Barracuda Email Protection vs Cisco Secure Email comparison

Barracuda Networks and Cisco are both solutions in the Email Security category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.8, while Cisco is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2. Barracuda Networks holds a 3.0% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Cisco’s 5.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Barracuda Email Protection

Read 18 Barracuda Email Protection reviews

2,118 Views
1,821 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Email

Read 62 Cisco Secure Email reviews

8,540 Views
7,430 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Barracuda Email Protection

Cisco Secure Email

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Cisco Secure Email and Barracuda Email Protection compete in the email security market. Cisco Secure Email holds an edge in complex environments due to advanced threat protection and integration capabilities, whereas Barracuda is preferred for its ease of use and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Cisco Secure Email offers robust protection against ransomware, spam, and phishing. It integrates seamlessly with Active Directory and provides customizable policies. Its integration with Talos enhances threat detection. Barracuda Email Protection is easy to manage and deploy, featuring impersonation detection and Microsoft 365 integration, extending protection to OneDrive and SharePoint. Its AI-driven threat detection and archiving are highly valued.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email needs to improve its interface and rule application processes. Users report performance impacts and suggest better AI features for phishing protection. Licensing complexity and hardware reliability require enhancements. Barracuda needs improved licensing transparency and pricing consistency. Users suggest enhanced reporting capabilities and integration with platforms beyond Microsoft 365 for better adaptability in diverse cloud environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Email excels in hybrid and on-premises deployments with extensive support, though some users find it inconsistent. Its deployment flexibility is a strength. Barracuda Email Protection is praised for straightforward setup and responsive support, though challenges arise with Microsoft 365 integration. Both products offer solid customer service, with Cisco's large support network beneficial for complex troubleshooting.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Email is a higher-cost solution but justifies its price with extensive security features, representing a long-term investment for risk reduction. Licensing is complex and cost varies by features and user volume. Barracuda is often chosen for competitive pricing and specific package deals, catering well to mid-sized businesses and delivering a good return on investment without excessive costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email

September 2025

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Helped 867,676 peers since 2012

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 Protection

Ranking in Email Security

13th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (2nd), Office 365 Protection (5th)

Cisco Secure Email

Ranking in Email Security

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 3.0%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 5.8%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Secure Email	5.8%
Barracuda Email Protection	3.0%
Other	91.2%

Email Security

Featured Reviews

LeeMiles

Director, Information Technology at St Albans High School For Girls

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.

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Kostas Karidas

System Administrator at bluegr Hotels & Resorts

Helps prevent security breaches but fails to improve in the area of AI

I have not noticed any impressive advanced threat protection mechanisms in the tool. I don't know if there are any AI features in the product. I don't know if there is any other technology embedded in the solution. Cisco Secure Email successfully mitigated potential email threats. My company has seen plenty of scenarios where Cisco Secure Email successfully mitigated potential email threats, spam emails, and fraudulent domains. The product is good for dealing with spam emails, and it can take care of more than 100 spam emails per day. A huge number of spam emails are monitored with the help of Cisco Secure Email. I would not recommend the product to other businesses because you need to have some kind of expertise in configuring and knowing a bit about the tool's GUI. The tool also lacks in the area of AI mechanics. If I would like to have an overview and review another solution, I would go for another product other than Cisco Secure Email. I can definitely suggest others to look at the product and review it, but I would also recommend that they compare it with the other solutions in the market. I wouldn't prioritize Cisco Secure Email over other tools. Either the support partner of the product or I take care of the tool's maintenance phase by looking into the configurations and doing some fine-tuning. I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We check the reports sometimes to see that frequent attacks and malicious emails are being blocked by the solution."

"The solution is straightforward to set up."

"The archiving and search features are very good."

"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 best feature of Barracuda Email Protection is that it provides protection for Microsoft 365."

"When we got the service, it included the email archiver with unlimited storage."

"The solution's most valuable feature is impersonation detection."

"The most helpful aspect for me is the out-of-the-box configuration, which is fairly good."

More Barracuda Email Protection pros

"The most valuable feature is the different content filters we are using, such as DKIM."

"This solution provides some benefits, like comfortable access to TAC support. You get prompt support when working directly with Cisco."

"We rely heavily on antivirus protection, email content filtering, and authentication mechanisms to ensure compliance with email security. Regarding phishing attempts, while phishing protection features are crucial, we also emphasize user education as a critical defence. The intelligence services Cisco provides, such as the Cisco Intelligence Center, play a significant role in analyzing and validating threats, including phishing attempts, in our email security practices."

"The filtering is definitely better at catching both spam and malicious messages, and there's a lot of extremely granular ability for setting up rules. You can do it the way you want to. The Microsoft solution tends to be pretty limited in how it allows some of that to be done."

"My favorite feature of Cisco Secure Email is the threat intelligence capabilities, particularly its integration with Cisco Talos."

"The product blocks spam emails."

"ATP has been the most valuable in improving our email security posture."

"The technical support from Cisco is perfect."

More Cisco Secure Email pros

Cons

"I would like to see better integration with other products."

"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."

"Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platforms and third-party solutions."

"The platform's pricing needs improvement."

"I would like to see some additional functionality in terms of employee monitoring, as part of a work-from-home security solution."

"They could simplify the licensing and the pricing."

"Barracuda Essentials can improve by continually adding more features."

More Barracuda Email Protection cons

"The Forged Email Detection feature needs improvement, particularly with domain. The sensors are not that good and the rules sets are unclear."

"The discontinuation of physical hardware solutions is a significant area for improvement in Cisco Email Security Appliance. This decision has posed challenges as virtual appliances are now the only option, which may not be suitable for all industries. The uncertainty regarding the future of the hardware aspect of the solution is a notable concern."

"The configuration UI should be made more intuitive. Currently, it takes a while to understand how to do the basic configurations."

"I am not satisfied with the solution's reporting and logging."

"I would like to see features like AI since it is currently an area that the product lacks."

"The management features of the product are not up to date."

"The initial setup was complex because I have two sites with physical clusters."

"We cannot manage multiple devices from a single UI."

More Cisco Secure Email cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Barracuda licensing model is good."

"The solution's pricing is moderate, where it is neither cheap nor expensive."

"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."

"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."

"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 product is expensive."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."

More Barracuda Email Protection pricing and cost advice

"You're going to get what you pay for. If you're not willing to pay the price of Cisco, you're not going to get a product that's as good as Cisco. I don't think Cisco is overpriced, because for the last two years I've been comparing it to Microsoft and Cisco has been cheaper and given us more features."

"The licensing was all transferred."

"It is a super big router that costs a few hundred thousand dollars."

"The pricing for the Cisco Email Security Appliance involves recurring costs for licenses based on the contracted time frame, such as one year, three years, or five years. Renewals are required after the license expires."

"It is expensive. I would rate it 2 out of 10, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the cheapest."

"In my previous organization, avoiding four instances of CryptoLocker within an estimated six month period is approximately $600,000 in lost time and effort. Our five year cost was about a million dollars, and the four outages that we had equated to 65 percent of that five year cost."

"Pricing depends on your environment and which model you want to buy."

"We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."

More Cisco Secure Email pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Protection?

Barracuda Email Protection is easy to deploy and maintain. It doesn't require a specialized resource to manage this tool.

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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 a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers t...

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What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?

Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?

The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?

The user interface of the Email Security Gateway ( /products/security-gateway-reviews ) should be improved. It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated i...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 33% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 16% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Avanan vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 6% of the time

More Barracuda Email Protection Competitors

Trellix Collaboration Security vs Cisco Secure Email

Compared 21% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Cisco Secure Email

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Cisco Secure Email

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Cisco Secure Email

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Cisco Secure Email

Compared 6% of the time

More Cisco Secure Email Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection

September 2025

Download Barracuda Email Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Email

September 2025

Download Cisco Secure Email product report

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials

Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances

Overview

The popularity of Microsoft 365 means criminals test and design their attacks to bypass its native security features. And that means you need additional layers of defense. With Advanced Threat Protection enabled, Barracuda uses multiple layers of detection, including signature, static, and behavioral analysis, along with CPU-emulation sandboxing to accurately detect and block zero-hour targeted attacks and ransomware.

Traditional email gateways use static rules and policies—reputation analysis, block lists, and malicious payloads—to determine if an email is malicious.

Barracuda protects your Microsoft 365 inbox against evasive threats with a powerful AI engine that learns the unique communication patterns within your organization through access to internal and historical emails. Once it understands what legitimate emails looks like for each user, it can detect anomalies that signal malicious intent. This context-based detection is more effective at blocking targeted attacks, which are designed to bypass traditional rule-based email security.

Barracuda Networks

Cisco Secure Email provides email security with advanced threat protection, spam filtering, and easy integration with Cisco Talos, ensuring comprehensive protection against cyber threats like phishing and malware.

Cisco Secure Email offers a comprehensive platform for organizations seeking robust email security. With advanced threat protection and seamless integration with Cisco Talos, it enhances threat intelligence. The tool provides easy-to-use spam blocking and granular policy customization. Effective ransomware, phishing, and malware protection ensures stable network performance. It includes logging and reporting features, along with Active Directory integration, delivering enhanced security without extra hardware. Although it addresses threats efficiently, improvements in synchronization with reporting tools and phishing detection are needed. Organizations find cost and licensing complexities challenging for smaller networks and seek more intuitive configuration, advanced AI threat detection, and comprehensive reporting. Enhanced support, documentation, and cross-platform compatibility are desirable for better management and scalability.

What are the most important features?

Advanced Threat Protection: Guards against cyber threats like malware and phishing
Spam Blocking: Efficiently filters unwanted emails to maintain inbox integrity
Policy Customization: Allows granular control over email security policies
Integration with Cisco Talos: Enhances threat intelligence with global insights
Active Directory Integration: Simplifies user management and enhances security

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Ease of Use: Intuitive interface provides a straightforward user experience
Network Performance: Maintains speed and reliability while securing emails
Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed insights into email threats and responses
No Additional Hardware: Provides complete email security without hardware costs
Enhanced Email Security: Protects against a wide range of email-based threats

In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Cisco Secure Email is key to securing email communications. It serves as the primary email gateway in datacenters, scanning and filtering emails to defend against phishing, malware, and spam. Many organizations integrate it with Sophos Antivirus and Talos Threat Intelligence for heightened protection. It plays a crucial role in outbound message control and data loss prevention, ensuring compliance with security policies.

Cisco

Sample Customers

ACT Government, Acumen Group, AGIP, Delta Dental Plans Association, Desai/Nasr Consulting Engineers, Inc., Equinox Information Systems

SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email

September 2025

Free Report: Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Cisco Secure Email and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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