I'm still new to the Barracuda. We're using the Email Security Gateway, however, I'm not sure about the cloud, or the archive capabilities. It's a new system for me.
Cloud Engineer at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Straightforward to set up with good threat visibility and a nice interface
Pros and Cons
- "We find the product to be scalable."
- "The pricing is a little bit high, and it is causing the company to rethink renewal. If they could lower the pricing, that would be ideal."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Email security has been quite helpful. It acts as a protector, especially for the inbound emails every day. I can see if there are a lot of phishing emails or scam emails being blocked by the system. That's very important for the company. The organization is so big, and with so many emails coming in, having it as the first line of defense is great.
What is most valuable?
The interface is good, and it offers good integrations.
The solution offers very good email security. It protects us from spam and scam emails.
It offers good visibility of any potential threats trying to enter the system.
The initial setup should be straightforward.
It is cloud-based.
So far, the solution has been stable.
We find the product to be scalable.
What needs improvement?
The pricing is a little bit high, and it is causing the company to rethink renewal. If they could lower the pricing, that would be ideal.
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
February 2026
Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I'm still pretty new to the solution. I haven't used it for that long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't heard of the term having issues with reliability. It is stable. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. It's easy to expand.
We have about 2,000 people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had a chance to work with technical support. I don't know how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Mimecast. I used it about two or three years ago. Barracuda is a bit different from Mimecast. I recall Mimecast having good integration with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online. We used it to protect email and block malware mostly.
How was the initial setup?
I'm new to the company. I wasn't involved in the initial setup of the product. That said, my understanding is that it is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't deal with the licensing and can't speak to the exact cost of the solution.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users, not partners.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Effective ATP, high availability, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP."
- "Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for ATP, anti-spam, antivirus, and everything related to enabling flow.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is the ATP.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve reporting and anti-spam. The anti-spam engine is not working well. We are seeing a lot of problems where spam is going through the gateway. Additionally, access privilege should be given to the IT support, because they don't have a lot of privileges. We are forced to give our IT support administrative access in order to clear and deliver emails and this should not be happening.
In the future, having a schedule reporting for quarantine for all users or for selected users, without reading the content of the message would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is stable. We had issues with the on-premise version where they used to freeze from time to time, but with the cloud version, we have not had any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a scalable solution.
We have approximately 500 people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have used the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
I rate the support from Barracuda Email Security Gateway a three out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway took approximately two months to complete here in Lebanon. It was not an easy implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We used Barracuda Email Security Gateway partners to complete the implementation of the solutions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is approximately $17 per user annually.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate another solution prior to selecting Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
What other advice do I have?
We chose the solution because it was high on the rating sites and some of my friends from other companies recommend it.
My advice to others is to make sure that their business use case is well optimized, to allow the solution to be set up in the right way.
We are a construction company and we make sure that the emails related to construction pass through the solution. Other companies, such as in marketing, will want to make sure that the marketing campaign passes through. We don't want any marketing campaigns to pass through. You need to see your business use case and your business needs, and you will have to adapt the solution.
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda Email Security Gateway
February 2026
Learn what your peers think about Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Presales Engineer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Quick configuration, simple log management, but performance could improve
Pros and Cons
- "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 can improve email detection. We have some emails that are bypassing the threat scanning. There are some impersonation emails passing through."
What is our primary use case?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway can be deployed on the cloud or on-premise.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is similar to a traditional spam filter but provides more features. It protects you from the attacks that are coming through your emails. It scans and filters your email, and delivers them.
What is most valuable?
The most important features of Barracuda Email Security Gateway are the simple and quick configuration, interactive console, and easy-to-understand logs.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway can improve email detection. We have some emails that are bypassing the threat scanning. There are some impersonation emails passing through.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is good. However, the appliance will have some challenges, after three years of use we have some performance issues in some boxes.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The Barracuda Email Security Gateway is scalable when in the cloud.
We are using devices that support 5,000 users. We have been hiring more employees now that the lockdown from covid is slowing down.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Proofpoint and Check Point previously.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is straightforward. It can be done in quickly by experts or if you follow the wizard it can be done in 30 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
We have one engineer for the deployment and maintenance of Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We typically purchase a one or three-year license for Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Highly stable, straightforward initial setup, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is that it blocks almost 99 percent of threats from users' email inboxes."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is used to protect users' email inboxes from malicious threats coming from outside of the network. For example, it can be a malicious link or some malware as an attachment. If these threats are sent to our users, then it blocks and deletes the email.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is that it blocks almost 99 percent of threats from users' email inboxes.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a cloud solution, therefore it is highly scalable.
Everyone in our company is using this solution. It is protecting 10,000 users' inboxes. We do not plan to increase users.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good, we did not find any issues with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using another security tool previously. We were looking for an advanced tool that helps us to log more threats and incident management. This is why we chose Barracuda Email Security Gateway.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is straightforward. The process can take approximately 15 to 20 days.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation of the solution ourselves without a partner.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Information Security Officer & DPO - Data Protection Officer at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Provides us with good email security maturity, keeping our employees productive by blocking unwanted email
Pros and Cons
- "The spam filtering, in particular, is very important for us. We have a large volume of emails each month, something like 200,000, and Barracuda filters about 85 percent of the spam, malware, and phishing that comes in. It prevents our users from receiving this content on their computers."
- "We still have critical threats coming into our environment and delivered to our users. When we compare it with other solutions, these other solutions can already detect those threats."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is the first security layer for emails that come into our network, and we use it to filter all spam, phishing emails, and malware that come in via email.
We are now using the virtual appliance in our VMware environment.
How has it helped my organization?
In the past, we had a lot of problems from threats and malware that came into our network, directly from email. Users would receive the content and click on a malicious link or open a malicious attachment, and that caused us a lot of problems.
By choosing Barracuda as our solution for filtering, year by year we have seen a big improvement in our environment with a significant reduction in the number of threats. Consequently, we have fewer problems with users. In the past, users who clicked on this malicious content had to stop work for a long period while our support team helped them. We have almost 600 employees, and every month we had a lot of problems with that. Today we have good security maturity using this solution. It has reduced the risk in our environment. Employees lose less time due to malicious content on their computers. Barracuda has helped to secure the gateway.
What is most valuable?
The spam filtering, in particular, is very important for us. We have a large volume of emails each month, something like 200,000, and Barracuda filters about 85 percent of the spam, malware, and phishing that comes in. It prevents our users from receiving this content on their computers.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Barracuda Email Security Gateway for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In our environment today, the stability is good.
The problems we have at times are not about the performance or availability, but about the quality of the detection for some threats. The model that we have does not have a sandbox resource, which other versions Barracuda offer. Sometimes we receive a phishing email that has a malicious link, for example. Even though it is an old threat, Barracuda can't detect it. Sometimes these messages are delivered to our users. This is a gap that we have identified.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Because we use the on-premises version, we don't have many options when it comes to scalability. But in our headquarters, we have the same solution working at the same time in two different data centers for availability.
We have plans to update to the next version, preferably the cloud version, where we can have more options for using the other resources and layers that Barracuda offers. We don't have access to those today on the version we have.
How are customer service and support?
Everyone that I have contacted in their technical support is a professional. They always respond quickly and are very patient, for all the problems we have raised. The technical support really is very good. And today, that makes a real difference. Barracuda is a North American company, but they have support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are in a different time zone, but we always get support quickly.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In addition to Barracuda, we used an open-source solution from Linux.
How was the initial setup?
It's not so hard to deploy. Barracuda has a huge forum on the internet with a lot of simple guides to follow. In our case, it was very simple to deploy the solution. Obviously, you need to have some knowledge about your network and the protocols, but every time that we need to use support they are always available very quickly to help us. But overall, the deployment is very simple.
The first time we deployed it, it took about three hours.
Ahead of deployment, we had some meetings with our IT team at our headquarters in Germany because we needed to create some rules in our network in Germany as well as here in Brazil. We chose the best resources for virtualization in our environment. We needed to design exactly how it would work: how Barracuda would receive emails and how we would address emails from our Microsoft Exchange before they went to Barracuda. We always used the Barracuda guidelines in the deployment process.
For our 600 users we have two people involved in the solution, a security guy and a network guy.
What was our ROI?
If we didn't have a solution like Barracuda in our environment, we would probably have a lot of problems that would directly impact our business. There would be employees who wouldn't be able to work because their machines were infected by threats after they opened email. If we calculate how many users used to be impacted in a year, and how much each one cost the company when not able to work, it would not be a good result.
With this solution, we can prevent users and their work from being impacted and, consequently, reduce the impact to our business.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Barracuda has the best price. Every year we need to renew our license, and every year I need to compare Barracuda to two or three other players in the market. Barracuda always has a price that is 30 to 40 percent less than the other players' prices.
Last year we paid for the possibility of changing our hardware every three years. But now, because we changed the licensing model to a virtualization model, we don't need that. We just pay for the product and the support. There are two separate costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Over the last two years, I have looked at other solutions that might give us more ability to handle new threats. For example, I have looked at solutions that have a sandbox feature integrated into them. But, Barracuda has given us a good idea of what it proposes to do. They already have the solution that I am looking for, but because of costs, we haven't been able to deploy it.
The advantage of Barracuda is its availability. Barracuda provides really good performance and is able to handle tons of emails by the minute and by the hour. The con is that we still have critical threats coming into our environment and delivered to our users. When we compare it with other solutions, these other solutions can already detect those threats.
What other advice do I have?
Barracuda's technology is the kind of technology that gives us a good balance among security, value, and user experience. It is not the best tool or technology on the market, but it does what it was developed to do. There are other possibilities, if you are willing to pay more. But Barracuda is the right solution for the problem in our environment.
A lot of companies pay for a good and comprehensive solution, but they usually only use 50 or 60 percent of what the solution offers. Barracuda is different. We use it 100 percent. I know what the Barracuda technology delivers for me and the value I get from it for what I pay and how I use it. It is that simple.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
DP Manager at a agriculture with 51-200 employees
It's good at filtering out all the garbage
Pros and Cons
- "Barracuda is good at keeping the garbage from reaching your inbox."
- "Barracuda isn't catching everything. We're still getting quite a few phishing emails, so we're looking for something else."
What is our primary use case?
Barracuda protects us from spam and email-based threats.
What is most valuable?
Barracuda is good at keeping the garbage from reaching your inbox.
What needs improvement?
Barracuda isn't catching everything. We're still getting quite a few phishing emails, so we're looking for something else.
For how long have I used the solution?
We used on-prem Barracuda for a couple of years, and now we're on the cloud.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had any stability issues so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 160 email boxes, so we're not a huge company. Barracuda scalable enough for our needs.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Barracuda support eight out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't involved in the setup. We had someone from the vendor look at our setup and tell us what to change.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Barracuda costs about the same as the other solution I reviewed, but I still think it's expensive for what it does.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Security Administrator at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A scalable solution that to block some blacklisted emails
Pros and Cons
- "The solution helps us to block some blacklisted emails."
- "We are using the tool’s 400 model which does not offer accurate spam detection. We have also had performance issues with the tool."
What is our primary use case?
The solution helps us to block some blacklisted emails.
What needs improvement?
We are using the tool’s 400 model which does not offer accurate spam detection. We have also had performance issues with the tool.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the solution for three years. The tool’s model number that I work with is 400.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. We had faced some stability issues which got resolved after replacing some hardware.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. You can scale up or down the hardware appliances as per your license.
How was the initial setup?
The tool’s deployment is simple.
What about the implementation team?
I find the tool’s tech support very supportive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Computer Networks and Systems Support Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
Reliable, but it could be more automated
Pros and Cons
- "It catches a lot of things and has the ability to add domains as well as add senders and update their things."
- "Spam is not always detected, and it should be more automated. We have seen that some emails are allowed by these emails, which are then stopped by Microsoft."
- "I am not aware of the licensing costs."
What is our primary use case?
We use Barracuda Email Security Gateway for email security.
What is most valuable?
It's a good solution. Maybe if we switch to the cloud version, it will be more up-to-date. It's a good one.
It catches a lot of things and has the ability to add domains as well as add senders and update their things.
It could be more automated. Many solutions in the industry are now receiving automatic updates. This one, we believe, is not; however, a later version may be better.
What needs improvement?
It's good, but some spam isn't always detected. It doesn't always detect the most recent signatures or spam.
The database is not updated automatically. Other solutions, such as Microsoft Exchange Online, automatically receive the most recent threat data and malware data types. I believe the Barracuda database is not being updated. That is why we are looking, and we are evaluating whether Defender for Office 365 or a Microsoft solution is better than Barracuda.
That is why we are downloading all of this research to see which of the market leaders we should switch to.
Spam is not always detected, and it should be more automated. We have seen that some emails are allowed by these emails, which are then stopped by Microsoft.
We now have two layers of defense. Barracuda and we also have Microsoft Exchange online, but we would like to switch to one or upgrade this. We are looking for any and all solutions.
That is what we are investigating right now. Because we want to ensure that some are stopped here by Barracuda and the entry point. However, for those that are not caught or blocked by Barracuda, we have the next layer of Exchange Online, which comes into the picture and checks it, sees it, and blocks it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I joined an organization that has been using Barracuda for a few years, but they are looking into other options.
I only recently joined them, about six months ago.
I have been working with Barracuda Email Security Gateway for six months.
I don't recall, which version we are using but it is not the latest one.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe that Barracuda Email Security Gateway is scalable. We didn't make many changes to the architecture. But I believe it is scalable.
We have a small IT team of three to four people.
We have small IT teams and approximately 50-60 business users. There are only three or four people who are directly involved with the product.
How was the initial setup?
I am not aware of the initial setup. It was already deployed when I joined.
This solution is difficult to maintain, which is why updates should be automatic, in my opinion. It should be intelligent enough to get the most recent updates, which it is not at the moment.
I believe it is, but I believe it does not catch everything. Perhaps we need more collaboration, more technology companies.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the licensing costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My senior colleague appears to believe that Exchange is superior. Because it receives the most recent updates and Microsoft is the largest, it has more Intel on this. We are getting more data, including real-time data updates.
What other advice do I have?
I have yet to compare it with other solutions, but I would rate Barracuda Email Security Gateway a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Barracuda Email Security Gateway Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2026
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