Barracuda Email Protection vs Sophos Email comparison

Barracuda Networks and Sophos are both solutions in the Email Security category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.6, while Sophos is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Barracuda Networks holds a 2.4% mindshare in Email Security, compared to Sophos’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Barracuda Email Protection and Sophos Email compete in the email protection domain. Barracuda Email Protection has an advantage in ease of deployment and customer support, while Sophos Email stands out with advanced features and higher ROI.

Features: Barracuda Email Protection offers robust spam filtering, data loss prevention, and a user-friendly experience with easy configuration. Sophos Email provides advanced threat protection, detailed reporting, and real-time threat intelligence to suit complex security needs.

Room for Improvement: Barracuda Email Protection could improve its reporting features and enhance integration with other security solutions. Additionally, its initial pricing might not suit larger enterprises prioritizing extensive features. Meanwhile, Sophos Email's deployment can be complex, and occasionally users experience false positives in threat detection, which could be refined. Improving the simplicity of integration with existing infrastructure is another area for enhancement for Sophos.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Barracuda Email Protection is known for quick deployment and responsive support, making it favorable for businesses seeking ease of use. Sophos Email, although more complex to deploy, offers comprehensive support and a thorough onboarding process to manage its advanced features effectively.

Pricing and ROI: Barracuda Email Protection is often cost-effective with a lower initial setup cost, providing a quick ROI for smaller businesses. Conversely, Sophos Email requires a higher upfront investment but delivers substantial long-term value and higher ROI, particularly for enterprises focusing on comprehensive security measures.

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

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Sophos Email

January 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

Microsoft Defender for Offi...

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 Sophos Email is 2.6%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Email Security

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja

Head of Department of Network Communications at Eko electricity

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.

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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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Adeyemi Adedokun

Team Lead, Infrastructure, Security & Service Management at C&I Leasing Plc,

Ensures that there is maximum security enabled for our communication processes

There has been issues when I have interacted with the support in the past, especially regarding technical issues. I have found them responsive for basic queries, but when I have raised issues for complex issues, there is a delay in the response from the support team. During the initial setup, when I faced challenges, the support team took a lot of time to address the issue and escalate it to the required personnel. In another issue raised, I was trying to confirm the status of a domain name. The support team was not able to help me out and provide with the necessary information. I suggest that there should be improvement in the support team towards handling such complex issues and technical concerns.

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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 initial setup was easy."

"I like its investigation capabilities, as that is what is most important to me. It is fairly simple with a user-friendly interface."

"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."

"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."

"At the moment we are satisfied with this product. It's a stable, scalable, and resilient solution for us."

"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."

"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pros

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

"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 archiving and search features are very good."

"The solution is straightforward to set up."

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

"The product is easy to deploy and maintain."

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

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

More Barracuda Email Protection pros

"The solution protects users from phishing links and spam."

"The most valuable feature is its email security."

"The most significant aspect is the response filtering concerning attachments and links."

"Sophos Email offers encryption and malware protection, provides visibility into emails, has 99% accuracy in catching spam, enhances organizational safety, integrates with various vendors like Microsoft, is deployable with any email service, prevents data loss, features authentication rules, synchronizes with Active Directory and Azure, and includes a self-service portal. The product is very flexible."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos Email is the sandbox. We're able to scan the file, isolate it, and look at it before it is delivered. It is highly effective."

"I would recommend Sophos Email to both end-users and other entities that want to protect their emails."

"The best thing about it is the logs."

"Endpoint and server protection are very effective."

More Sophos Email pros

Cons

"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."

"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."

"I am generally satisfied with how it currently is. If I could improve anything, I would reduce the cost."

"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."

"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."

"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."

"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."

"Microsoft wants its well-paying customers to finish testing some of its half-baked products, find bugs, and report bugs back to Microsoft's team, which is a little frustrating for those who have to manage it and roll it up to thousands of people across the organization."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 cons

"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."

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

"There is room for improvement, particularly in reaching out to technical support during deployment."

"The technology works on a supervised engine, but it would be better if it ran on an unsupervised engine."

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

"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."

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

"The solution's reporting mechanism is a little poor and could be improved."

More Barracuda Email Protection cons

"Sophos Email needs to increase the number of promos."

"The tool's integration becomes an issue when the internet connection is weak."

"Sophos Email could better detect fake emails, especially when the domain names are similar. It needs to improve spotting spoofed domains, like when one letter differs in a domain name. It also needs to incorporate AI detection. Barracuda detects suspicious emails better. However, malware scanning is better in Sophos Email."

"The tool’s stability should be improved."

"Enhancing rule creation and customization features would provide users with greater control over their email security settings."

"However, the setup was tricky, particularly with the DNS routing between Microsoft Exchange Online and Sophos cloud services. It took me about four attempts to get it working correctly. Despite that, Sophos Email does everything we need, so we don't require any additional capabilities now."

"The solution has not found a way to block certain kinds of phishing emails."

"There have been some issues with compatibility and effectiveness, particularly when integrating it with our firewall. The main challenge has been email protection, especially due to compatibility issues and difficulties with log access and email relay configuration."

More Sophos Email cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."

"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."

"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."

"The product is expensive."

"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."

"From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."

"It's a user-base subscription."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing and cost advice

"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 is similar to that of Microsoft 365."

"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."

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

"Barracuda licensing model is good."

"The product is expensive."

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

More Barracuda Email Protection pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is fair."

"Sophos Email is priced lower than its competitors."

"The tool's price is reasonable. On a yearly basis, there is a 20 percent increase in prices, but it is not an issue."

"It falls somewhere in the middle—it's not excessively expensive nor very cheap."

"We use exchange licenses, for which we get immediate support from Sophos."

"The pricing is affordable, so I’d rate it around a four out of ten on the pricing scale. We pay about fifty pounds a month, including hardware so that costs may differ without it."

"Sophos Email is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The tool's pricing is medium."

More Sophos Email pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Construction Company

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Retailer

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Protection?

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

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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 ...

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What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Protection?

Barracuda Email Protection needs better reporting and more robust integration with security awareness training platfo...

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What do you like most about Sophos Email?

The solution's identity proxy feature is very good and reliable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Email?

Sophos Email pricing is a bit high, especially since I purchase through a partner, and they sell it at a higher price...

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What needs improvement with Sophos Email?

Email installation could be more user-friendly so that it can be done without involving the partner. If made more use...

See all answers

Comparisons

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 14% of the time

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 5% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 4% of the time

Trend Micro Email Security vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Competitors

Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 27% of the time

Abnormal Security vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Proofpoint Email Protection vs Barracuda Email Protection

Compared 5% of the time

More Barracuda Email Protection Competitors

Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) vs Sophos Email

Compared 9% of the time

Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection vs Sophos Email

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiMail vs Sophos Email

Compared 7% of the time

Perception Point Advanced Email Security vs Sophos Email

Compared 4% of the time

Avanan vs Sophos Email

Compared 4% of the time

More Sophos Email Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

January 2025

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 report

Download Microsoft Defender for Office 365 product report

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection

January 2025

Download Barracuda Email Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Email

December 2024

Download Sophos Email product report

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365

Barracuda Essentials

Sophos Email Security

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Microsoft

Barracuda Networks

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Sophos

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.

With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.

This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.

Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.

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.

Sophos Email is a comprehensive email security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats and data loss. It offers robust protection against malware, phishing attacks, and spam, ensuring that only legitimate emails reach users' inboxes.

With advanced threat intelligence and machine learning algorithms, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks in real-time. Additionally, it provides encryption and data loss prevention capabilities to safeguard sensitive information.

The solution is easy to deploy and manage, with a user-friendly interface and centralized control. Sophos Email offers seamless integration with popular email platforms, ensuring uninterrupted communication while maintaining security.

With its comprehensive features and proactive approach, Sophos Email is a reliable choice for organizations looking to enhance their email security.

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

Del Monte Foods, Terra Verde, spicerhaart, RIVERLITE, Dataprise, SureBridge, Reed's School, Sayfol International School

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda Email Protection vs. Sophos Email

January 2025

Free Report: Barracuda Email Protection vs. Sophos Email

Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Protection vs. Sophos Email and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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