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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs SonicWall Email Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (2nd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (6th)
SonicWall Email Security
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (25th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Barracuda Email Security Gateway is designed for Secure Email Gateway (SEG) and holds a mindshare of 9.5%, up 6.7% compared to last year.
SonicWall Email Security, on the other hand, focuses on Email Security, holds 0.8% mindshare, up 0.5% since last year.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Security Gateway9.5%
Proofpoint Email Protection19.0%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36516.1%
Other55.4%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall Email Security0.8%
Proofpoint Email Protection6.8%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3656.3%
Other86.1%
Email Security
 

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.
Swapnil Kulkarni - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at Ador Powertron Ltd.
Has consistently supported security needs for mid-sized teams with affordable deployment
I do not work with Cloud Secure Edge, CSE, or SMA apart from SonicWall NSA. I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security. The customizable policy configuration does not help to tailor email security overall because our systems are not integrated with SonicWall Email Security. We are not using reporting and analytics because it requires completely different software. While all required features are available in SonicWall Email Security for SMBs and startups, we lack analytics features. They provide an option to purchase a complete separate product for analytics, but despite initially having purchased the paper license, due to technical limitations or changes, we cannot use that product. Now they require additional fees to access the analytics feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can effectively combat phishing attacks, block spam, provide confirmation, and ensure operational manageability with a strong focus on product stability."
"One advantage is its immediate deployment capability. So the fast speed to deploy is a big plus point."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway has features like identify the spam source, rules to avoid some specific spams and then reschedule. And there are some other features like the email continuity, the email server and gateway site, which can relay the mail kit. The solution is user-friendly.These kind of features are the most valuable."
"There are plenty of features, such as sandboxing capabilities with zero threat protection. It has all the leading email security appliances compared to other solutions."
"This is a good product. It works, it's reliable, and it's helpful."
"We are using this product to protect us against spam and viruses."
"It is a very stable solution."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway has a good feature of email spooling, which acts as a first line of security."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"This solution has been really good for us and I recommend using it."
"Behind the reason we chose SonicWall for my company is it has excellent packet analysis of normal and SSL encrypted traffic, application intelligence visualization and control, multiple Gigabit Ethernet LAN and WAN ports, flexible configuration and redundancy options."
"This solution provides very good email security that protects us against spamming and malware."
"The pricing for SonicWall Email Security is reasonable and budget-friendly."
"Setup was easy. It took about 30 minutes."
"The anti-spam aspect of the solution is its most valuable feature."
"According to our customers, the product's most valuable feature is the ability to detect spam and reduce phishing emails."
 

Cons

"We cannot customize the solution according to our needs and, consequently, its reporting capabilities are lacking."
"Barracuda has shown difficulty in providing us with the solutions we sought."
"The reports are standard, and it would be nice to be able to customize them."
"Solution requires regular checking to ensure it's 'keeping up' with spam."
"It's not a scalable product. If we want to scale it then we have to change the device, because it is on-premises."
"The technical support is not available globally 24/7 and this is the biggest problem with the product."
"My customers were sending OPT bulk emails and Barracuda Email Security Gateway was not able to handle it. We have to go with another different solution, such FortiMail for the task. We are implementing these combinations of the Barracuda and FortiGate, for email security. The FortiGate FortiMail security gateway we use to send only the bulk email, not for receiving emails."
"The dashboard's UI could be improved to make changes to the blocklist."
"The platform's control panel needs enhancement."
"Updates could be released more frequently."
"They should integrate the solution with third-party platforms."
"A lot of spoofed emails are still coming to the end-user, so the configuration for this option needs to be improved."
"The reporting needs improvement."
"Previously, we had an issue with a faulty appliance and had to wait over two weeks for a replacement."
"Other than that, really I think the features are perfect, but attachment controls are so important it hurts the usability of the product."
"The technical support from the company is not always very good at solving issues, but they offer access to a good community of users where problems are easily solved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution requires a license and we pay annually."
"The pricing for the product is fine."
"As far as advanced email security systems, this product is mid-range on the pricing scale."
"Barracuda has the best price. Every year we need to renew our license, and every year I need to compare Barracuda to two or three other players in the market. Barracuda always has a price that is 30 to 40 percent less than the other players' prices."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is an affordable solution that caters to small, midsize, and high-end businesses with great revenue."
"It is a cost-effective and relatively cheap solution as compared to others. Our customers have a yearly subscription. We do have a few customers with monthly subscriptions, but they have cloud-based Email protection, which is a different type of solution. Both solutions are very good."
"The regular pricing was initially very reasonable, but three years ago, Barracuda revised their price list and SKUs, resulting in a significant doubling of the standard prices."
"The price of this solution is very high, but it's working fine."
"I rate the application’s pricing a five out of ten."
"Our customers purchase the solution's yearly license."
"The cost is cheaper than Sophos. I would rate it as five out of ten."
"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."
"When compared with Cisco, it is very well priced. Cisco is very expensive."
"We have a two-year license subscription and the price is very high."
"The platform offers a yearly license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
Compared to the features and stability, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is affordable in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
On technical aspects, I think Barracuda needs to provide a fast response to any vulnerability on the system and enhance Barracuda support. Customer support for Barracuda Email Security Gateway need...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My main use case for Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our email and our email users, protecting our business from most of the sophisticated attacks like phishing attacks and spam. We ...
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 Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
Dell SonicWALL Email Security Platform, SonicWall Hosted Email Security
 

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
Star Kay White, Locala Community Partnerships
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint, Microsoft, Mimecast and others in Secure Email Gateway (SEG). Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.