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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Fortra's Clearswift Secure Email Gateway comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Security Ga...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (7th)
Fortra's Clearswift Secure ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
0
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (30th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Barracuda Email Security Gateway is designed for Secure Email Gateway (SEG) and holds a mindshare of 9.0%, up 6.8% compared to last year.
Fortra's Clearswift Secure Email Gateway, on the other hand, focuses on Email Security, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.8% since last year.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Security Gateway9.0%
Proofpoint Email Protection21.1%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36519.9%
Other50.0%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortra's Clearswift Secure Email Gateway1.0%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3658.8%
Proofpoint Email Protection8.1%
Other82.1%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

MM
Graduate Student at ain shams
Secures email by identifying threats and managing email policies effectively
The intuitive management interface feature makes email security policies very easy to implement as it's all about features that need to be enabled or disabled. Our investigation in any incident or mail is very useful as it provides all details about incoming mails, enabling thorough review and detection. The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails. The Impersonation license utilizes AI tools. Sometimes some phishing mails are reported as phishing, but they are not actually phishing mails. They are detected due to certain words and languages that appear suspicious but were generated by AI tools. Everyone or an advisor may use it for their own purpose or learning, even though it indicates that the mail detected is phishing when it's not.
PC
Systems Administrator at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Stable, but malware needs improvement and customer support is poor
They need to improve the malware in the product. I am not satisfied with Clearswift because of the lack of customer support. The support is poor, the supplier takes a lot of time and it's expensive. We have some issues here when I contact the supplier, it takes a lot of time for them to get back to us but there's no solution. I am now looking at Symantec as a possible alternative.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Barracuda's email service is simple and cost-effective, offering excellent overall protection."
"The solution's anti-spam features are its most valuable aspect."
"I like Barracuda's cloud sandbox feature."
"The feature that sets Barracuda apart from other solutions is the Office 365 cloud-to-cloud backup."
"We are using this product to protect us against spam and viruses."
"Their support is very good; you get German and from Austria, but they also have English support world-wide, with very good service and short response time."
"The most important features of Barracuda Email Security Gateway are the simple and quick configuration, interactive console, and easy-to-understand logs."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use."
"Go for it! I think it's an excellent product with great technical support."
"A stable solution."
"We use a few features for web proxy, and another feature is the email content filter and malware for our internal policy in the email content."
"Ability to create your own content-filtering policies with relative ease."
 

Cons

"Some of the phishing emails are not being blocked. Another problem is that we are not able to manage the date and time in our time zone."
"I am not aware of the licensing costs."
"I would like to have better integration with third-party archival vendors to facilitate moving data in and out."
"There's a bit of configuration work that's needed with the DNS service provider, but other than that, everything else should be very smooth."
"We detect some failures in some mails; not all mails pass through consistently. Some mails pass while others are dropped without any apparent logic, despite having the policy set for specific recipients or senders."
"I had some difficulty in the past with the system getting swamped and overwhelmed trying to process all incoming traffic."
"We would like to have a local support center in India so that they are operating in the same time zone and speak the same language."
"Barracuda has shown difficulty in providing us with the solutions we sought."
"Malware needs improvement."
"I am not satisfied with Clearswift because of the lack of customer support."
"FTP server and TRUST Manager functionality."
"FTP server and TRUST Manager functionality."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost is competitive, it's not too high and not too low."
"Compared to other products, this solution is quite affordable."
"We have a long agreement with Barracuda Email Security Gateway. We're very pleased with the cost and the solution. The cost is in the average range for this type of solution."
"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"The price of the solution should be reduced. The price in the USA is less than where we are. Our local distributor of the solution is manipulating the market."
"We pay between $8 and $10 USD per user per month."
"We paid for an annual license."
"For overall value and cost, Barracuda came in as most appropriate, price as well as services provided. In terms of price, it's average . It's not the most expensive, it's not the least expensive but it works well."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise13
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
Compared to the features and stability, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is affordable in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
On technical aspects, I think Barracuda needs to provide a fast response to any vulnerability on the system and enhance Barracuda support. Customer support for Barracuda Email Security Gateway need...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My main use case for Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our email and our email users, protecting our business from most of the sophisticated attacks like phishing attacks and spam. We ...
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Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Evolution Recruitment Solutions, Evans Delivery Company, Osoyoos Credit Union, Synovis Life Technologies, Camden County Technical Schools, DEK, Evans Delivery Company, Colgate Rochester Crozer, Hemmera, South Carolina Heart Center, Ferma Corporation, Major League Baseball (MLB), Healy Brothers Automotive Group
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Proofpoint, Mimecast and others in Secure Email Gateway (SEG). Updated: February 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.