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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Barracuda Email Security Gateway reduces threats, saves costs, and offers a 30-50% ROI for companies with multiple domains.
Sentiment score
6.3
Proofpoint Email Protection excels in blocking threats, reducing breaches, improving efficiency, despite higher cost compared to competitors.
Training is not required because you do not need to have training on Barracuda Email Security Gateway due to the usability of the product.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at Emak Integrated Solutions
The ideal situation would be to have all these portals combined into one unified dashboard.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
The time required for email investigations and responses has changed with Proofpoint Email Protection's visibility and automation.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
If you implement these kinds of solutions in your security stack, the first beneficial thing will be that you will not suffer any malware, and you will not face attacks, which ultimately leads to financial benefit.
Senior Security Engineer at DCIPHERS IT SOLUTIONS (P) LTD
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Barracuda Email Security Gateway support is efficient and praised for responsiveness, though time zone differences can pose challenges.
Sentiment score
7.1
Proofpoint Email Protection's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays with complex issues.
From the vendor, I would give the technical support an eight out of ten.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I am familiar with the granular policy control feature of Proofpoint Email Protection, and I find their support excellent for modifying those policies.
Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
I rate customer support a three out of ten mainly because of the phishing attacks that are getting through.
Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels
Sometimes I get some really great responses and analysts, but sometimes when their cloud services have a failure, they are slow to respond and tell me about it, though they have been improving.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is scalable and flexible, popular among various users, with cloud options enhancing capabilities.
Sentiment score
7.5
Proofpoint Email Protection is scalable and adaptable, supporting enterprise growth despite cost challenges, rated highly for handling email traffic.
Proofpoint is scalable for multi-site organizations with thousands of users.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
Proofpoint Email Protection is a scalable solution that very much fits our capacity requirements.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
Proofpoint Email Protection is quite scalable.
Threat Hunter at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is stable and reliable, with excellent support, crucial configuration, and high user satisfaction ratings.
Sentiment score
8.1
Proofpoint Email Protection is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and effective performance, despite occasional minor issues.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a great platform and a stable platform.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at Emak Integrated Solutions
It was very rock solid.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Sometimes, when creating connectors for implementing with Google Workspace, we encounter challenges because both Google Workspace and Proofpoint Email Protection do not have very good documentation on how to do this.
Senior Security Engineer at DCIPHERS IT SOLUTIONS (P) LTD
When evaluating the stability of Proofpoint Email Protection in regards to downtime, bugs, and glitches, it comes and goes in waves.
Consultant at Exelixis Inc
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Security Gateway needs improvements in backup, DoS handling, integration, spam filtering, UI, scalability, and threat intelligence.
Proofpoint Email Protection needs better integration, user interface improvements, enhanced features, customizable reporting, and cost-effective support.
When we add mails to email secure Sender Policy Authentication with extended options, all mails must pass this Mail Security Gateway.
Graduate Student at ain shams
Sometimes there are false positive emails coming through, so they should improve further on detection technologies and techniques.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
If it's considered a phishing email, it should be blocked for all users, not just some.
IT Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
The older legacy user interface just took a little to work with, and the new unified interface, as it was able to do more and more of the functionality of the old one, the product just got easier and easier to use.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Proofpoint could expand its phishing detection capabilities to improve its efficiency.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
More security could be implemented.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Barracuda Email Security Gateway offers competitive, cost-effective pricing, adaptable to business size, often cheaper than alternatives like Cisco IronPort.
Proofpoint Email Protection offers good value despite higher costs, averaging $8 per user monthly, with flexible payment options.
Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is cheaper.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Compared to the features and stability, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is affordable in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at Emak Integrated Solutions
Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees.
Products and solutions director at ITVikings
Given my other experience with other vendors, I think they are a bit on the high end and a bit on the pricey end for the email security functionality that we were using.
Sr Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Email Security Gateway offers robust spam and threat protection with user-friendly interface and seamless integration, enhancing email security.
Proofpoint Email Protection offers robust security with advanced features, user-friendly interface, and seamless Office 365 integration.
The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails.
Graduate Student at ain shams
The usability is the most important feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway, along with the great threat intelligence from Barracuda to help you understand who is communicating with you.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at Emak Integrated Solutions
The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway that I have found is advanced threat protection.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The main feature I find most effective is that Proofpoint Email Protection scans emails and quarantines the doubtful ones.
Logistics Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The most beneficial feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is mostly spam filtering; it was very efficient, and we were very happy with the functionality as only relevant emails were allowed for mailboxes.
Manager, IT Director at Cakmak Avukatlik Ortakligi
I appreciate that it's the industry leader, and its firewalling is very easy to manage and implement.
Senior Cybersecurity Specialist at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Security Ga...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (2nd)
Proofpoint Email Protection
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Office 365 Protection (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is 8.7%, up from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 20.9%, up from 21.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection20.9%
Barracuda Email Security Gateway8.7%
Other70.4%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

MM
Graduate Student at ain shams
Secures email by identifying threats and managing email policies effectively
The intuitive management interface feature makes email security policies very easy to implement as it's all about features that need to be enabled or disabled. Our investigation in any incident or mail is very useful as it provides all details about incoming mails, enabling thorough review and detection. The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails. The Impersonation license utilizes AI tools. Sometimes some phishing mails are reported as phishing, but they are not actually phishing mails. They are detected due to certain words and languages that appear suspicious but were generated by AI tools. Everyone or an advisor may use it for their own purpose or learning, even though it indicates that the mail detected is phishing when it's not.
IS
Threat Hunter at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Email protection has reduced phishing workload and keeps unwanted messages out of inboxes
A few things about how Proofpoint Email Protection can be improved include implementing artificial intelligence within their platform to start really understanding the organization that is using their product, what sort of emails they are expecting and if the emails that are being expected should be let in and if the emails that are not being expected should not be let in. I'll give you a further example for this. If someone just tries to send an email from a Gmail address, which is a free public service email service provider, then because anyone in the world can create a Gmail account, I think it is nice and good for Proofpoint Email Protection to actually first check and do a reality check if we have received an email from this address and look at the intent of the email to really see what the email is trying to do and then classify based on that. I still see there is a lack. Hence why I started this conversation with AI and hoping that Proofpoint Email Protection will bring AI in and to really start analyzing these emails, the intent, and whether they really fit the customer organization. We are a manufacturing company, so whether it really fits that profile. I would say if we can get a better user experience from Proofpoint Email Protection products, that would be good. For example, other service providers that provide secure email gateway have the functionality where you can split promotional and bulk email and have them sent to a separate folder. I think if we can have that sort of feature, that would be great where Proofpoint Email Protection just keeps the important emails in the inbox folder and move everything else that is not really business related into a promotional, spam, bulk folder. This is an improvement that I would really like to see. I give it an eight because I am expecting a lot more from Proofpoint Email Protection, more automations, more understanding of who their customer is, what sort of business they do, and what sort of email they are supposed to be receiving and letting through. I think the day when I really have only 1% of work to do and 99% is automated by whatever automation services Proofpoint Email Protection uses would be ideal. I think I have covered any other improvements needed for Proofpoint Email Protection pretty well right from AI to splitting emails based on priorities. I think I have given some pretty broad and good examples.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
I would suggest that pricing for Barracuda Email Security Gateway rates around seven. It is not too expensive, but it is a considerable cost. Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway ...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
Regarding real-time intelligent features of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, some spam emails are still being released by the ESG to the end users, so the functionality is not working appropri...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My use case for the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our emails from phishing and spam emails to get them blocked by the ESG.
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?
I have not seen specific outcomes or metrics since implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, such as a reduction in phishing incidents or improved response time. Proofpoint Email Protection can imp...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection
 

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
Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs. Proofpoint Email Protection and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.