Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Barracuda Email Protection vs Fortinet FortiMail comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Barracuda Email Protection
Ranking in Email Security
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (3rd), Office 365 Protection (4th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Ranking in Email Security
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.9%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 2.6%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail is 7.2%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.
Alex Clerici - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 3, 2024
Efficient and easier to manage than other products, especially Microsoft products
We use Barracuda primarily as an email gateway. It also integrates with the Microsoft 365 platform. It provides anti-spam protection and all the various anti-spam aspects of email management. We generally use it with products other than Microsoft, so we're very happy to have Barracuda available…
Andras Solt - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 12, 2022
Reasonable pricing and good spam filtering but does not offer robust gatekeeping
The solution is primarily for mail security. We use it primarily for incoming and outgoing emails. We also use other products which are quite new for us. We just invested in GFI, and we use it also for the incoming email traffic to check with more antivirus monitoring The spam filtering is great.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Since we have started using the solution, there have been fewer compromises."
"Defender is a SaaS platform, so it offers more flexibility. Managing the permissions is easier. The solution's automated detection and response features are scalable."
"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature is protection against malicious links, fishing, and impersonation. You can train people to be aware of these threats, but they're not always careful. When they're using their phones between meetings, they click on a link, and it's game over."
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"The solution's most valuable feature is impersonation detection."
"Barracuda email protection is stable. I would give it a nine because of its strong cybersecurity features."
"We check the reports sometimes to see that frequent attacks and malicious emails are being blocked by the solution."
"The archiving and search features are very good."
"The most valuable features are security and ease of use."
"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 most valuable features of Barracuda Email Protection are flexibility and customization."
"The most valuable aspect includes attempts to spoof or compromise domains from external sources."
"A full-featured email gateway solution that contains security threats reliably."
"FortiMail possesses notable strengths, and one key feature is its store-and-forward concept."
"Fortinet’s support services are good."
"Fortinet FortiMail's most valuable features are its performance and security."
"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."
"It actually filters the compromised emails when on a network layer itself."
"It can block a lot of fake emails."
"The number of false positives is minimal."
 

Cons

"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."
"Configuration at the mid-level could be improved for the support team."
"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."
"There needs to be an improvement in integrating the product to work across multiple operating systems, and to have better support for non-Microsoft file types."
"The product must enable bulk user management."
"The policies are set up in Barracuda by default; we don't have any control over them."
"Barracuda Essentials can improve by continually adding more features."
"There is room for improvement, particularly in reaching out to technical support during deployment."
"They could simplify the licensing and the pricing."
"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."
"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."
"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."
"I think the security of the product could improve."
"Fortinet FortiMail could improve general user management. There are no password policies for users."
"The product's price is an area with shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The solution could improve by making the UI more user-friendly and increasing spam and threat detection capabilities."
"The product should work on licensing and provide more detail once the license is selected for the customer."
"Online support sometimes takes up to a week to get back to you."
"Fortinet FortiMail's pricing could be improved."
"The product's cybersecurity features could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"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 product is expensive."
"The product is very expensive."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"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."
"The price of Barracuda Essentials is better than some of the competing products."
"Price-wise, this product is middle-of-the-road."
"The product is expensive."
"Barracuda licensing model is good."
"The price is similar to that of Microsoft 365."
"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 solution is quite pricey compared to other competitors in the market."
"I find Fortinet FortiMail pricing reasonable. There's no additional cost apart from its standard licensing fees."
"Pricing is straight-forward and renewable without complicated pricing structures."
"The price is acceptable for the support license it includes."
"In terms of licensing, we are using a virtual machine license for the single virtual server which it runs on. Doing it this way enables us to cut costs by only licensing FortiMail for our exact use case. If you need to expand in future, you can later buy extra licenses per virtual machine."
"The pricing is on the higher side."
"This is a good solution and value for the money."
"The fees for Fortinet FortiMail can be complicated. However, overall the pricing is fair."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
Educational Organization
49%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

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?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detec...
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?
We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume. We would h...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?
Two to three months back, we got fraudulent emails in which someone in the organization was being blamed.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail?
Compared to its competitors, Fortinet's products are available at a higher price range. The free or open source in th...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
The tool does what it is supposed to do, so there is nothing I want in the tool. The product's price is an area with ...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Barracuda Essentials
FortiMail
 

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
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Fortinet FortiMail and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.