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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Proofpoint Email Protection vs Sophos Email Appliance [EOL] 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:
 

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.
IS
Threat Hunter at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Email protection has reduced phishing workload and keeps unwanted messages out of inboxes
A few things about how Proofpoint Email Protection can be improved include implementing artificial intelligence within their platform to start really understanding the organization that is using their product, what sort of emails they are expecting and if the emails that are being expected should be let in and if the emails that are not being expected should not be let in. I'll give you a further example for this. If someone just tries to send an email from a Gmail address, which is a free public service email service provider, then because anyone in the world can create a Gmail account, I think it is nice and good for Proofpoint Email Protection to actually first check and do a reality check if we have received an email from this address and look at the intent of the email to really see what the email is trying to do and then classify based on that. I still see there is a lack. Hence why I started this conversation with AI and hoping that Proofpoint Email Protection will bring AI in and to really start analyzing these emails, the intent, and whether they really fit the customer organization. We are a manufacturing company, so whether it really fits that profile. I would say if we can get a better user experience from Proofpoint Email Protection products, that would be good. For example, other service providers that provide secure email gateway have the functionality where you can split promotional and bulk email and have them sent to a separate folder. I think if we can have that sort of feature, that would be great where Proofpoint Email Protection just keeps the important emails in the inbox folder and move everything else that is not really business related into a promotional, spam, bulk folder. This is an improvement that I would really like to see. I give it an eight because I am expecting a lot more from Proofpoint Email Protection, more automations, more understanding of who their customer is, what sort of business they do, and what sort of email they are supposed to be receiving and letting through. I think the day when I really have only 1% of work to do and 99% is automated by whatever automation services Proofpoint Email Protection uses would be ideal. I think I have covered any other improvements needed for Proofpoint Email Protection pretty well right from AI to splitting emails based on priorities. I think I have given some pretty broad and good examples.
reviewer1279443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easy to install and secures users against URL relay attacks, spam, and malicious attachments
The frequency in which this solution receives technical updates should be improved. If they are to be rated as the number one email appliance then they should also be the first to receive updates. It should happen across all of the customers, immeidately. In the next release of this solution, I would like to see more user awareness, such as information about phishing email attacks that have been prevented. The baselining and reporting is better with some of the competing solutions.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use."
"The feature that sets Barracuda apart from other solutions is the Office 365 cloud-to-cloud backup."
"The protection from Barracuda Email Security Gateway is essentially a sandboxing solution."
"It is very simple to whitelist addresses."
"This appliance has helped in that we now eliminate the thousands of scams, spam, and malware emails that are destined for our users."
"The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP."
"The solution's anti-spam features are its most valuable aspect."
"The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the cloud ATP functionality not available on the on-premise version. Most of the zero-day attacks can be mitigated with ATP. Additionally, the reporting functionality is good."
"The solution has very strong detection for most of the phishing and malicious emails received from the outside."
"When I manage a SOC and Proofpoint Email Protection is integrated with it, it gives me a consolidated alert, so when phishing alerts come in it is slightly easier to manage, even my L1 incident response team from the SOC can easily understand the alerts, perform basic checks on VirusTotal, and create complete SOAR automation from that information."
"It's easy to use, even for those new to IT."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is stable enough and does its job of virus, malware, and email scam detection. Setting it up is not too complicated."
"A one-stop shop for email protection"
"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the TAP Dashboard. It provides more detailed information that can be used for forensic analysis. This is an advantage that other email security providers, such as Cisco, IronPort, or Microsoft do not offer in their dashboards."
"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."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is superior to other third-party applications such as Cisco IronPort or FireEye, as it is really very comfortable to use, easy to operate, easy to manage, easy to take actions, easy to deploy, and easy to migrate."
"The most valuable feature is the URL relay protection because it protects users from phishing attacks."
"The solution is very easy to use, especially the cloud version which is very, very simple. There are some good templates already built-in, so we can just select the template, and you will get all the necessary functionality. The only one thing you have to do is point all your traffic in the cloud."
"This is a stable, scalable product that provides a reliable email protection layer."
"The filtering aspect is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The interface makes it really easy to administer and configure."
"The ease of use and the security offered by the solution are its most valuable features. It also offers good information protection."
"Email encryption, because it fulfills our business needs."
 

Cons

"The UI could be a little cleaner and require less clicking around in different modules. They give the illusion of a single pane of glass, but as you click around to different products, you're actually being transferred into a different system."
"Few customers require an on-premises fabric ATP box for attack detection and response."
"The initial setup can be a little bit complex."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway should add auto-remediation to improve the solution. Additionally, there are times when we have false positives and our general emails get locked, we have mentioned this to Barracuda."
"Barracuda should add an option where it can add multiple domains, such as abc.com, bbc.com, and cbc.com. Therefore, this domains' emails will be allowed and other domains' emails will not be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Whereas, if you allow the IP address, then any of the domain's emails will be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. That is the drawback that I have observed. So, Barracuda should work on this."
"False positives have given us issues."
"There is room for further integration with the wider platform."
"The reports are standard, and it would be nice to be able to customize them."
"It became very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances, and I may advise Proofpoint to adjust marketing solutions based on each country."
"Pricing for the platform could still be cheaper."
"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."
"Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms."
"I would want better spear phishing protection in the essentials package."
"We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve by reducing the price."
"The solution could lower its price."
"The reporting functionality is in major need of improvement."
"Reporting could have more options for users to customize desired results."
"There are a few issues with integration that need to be addressed; this would help make deployment easier for new users."
"There aren't enough advanced settings. They should offer more advanced options."
"More things need to be integrated into this device, like DLP, so we can have a complete solution in one box."
"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see more user awareness, such as information about phishing email attacks that have been prevented."
"In the advanced version, you have DLP, Data Loss Prevention, but when you buy the standard version, you don't have it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We find the solution's pricing okay."
"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"Compared to other products, this solution is quite affordable."
"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."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a cost-effective solution."
"We are using the trial version right now, and before purchasing the license, we need to solve some of the issues that we are facing. We need a proper solution for our email, and then we will look into pricing. We have a vendor for licensing."
"The solution requires a license and we pay annually."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is an affordable solution that caters to small, midsize, and high-end businesses with great revenue."
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
"The solution is expensive."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is a reasonably priced product, which means that it is neither too low nor too high in terms of price."
"We sell annual licenses for this solution."
"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."
"The tool's pricing depends on the customer's preference, offering options for an annual license or a monthly subscription. The cost varies based on factors such as the number of users and specific requirements. Overall, the pricing is competitive."
"Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
"Negotiate as much as you can."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
I would suggest that pricing for Barracuda Email Security Gateway rates around seven. It is not too expensive, but it...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
Regarding real-time intelligent features of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, some spam emails are still being re...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My use case for the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our emails from phishing and spam emails to get th...
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 enh...
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
I have not seen specific outcomes or metrics since implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, such as a reduction in p...
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Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
Email Appliance
 

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