Barracuda Email Protection vs Proofpoint Email Protection comparison

Barracuda Networks and Proofpoint are both solutions in the Email Security category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.7, while Proofpoint is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.5. Barracuda Networks holds a 3.3% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Proofpoint’s 7.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Proofpoint users who would recommend it.

Barracuda Email Protection

Read 18 Barracuda Email Protection reviews

2,608 Views
2,217 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Proofpoint Email Protection

Read 54 Proofpoint Email Protection reviews

8,966 Views
6,814 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Barracuda Email Protection

Proofpoint Email Protection

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Proofpoint Email Protection and Barracuda Email Protection are robust solutions in email security. Proofpoint is favored for its advanced threat detection and integration capabilities, whereas Barracuda stands out for affordability and ease of use.

Features: Proofpoint Email Protection features advanced spam filtering and anti-phishing capabilities, along with a user-friendly dashboard that integrates seamlessly with Office 365. Its detection and response capabilities are among the best. Barracuda Email Protection is notable for its simplicity, robust spam and malware blocking, and AI integration for flexible scalability with Microsoft 365.

Room for Improvement: Proofpoint has high costs, potential interface improvements, and local support limitations. Its search capabilities and integration with complex environments could be enhanced. Barracuda could improve via expanded compatibility beyond Microsoft 365, better reporting, and anti-fraud detection, with simpler pricing strategies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Proofpoint offers flexible deployment in public, hybrid, and private clouds with reliable support, although occasional delays are noted. Barracuda is primarily deployed in public clouds with some on-premises options, and its support varies by response time and expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Proofpoint is considered expensive but offers significant ROI by preventing breaches and reducing spam. Barracuda is more affordable with competitive pricing, often resulting in lower costs while maintaining similar protection levels, providing excellent value for businesses on a budget.

To learn more, read our detailed Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

December 2025

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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

Ranking in Office 365 Protection

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (2nd)

Proofpoint Email Protection

Ranking in Email Security

3rd

Ranking in Office 365 Protection

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Digital Risk Protection (3rd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Protection is 3.3%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proofpoint Email Protection is 7.9%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Proofpoint Email Protection	7.9%
Barracuda Email Protection	3.3%
Other	88.8%

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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David Dicus

Information Security Architect at Loews Hotels

Email security has increased analyst workload but has improved detailed data loss controls

I have not seen specific outcomes or metrics since implementing Proofpoint Email Protection, such as a reduction in phishing incidents or improved response time. Proofpoint Email Protection can improve in how it analyzes alerts by using more AI within its product suite to eliminate repeat alerts, such as filtering down the same attack to generate only one alert. In summary, using AI more within the platform would reduce our workload. I would suggest advanced phishing training that uses AI to generate phishing training simulations and to catch and filter more phishing attacks. Proofpoint Email Protection feels like just the baseline approach, which is very static.

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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

"The most valuable features of Barracuda Email Protection are flexibility and customization."

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

"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."

"The beauty of Barracuda Email Protection is that it is easy to manage and simple to deploy."

"I'm quite satisfied with the graphical user interface for Barracuda products."

"I would rate the solution nine out of ten."

"The archiving and search features are very good."

"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 option to edit the inbound security."

"Proofpoint Email Protection has positively impacted my organization by advancing our email security posture."

"The solution scales quite well."

"The solution has very strong detection for most of the phishing and malicious emails received from the outside."

"The most valuable features of Proofpoint Email Protection are ease of use, data loss prevention, antivirus, and spam protection."

"The initial implementation is pretty easy to handle."

"The most valuable feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is the TAP Dashboard. It provides more detailed information that can be used for forensic analysis. This is an advantage that other email security providers, such as Cisco, IronPort, or Microsoft do not offer in their dashboards."

"There is no downtime."

More Proofpoint Email Protection pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

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

"The product must enable bulk user management."

"Sometimes it is somewhat laggy, especially on the Archiver side. It should have improved performance on their Message Archiver."

"The platform's pricing needs improvement."

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

More Barracuda Email Protection cons

"There is room for improvement in detecting and preventing phishing attacks. While the solution performs well in some aspects, it struggles with phishing threats."

"The price could be improved."

"Proofpoint Email Protection is an expensive solution."

"I want Security Awareness Training in there as a package deal. A lot of companies are starting to value email security a little bit more and take it a little bit more seriously, and the great product that we link together with a lot of these sales is a training product called Security Awareness Training. It is an upsell that we do with Proofpoint, and it is definitely something that I recommend everybody with email security to look into. It would be great if Security Awareness Training is included with the email security."

"The product's deployment is complex and requires technical knowledge."

"I would want better spear phishing protection in the essentials package."

"We find the cost to be prohibitive."

"The reporting section could be enhanced. I like some reports but if they could allow us to create custom reports with more flexibility it would enhance the reports more."

More Proofpoint Email Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"We didn't have to pay a lot for the solution because we got it from a good vendor with a good user volume."

"Despite a list price possibly around $40 per user, their market price allows customers to easily buy the solution."

"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."

"Barracuda licensing model is good."

"The product is expensive."

More Barracuda Email Protection pricing and cost advice

"In general, the pricing is competitive."

"The licensing cost of Proofpoint Email Protection is a lot higher than other solutions, such as Barracuda."

"The tool's pricing depends on the customer's preference, offering options for an annual license or a monthly subscription. The cost varies based on factors such as the number of users and specific requirements. Overall, the pricing is competitive."

"They are competitively priced, but I have been forced to get quotes for other solutions now because they haven't been responding to requests to do the work that we would like them to do."

"It is on a yearly basis. Their floor for SMB doesn't matter. The user count is 100 users and below at $2,500 a year. Its cost is higher than other solutions. It is probably about 20% to 30% higher than what you would get with Microsoft. There are no additional costs. All costs are factored in. It can be improved pricing-wise so that it is affordable for the SMB market."

"The solution charges per user per month to use it. There are not any additional fees in addition to the standard living fees."

"I rate the price of Proofpoint Email Protection a four out of five."

"We sell annual licenses for this solution."

More Proofpoint Email Protection pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

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	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	18

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 Proofpoint Email Protection?

It is a very scalable solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Proofpoint Email Protection?

In terms of pricing, it is okay compared to others. I would say it is normal. Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Proofpoint Email Protection?

I believe they still need to improve by consolidating some portals, as currently, you have to log in separately to a few of them.

See all answers

Comparisons

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 24% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 21% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 11% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 4% of the time

Avanan vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 4% of the time

More Barracuda Email Protection Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Proofpoint Email Protection

Compared 13% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Proofpoint Email Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Mimecast Email Security vs Proofpoint Email Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Proofpoint Email Protection

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Email vs Proofpoint Email Protection

Compared 3% of the time

More Proofpoint Email Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection

January 2026

Download Barracuda Email Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

Proofpoint Email Protection

December 2025

Download Proofpoint Email Protection product report

Also Known As

Barracuda Essentials

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection, Proofpoint Digital Protection

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

Proofpoint Email Protection provides powerful filtering against spam, phishing, and malware, leveraging effective threat detection and blocking capabilities. This solution integrates smoothly with platforms like Office 365, offering a user-friendly dashboard for seamless operations.

Proofpoint Email Protection focuses on email security, ensuring protection against phishing, malware, and spam. It includes features like URL scanning, anti-phishing, anti-virus protection, and sandboxing for comprehensive threat analysis. Its advanced analytics through TAP and TRAP, along with strong integration abilities, make it appealing for handling email threats. While scalability and ease of deployment are advantages, challenges such as integration in complex environments, the cost, and limited local support require attention. Enhancements in search functionality, email encryption, and improved phishing detection are also needed.

What are the key features of Proofpoint Email Protection?

Effective Filtering: Blocks spam, phishing, and malware with high accuracy.
URL Scanning: Protects against malicious links.
Advanced Analytics: Provides insights through TAP and TRAP.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with platforms like Office 365.
User-friendly Dashboard: Simplifies email management and monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Adaptable to organizational growth without losing performance.
Strong Threat Protection: Comprehensive defense against email threats.
Easy Deployment: Streamlined setup process for smooth integration.
Advanced Threat Analysis: Identifies and neutralizes threats efficiently.

Industries adopting Proofpoint Email Protection include finance, healthcare, and education sectors, which benefit from its robust email security measures. Educational institutions prioritize safe communication for staff and students, while healthcare organizations focus on protecting sensitive patient data. Financial services benefit from preventing data breaches and fraud through advanced threats management.

Proofpoint

Sample Customers

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

Blocket, University of Waterloo, Lincoln Memorial University, WellSpan Health, U-Haul, Carestream Health, Westinghouse

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

December 2025

Free Report: Barracuda Email Protection vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

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