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Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs Symantec Web Application Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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 Web Application F...
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Web Application Fi...
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
31st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Web Application Firewall is 1.8%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Web Application Firewall is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Web Application Firewall1.8%
Symantec Web Application Firewall0.9%
Other97.3%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2797602 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Advanced application protection has reduced manual monitoring and improved attack visibility
For example, if we consider a company that has an application with a payment gateway configured, which provides services including money transactions, we deploy Barracuda Web Application Firewall for that application. We host the service in Barracuda Web Application Firewall. When a client requests access to the application, the request goes to Barracuda Web Application Firewall first, which will verify the request contents and create a separate TCP connection to the backend server if the request is legitimate. This process protects against attacks including SQL injection or cross-site scripting, where Barracuda Web Application Firewall will block any request that matches attack signatures. The reporting features are quite good as they have reporting charts and dashboards that provide lists of attacks and real-time verification of those attacks, helping in better reporting by tracking requests based on time and unique endpoints. I believe URL Profiles and Website Profiles are the most unique features offered. They create separate endpoints for each request integrated with the application, providing different security profiles based on the requirements. Moreover, the learning feature is very comprehensive, allowing us to monitor the applications before switching to protect mode, creating automatic profiles based on learned traffic, which helps to fine-tune security policy. Barracuda Web Application Firewall's user interface automates the blocking of malicious IP addresses, reducing the manual burden. Additionally, enabling the learning feature allows for quick preparation of security profiles, creating URL profiles automatically, which significantly reduces manual intervention and false positives.
Vatsal Mehta - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Boosts Security Measures with Easy Deployment and Implementation
Regarding areas for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall, I think they can enhance the features they currently focus on, as there are various types of web applications, and it would be great if they could develop features to cater to all these types. For example, a feature to scan for unauthorized plugins or extensions could let us know if those extensions are authorized, unauthorized, or malicious. There's room for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall by introducing AI into their dashboard so that we can query the dashboard and fetch data insights, similar to querying ChatGPT for answers. They currently have this feature but can make improvements for better querying to get insights.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability of the product is good. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward, especially if you enlist assistance."
"Overall, we've been quite satisfied with the capabilities of this product."
"Barracuda Web Application Firewall has positively impacted my organization by improving mean time to value, which was quickly improved, and by serving as both the first and last point of defense."
"The product has fantastic support services."
"Its recommendation about the probabilities on the website is great. It also has free probability managers for the website, which is really helpful. The protection engine, signature-based protection behavior, and analysis features are also great. It also has an ATP module for sandbox scanning and behavior analysis for file uploads."
"The most valuable feature is the rule set."
"It's very simple and predictable, because Barracuda provides a vision of the current state of your application. It gives you an understanding of what is happening on your site and any attempts against you at your source. This is the main value that Web Application Firewall provides our company. These aspects are also the main reason for this documentation process."
"It provides us with a sense of security."
"The best feature of Symantec Web Application Firewall is that it is very easy to use, and the deployment and implementation processes are really easy."
"The setup was straightforward."
"This product is doing what it should and what we are expecting from it."
"The interface is user-friendly."
"The solution has an up-to-date data repository to deal with external threats."
 

Cons

"The GUI needs to be improved because it sometimes hangs and needs to be restarted."
"The solution needs to leverage some additional features to a broader scale of software-defined networks."
"Barracuda Web Application Firewall's load balancing feature could be improved."
"Occasionally, upon installation of the Energize Updates, the plans will go off track, something which necessitates us calling up their support team for another update."
"The local technical support in Poland is not very reliable."
"We get false positives about phishing emails."
"As a service, Barracuda needs to host in Saudi Arabia, as they currently don't have this functionality."
"I have found F5 more stable than Barracuda Web Application Firewall. They should improve the stability."
"There's room for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall by introducing AI into their dashboard so that we can query the dashboard and fetch data insights, similar to querying ChatGPT for answers."
"On a scale from one to 10, I would give it a five. I'm not convinced that it's necessarily the best solution going forward in the future."
"It would be an improvement if the management dashboards were not reliant upon Java."
"One of our issues is that sometimes scanning slows down the endpoints."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is less compared to other web applications."
"The solution is based on a licensing model and might be $360 for the hybrid version."
"The Barracuda Web Application Firewall is quite expensive."
"Barracuda costs us $8,000 per year. Barracuda costs $20,000 for a full subscription, when you try to protect multi-site infrastructure, in different geographical zones and for different data centers. If you have only one site, Barracuda will be cheaper."
"They only offer a yearly licensing plan."
"The product is inexpensive."
"The price of the solution is a little expensive. There is a license for this solution and it can be purchased every one, two, or five years."
"The price is reasonable, more so than other products."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise12
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
My main use case for Barracuda Web Application Firewall is utilizing it in the areas of perimeter security, load balancing, and deploying it on the cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments, whic...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Barracuda Web Application Firewall are reasonable. They are competitive when compared to other vendors including F5 and Imperva, who tend to have higher p...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Web Application Firewall?
I think Barracuda Web Application Firewall can be improved by providing more information around data integrity control, which would be interesting to see.
What needs improvement with Symantec Web Application Firewall?
Regarding areas for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall, I think they can enhance the features they currently focus on, as there are various types of web applications, and it would be ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Web Application Firewall?
Our use case for Symantec Web Application Firewall is primarily for security purposes as we develop web application solutions for our customers. We have a business where we provide solutions for cr...
What advice do you have for others considering Symantec Web Application Firewall?
I would recommend Symantec Web Application Firewall to other users due to all the benefits I mentioned earlier, such as ease of use, ease of implementation, good technical support, and compared to ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Symantec WAF, Blue Coat Protecting Web Applications
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Oracle, CBS, Pioneer, Hyundai, Publix, Barnes Noble, Calzedonia, Nordstrom, Samsung, Nascar
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs. Symantec Web Application Firewall and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.