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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 Essentials reduces breaches and workload, enhances security, decreases costs, and lowers phishing incidents by up to 60%.
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
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
We have seen a return on investment evidenced by fewer breaching incidents and less workload for our security team.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.5
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense's customer service is praised for efficiency, professionalism, and 24/7 responsiveness, overcoming minor demand-related delays.
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
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very proactive and supportive.
Account Executive at Hilton Worldwide
The customer support for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is very proactive and responsive.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense offers scalable, reliable performance, efficiently handling high email volumes, suitable for medium businesses, and highly rated.
Sentiment score
8.1
Norton Small Business is highly scalable, allowing easy license expansion and adaptability for diverse business sizes and device platforms.
We first deployed it for one line of business (LOB) and then for multiple LOBs, all while maintaining stability without any lag.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
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 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 praised for its consistent stability and reliability, with users highly rating its performance.
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
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is stable in my experience, as there has been no downtime since it has been deployed.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Gateway Defense needs improved usability, integration, pricing, support, role-based control, visibility, and deployment for better user satisfaction.
Norton Small Business requires better pricing, enhanced features, and fewer notifications to improve user experience and market availability.
There is a need for stronger automation, role-based access control granularity, and advanced threat visibility for multi-tenant environments.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
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 offers competitive pricing but recently increased costs, varying compared to alternatives like Trend Micro and Cisco.
Norton Small Business offers affordable yearly licenses but frequent upsells for additional features can be a drawback for some.
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
I find the price to be cost-effective.
Senior Software Engineer at GE
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost is very effective and affordable.
Marketing Director at Unisys
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Essentials offers comprehensive email security with URL filtering, anti-phishing, advanced threat protection, and analytics for businesses.
Norton Small Business offers comprehensive virus protection, secure features, multi-platform compatibility, and 24/7 support via a user-friendly dashboard.
The feature I find myself relying on the most is anti-phishing and impersonation protection because phishing is the highest incident volume across the tenants, leading to direct financial and reputational risk exposure.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
I value their ability to protect against various online threats such as spam, phishing, ransomware, and malware.
Marketing Director at Unisys
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) has positively impacted our organization by helping to ensure that anyone sending email out of our email system is protected, even if they make a mistake and send sensitive data because it is highly encrypted.
Senior Software Engineer at Kroger
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Gateway Def...
Ranking in Cloud Backup
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Norton Small Business
Ranking in Cloud Backup
38th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (12th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (29th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Norton Small Business is 0.5%, 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)0.4%
Norton Small Business0.5%
Other99.1%
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
If a customer faces an email security issue, we'll do some initial troubleshooting. If the issue isn't resolved, we work with the Barracuda team for further assistance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
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, which worries me for small organizations using Bar...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials)?
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense (Barracuda Essentials) can be improved since the DLP is a bit inflexible and cannot handle custom additions. It is either you turn on the group of regulations you wa...
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: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.