Barracuda ESG (discontinued) vs. MX Layer

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda ESG were physical or virtual appliances designed to protect email servers from spam, virus, spoofing, phishing and spyware attacks. The product line is discontinued.N/A
MX Layer
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
MX Layer is an enterprise security company based in the United States, focusing on providing cloud-based solutions for email security, business continuity, data loss prevention and email archiving services. MX Layer aims to ensure that their comprehensive email security platform protects company's critical communications at all times. Its web-based interface is used to control inbound and outbound email traffic, protecting employees and customers from ever-evolving threats such as spam,…N/A
Pricing
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Editions & Modules
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details- Essentials (free): For professionals or companies looking for a convenient and easy to use security solution. - Pro (30 days free trial): For small and medium size businesses with less than 100 employees with outbound features. - Business (30 days free trial): For organizations need advanced security and management features with outbound.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Considered Both Products
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Because we are a small nonprofit a large portion of our decisions come down to cost. Barracuda was the lowest cost option for us during our evaluation of email gateway products. That one factor alone was the deciding factor, because Barracuda indicated that their product would …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Barracuda was selected purely on a need and cost basis during the course our selection for an SEG. We needed a tool that could be set up fairly quickly and block and detect against spam and malicious emails. It did not compare in efficacy or ease of use to Mimecast, however it …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Barracuda integrates well with Office 365 and mail flow is great. It was the first solution we found that was part of a greater suite to fit all the requirements we had. With the Email Security gateway being in the cloud, it required no extra hardware but also nothing new …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
The Barracuda [Email Security Gateway] is cost comparative to the Sonicwall Email Security appliance but outperforms it in every scenario we tested. The Mimecast Security Email Gateway was not a good fit, had far too many "beta" quality features. The Cisco Email Security …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Through this application, I can keep my computer and system safe during its time of use and it is very helpful when detecting any threat as it has done in my system since its installation, I no longer have any problem due to the damage to my software since Barracuda protects my …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
I did not make the selection, I support the service. It was simple to support, patching was easy.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Forcepoint email security, formerly Websense, had poor intent analysis and learning. I spent a large portion of my time tagging spam emails that were not blocked. Barracuda consistently improves their offering and stays current with trend of malicious messages.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
We switched from an IronPort appliance to ESS in the cloud after evaluating several others, and have evaluated competitors at each renewal since then. The only services that come close are MimeCast and Proofpoint; if I were making the decision again today, it would …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Office 365, while having a robust spam filter, is not as customizable or easy to use as Barracuda Email Security Service in my opinion. It is easier to recover email using Barracuda Email Security Service as well as finding messages that have been blocked. Support is much …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
We have been so happy with this service for so long that we have not looked at alternatives in several years. It's very cost competitive and does a good job.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
We previously had Trend Micro scanning our email before we moved to Barracuda. Again [it's better] cost wise and is easier to use.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
SonicWall servers kept failing after a year or two. Nothing worse than having to replace an entire server due to catastrophic failure. Trend Micro failed to meet expectations. It failed to block phishing campaigns and would let emails with suspicious links through. …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
We compared both Barracuda and Mimecast, we discovered that there wasn't much between the two systems, there were pros and cons for both. In the end it came down to functionality and cost and Barracuda is more cost effective whilst still achieving the objectives we needed. …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
I inherited Barracuda Email Security Gateway when I started this job 1.5 years ago. My predecessors made a good choice with this product. I've been nothing but happy with it. The most I use of it is the message log to find emails for people. I don't have to dig into the …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Mimecast is an excellent, versatile and full-featured product. However, it was significantly more costly than Barracuda ESS. If you need some of the advanced features from Mimecast and are able to justify the cost based upon those, you will not be disappointed. Microsoft offers …
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
COST, SERVICE LEVEL, FUNCTIONALITY, cohesion with our other Barracuda services all were the contributing factors that mase Barracuda stand out.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Barracuda's product is superior in features as well as scanning technology to both alternatives.
Chose Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
Sophos Email
MX Layer

No answer on this topic

Features
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
7.3
Ratings
13% below category average
MX Layer
9.4
Ratings
12% above category average
Anti-malware8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Customizability4.40 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Data Loss Protection9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Threat Detection7.50 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Sandboxing9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption7.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Management Tools6.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Small Businesses
Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail
Score 9.3 out of 10
Zoho Mail
Zoho Mail
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Avanan
Avanan
Score 9.4 out of 10
Avanan
Avanan
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Avanan
Avanan
Score 9.4 out of 10
Avanan
Avanan
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda ESG (discontinued)MX Layer
Likelihood to Recommend
Good combination when using their other products like an incident response. When using automated workflows, this makes creating sender policies a breeze. Unfortunately, this can also be done too well as it may filter out valid emails and to resend or place them back into users' mailbox isn't an easy thing to do even if you attempt to resend through the Email Security Gateway.
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Its modules predominantly function via the cloud, rendering it exceptionally convenient for users. Its design based on the cloud liberates us from the burden of upkeeping the infrastructure.
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Pros
  • Stops unwanted emails coming through to your inbox, it does this by holding them in a 'quarantine' folder for you to then check and allow or deny.
  • Protects against phishing and ransomware attacks.
  • Stops employees clicking on dangerous links in emails by putting them in a secure place.
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Cons
  • The appliance has a feature to block all office macros. This is a great feature but only has an on/off setting. I would like to see the additional of allowing exclusions for users who need to receive office macros.
  • The feature for email encryption is great and allows us to not require an additional product or service for this. Unfortunately this is similar to the office macro feature and does not allow exclusions. The setting automatically detects information like credit cards, social security numbers, and other sensitive information. I have a user who works with Japanese companies. Japanese phone numbers apparently trigger the SSN filter. I wish I could put an exclusion in for this recipient or sender.
  • I wish the appliance had an auto firmware update option. Where non major releases would be automatically installed.
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Usability
Setting up the Barracuda for use with Microsoft 365 provides issues that Barracuda seems to have no fix for. I mentioned these issues to their support, because I am constantly reminded of them by their system, and I was told that those errors are normal for our setup and to ignore them which is frustrating to me.
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Reliability and Availability
Availability is robust and flawless. This is a non-issue, its always up & running and fail-over protection is available for restarts or upgrades.
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Performance
The WebUI is the only piece I find lacking on the Barracuda ESK. Its is not the fastest and is fairly utilitarian in its approach. The Outlook plug-in, while not in wide use here, causes zero slowdown in Outlook or the Barracuda ESG.
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Support Rating
Barracuda Email Security Gateway support is great at responding and escalating cases when needed. Timeliness is key when dealing with email attacks, spoofing or malware. Barracuda also has great resources for end-user training as our end users are our first line of defense in combatting attacks on our company. Training end-users pays off in time spent dealing with any email attacks
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Alternatives Considered
Barracuda integrates well with Office 365 and mail flow is great. It was the first solution we found that was part of a greater suite to fit all the requirements we had. With the Email Security gateway being in the cloud, it required no extra hardware but also nothing new installed on an endpoint as some solutions require.
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Return on Investment
  • The cost of ESS for our organization is tiny compared to the amount of money we would lose if even one virus-laden PDF slipped through
  • Ignoring genuine malware/phishing, the cost of ESS for our organization is tiny compared to the amount of money we save by blocking regular spam (so employees don't ever see it)
  • From an administrator's perspective, putting the reins in the hands of our employees so they can look at their own quarantine (and leave IT out of it) has saved us 💵DOLLA 💸DOLLA💵BILLS 💸Y'ALL💵
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ScreenShots