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Barracuda Email Protection vs Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 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

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (3rd), Office 365 Protection (4th)
Check Point Harmony Email &...
Ranking in Email Security
7th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.4%, down from 21.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 2.4%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration is 5.3%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
LeeMiles - PeerSpot reviewer
Very good threat protection, spam filtering, and cloud backups
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 set up a global setting. Users must go through an induction session where I guide them in configuring quarantine alerts rather than having default settings based on group membership. This seems like an oversight since they already use Active Directory details. They should assign policies based on group membership, which configures these settings by default.
Rahul Kamble. - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers complete detection and simple management and is a user-friendly solution
It's very effective as a solution to prevent mobile app threats. It has a mobile MDX, mobile detection, and response session. As a comprehensive solution, Check Point offers a very granular and best-in-class experience. Compared to competitors like Fortinet, Trend Micro, Palo Alto, and Cisco, Check Point provides a superior solution according to both the MITRE and Gartner frameworks. For example, in a recent attack simulation, Check Point only allowed ten malicious emails through, while Fortinet allowed 1500 and Cisco allowed 1800. Check Point's email attack ratio is nearly 0.10%, while others range from 1% to 3%. This demonstrates Check Point's superior email filtering capabilities. Check Point's email cleaning ratio is 99.9%, significantly higher than the 98%, 95%, or 93% of its competitors. Moreover, Check Point Harmony Email incorporates AI technology within its security features. Harmony Email & Collaboration (HEC) provides full protection and addresses zero-day files. It's the best solution available, as others don't offer protection against zero-day attacks and rely on signature-based solutions. HEC is truly the best option.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"The deployment capability is a great feature."
"The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe."
"The technical support is good and quick to resolve issues."
"The benefit that stands out to me is the ability for multiple individuals to collaborate simultaneously within the same document. Additionally, there is the option to save the document directly in the integrated OneDrive or SharePoint."
"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"We now have a secondary backup of Office 365 that's much easier to retrieve compared to Microsoft. If someone deletes something in Office 365, we can get it back within Office 365, but it's difficult. Barracuda is much easier. There is a lot less management needed using Barracuda. The management becomes much easier for Office 365 and it's no longer on-prem, so there are fewer hours managing on-prem devices, servers, and things of that nature. We don't have network appliances anymore for the backup of our information."
"The solution's most valuable feature is impersonation detection."
"We check the reports sometimes to see that frequent attacks and malicious emails are being blocked by the solution."
"The beauty of Barracuda Email Protection is that it is easy to manage and simple to deploy."
"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."
"I'm quite satisfied with the graphical user interface for Barracuda products."
"The most valuable features are security and ease of use."
"The archiving and search features are very good."
"Its characteristics are adapted to the most modern threats."
"The most valuable feature is the sandboxing feature. It provides a sandboxing environment where you can open links and see where they lead. You can see what is presented in the link after opening it."
"We have managed to have an impressive reduction in phishing that used to enter our system before applying Check Point."
"The solution helps to block spam emails."
"The option to set a copy is beneficial."
"Its total protection has been the greatest aspect since it completely protects all the mail from the cloud."
"Being able to mass quarantine and remove emails from end users' mailboxes has become extremely important to us as we have grown in size."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the phishing protection it offers."
 

Cons

"The UI needs to be more user-friendly."
"They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 could improve by giving customers information on techniques to prevent threats. For example, information about best practices on how to protect their own devices against hackers and scammers, such as educational information or training. This would help others have a better understanding of cyber security. Additionally, there can be more security features added."
"I'd like some additional features any product can give me to protect our environment in a better way."
"The visibility for the weaknesses in the system and unauthorized access can be improved."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 must improve the overall management style, including the GUI. It also needs to change the filters so that it is easy to whitelist and blacklist data."
"The changes to customer service, specifically the new model for support agreements, are not favorable."
"The customer service and support could be improved if the support were available directly in Europe. Currently, the support is often managed from India, so we sometimes need to wait due to the time zone difference. It would be quicker and better if the support were provided by European staff."
"They could simplify the licensing and the pricing."
"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."
"Two to three months back, we got fraudulent emails in which someone in the organization was being blamed."
"The solution's graphical user interface (GUI) could be improved visually."
"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."
"Barracuda Essentials can improve by continually adding more features."
"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."
"There is always room for improvement and growth."
"The cost is a little bit expensive."
"I need to go to Check Point's admin portal if I want to see the license list and the details of the users of the tool, making it an area of concern where some ease of process should be provided from an improvement perspective."
"if a phishing email were to get through and bypass the product — which very few do — it would be nice if, when a user clicked on that phishing email, they got a second-chance opportunity, a chance to double-check that they really wanted to proceed to that website."
"The next release should focus more on email categorization and provide options for unlocking blocked safe emails."
"There are sometimes leakages of viruses when the system is experiencing network failures."
"The solution should include DMARC or DKIM-related features."
"Initial Learning Mode takes a while."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"The license is expensive because the cost is based on the number of users."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"The product is expensive."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"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 price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"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 solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."
"The price is very good, based on what they deliver."
"The product is expensive."
"Being able to keep the phishing campaigns out of my company has been ROI for me."
"Usually, we pay for the licensing part on a yearly basis and not on a monthly basis. If Check Point's team is providing a good amount of discount, then it is very easy for us to select it since its competitors are also giving the best prices or best discounts."
"Having information stolen by a hacker would be more expensive than purchasing a license."
"The product is expensive compared to some competitors, especially for the SME segment."
"Do a full feature evaluation (interactive) with a support person. That is what I did."
"This is a very good product if you are on the cloud, but the price is a little more expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
I don't have detailed specifics on pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost.
What do you like most about Barracuda Email Protection?
I'm quite satisfied with the graphical user interface for Barracuda products.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Email Protection?
Their list price is too high, but in India, the selling price is affordable at around $10 per user per year. Despite ...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?
Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platfo...
What is your primary use case for Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
I use Check Point Harmony Email and Collaboration to protect email security. It is used as an email secure gateway to...
What do you like most about Check Point Harmony Email & Office?
The product offers good and easy integration capabilities with other products.
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Barracuda Essentials
Check Point CloudGuard, Check Point CloudGuard SaaS , Check Point Harmony Email & Office
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems
Helvetia, Denham Capital, Daymark Solutions, Neopharm Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.