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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Fortinet FortiMail comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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 Security Ga...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (2nd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (4th)
Fortinet FortiMail
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. Barracuda Email Security Gateway is designed for Secure Email Gateway (SEG) and holds a mindshare of 10.3%, down 16.2% compared to last year.
Fortinet FortiMail, on the other hand, focuses on Email Security, holds 5.1% mindshare, down 5.8% since last year.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammed Shah Newaj - PeerSpot reviewer
Instantly blocked and reduced our spam emails
The solution has to improve in a very specific way. When we allow our customers to send or scan email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway, we are permitting their email server IP address, but not any domain. One of our customers has an email server where they are hosting five domains within their server. They are sending and receiving email through that server by using Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Therefore, we allow their IP address to send email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway, then we declare MX for receiving email on behalf of our customers. After receiving the email, we deliver it to the specific IP address of the customer. Since we are only allowing the IP address, if an incident happens within a customer's email server or an email server gets compromised, then it starts sending spam. That creates a huge problem for the solution as it allows all emails because the customer's IP address is allowed to relay email through our Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Barracuda should add an option where it can add multiple domains, such as abc.com, bbc.com, and cbc.com. Therefore, this domains' emails will be allowed and other domains' emails will not be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. Whereas, if you allow the IP address, then any of the domain's emails will be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway. That is the drawback that I have observed. So, Barracuda should work on this.
Nigus Machin Amare - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers advanced protection from email-based attacks and consistently blocks spam
The most valuable features are Fortinet FortiMail ( /products/fortinet-fortimail-reviews )'s ability to protect from advanced features of email-based attacks, including protection against ransomware and malware attacks. It is especially effective in blocking spam through standards like wrong source IP for email-based attacks. Its high scalability and stability, especially for financial institutions, are noteworthy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most important features of Barracuda Email Security Gateway are the simple and quick configuration, interactive console, and easy-to-understand logs."
"We have found some of the valuable features to be how easy the solution is to configure, the graphic support, and the intuitive dashboard."
"It is a very stable solution."
"With the cloud service, one of the nice things about Barracuda is the quarantine service. It gives the ability for our users to go in and check what has been quarantined, and then connect with our IT staff to release anything that should be fine so that we can test it before we release."
"The solution is scalable."
"It is a really good product with a lot of features. It is responsive, updated, and modern. It is easy to use and has an easy interface for non-IT users. Its dashboard is also quite fine. It is also quite flexible and has an API at the backend."
"Its backups are valuable."
"This appliance has helped in that we now eliminate the thousands of scams, spam, and malware emails that are destined for our users."
"The anti-spam functionality is good and works well."
"The most valuable features of this solution are anti-spam, sender reputation, and antivirus."
"Technical support is great. They're available 24/7 and their response time is typically within the hour."
"The key benefits of this solution are its user-friendly interface and clear instructions, as well as the wealth of online resources and helpful health community available for support. These features make it easy for users to navigate and utilize the solution effectively."
"The integration with FortiSandbox is good, and something that we utilize often."
"They have a feature called CDR, Content Disarm, Reconstruction, click protection, and DLP for encryption purposes."
"The solution is very, very stable."
"When combining this solution with other Fortinet products, such as FortiGate, it integrates well and provides a comprehensive protection package."
 

Cons

"Artificial intelligence improvement could be used to help block spam and phishing mail that is directly delivered to users."
"My customers were sending OPT bulk emails and Barracuda Email Security Gateway was not able to handle it. We have to go with another different solution, such FortiMail for the task. We are implementing these combinations of the Barracuda and FortiGate, for email security. The FortiGate FortiMail security gateway we use to send only the bulk email, not for receiving emails."
"The solution should include an improvised anti-phishing feature, since it blocks certain genuine emails."
"The deep scanning feature needs to be improved."
"The UI could be a little cleaner and require less clicking around in different modules. They give the illusion of a single pane of glass, but as you click around to different products, you're actually being transferred into a different system."
"I have noticed that it takes a little time to get familiar with after deploying and some tweaks need to be done as things come up."
"There is room for further integration with the wider platform."
"The reporting can be improved."
"Issues with the current email search functionality."
"The infrastructure could be improved."
"Fortinet FortiMail's technical support team has shortcomings and needs improvement."
"Limited ability to upgrade hardware may lead to some performance issues that might otherwise be improved."
"My customers frequently ask to have detailed documentation for FortiMail and FortiWeb as they have in FortiGate. What they currently have is not enough."
"The Ui isn't that intuitive."
"The solution's pricing is flexible and can be adjusted for African utility companies. Microsoft often offers special pricing formulas for African governments and organizations and it is similar to Fortinet FortiMail. In my country, government institutions receive discounted pricing from Fortinet FortiMail."
"Fortinet FortiMail should allow more flexibility with the content rules."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"We have a long agreement with Barracuda Email Security Gateway. We're very pleased with the cost and the solution. The cost is in the average range for this type of solution."
"The solution requires a license and we pay annually."
"The price of this solution is very high, but it's working fine."
"Our licensing fees are approximately $4,000 per year, and this includes updates for the antivirus and spam signatures."
"The price of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is approximately $17 per user annually."
"As far as advanced email security systems, this product is mid-range on the pricing scale."
"The licensing cost is competitive, it's not too high and not too low."
"Fortinet FortiMail is a little bit expensive."
"FortiMail is not cheap."
"I have no information on pricing for the competition because right now, my company is working only with Fortinet, but I can say that in general, the price for Fortinet FortiMail was accepted by the customers easily. The POC is also important when a customer is buying a solution. The customer wants to see how the product runs, and as Fortinet FortiMail is a stable product that runs without big issues, it has a bigger chance of getting chosen by customers over its competitors, even if its price may be a little higher. Pricing for the solution is competitive. Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's a little bit higher, but it isn't far from what other solutions charge."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"The solution is reasonably priced compared to one of its competitors."
"Fortinet FortiMail is inexpensive."
"9,000 Euro per annum for Fortinet Mail and sandbox."
"Price-wise, you get what you pay for in Fortinet FortiMail. Apart from the licensing costs, no additional expenses are attached to the solution's pricing."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
53%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Educational Organization
49%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Barracuda Email Security Gateway?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Email Security Gateway?
Barracuda Email Security Gateway should include ATP in the next release.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiMail?
The pricing of Fortinet FortiMail is cheaper compared to Cisco, which was quite expensive.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail?
The area that could use some improvement in Fortinet FortiMail is the integration process. I would like the integration to be easier.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
FortiMail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Evolution Recruitment Solutions, Evans Delivery Company, Osoyoos Credit Union, Synovis Life Technologies, Camden County Technical Schools, DEK, Evans Delivery Company, Colgate Rochester Crozer, Hemmera, South Carolina Heart Center, Ferma Corporation, Major League Baseball (MLB), Healy Brothers Automotive Group
Magromer Cueros y Pieles S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs. Fortinet FortiMail and other solutions. Updated: January 2024.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.