No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs Norton Small Business comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

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
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense improved security, reduced incidents, and increased efficiency, providing significant cost savings and operational stability.
Sentiment score
8.6
Norton Small Business reduces security threat downtime, enhancing productivity, efficiency, and ROI by allowing focus on critical tasks.
If your staff can become aware and trained to have minimal incidents, that is a huge return on investment for any organization.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
We have seen a return on investment evidenced by fewer breaching incidents and less workload for our security team.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
I have seen a return on investment with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) as it has protected our customers against targeted phishing emails, set up training campaigns easily, and trained the human firewall.
Marketing Director at Unisys
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.6
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense customer support is praised for responsive, proactive 24/7 assistance, achieving high ratings from users.
Sentiment score
8.1
Norton Small Business's technical support is rated excellent for its efficiency, helpfulness, and responsiveness, though some see room for improvement.
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very responsive and supportive 24/7.
Marketing Director at Unisys
I can rate customer support around ten out of ten, as I do not see any issues.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very proactive and supportive.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.0
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers high scalability and reliability, efficiently supporting medium to large businesses' email protection needs.
Sentiment score
8.1
Norton Small Business is highly scalable, allowing easy license expansion and adaptability for diverse business sizes and device platforms.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable, with no downtime noticed, and it is really fast.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is scalable because I do not need to manage anything; it will be managed on their end.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is highly rated for stability, with most users experiencing no downtime, ensuring reliable operation.
Sentiment score
8.2
Norton Small Business is highly rated for its stability, with minor password manager issues on mobile devices.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very stable; I have not experienced any downtime or reliability issues.
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs UI, pricing flexibility, better documentation, improved integration, and enhanced phishing detection and support.
Norton Small Business requires better pricing, enhanced features, and fewer notifications to improve user experience and market availability.
We need to enhance detection capabilities for phishing emails.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The cost could be more affordable, especially for smaller organizations working on a tight budget.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
The price increased about two years ago, which is a big concern, especially for small organizations working on a tight budget.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense is valued as budget-friendly for small organizations, despite being pricier than some alternatives.
Norton Small Business offers affordable yearly licenses but frequent upsells for additional features can be a drawback for some.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is competitive compared to other solutions.
Security Practitioner at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost is very effective and affordable.
Marketing Director at Unisys
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing is that this tool is very cost-effective, but the price was increased around two years ago.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Essentials enhances email security with advanced threat protection, anti-phishing, and user-friendly monitoring for increased productivity.
Norton Small Business offers comprehensive virus protection, secure features, multi-platform compatibility, and 24/7 support via a user-friendly dashboard.
I value their ability to protect against various online threats such as spam, phishing, ransomware, and malware.
Marketing Director at Unisys
It has been a very good tool, increasing email security by 70%, improving compliance and risk management, and providing adequate training, making our staff more aware and alert, as they check more often and report more spam emails.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
The URL filtering is excellent, as it reviews every link sent in an email and rewrites it to open in a sandbox first if clicked on.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Gateway Def...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
16th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Norton Small Business
Ranking in Cloud Backup
37th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (11th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Norton Small Business is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)0.5%
Norton Small Business0.6%
Other98.9%
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

Kelly  Perry - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Procter & Gamble
Email defenses have reduced phishing risk and now protect our remote workforce every day
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) has had a very positive impact on our organization, especially since the pandemic with many remote workers. Our IT objective is 99.9% uptime with many redundant fail-safes in place. Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) helps to meet that objective by protecting the vast amount of email we receive on a daily basis. I can share specific metrics or results: we've reduced risk by 60% and increased visibility by 70%. Now we have peace of mind in our organization since we know our email is protected. Email protection has dramatically reduced attacks via spam, phishing, and malware in all sectors, enhancing protection and encryption of input and output and preventing data from being leaked from the internal network.
Balaguru Paramasivan - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager - DBA at HTC Global Services (INDIA) Private
The initial setup phase is very easy and user-friendly
I had tried Kaspersky a long time ago. I think it is available only in India. I don't know for sure. I have used that one for a couple of years, but I didn't like it, and that is the only reason I went back to Norton. Kaspersky was not safeguarding me in all aspects. I had seen some loopholes in the tool, so that is the only reason I went for Norton. The only thing I like about Kaspersky is that it supports the mobile version.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Backup solutions are best for your needs.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Media Company
26%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is competitive compared to other solutions. They provide costs in a similar manner to their competitors.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) can be improved, as it offers advanced phishing features but still needs fine-tuning. While it is strong, some advanced and highly targeted ph...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is an email filtering gateway for inbound and outbound that integrates with platforms like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Barracuda Email...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Norton 360?
I have a yearly licensing plan. The cost is not that high. The solution is cost-effective.
What is your primary use case for Norton 360?
I use the solution for the general protection of my computer. It runs in the background.
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) vs. Norton Small Business and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.