamlined setup process for smooth integration.
Advanced Threat Analysis: Identifies and neutralizes threats efficiently.

Industries adopting Proofpoint Email Protection include finance, healthcare, and education sectors, which benefit from its robust email security measures. Educational institutions prioritize safe communication for staff and students, while healthcare organizations focus on protecting sensitive patient data. Financial services benefit from preventing data breaches and fraud through advanced threats management.

Proofpoint

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems

Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection