Avanan vs Barracuda Email Protection comparison

Avanan, a Check Point Company and Barracuda Networks are both solutions in the Email Security category. Avanan, a Check Point Company is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.7, while Barracuda Networks is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.8. Avanan, a Check Point Company holds a 3.8% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Barracuda Networks’s 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Avanan, a Check Point Company users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Barracuda Networks users who would recommend it.

Avanan

Read 19 Avanan reviews

3,397 Views
3,023 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Barracuda Email Protection

Read 18 Barracuda Email Protection reviews

1,999 Views
1,719 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Avanan

Barracuda Email Protection

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Avanan and Barracuda Email Protection are two prominent solutions in the realm of cloud-based email security. Avanan holds an edge owing to its advanced AI capabilities and adaptability for fluctuating environments, while Barracuda is recognized for its solid spam blocking and integration with Microsoft 365.

Features: Avanan's key features include AI-powered threat detection tailored for Office 365, seamless deployment across various cloud environments, and real-time email threat mitigation. Its focus on comprehensive protection enhances its appeal. Barracuda stands out for its robust spam and malware filtering, reliable performance in impersonation detection, and AI-driven analysis that easily integrates with Microsoft 365, ensuring a smooth user experience.

Room for Improvement: Avanan can improve by expanding integration with more SaaS applications, refining user training resources, and adjusting pricing strategies for small to medium enterprises. Issues with occasional false positives suggest further enhancements in threat detection. Barracuda faces challenges with pricing complexity, requires further development in fraud detection, and could improve reporting and integration with security awareness training initiatives.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Avanan is lauded for its flexible deployment options in both public and private clouds, backed by effective customer support. Its scalability is beneficial for diverse organizational needs. Barracuda provides a straightforward deployment process, especially for Microsoft 365, and is supported by responsive customer service, although it is more suited to public cloud setups compared to Avanan's versatile approach.

Pricing and ROI: Avanan offers a flexible user-based pricing model, beneficial for dynamic environments like film production, achieving significant ROI through reduced phishing incidents. Barracuda provides moderate, stable pricing that offers value for email protection with predictable usage. Both solutions deliver satisfactory returns on investment, with Avanan's pricing structure being more responsive to shifting user numbers.

To learn more, read our detailed Avanan vs. Barracuda Email Protection Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Avanan vs. Barracuda Email Protection

July 2025

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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

Avanan

Ranking in Email Security

16th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (21st)

Barracuda Email Protection

Ranking in Email Security

15th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (2nd), Office 365 Protection (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Avanan is 3.8%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 3.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez

Vice President Information Technology at Makeready

Enhances email security and has a very simple and easy-to-use UI

Spam protection is the most valuable feature. We have implemented the tool to enhance our email security. It helps prevent phishing attacks. The anomaly detection capabilities are baked into the security platform. The product integrates wonderfully with Microsoft 365. It's built right on a cloud platform and works almost natively. The solution has a very simple and easy-to-use UI. The tool appears extremely powerful and has a good solid feature set. It catches things that are bad for my environment. The user interface is good the way it is. If the solution continues down that path, I see no problems with the way it is going. It feels like a mature product.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like Avanan's SmartDLP module. It's seamless, and the administrative overhead is low. We aren't a very sophisticated operation. We just want to reduce our exposure, so we find ThreatCloud helpful. Avanan's acquisition by Check Point was beneficial for them."

"Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents."

"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its effectiveness. When scanning incoming emails for threats it can in an automated fashion, quarantine suspicious attachments."

"The ease of installation and the AI capacity of the product are valuable."

"It can retract unsafe emails and remove them from the entire communication channel."

"Spam protection is the most valuable feature."

"Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources."

"This technology is one of Check Point's acquisitions, and it is currently a powerful tool that provides all the protection that is not found in other tools."

More Avanan pros

"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 solution is straightforward to set up."

"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."

"The most valuable features are security and ease of use."

"The beauty of Barracuda Email Protection is that it is easy to manage and simple to deploy."

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

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

"The archiving and search features are very good."

More Barracuda Email Protection pros

Cons

"There are times when we have false positives."

"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."

"Sometimes it seemed like the allow list wasn't working. I've created many allow list rules however, they still seem to be blocked; the same is true with the blocked list rules."

"The system response in a slow computing device affects performance when sending and receiving emails."

"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."

"It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."

"Being cloud first and because we are in the movie business, we use a lot of Macintoshes. So, there is absolutely no reason for us to have Active Directory whatsoever. However, if you are using Office 365, you must have Active Directory in order to reset passwords. Even though we have a single sign-on provider, we must have Azure Active Directory for Office 365, which is really stupid. As a cloud application, you would think that I don't need Active Directory, which I don't need for anything else except Office 365. We have one server inside that space to help us manage Active Directory just for Office 365. This is a very sore point, but it is what it is."

"When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests."

More Avanan cons

"There is room for improvement, particularly in reaching out to technical support during deployment."

"Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platforms and third-party solutions."

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

"The solution's graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved visually."

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

"They could simplify the licensing and the pricing."

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

"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."

More Barracuda Email Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."

"The product is not the cheapest in the market."

"Having the flexibility and modeling to do the pricing that best fits the needs of the organization is incredibly ideal. That is what Avanan does. They know exactly how many users are using it, etc. We can tune the invoicing associated with how we are using the product so we can charge it back to the shows appropriately."

"Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."

"Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."

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

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

"The product is expensive."

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

"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."

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

"Barracuda licensing model is good."

More Barracuda Email Protection pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

19%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Avanan?

Spam protection is the most valuable feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Avanan?

Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Avanan?

Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s backup and retention services. I've brought this up with the vendor. They told me t...

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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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?

See all answers

Comparisons

Abnormal Security vs Avanan

Compared 14% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Avanan

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Avanan

Compared 12% of the time

Perception Point Advanced Email Security vs Avanan

Compared 8% of the time

IRONSCALES vs Avanan

Compared 5% of the time

More Avanan Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 32% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 18% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos Email vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 5% of the time

More Barracuda Email Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Avanan

July 2025

Download Avanan product report

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection

July 2025

Download Barracuda Email Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

Barracuda Essentials

Overview

Avanan provides advanced email security, integrating with cloud services like Microsoft Office 365 to guard against phishing, malware, and ransomware while offering user-friendly, seamless, and comprehensive protection for all users.

Avanan leverages AI to detect and block threats before they reach inboxes, offering real-time protection, data leak prevention, and advanced email screening. The solution is easy to deploy and can be used effectively by both technical and non-technical users to secure email environments. Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365, it provides continuous protection, efficiently sandboxing suspicious emails and responding swiftly to emerging threats. While recognizing its performance in threat detection, users suggest improvements in AI logic to reduce false positives and enhance user experience.

What are the key features of Avanan?

Advanced AI: Leverages artificial intelligence for superior threat detection and blocking.
Real-Time Protection: Offers real-time monitoring for consistent threat detection.
Easy Deployment: Simple to implement across various platforms.
Cost-Effective: Provides robust security solutions at a competitive price.
Customizable Rules: Allows users to tailor security settings to their needs.
End-to-End Encryption: Ensures data security throughout transmission.
Seamless Integration: Integrates smoothly with Microsoft Office 365.
Efficient Sandboxing: Isolates and inspects suspicious emails effectively.
Responsive Support: Offers quick customer support for resolving issues.
Cloud-Native Controls: Provides continuous protection against evolving cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in reviews?

Improved Security: Enhanced protection against phishing, malware, and ransomware.
Ease of Use: User-friendly interface suitable for both technical and non-technical users.
Time Efficiency: Rapid deployment and seamless integration save valuable time.
Cost Savings: Affordable pricing with comprehensive features offers high ROI.
Data Integrity: Maintains data security with end-to-end encryption and real-time protection.
User Satisfaction: Efficient threat detection and responsive customer support.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and education, Avanan's security measures are critically important for protecting sensitive information. Financial organizations benefit from advanced threat detection to safeguard transactions, while healthcare entities use robust security protocols to protect patient data. Educational institutions use Avanan to secure communications, ensuring the safety and privacy of students and staff.

Avanan, a Check Point Company

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

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring

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

Buyer's Guide

Avanan vs. Barracuda Email Protection

July 2025

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