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Avanan vs Barracuda Email Security Gateway comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.4
Avanan improved email security, reduced phishing, increased user trust, enhanced mobile protection, and boosted ROI and revenue growth.
Sentiment score
4.7
Barracuda Email Security Gateway prioritizes email safety, providing fewer disruptions despite potential ROI concerns for businesses and service providers.
Training is not required because you do not need to have training on Barracuda Email Security Gateway due to the usability of the product.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
Avanan's customer service is highly responsive, professional, and proactive, with excellent communication and extensive support staff knowledge.
Sentiment score
7.4
Barracuda Email Security Gateway customer support is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, though limited by time zones and language.
From the vendor, I would give the technical support an eight out of ten.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Avanan integrates with Office 365 and Google, praised for scalability, admin capabilities, and efficient email protection across diverse organizations.
Sentiment score
8.1
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is scalable for SMBs but may not suit very large enterprises, with varied user opinions.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Avanan is highly praised for its stability, efficiency, security, minimal maintenance, seamless Microsoft 365 integration, and reliable AI-based scanning.
Sentiment score
8.2
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is reliable and stable, with quick resolutions for minor issues and high user ratings.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a great platform and a stable platform.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
 

Room For Improvement

Users feel Avanan needs improvements in Active Directory dependency, email quarantining, AI logic, training, UI, performance, pricing, mobile app, and integrations.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway needs upgrades in usability, integration, scalability, support, spam filtering accuracy, and anti-phishing measures.
Barracuda needs to provide a fast response to any vulnerability on the system.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
When we add mails to email secure Sender Policy Authentication with extended options, all mails must pass this Mail Security Gateway.
Graduate Student at ain shams
If it's considered a phishing email, it should be blocked for all users, not just some.
IT Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Avanan provides flexible pricing for Office 365, with straightforward setup and costs between $4 to $8 per user.
The Barracuda Email Security Gateway is competitively priced, scalable, with varied user opinions and crucial regional market considerations.
Compared to the features and stability, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is affordable in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is cheaper.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Avanan provides advanced malware and phishing detection, 24/7 cloud protection, easy integration with Microsoft 365, and ensures secure communications.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway offers robust spam filtering, advanced threat protection, and user-friendly features for comprehensive email security management.
The threat intelligence or reputation database has helped my team day-to-day by providing insight into who is communicating with us, getting reputations for domains, and stopping bad IP addresses from communicating with our domain and our email users.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails.
Graduate Student at ain shams
The main benefit from Barracuda Email Security Gateway is better security for the email flow.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Avanan
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (16th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (28th)
Barracuda Email Security Ga...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (4th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Avanan is designed for Email Security and holds a mindshare of 2.9%, down 3.8% compared to last year.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway, on the other hand, focuses on Secure Email Gateway (SEG), holds 7.3% mindshare, up 7.1% since last year.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Avanan2.9%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3659.6%
Proofpoint Email Protection7.9%
Other79.6%
Email Security
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Barracuda Email Security Gateway7.3%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36524.2%
Proofpoint Email Protection20.3%
Other48.2%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Avanan?
Spam protection is the most valuable feature.
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...
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 is a considerable cost. Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway ...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
Regarding real-time intelligent features of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, some spam emails are still being released by the ESG to the end users, so the functionality is not working appropri...
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 them blocked by the ESG.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Barracuda Email Security Gateway and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.