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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Fortinet FortiMail Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 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 Security Ga...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (2nd)
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is 10.3%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud is 6.2%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammed Shah Newaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Instantly blocked and reduced our spam emails
The solution has to improve in a very specific way. When we allow our customers to send or scan email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway, we are permitting their email server IP address, but not any domain. One of our customers has an email server where they are hosting five domains within their server. They are sending and receiving email through that server by using Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Therefore, we allow their IP address to send email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway, then we declare MX for receiving email on behalf of our customers. After receiving the email, we deliver it to the specific IP address of the customer. Since we are only allowing the IP address, if an incident happens within a customer's email server or an email server gets compromised, then it starts sending spam. That creates a huge problem for the solution as it allows all emails because the customer's IP address is allowed to relay email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Barracuda should add an option where it can add multiple domains, such as abc.com, bbc.com, and cbc.com. Therefore, this domains' emails will be allowed and other domains' emails will not be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Whereas, if you allow the IP address, then any of the domain's emails will be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. That is the drawback that I have observed. So, Barracuda should work on this.
Pravin Mandlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides enhanced email security with potential agent compatibility issues
There are definitely features that Fortinet should work on. I'm not the right person to implement those features. For a portable cloud solution, a customer has more affinity towards a solution where endpoint security is already in place. In endpoint security, they are not at the latest quadrant. That is why a customer with existing endpoint security solutions like Trend Micro might prefer a main security solution from that vendor. If we go for FortiMail Cloud and have a separate endpoint security solution, there are two agents that have to sit on a customer endpoint. From that perspective, Fortinet policies add an extra load to the endpoint. Maybe other solutions have an advantage when it comes to Fortinet.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Thanks to Barracuda Email Security Gateway, I have seen increases in productivity and functionality in terms of spam reduction and filtering against different threats, which is a benefit by default."
"It is lightweight, and we can filter all of our inbound and outbound emails. We have controls for rate control, quarantine, and tagging. We can see whether an email is a spam email or a phishing email."
"This product is powerful and quite simple to use."
"All features it provides on the cloud environment are very, very useful, including the antivirus that is enabled on it."
"The performance is good."
"The client has the option to blacklist or whitelist any email address or domain based on the sender and recipient filters. If they want, they can restrict any IP addresses so email won't be received from those IP addresses."
"The solution's anti-spam features are its most valuable aspect."
"The most valuable feature is the Antispam services, which are the basic services of spam device"
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to check to see if the email is real."
"This is a solid email monitoring and security system that learns and maintains a two-way dialog with email system administrators."
"This solution is easy to install. The deployment takes about forty-five minutes."
"The most valuable feature is the advanced threat protection."
"If there is a problem somewhere Fortinet can act on it immediately. That is very important."
"The scanners with FortiMail are valuable."
"FortiMail Cloud is very fast."
"Fortinet's support is really good."
 

Cons

"The spam filtering is a little too aggressive. You can not get granular enough to back off on what is considered spam and what is not."
"The initial setup can be a little bit complex."
"Its integration with other solutions can be improved. There should be integration for telemetry information, system information, and other types of information with other solutions. Barracuda currently doesn't have that. Barracuda has its own platform. Its integration with firewalls is quite good, and it communicates really well with firewalls, but I have not seen any other integration. Based on what I know, it does have an API at the backend, but I have not used it."
"There are some times when legit emails are trapped on Barracuda and we are unable to get that information unless we actually log on to the network to find out."
"The solution should add automatic alerts to the mobile."
"We had an incident where we didn't want to receive any emails or spam from a certain site and email address. We selected the mail ID, and we send it to Barracuda for analysis to see if it's spam or something like that. As of now, we haven't gotten any update or notification as to what happened with it."
"There's a bit of configuration work that's needed with the DNS service provider, but other than that, everything else should be very smooth."
"The reporting can be improved."
"Email sorting is missing from this solution."
"FortiMail needs to develop further, particularly in integrating AI features, to keep up with rapidly advancing technology."
"The price is relatively expensive."
"Networking should be simplified."
"The setup of the rules can be improved. I think it should be simplified and would be the best improvement in the system."
"The URL filtering and handling should be enhanced because it doesn't support all languages. I believe that this would be easy to enhance in the future."
"I've not been able to use more than two domains in the back end. I like to view logs for the different domains. If I add any other domain I'm not able to get a proper cPanel for that domain. I am talking about the login factors. I'm not able to see logs for different domains in a different Window. Basically, it's an issue in the login process."
"The product could be improved by extending reporting tools and adding options for notification."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For overall value and cost, Barracuda came in as most appropriate, price as well as services provided. In terms of price, it's average . It's not the most expensive, it's not the least expensive but it works well."
"The licensing cost is competitive, it's not too high and not too low."
"The licensing fees are part of a bundled support package that we pay for."
"It is an expensive solution and I would rate it 5 out of 10."
"The solution requires a license and we pay annually."
"This is one of the major points for integrating this solution in any organization. Barracuda Email Security Gateway needs to make it a bit more tolerable for customers because it is increasing every year. They should create a plan for reducing the cost."
"e solution's pricing is exceedingly high, and it continues to increase."
"We are using the trial version right now, and before purchasing the license, we need to solve some of the issues that we are facing. We need a proper solution for our email, and then we will look into pricing. We have a vendor for licensing."
"It's on a subscribed basis."
"I see how manageable and flexible the licenses are."
"It should cost around $60,000. We bought it as a bundle, so everything comes together in the license. That is standard."
"The licensing is for three years. In the beginning, we did not pay monthly, it was paid once for three years."
"You only have to purchase one license for multiple participants."
"A license for our company using FortiMail and FortiCare (filtering and support) was $4000."
"The price of this solution could be more competitive."
"When we're talking about pricing, other products have about the same price. That is normal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
53%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Hospitality Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Security Gateway?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Security Gateway?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway should include ATP in the next release.
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
Content disarming and analysis are essential features in our email security setup
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
FortiMail is cost-efficient, however, Symantec Mail Gateway and DLP solutions might be comparable.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
There are no specific new features I would suggest at this moment. FortiMail needs to develop further, particularly in integrating AI features, to keep up with rapidly advancing technology.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Evolution Recruitment Solutions, Evans Delivery Company, Osoyoos Credit Union, Synovis Life Technologies, Camden County Technical Schools, DEK, Evans Delivery Company, Colgate Rochester Crozer, Hemmera, South Carolina Heart Center, Ferma Corporation, Major League Baseball (MLB), Healy Brothers Automotive Group
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs. Fortinet FortiMail Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.