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Barracuda Email Protection vs Proofpoint Email Protection 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
Ranking in Office 365 Protection
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (2nd)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
2nd
Ranking in Office 365 Protection
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Security Awareness Training (2nd), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (3rd)
 

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 Proofpoint Email Protection is 8.4%, down from 10.3% 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.
AhmedRamadan - PeerSpot reviewer
Optimize email security with effective sandboxing and auto Pull for quarantine
Proofpoint is used as an email security gateway for big enterprises, primarily for their on-premises servers. Many customers also use it alongside Office 365 Proofpoint offers a complete solution for email security with features like DLP, email archiving, and encryption. The most valuable…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable aspect includes attempts to spoof or compromise domains from external sources."
"The solution is straightforward to set up."
"Barracuda email protection is stable. I would give it a nine because of its strong cybersecurity features."
"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."
"The solution's most valuable feature is impersonation detection."
"The best feature of Barracuda Email Protection is that it provides protection for Microsoft 365."
"The most valuable features of Barracuda Email Protection are flexibility and customization."
"The most helpful aspect for me is the out-of-the-box configuration, which is fairly good."
"From a business perspective, the solution was very helpful as it speeded our business flow and increased email delivery."
"It's a mature product. It does a good job in detection."
"The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"Provides better control over emails, especially those sent via Office 365 on the cloud."
"The solution offers very good flexibility. You can blacklist or whitelist with ease."
"The Phish Alarm button allows users to submit questionable emails for review and complete analysis."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The solution scales well."
 

Cons

"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."
"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."
"Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platforms and third-party solutions."
"They could simplify the licensing and the pricing."
"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."
"The platform's pricing needs improvement."
"The solution's graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved visually."
"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"Unfortunately, the whole product is going downhill right now, ever since they were sold to Thoma Bravo. We're constantly having problems with stability and the product in general."
"We'd like to have the ability to create more customized reports."
"Proofpoint Email Protection could improve the Mail Trace feature and make navigation easier."
"Proofpoint has a lot of false alarms."
"The largest complaint that we hear from our customers is that there is no local support."
"The stability and UI are the two areas of the solution with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"They do not have an on-demand scan for the internal viruses and internal users, and they don't have a scan for the exchange server against viruses and spam as Symantec does."
"Integration and filtering out who you want and don't want to have integrated ID could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."
"The price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"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."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"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."
"Proofpoint Email Protection is a reasonably priced product, which means that it is neither too low nor too high in terms of price."
"It is expensive."
"It is on a yearly basis. Their floor for SMB doesn't matter. The user count is 100 users and below at $2,500 a year. Its cost is higher than other solutions. It is probably about 20% to 30% higher than what you would get with Microsoft. There are no additional costs. All costs are factored in. It can be improved pricing-wise so that it is affordable for the SMB market."
"The solution uses a licensing model that is reasonable compared to other products."
"They are competitively priced, but I have been forced to get quotes for other solutions now because they haven't been responding to requests to do the work that we would like them to do."
"Pricing has recently been increased and the cost is a downside"
"Clients pay for an annual subscription of Proofpoint Email Protection. Every client always finds it expensive."
"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

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 Proofpoint Email Protection?
In terms of pricing, it is okay compared to others. I would say it is normal. Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.
What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?
It became very expensive due to the nature of local circumstances, and I may advise Proofpoint to adjust marketing solutions based on each country.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Cofense PhishMe, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.