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Barracuda Email Security Gateway vs SonicWall Email Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
DMARC Authentication Software (2nd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (6th)
SonicWall Email Security
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (25th)
 

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 9.6%, up 6.1% compared to last year.
SonicWall Email Security, on the other hand, focuses on Email Security, holds 0.9% mindshare, up 0.5% since last year.
Secure Email Gateway (SEG) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Barracuda Email Security Gateway9.6%
Proofpoint Email Protection18.6%
Microsoft Defender for Office 36515.3%
Other56.5%
Secure Email Gateway (SEG)
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall Email Security0.9%
Proofpoint Email Protection6.7%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3656.1%
Other86.3%
Email Security
 

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.
Swapnil Kulkarni - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at Ador Powertron Ltd.
Has consistently supported security needs for mid-sized teams with affordable deployment
I do not work with Cloud Secure Edge, CSE, or SMA apart from SonicWall NSA. I am not satisfied with phishing protection, as it falls completely under the email domain security. The customizable policy configuration does not help to tailor email security overall because our systems are not integrated with SonicWall Email Security. We are not using reporting and analytics because it requires completely different software. While all required features are available in SonicWall Email Security for SMBs and startups, we lack analytics features. They provide an option to purchase a complete separate product for analytics, but despite initially having purchased the paper license, due to technical limitations or changes, we cannot use that product. Now they require additional fees to access the analytics feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The performance is good."
"The initial setup was very easy and user-friendly."
"Barracuda is quite stable."
"The most valuable feature of Barracuda Email Security Gateway is that it blocks almost 99 percent of threats from users' email inboxes."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is very simple to use."
"My current company had no product before Barracuda, and we get a lot of added value from the various things it does, ranging from advanced threat protection and spam filtering to protection from viruses and email spoofing, plus cloud-to-cloud backup."
"This is a good product. It works, it's reliable, and it's helpful."
"The protection from Barracuda Email Security Gateway is essentially a sandboxing solution."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"Setup was easy. It took about 30 minutes."
"The product is easy to manage in terms of configurations."
"The most valuable feature is that it protects from spam."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall Email Security is the blocking of emails using keywords. If there are any particular keywords in the subject, that we want to block from receiving from a particular person we can do it. Additionally, the blocking of emails is easy. we can release that one and we can block some of the keywords also like that."
"This solution has been really good for us and I recommend using it."
"SonicWall Email Security uses multi-layer cloud security."
"According to our customers, the product's most valuable feature is the ability to detect spam and reduce phishing emails."
 

Cons

"We had a case where right before a link was redirected and there was no chance to ignore it."
"There are some times when legit emails are trapped on Barracuda and we are unable to get that information unless we actually log on to the network to find out."
"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."
"Barracuda has shown difficulty in providing us with the solutions we sought."
"We cannot customize the solution according to our needs and, consequently, its reporting capabilities are lacking."
"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."
"I would like to have better integration with third-party archival vendors to facilitate moving data in and out."
"Barracuda should add an option where it can add multiple domains, such as abc.com, bbc.com, and cbc.com; therefore, only these 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 domains' emails will be relayed through Barracuda Email Security Gateway; that is the drawback that I have observed, so Barracuda should work on this."
"The platform's control panel needs enhancement."
"Policy deployment could be time consuming and represents an area for improvement in SonicWall Email Security."
"The pricing could be improved."
"We would like to see more information on a dashboard about what is happening when it comes to spamming and malware."
"Updates could be released more frequently."
"Overall, this is a solution that provides good security but at a very high cost."
"Load balancing is not stable."
"Previously, we had an issue with a faulty appliance and had to wait over two weeks for a replacement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay between $8 and $10 USD per user per month."
"The price of the solution should be reduced. The price in the USA is less than where we are. Our local distributor of the solution is manipulating the market."
"The licensing cost is competitive, it's not too high and not too low."
"Barracuda Email Security Gateway is a cost-effective solution."
"As far as advanced email security systems, this product is mid-range on the pricing scale."
"We paid for an annual license."
"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."
"There is an annual license required for this solution."
"When compared with Cisco, it is very well priced. Cisco is very expensive."
"I rate the application’s pricing a five out of ten."
"Our customers purchase the solution's yearly license."
"The cost is cheaper than Sophos. I would rate it as five out of ten."
"The overall price of SonicWall Email Security should be reduced and there should be an option to purchase one or two licenses more instead of their current policy of bulk increases only. There should be more flexibility in the licensing model. Each license cost approximately $33 annually."
"The platform offers a yearly license."
"We have a two-year license subscription and the price is very high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda Sentinel?
Compared to the features and stability, Barracuda Email Security Gateway is affordable in terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing.
What needs improvement with Barracuda Sentinel?
On technical aspects, I think Barracuda needs to provide a fast response to any vulnerability on the system and enhance Barracuda support. Customer support for Barracuda Email Security Gateway need...
What is your primary use case for Barracuda Sentinel?
My main use case for Barracuda Email Security Gateway is to protect our email and our email users, protecting our business from most of the sophisticated attacks like phishing attacks and spam. We ...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Email Security?
Policy deployment could be time consuming and represents an area for improvement in SonicWall Email Security.
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Email Security?
SonicWall Email Security was used for security purposes, which aligns with the product's core function.
 

Also Known As

Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall, Barracuda Sentinel
Dell SonicWALL Email Security Platform, SonicWall Hosted Email Security
 

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
Star Kay White, Locala Community Partnerships
Find out what your peers are saying about Proofpoint, Microsoft, Mimecast and others in Secure Email Gateway (SEG). Updated: July 2026.
907,731 professionals have used our research since 2012.