Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Barracuda Email Protection vs Fortinet FortiMail 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (2nd), Office 365 Protection (5th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Ranking in Email Security
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 3.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 4.6%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

LeeMiles - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MOHAN SUKUMAR - PeerSpot reviewer
Secure email management improves through advanced filtering and dynamic virus scanning
Fortinet FortiMail offers capabilities like settings for mail delivery, mail filtering, spam controls, and email bursting prevention. It also allows for email forwarding, dynamic filtering, and scanning based on virus signatures. I can set varying levels of security. The tool is flexible and provides essential features for mail security and management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate the solution nine out of ten."
"We check the reports sometimes to see that frequent attacks and malicious emails are being blocked by the solution."
"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."
"The most valuable features of Barracuda Essentials are it's a trusted name and is rated very high on review sites. It blocks high percentages of spam and junk email and it's in the cloud. They have hardware appliances, but this is in the cloud. The solution is very effective at blocking malware and blocking spam and this is what we are looking for. There's not a whole lot of complexity, you want a solution that is very good at blocking out all of the unwanted emails."
"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."
"The archiving and search features are very good."
"I'm quite satisfied with the graphical user interface for Barracuda products."
"The most valuable aspect includes attempts to spoof or compromise domains from external sources."
"Fortinet FortiMail's most valuable features are its performance and security."
"I am satisfied with both the scalability and the stability of this solution."
"The solution is very, very stable."
"The antiphishing capabilities are very good."
"The product helps users handle security challenges as it offers prefiltering options and does relatively good incident reporting."
"The most valuable features are the endpoint defense features, it is very secure."
"The solution is very reliable and very stable."
"One major benefit of the Fortinet FortiMail product is its ease of management."
 

Cons

"The customer service and support could be improved if the support were available directly in Europe. Currently, the support is often managed from India, so we sometimes need to wait due to the time zone difference. It would be quicker and better if the support were provided by European staff."
"Barracuda Essentials can improve by continually adding more features."
"The product must enable bulk user management."
"Two to three months back, we got fraudulent emails in which someone in the organization was being blamed."
"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement."
"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."
"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"Such kinds of things, raised from the point from the objective actually, we are using Fortinet FortiMail. We don't find any kinds of challenge or difficulties, but Fortinet FortiMail is more efficient and more effective for us. I don't know for other client, but for us, Fortinet FortiMail is very effective Like, for instance, if it is possible, let's say some kind of high threat is actually encountered if it could be possible to SMBs in our smartphone, or mobile apps, kinds of thing, if Fortinet FortiMail is available to monitor the thing using from our mobile phone from our smartphone. If such kinds of things are truly included, it will be more or good for us."
"Improving the upgrade process, making it more user-friendly, and simplifying the management of hardware components could enhance the overall user experience and appeal of Fortinet's email security solution."
"It is not easy to install."
"It would be nice if we could manage the solution from the cloud so I could handle things off-site if necessary."
"The biggest room for improvement would be the deployment. It will be hard for someone who doesn't understand the interface to deploy. If you understand it, you can find your way around the problems."
"They should add a lot of threat-intelligence feeds from different sources - not only from one source (FortiGuard)."
"I would like the integration to be easier."
"In the Latin America market, some spam messages use Portuguese language. Some clearly spam messages would be better identified by the anti-spam if not for the language."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"The price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."
"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."
"FortiMail has extra charges for installation, configuration, and project management."
"9,000 Euro per annum for Fortinet Mail and sandbox."
"In the future I would like it if there's a possibility to lower the price of the bandwidth and UTM. It is quite expensive."
"The tool is very expensive."
"The annual cost is $55,000."
"My company has a three-year license for Fortinet FortiMail, including the support, but I'm not so sure of how much the solution costs because I'm not part of the procurement team. What's more important to me is the functionality and stability of Fortinet FortiMail. In terms of Fortinet FortiMail licensing, the cost is calculated based on company requirements. For example, it's based on the features you need for your environment, on capacity, how many CPUs you have, etc."
"I find Fortinet FortiMail pricing reasonable. There's no additional cost apart from its standard licensing fees."
"Fortinet FortiMail is inexpensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
6%
Educational Organization
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
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...
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 Fortinet FortiMail?
Fortinet FortiMail is considered overpriced by Indian rupee standards. My organization is not profit-making, and academic pricing is required, but it may not be available for security products like...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
Fortinet FortiMail should keep pace with features offered by cloud-based services like Google and Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, the transition from on-premises devices to virtual appliances may ...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials
FortiMail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Fortinet FortiMail and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.