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Barracuda Email Protection vs KerioConnect comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Archiving
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (6th), Security Incident Response (6th), Office 365 Protection (3rd)
KerioConnect
Ranking in Email Archiving
7th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Email Applications (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Email Archiving category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 8.9%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of KerioConnect is 3.8%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Archiving Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Protection8.9%
KerioConnect3.8%
Other87.3%
Email Archiving
 

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.
MM
Senior Systems Tech/Admin at Samco Software Inc.
A seamless setup ensures smooth communication with comprehensive support
We remain a partner with Sophos and use XG S Firewalls without AWS implementation. We only use Sophos endpoint and Sophos Central. We host some clients on-premise while others we host remotely. The VPN connection is easy and proprietary, so it's not open to any other VPN clients. Communication with other mail servers is seamless. It can communicate with Gmail and Outlook without issues, provided the DNS settings are correct. We monitor our servers and security logs, implementing GeoIP blocking. We frequently block China and India IPs due to brute force attacks on our servers. We have extensive experience with KerioConnect. Backing up and maintaining it is straightforward compared to Microsoft Exchange, making it administrator-friendly. On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates an 8.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We found Barracuda to be more efficient, easy to use, and customizable."
"We now have a secondary backup of Office 365 that's much easier to retrieve compared to Microsoft. If someone deletes something in Office 365, we can get it back within Office 365, but it's difficult. Barracuda is much easier. There is a lot less management needed using Barracuda. The management becomes much easier for Office 365 and it's no longer on-prem, so there are fewer hours managing on-prem devices, servers, and things of that nature. We don't have network appliances anymore for the backup of our information."
"This is one of the easiest, safest, and most secure solutions for security and email archival."
"The most valuable aspect includes attempts to spoof or compromise domains from external sources."
"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."
"Barracuda Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by increasing our email protection and security significantly, with our security increasing from forty percent to sixty-five percent, especially when dealing with all the threats that come through emails."
"With Barracuda Email Protection, the features I find most valuable are spam filtering, as it is primarily used for spam protection."
"The most valuable feature is the gateway."
"We have contacted technical support a handful of times and received some assistance."
"The user interface is good."
"We use the solution as a mail server. It connects with Outlook and is used for calendaring and similar tasks."
"Backing up and maintaining it is straightforward compared to Microsoft Exchange, making it administrator-friendly."
"What I like most about Kerio Connect is that it supports ActiveSync, and that is its most critical feature. The solution is also a nice, simple, robust, and stable mail server."
"It's relatively simple to use."
"As long as the operating is stable, the Kerio connect will be very stable as well, so we don't have any problem with it."
"KerioConnect has integration with 365. We can use Outlook, which has its client and can be used with Apple devices. It integrates with the App Store and Microsoft Office. It has a smart router. The spam filtering and antivirus are good."
 

Cons

"The product must enable bulk user management."
"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."
"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement."
"They can still improve."
"Regarding the threat protection feature in Barracuda Email Protection, it does not help to manage threats or sophisticated threats."
"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."
"I would like to see some additional functionality in terms of employee monitoring, as part of a work-from-home security solution."
"Having a native Outlook map integration would make Kerio Connect better."
"It could be simpler to use and install, but I still wouldn't use it because there isn't a compelling use case."
"KerioConnect continues to improve with regular updates throughout the year. They must be added to the roadmap, which requires approval."
"Most of our clients use Outlook and Kerio Connect. Occasionally, Kerio can be a bit slow. They could make it faster to get onto the web interface without so much load time. It's just slow with Outlook, however, for some reason."
"You cannot integrate with other services like Google Docs, Google Assistant, Google Calendar, etc."
"We are considering switching to Microsoft Exchange. One reason is that it doesn't improve our workflow and doesn't integrate well with Microsoft 365 applications."
"KerioConnect is stable as long as you use a strong password."
"Most of our clients use Outlook and Kerio Connect. Occasionally, Kerio can be a bit slow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."
"We pay annually. They never charged us for anything else. And they were quite a bit under that $20,000 mark. It was $19,074. And they've been pretty good about not skyrocketing the price or anything like that. It has gone up. It's gone up to $24,000 in 2020."
"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."
"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"KerioConnect has a first-time cost and yearly subscription. It is not expensive."
"The price of Kerio Connect is better when comparing it to others solutions."
"The solution's pricing depends on how long you plan to keep it because you pay on a per-year basis. You might have a one-time setup cost for something like Microsoft Exchange or a Linux mail server. I'd say this solution is expensive on a per-year basis, almost 2000-3000 dollars annually. It doesn't seem to pay off yet, so we're considering switching to another product."
"The pricing is about $3 per mailbox per month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
 

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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Barracuda Email Protection is that it is a bit high. However, when I look at the service and the features, I am satisfied with it.
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 KerioConnect?
The pricing is very easy to understand. As a partner, we have a monitoring system that informs us when subscriptions expire, allowing us to handle renewals. The pricing is very competitive.
What needs improvement with KerioConnect?
Since KerioConnect is a setup and go solution, everything works on its own. The only administrative tasks required are keeping it up to date, monitoring security logs, and ensuring protection from ...
What is your primary use case for KerioConnect?
Small medium-sized businesses are our primary focus, particularly in warehouse distribution and retail sectors. We are a reseller and purchase directly from Sophos.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Southern Tier Brewing Company, Innotta, Baustoff + Metall, Hamifleurs, Chanson TV, Ryman Stationery
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. KerioConnect and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.