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Barracuda Email Protection vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

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
5.7
Barracuda Email Protection reduces costs, enhances security, and increases staff awareness, resulting in high user satisfaction and renewed licenses.
Sentiment score
6.1
Cisco Secure Email is valued for security and efficiency, though financial benefits are mixed and hard to quantify.
In an estimate, we were paying close to 300,000, but now we are sitting with Barracuda Email Protection at 100,000.
IT Officer at MVA Fund
The IT department has saved time and cost, as they do not have to run up and down fighting with malicious spam or malicious attacks.
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
We see a return on investment from using Barracuda Email Protection because we are stopping attacks and running our business smoothly.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Barracuda Email Protection's customer service is praised for responsiveness, professionalism, and proactiveness, with technical support rated highly.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email's superior customer service, marked by prompt, reliable support, is rated highly over competitors like Fortinet.
This is particularly problematic for a financial institution and banking customer.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
They went through the process and recommended a change in their platform to address the issue.
Director, Information Technology at St Albans High School For Girls
They are quick to find a solution, and they are available twenty-four seven, so overall, it is a great customer support team.
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
Regarding my interaction with the technical support of Cisco Secure Email, it was zero downtime for the mail production.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Cisco's tech support can be hit or miss, depending on the engineer you get.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The support is pretty decent, with a rating of eight out of ten.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Barracuda Email Protection is highly scalable for businesses of all sizes, preferred for its effective performance and cloud options.
Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco Secure Email provides flexible scalability and security enhancements, supporting large setups with positive user experiences and expansion options.
Barracuda does not limit you based on how many mailboxes or users you have, which is one of the good things for Barracuda.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
Barracuda Email Protection's scalability is very good because it handles all my clients' emails and all my organization emails.
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
Scalability is expensive for Barracuda Email Protection.
IT Officer at MVA Fund
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
My thoughts on the scalability level of Cisco Secure Email is nine because of the delay in making a configuration and the slowness in the console.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Barracuda Email Protection is rated highly for stability and reliability, with effective security and proactive support noted by users.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cisco Secure Email is valued for stability and reliability, with minimal issues and efficient operation, requiring minimal maintenance.
Customers chose a different product after experiencing a problem when they upgraded the firmware, which caused the system to restart multiple times during working hours.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
Barracuda Email Protection's stability is good, with no lagging, no crashes, and no errors.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
I think Barracuda Email Protection is stable and very reliable.
IT Officer at MVA Fund
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Protection needs improved zero trust features, data retrieval, reporting, user interfaces, pricing, integration, and mobile performance.
Cisco Secure Email faces complex UI, integration issues, high costs, and lacks advanced features, affecting usability and scalability.
The day we stop improving is the day we die.
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
Users must go through an induction session where I guide them in configuring quarantine alerts rather than having default settings based on group membership.
Director, Information Technology at St Albans High School For Girls
Barracuda Email Protection could improve in the future to make it more competitive by addressing the fact that Barracuda started with anti-spam and email protection, but now they are moving more to cloud-based solutions rather than device-based or hardware-based solutions.
Director Of Technology at PT Exa Teknologi Indonesia
The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated into the Email Security Gateway so customers don't have to buy two products for full email protection.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Protection offers competitive and affordable pricing, often comparable to Microsoft 365, with potential discounts during negotiations.
Cisco Secure Email is costly yet valued for features, with variable pricing based on factors like environment and user count.
I find that Barracuda Email Protection has a very good licensing model, providing capable features at a very good and affordable price.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Computer Manufacturing (ECM)
In my experience, the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Barracuda Email Protection are competitively priced, making it very affordable for any size of organization.
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
I would say the price for Barracuda Email Protection is very nice; the solution is not expensive.
IT Officer at MVA Fund
Its cost is bundled with other Cisco products.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
The licensing is a mess and needs sorting out.
Cloud Partner & Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Email Protection offers comprehensive email security with threat protection, spam filtering, easy integration, and cost-effective incident response.
Cisco Secure Email offers advanced protection, integration, and user-friendly management, enhancing security against malware, spam, phishing, and ransomware.
Our security has also increased from forty percent to sixty-five percent, especially when dealing with all the threats that come through emails.
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
We do use Barracuda Data Protection functions, and the advantage we have is that the backed-up data is protected from any possible attack that can come or any kind of hijack or data being misused.
Director at Dynamic Group
Barracuda Email Protection has positively impacted my client's organization by reducing almost 50 to 60 percent of phishing emails, making it more secure and allowing us to feel safe from phishing incidents.
Security Engineer at Payatu
It also possesses multiple modules for spam detection, malware detection, and threat intelligence, which are valuable in categorizing emails and determining actions.
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
It is highly effective in catching phishing and spam emails.
Systems Engineer at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
The integration of Cisco AMP for Advanced Malware Protection with Cisco Secure Email has helped our organization's security posture.
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (3rd), Security Incident Response (8th), Office 365 Protection (4th)
Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 2.4%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 4.5%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Email4.5%
Barracuda Email Protection2.4%
Other93.1%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Xavie Simons - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Development Manager at Procter & Gamble
Improved email security has reduced spam, simplified encrypted mail, and strengthened user trust
The best features Barracuda Email Protection offers include good spam filtering and very good sandboxing of all links, as well as good encryption. It also has integrated logging for user management of their own spam. It has better filtering technology, so few are false positives as well, with excellent anti-spam engines and logging. It is extremely easy to install, configure, and set up, and there is excellent message tracking for folks that say they have not received an email they were expecting. Integrated logging and user management make my daily work easier because it is very easy to log in and to manage this tool, hence making it a very good tool for email protection. It also has excellent, easy-to-add designated users as site administrators, and it is competitively priced. It has a user-friendly portal, strong cloud-based features, and no additional maintenance cost, along with responsive support. Barracuda Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by handling encryption better than any other tool I have used before, which has increased our email protection significantly. Our security has also increased from forty percent to sixty-five percent, especially when dealing with all the threats that come through emails. It has been a great tool because we can handle email delays and delays on file scanning. When our partners are happy, we are very happy, and it has helped us have less time chasing bad emails. The fast implementation of encrypted mail keeps employees working with less interruption since they are happy, satisfied, and secure.
KS
Technical Associate Network Security at Valuepoint Systems
Email security has protected financial data and provides clear tracking for every branch message
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP and other content filters compared to other consoles. It may have been due to on-premises, but it was much noisy at some times while configuring DLP. When we tried to configure a DLP policy, the console became much slower. In that case, we cannot see what had happened in the mail which was blocked at that time. It may take nearly an hour to get back to normal while configuring policies. That is the major issue in the product.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Protection?
I would say the price for Barracuda Email Protection is very nice; the solution is not expensive.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?
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 se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The areas of Cisco Secure Email that could be improved or enhanced are the slowness in the console. I don't think it was a database error or something, but we feel some slowness in configuring DLP ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Email?
We are using Cisco Secure Email to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail traffic in our financial institute. We have nearly 900 branches all over India. We have an on-premises mail server in which...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.