Barracuda Essentials Vs SpamTitan Email Security
When evaluating email security tools, cost plays a major role, especially for MSPs, where pricing directly affects margins and long-term profitability. SpamTitan delivers strong value and more favorable pricing than Barracuda Email Protection, helping MSPs budget with greater certainty. Below is a straightforward breakdown of what each solution costs and the benefits included.
| Barracuda Essentials | SpamTitan | |
| Free Trial | • Try before you buy option • Instant activation for most products • Schedule demo for Managed XDR |
• 14-day free trial • Demo available for all products |
| Price | US $2.66/user/month -250 users. Equivalent annual cost = US $7,980 | US $1.08/user/month for comparable feature set (under the same 250-user case), annual cost = US $3,225. |
| Support | • Enterprise-focused support • Reported support challenges • Complex escalation paths |
• MSP First model • Dedicated Account Manager • Someone always picks up the phone • Single support path |
| Best for | Large enterprises need a comprehensive security suite with specialized products for each threat vector. | MSPs and SMBs want a unified security platform with two-layer email defense, exceptional support, and transparent bundle pricing. |
In assessing the two solutions, SpamTitan surpasses Barracuda, with a significant focus on the quality of customer support and ease of use & setup. SpamTitan leads the way on several key factors in the G2 Comparison.
Source: G2 Crowd.com
Customer reviews that show why users love SpamTitan.
“SpamTitan definitely solved all our email security issues with the in/outbound configuration. The best thing about SpamTitan is that it's so easy to use, the support is very quick to answer all our questions we had to configure. We were up and running in just a few minutes”
"After using a cloud-based Barracuda spam filter solution we decided to trial SpamTitan. After one week of the trial, we decided to buy a 3-year license. One of the best easy-to-use products I have seen in a long time. The performance of the virtual Hyper-V box is amazing! It has greylisting/DKIM and TLS, and 99,99% of the spam is being filtered. It does a better job than Barracuda!"
“We've been using SpamTitan for a few years, and it's really a solid product. We don't really touch it, it quietly runs and protects our inbound email. Was easy to set up and easy to understand.”
“Fastest and easiest to deploy cloud based Anti Spam, great features for the price fastest anti spam deployment ever, great service, great product, great customer and Technical support.”
"We were using this product for email security in my previous company. It helps in blocking most of the email threats including spam, viruses and phishing. Cost is also affordable. It is the industry leading product for email security. This product can be customized, scalable and very powerful. Spam catch rate is comparatively high compared to other leading products in the market. It holds good for MSPs, Office 365 and Schools. It has advanced protection system for threats which we felt very helpful. "
Customer reviews that show why users love SpamTitan.
“SpamTitan definitely solved all our email security issues with the in/outbound configuration. The best thing about SpamTitan is that it's so easy to use, the support is very quick to answer all our questions we had to configure. We were up and running in just a few minutes”
"After using a cloud-based Barracuda spam filter solution we decided to trial SpamTitan. After one week of the trial, we decided to buy a 3-year license. One of the best easy-to-use products I have seen in a long time. The performance of the virtual Hyper-V box is amazing! It has greylisting/DKIM and TLS, and 99,99% of the spam is being filtered. It does a better job than Barracuda!"
“We've been using SpamTitan for a few years, and it's really a solid product. We don't really touch it, it quietly runs and protects our inbound email. Was easy to set up and easy to understand.”
“Fastest and easiest to deploy cloud based Anti Spam, great features for the price fastest anti spam deployment ever, great service, great product, great customer and Technical support.”
"We were using this product for email security in my previous company. It helps in blocking most of the email threats including spam, viruses and phishing. Cost is also affordable. It is the industry leading product for email security. This product can be customized, scalable and very powerful. Spam catch rate is comparatively high compared to other leading products in the market. It holds good for MSPs, Office 365 and Schools. It has advanced protection system for threats which we felt very helpful. "
Did You Know?
SpamTitan's spam catch rate
a ransomware attack occurs
the average cost to manage spam per person without an email filter
of all email is spam
Barracuda Essentials Pricing vs. SpamTitan Pricing
Pricing isn’t always a main priority for most enterprise customers, but it’s often a factor in some way. SpamTitan pricing is competitive compared to Barracuda Essentials, and it helps to know how much your email security will cost ahead of time so that your IT budgets can fit provisioning.
Barracuda Essentials is based on a tiered pricing model. An advantage of SpamTitan over Barracuda Essentials pricing is the number of features and support you get under one-tiered pricing. Barracuda Essentials has a baseline price tag, and any extras are an extra charge. Taking Barracuda Essentials and SpamTitan equivalent solutions, you can expect to pay about $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Essentials product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
SpamTitans pricing will suit you if:
- You want simple, transparent bundle pricing without hidden minimums or forced bundles
- You're an MSP needing a platform built specifically for managed services with an MSP First approach
- Your priority is simplified management over product flexibility
- You prefer predictable, all-inclusive pricing without per-product negotiations or surprise renewal increases
- You're a small business seeking enterprise security without complexity
- You value responsive support where someone actually picks up the phone
Comparing SpamTitan to Barracuda Essentials, both products have several similar features. Barracuda and SpamTitan have the following spam filtering:
- Advanced threat protection from zero-day and sophisticated attacks
- Phishing detection and quarantining
- Malware detecting and blocking
- Link scanning and advanced analysis
- Outbound email security and filtering
Although both solutions have several similar features, SpamTitan has several more out-of-the-box. Customers interested in Barracuda Essentials must upgrade to Barracuda Sentinel to get extra features, which is an additional cost per user. A few features included with Barracuda Sentinel at an extra cost:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) for real-time spear phishing attacks, and prevention of CEO spoofing and employee impersonation.
- Email security and authentication with DMARC integration
- SpamTitan includes several more features in its base pricing subscription. Features included in SpamTitan out-of-the-box at no additional cost or upgrades:
SpamTitan out-of-the-box features
SpamTitan out-of-the-box features provide extended email security at no additional cost or need to upgrade. These features include the following:
- Machine learning for advanced threat detection
- Data Loss Prevention and outbound email scanning
- Extended email scanning and filtering based on custom configurations
- Email Encryption
- Verification of read receipts
- Real-time analysis and administration
- Blocking based on geographic location and regions
- Filtering of suspicious attachments and file types
- Quarantining of suspicious messages for further administrator review
- Anti-spoofing technology
- Multiple layers of phishing detection, including machine learning and artificial intelligence
While SpamTitan’s pricing is lower than Barracuda’s spam-filtering solutions, the reduced cost doesn’t come at the expense of quality. In fact, SpamTitan delivers more features at a lower price, and still excels in ease of use, robust email security, and reliable customer support.
SpamTitan is rated 4.5 stars in customer satisfaction versus Barracuda’s 4 stars.
Email Security for Service Providers
Barracuda Essential is an email filtering and security solution for enterprise customers. The solution uses machine learning to identify and quarantine email-based threats including malware, ransomware, phishing, spam, and other common cyber-attacks.
Customer feedback indicates that SpamTitan is the number one Barracuda Essentials alternative proven to be a more budget-friendly solution with more advanced threat detection and filtering. Managed service providers have been switching from Barracuda to SpamTitan for the advanced features. MSPs still get the same quality service and email security at a lower price to improve their return on investment.
A few reasons why MSPs are switching to SpamTitan:
- Barracuda Pricing – The base pricing tier for Barracuda Essentials without the added features included in SpamTitan is significantly higher.
- Support – MSP and customer reviews indicate that Barracuda’s support options are significantly poorer than SpamTitan’s. SpamTitan has 24/7 top-notch support recognized as one of the best in the email security industry.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Advanced threats have bypasses for common traditional email security, and SpamTitan has the machine learning capabilities to detect them. Advanced AI technology is not included in the standard Barracuda Essentials pricing tier.
- Threat intelligence database – SpamTitan has a current database of 650 million users used to detect spam and verify accounts against real-time phishing analysis. The result is more effective and accurate email filtering.
Both Barracuda and SpamTitan are leading providers in the industry, but customers have said that SpamTitan is much more focused on supporting MSPs. Without a good email security provider, MSPs are unable to fully support their customers and could damage their brand without the right tools in place.
What does an email protection solution do?
SpamTitan and Barracuda Essentials are the industry-leading solutions for email protection and security. These cloud-based email security solutions are designed to protect organizations from spam, phishing, malware, and other email-borne threats. They both use advanced filtering, link protection, and sandboxing to block malicious content before it reaches users. The services also include outbound filtering, encryption, data-loss prevention, and email archiving for compliance and backup needs. Overall, it helps businesses maintain secure, compliant, and reliable email operations.
Email protection solutions scan and filter messages before they reach the mail server, blocking threats such as phishing, malware, and malicious links. They rely on virus-scanning tools, real-time threat analysis, spam scoring, reputation checks, and URL protection to keep harmful content away from users. With phishing and ransomware attacks on the rise, especially in remote and hybrid work environments, robust email security is essential to prevent data breaches and protect employees.
Many Barracuda customers report that the platform is not MSP-focused and that its broad product portfolio dilutes its emphasis on email and web security. As a result, a growing number of MSPs are switching to SpamTitan, which was built by MSPs for MSPs. SpamTitan delivers purpose-built security, stronger MSP alignment, and a streamlined experience, enabling service providers to operate efficiently while delivering reliable, powerful email protection to their clients.
SpamTitan for Service Providers
SpamTitan has a long history of protecting enterprise email services since 1999. It’s currently integrated into several enterprise environments and helps numerous MSPs support their customers. MSPs use SpamTitan to keep their customers compliant with effective email filtering that blocks email-based cyber-attacks.
Multiple features in SpamTitan create a layered security approach to threat detecting and filtering. Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), Real-time Blackhole List (RBLs), and Bayesian analysis are just a few advanced features incorporated into SpamTitan.
SpamTitan uses dual antivirus engines to detect and block malware, and sandboxing quarantines suspicious messages and blocks them from reaching user inboxes. Administrators can custom configure in-depth analysis to manage messages with suspicious links and zero-day threats.
A few reasons why MSPs prefer SpamTitan Spam Filter over Barracuda Essentials:
- Built for MSP Efficiency: Intuitive, cloud-based controls make deployment and daily management fast and straightforward, with seamless migration from other solutions.
- True Multi-Tenancy: Unlimited users and domains with per-domain administrators, isolated environments, and granular reporting give MSPs full control across all clients.
- Stronger Threat Protection: Advanced spam filtering, phishing defense, zero-day detection, malware protection, and sandboxing deliver 24/7 real-time security with high accuracy and fewer false positives.
- Flexible, MSP-Friendly Pricing: Competitive pricing, predictable billing, and multiple pricing models help MSPs maintain healthy margins without forcing clients into expensive upgrade tiers.
- Comprehensive Feature Set Included: Core protections, outbound filtering, URL protection, sandboxing, and more, are all part of the platform without costly add-ons.
- Easy Provisioning & Hosting Options: Multi-tenant cloud provisioning is fast, and optional local hosting is available for MSPs needing customized deployment.
- Reliable, Responsive Support: MSPs consistently praise SpamTitan for accessible, expert-level support that resolves issues quickly, critical when managing multiple client environments.
Hear from our Customers
One of the most significant factors driving MSP migration to SpamTitan is that Barracuda does not focus solely on email and web security. SpamTitan fully supports MSPs in their commitment to stop spam, malware, ransomware, and other email-based threats targeting enterprise organizations. Customers get full email security and filtering out of the box without expensive upgrades and complicated provisioning with SpamTitan.
Kaizen IT - Migrate from Barracuda to TitanHQ
MSP Case Study – True North Consultants Migrate from Barracuda to SpamTitan
True North Consultants is a managed service provider committed to delivering meaningful value to their clients and helping businesses transform and lead. The team had been using Barracuda for email spam filtering, but they needed a solution they could host locally, both for internal use and to offer directly to their customers. As they explained, “With Barracuda, we didn’t feel like paying another company to do it for us in the cloud. SpamTitan was the perfect fit.”
SpamTitan provided True North with a powerful, locally hosted email security platform that met their operational needs and aligned with their service model. After completing a free trial, True North switched from Barracuda to SpamTitan and has experienced strong success ever since. Here’s what they had to say about their experience with SpamTitan.
“The degree of customization and logging with SpamTitan is amazing. You can account for everything going in or out of your organization and set filtering rules to match any scenario.
“Barracuda spam filtering was letting us down and letting viruses through”
“Performance of the web UI and functions like searching and reporting are lightning quick. Virtual machine for VMware was super easy to deploy. Spam Titan offers an in-house solution, which we LOVE as well as options for people who prefer cloud. The SpamTitan in-house appliance has full support for ipv6 both sending and receiving.”
“I recommend to take the time to consider SpamTitan. The offering is flexible and if you still want and trust an in-house solution, they offer that in addition to cloud. The in-house solution is not scaled down in any was and is just as good as the cloud offering.”
David Sgro, IT Recruiter / Search Specialist, True North Consultants.
MSP Case Study – Opal IT moves from Vade Secure & Barracuda to TitanHQ
Another standout MSP success story with SpamTitan comes from the U.K. based provider Opal IT. Operating across Newcastle and Edinburgh, Opal IT transitioned from Vade Secure and Barracuda to the full TitanHQ security suite: SpamTitan Email Security, WebTitan Content Filtering, and ArcTitan Email Archiving.
Previously relying on Barracuda and Vade Secure for email filtering, combined with firewall tools to protect their 6,000+ users, Opal IT sought a more powerful, unified, and MSP-friendly solution. By adopting TitanHQ’s multi-layered cybersecurity bundle, they now deliver comprehensive protection against phishing, ransomware, malicious websites, and provide secure, compliant email archiving.
This move has enabled Opal IT to offer clients stronger security, simpler management, and a more reliable defense against today’s evolving threats, all powered by SpamTitan and the TitanHQ platform.
"Opal IT moved to TitanHQ because of our MSP-focused solutions, ease of deployments, extensive API functionality and the increased margin they're now making. TitanHQ cybersecurity bundle solutions allow MSPs to provide their downstream customers with a layered defense approach” said Ronan Kavanagh, CEO, TitanHQ
Get in touch to see SpamTitan in action and get customized pricing.
Geraldine Hunt
- EMAIL PROTECTION
Talk to our Team today
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Independent review site, G2 Crowd conducted a feature comparison survey between SpamTitan and Barracuda Essentials. The results show that customers of SpamTitan rated the solution higher than the customer ratings of Barracuda. SpamTitan scored 4.6/5 on customer satisfaction, where scored Barracuda 4.2/5.
Based on the equivalent solution with SpamTitan Email Protection, Barracuda's pricing is in the region of $2.66 per user, per month, versus $1.08 with SpamTitan. Barracuda pricing is significantly higher than SpamTitan. Customers are leaving Barracuda due to the ever-rising pricing.
Based on the equivalent solution with SpamTitan Email Protection, Barracuda's pricing is in the region of $2.66 per user, per month, versus $1.08 with SpamTitan. Barracuda pricing is based on different tiers and features of email threat protection. Additional features cost more, unlike SpamTitan which offers an all-encompassing package price.
Barracuda MSP customers are leaving and migrating to SpamTitan for several reasons. The main factor being pricing. SpamTitan offers a more profitable pricing margin for MSPs. SpamTitan for MSPs offers first-class industry support and a concierge service in migrating MSP clients to SpamTitan.
Barracuda Email Protection is a comprehensive email security solution that helps to prevent spam, ransomware, and social engineering threats such as spear phishing, business email compromise (BEC), and account takeover (ATO). Barracuda Email Protection also integrates with Microsoft 365 email to protect against phishing and other email-borne threats.
Barracuda uses a preventative approach based on a secure email gateway that calls upon AI-enabled threat prevention and Domain Fraud Protection to block malicious emails and spam before they enter an inbox.
Barracuda Essentials uses a tiered pricing model with a baseline price tag; any extras incur an extra charge, which can be off putting for SMBs on a budget. The three tiers Barracuda uses are Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus; each offering increased functionality built on the previous tier.
A comparative example of the cost of Barracuda Essentials against SpamTitan equivalent email security features offers a view of Barracuda Essentials pricing: you are likely to pay around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Essentials product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
Spam filters are essential to manage the massive amount of spam emails that enter employees’ inboxes. Barracuda offers spam filtering as part of its Barracuda Email Security solution. Barracuda Spam Filter is integral to all three Barracuda tiers: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus pricing options include spam filtering and malware prevention as a fundamental product feature.
Barracuda Email Protection Solution comes with three pricing plans: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. The Premium Plus Pricing plan offers the most comprehensive feature list. As well as fundamentals such as spam and phishing prevention, the Premium Plus options include Domain Fraud Protection; Web Security; Zero Trust Access for Microsoft 365; Security awareness training and Cloud archiving.
Barracuda Secure Email acts as an email security gateway to detect and prevent threats from inbound and outbound email traffic. This protection acts to stop email-borne threats and data leaks. Barracuda Email Protection integrates with Microsoft 365 email to protect against phishing and other email-borne threats. The Data Loss Prevention (DLP) feature of Barracuda Secure Email is available as part of all pricing plans and tiers.
Many small to medium sized organizations (SMBs) prefer to use an MSP (managed service provider) to deploy and manage their email security. MSP delivery of email security helps to provide value for money. Barracuda offers an MSP option. Barracuda MSP pricing is available on request but is based on a recurring monthly charge. Barracuda Cloud Email Gateway Defense is the MSP version of their email security solution. The solution provides email continuity, encryption, archiving, and backup.
Barracuda Email Protection is a comprehensive email security solution, but it comes in three pricing tiers; each price increase offers additional features. The three-tiered plans are named Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. Using Barracuda Essentials and SpamTitan equivalent email security features, you will likely pay around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Essentials product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
Barracuda Total Email Protection is the most complete email protection platform from Barracuda, providing an Email Security (Gateway), Cloud-to-cloud backup, Cloud Archiving, Inbox Defense, Security Awareness Training, and Incident Response. This comprehensive email security package is the highest cost plan from Barracuda. The cost of this plan is available on request from Barracuda.
Barracuda Email pricing is offered via three pricing tiers. Each tier increases in price, each tier building upon the previous tier with additional features and functions. The three-tiered plans are named Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. Taking Barracuda Essentials and SpamTitan equivalent email security features, you will likely pay around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Advanced (most basic) product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
The cost of Barracuda Email Protection depends on the tier you choose: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. All three plans provide basic protection of email threat prevention, spam detection, attachment and link protection, email continuity, and account takeover protection. The Advanced plan costs around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Advanced (most basic) product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution. The Premium and Premium Plus plans pricing are on request.
The Premium Plus Barracuda option provides all of the features of the other two plans but with added features such as the following: Domain Fraud Protection, Web Security, Zero Trust Access for Microsoft 365 and Security awareness training.
The Barracuda Cloud Archiving service is part of the Premium Plus pricing plan. It is a cloud-based solution that captures an accurate and unmodified copy of emails as they are sent or received. The service keeps copies of these emails as per policies/compliance requirements. Barracuda Cloud Archiving is performed directly from Office 365. The solution also offers PST management for legacy email, uses granular retention policies, offers a full text search, and helps with regulatory compliance.
A spam filter is an integral part of Barracuda Email Security and is available in all three of the Barracuda Email Security plans: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. Barracuda Spam Filter pricing includes a spam filter. Therefore, if you choose Barracuda Email Security, you will have the spam filter capability as part of your purchase.
Barracuda Email Security has three pricing tiers: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. Each tier adds additional functionality; therefore, as you move from Advanced to Premium Plus, each has a higher price bracket. Using Barracuda Essentials and SpamTitan equivalent email security features as an example, you are likely to pay around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Advanced (most basic) product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
Barracuda Email Security Gateway is purchased as one of three tiers: Advanced, Premium, and Premium Plus. Each tier has further functionality above and beyond the previous tier. The price also increases. Using Barracuda Essentials and SpamTitan equivalent email security features as an example, you are likely to pay around $2.66 per user for the Barracuda Advanced (most basic) product versus $1.20 for the SpamTitan email security solution.
Barracuda Networks Inc. is a recognized leader in Email Protection, Application Protection, Network Security, and Data Protection Solutions. The pricing of Barracuda Networks email security solutions is offered as three tiers, each tier increasing in price as added functionality is included. As a comparison, Barracuda Advanced email security costs around $2.66 per user versus $1.20 for the equivalent SpamTitan email security solution.