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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
1.0
Barracuda Email Security Gateway prioritizes email safety, providing fewer disruptions despite potential ROI concerns for businesses and service providers.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers strong ROI through security enhancements, cost savings, and improved company productivity despite measurement challenges.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.5
Barracuda Email Security Gateway customer support is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, though limited by time zones and language.
Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 users rate support highly, praising its responsiveness and 24/7 availability, despite occasional documentation and communication issues.
From the vendor, I would give the technical support an eight out of ten.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
With a subscription for Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is an eight. Without it, it is a six.
Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is scalable for SMBs but may not suit very large enterprises, with varied user opinions.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers scalable, efficient protection for large enterprises, ensuring seamless growth across diverse industries.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales with the growing needs of my company well.
Senior Client Director and Advisory Service Leader at Crossfuze
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is reliable and stable, with quick resolutions for minor issues and high user ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides 99.9% uptime with minor issues, ensuring reliable performance and seamless cloud integration.
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as 10 over 10 because it's highly available, it works, and it does the job it is meant to do.
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues because of Defender.
Technology Associate at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
 

Room For Improvement

Barracuda Email Security Gateway needs upgrades in usability, integration, scalability, support, spam filtering accuracy, and anti-phishing measures.
Users call for enhanced virus detection, cross-platform support, and pricing transparency in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
When we add mails to email secure Sender Policy Authentication with extended options, all mails must pass this Mail Security Gateway.
Graduate Student at ain shams
Sometimes there are false positive emails coming through, so they should improve further on detection technologies and techniques.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
If it's considered a phishing email, it should be blocked for all users, not just some.
IT Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
Senior Director, Security Architecture & Engineering at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway is competitively priced, scalable, with varied user opinions and crucial regional market considerations.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing is seen as flexible but potentially expensive, offering value in comprehensive security features.
Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is cheaper.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
 

Valuable Features

Barracuda Email Security Gateway offers robust spam filtering, advanced threat protection, and user-friendly features for comprehensive email security management.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enhances email security with anti-phishing, anti-malware, threat intelligence, and seamless integration for efficient management.
The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails.
Graduate Student at ain shams
The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway that I have found is advanced threat protection.
Head of cloud service. at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Barracuda Email Security Ga...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (4th)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) category, the mindshare of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is 7.3%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 24.2%, down from 31.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 36524.2%
Barracuda Email Security Gateway7.3%
Other68.5%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
 

Featured Reviews

MM
Graduate Student at ain shams
Secures email by identifying threats and managing email policies effectively
The intuitive management interface feature makes email security policies very easy to implement as it's all about features that need to be enabled or disabled. Our investigation in any incident or mail is very useful as it provides all details about incoming mails, enabling thorough review and detection. The real-time threat intelligence feature is particularly useful as it detects all kinds of threats identified by incoming mails. The Impersonation license utilizes AI tools. Sometimes some phishing mails are reported as phishing, but they are not actually phishing mails. They are detected due to certain words and languages that appear suspicious but were generated by AI tools. Everyone or an advisor may use it for their own purpose or learning, even though it indicates that the mail detected is phishing when it's not.
Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.
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879,889 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
I would suggest that pricing for Barracuda Email Security Gateway rates around seven. It is not too expensive, but it is a considerable cost. Compared with others, Barracuda Email Security Gateway ...
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
Regarding real-time intelligent features of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway, some spam emails are still being released by the ESG to the end users, so the functionality is not working appropri...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My use case for the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our emails from phishing and spam emails to get them blocked by the ESG.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents, protecting my documents, and protecting attachments. I also use it to conduct ...
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
MS Defender for Office 365
 

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
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,889 professionals have used our research since 2012.