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Barracuda Email Protection vs SonicWall Email Security 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:
 

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)
SonicWall Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
26th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 SonicWall Email Security is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Protection2.4%
SonicWall Email Security0.8%
Other96.8%
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.
Mahendra Basera - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Engineer at InterGlobe Technology Quotient
Improved email threat visibility and security posture through adaptive reputation and analytics
I have experience with Cisco and other vendors like Sophos. I have more than 10 years of experience in this field. I worked with the Adaptive Reputation Management feature of SonicWall. Machine learning plays an important role in updating threat intelligence, particularly with SonicWall. The pricing for SonicWall Email Security is reasonable and budget-friendly. My overall rating for SonicWall Email Security is 8 out of 10 because, apart from the areas that need improvement, it was overall good.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I don't see any other email security solution that stacks up against them."
"This is one of the easiest, safest, and most secure solutions for security and email archival."
"The solution is straightforward to set up."
"The most valuable features are security and ease of use."
"The best feature of Barracuda Email Protection is that it provides protection for Microsoft 365."
"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."
"The most valuable features of Barracuda Email Protection are flexibility and customization."
"At the moment, I am working with Sophos Cloud, Sophos Intercept X; when they introduced the XDR, we used it, and then when they introduced the Optix, we used it, and then we upgraded our subscription with them to MDR, so we are now utilizing Sophos Cloud Central MDR."
"We always get ROI from the product we are using; it is completely flexible and acceptable according to our security requirements over the last four years and currently."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"The product is easy to manage in terms of configurations."
"There are no wasted extras and the interface is really simple, so even if you don't have an IT background you can understand the working procedure and how systems are monitored."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall Email Security is the blocking of emails using keywords. If there are any particular keywords in the subject, that we want to block from receiving from a particular person we can do it. Additionally, the blocking of emails is easy. we can release that one and we can block some of the keywords also like that."
"The most valuable feature is that it protects from spam."
"The most valuable features are the anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-virus, and anti-spoofing."
"Beside a few issues with specificity in the email protection controls, this product is very good at handling email security."
 

Cons

"Regarding the threat protection feature in Barracuda Email Protection, it does not help to manage threats or sophisticated threats."
"They can still improve."
"I would like to see some additional functionality in terms of employee monitoring, as part of a work-from-home security solution."
"The solution's graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved visually."
"Regarding the price, I find it pretty expensive. It is not even reasonable; it is pretty expensive because we are dealing with the South African market and our currency is not as powerful as the dollar."
"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 technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security."
"The platform's control panel needs enhancement."
"There could be definition updates included in the subscription."
"Updates could be released more frequently."
"The reporting needs improvement."
"We would like to see more information on a dashboard about what is happening when it comes to spamming and malware."
"Other than that, really I think the features are perfect, but attachment controls are so important it hurts the usability of the product."
"Policy deployment could be time consuming and represents an area for improvement in SonicWall Email Security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."
"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."
"The product is expensive."
"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 is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"The overall price of SonicWall Email Security should be reduced and there should be an option to purchase one or two licenses more instead of their current policy of bulk increases only. There should be more flexibility in the licensing model. Each license cost approximately $33 annually."
"I rate the application’s pricing a five out of ten."
"We have a two-year license subscription and the price is very high."
"When compared with Cisco, it is very well priced. Cisco is very expensive."
"The platform offers a yearly license."
"Our customers purchase the solution's yearly license."
"The cost is cheaper than Sophos. I would rate it as five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

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 Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

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 needs improvement with SonicWall Email Security?
Policy deployment could be time consuming and represents an area for improvement in SonicWall Email Security.
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Email Security?
SonicWall Email Security was used for security purposes, which aligns with the product's core function.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials, Barracuda Forensics and Incident Response
Dell SonicWALL Email Security Platform, SonicWall Hosted Email Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Star Kay White, Locala Community Partnerships
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. SonicWall Email Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.