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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Fortinet FortiMail Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (4th)
Fortinet FortiMail Cloud
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Email (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is 6.2%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud is 4.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

RobertSmith15 - PeerSpot reviewer
Email security offers superior protection with good personalization
I have experienced the Barracuda team as very cooperative, and they are readily available for calls with technical support via email. I have had no issues with ongoing support throughout the product's lifecycle. Assistance was provided to me when transferring archived information from a legacy email service. They also recommended an additional service to streamline the process, making it as easy as possible.
Pravin Mandlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides enhanced email security with potential agent compatibility issues
There are definitely features that Fortinet should work on. I'm not the right person to implement those features. For a portable cloud solution, a customer has more affinity towards a solution where endpoint security is already in place. In endpoint security, they are not at the latest quadrant. That is why a customer with existing endpoint security solutions like Trend Micro might prefer a main security solution from that vendor. If we go for FortiMail Cloud and have a separate endpoint security solution, there are two agents that have to sit on a customer endpoint. From that perspective, Fortinet policies add an extra load to the endpoint. Maybe other solutions have an advantage when it comes to Fortinet.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution's anti-spam features are its most valuable aspect."
"Great at blocking spam."
"Eliminating inbox clutter creates an opportunity to be more productive instead of wasting time manually sorting through spam."
"Thanks to Barracuda Email Security Gateway, I have seen increases in productivity and functionality in terms of spam reduction and filtering against different threats, which is a benefit by default."
"This appliance has helped in that we now eliminate the thousands of scams, spam, and malware emails that are destined for our users."
"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 anti-spamming, anti-fishing features are great."
"The protection from Barracuda Email Security Gateway is essentially a sandboxing solution."
"The most valuable features are the low price and its ability to integrate with other Fortinet products."
"This is a solid email monitoring and security system that learns and maintains a two-way dialog with email system administrators."
"One of the most beautiful benefits is its integration, as it can seamlessly integrate with any third-party email servers."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to check to see if the email is real."
"The product's initial setup is straightforward and simple, making it an easy-to-use tool."
"The scanners with FortiMail are valuable."
"The encryption features are most valuable to us."
"The implementation was very professional. There are a lot of features I can get through Fortinet and FortiMail, such as security. FortiGuard is the most reliable and professional mitigation center to handle incidents and risk that I have to face."
 

Cons

"Its integration with other solutions can be improved. There should be integration for telemetry information, system information, and other types of information with other solutions. Barracuda currently doesn't have that. Barracuda has its own platform. Its integration with firewalls is quite good, and it communicates really well with firewalls, but I have not seen any other integration. Based on what I know, it does have an API at the backend, but I have not used it."
"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."
"We are using the tool’s 400 model which does not offer accurate spam detection. We have also had performance issues with the tool."
"We detect some failures in some mails; not all mails pass through consistently. Some mails pass while others are dropped without any apparent logic, despite having the policy set for specific recipients or senders."
"Barracuda's spam database isn't on par with its competitors. Users complain about the spam email they're receiving, and we report the issue. Barracuda said they are going to update their system to block the malicious email we received, but we're still getting the same spam. The signatures are not in their database. They need to update their spam signatures because spam is bypassing Barracuda."
"We would like to have a local support center in India so that they are operating in the same time zone and speak the same language."
"Solution requires regular checking to ensure it's 'keeping up' with spam."
"There is room for further integration with the wider platform."
"The setup of the rules can be improved. I think it should be simplified and would be the best improvement in the system."
"The URL filtering and handling should be enhanced because it doesn't support all languages. I believe that this would be easy to enhance in the future."
"This ease of use and user-friendliness is something we believe could be improved in FortiMail."
"I've not been able to use more than two domains in the back end. I like to view logs for the different domains. If I add any other domain I'm not able to get a proper cPanel for that domain. I am talking about the login factors. I'm not able to see logs for different domains in a different Window. Basically, it's an issue in the login process."
"They could look at strengthening anti-spam with the newly observed domains."
"This solution is slow and it should be made faster."
"Fortinet FortiMail Cloud doesn't have AI features, making it an outdated tool for me."
"The product could be improved by extending reporting tools and adding options for notification."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing fees are part of a bundled support package that we pay for."
"It is an expensive solution and I would rate it 5 out of 10."
"This is one of the major points for integrating this solution in any organization. Barracuda Email Security Gateway needs to make it a bit more tolerable for customers because it is increasing every year. They should create a plan for reducing the cost."
"Our licensing fees are approximately $4,000 per year, and this includes updates for the antivirus and spam signatures."
"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."
"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"We pay between $8 and $10 USD per user per month."
"The solution is priced low. We have received a good price discount here in Sri Lanka. There are additional licenses we have to purchase a license for the ATP."
"The licensing is for three years. In the beginning, we did not pay monthly, it was paid once for three years."
"It's on a subscribed basis."
"I see how manageable and flexible the licenses are."
"I rate the price of Fortinet FortiMail Cloud a five on a one to ten scale, where one is the low price, and ten is the high price. It is an averagely priced product."
"The price of this solution could be more competitive."
"The product's price is reasonable."
"It should cost around $60,000. We bought it as a bundle, so everything comes together in the license. That is standard."
"When we're talking about pricing, other products have about the same price. That is normal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
6%
Hospitality Company
6%
 

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 do you like most about Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
Content disarming and analysis are essential features in our email security setup
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiMail Cloud?
They can improve their CDR content profile and some anti-spam features. They don't have any direct script to run to add personalization, and we have to do it manually one by one. There are many tas...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
No data available
 

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
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs. Fortinet FortiMail Cloud and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.