Barracuda Email Protection Premium and SpamTitan Comparison

Evaluation of an email security solution requires an analysis of features and pricing. TitanHQ understands the evaluation process and has created an advanced email security solution, SpamTitan, that is cost-effective and delivers advanced email protection features. SpamTitan is highly competitive compared to Barracuda Email Protection, ensuring that your IT budget is well-spent and you receive an optimal service. Below is a comparison of Barracuda Email Protection Premium pricing and features compared to the SpamTitan equivalent.

Barracuda Email Protection Pricing Model

Barracuda pricing is split into three tiers:

• Advanced
• Premium
• Premium Plus

The middle tier package, Premium Email Protection, starts at $12.52 per user per month and goes up to $17.02 for Premium Plus Email Protection for 15 users. In comparison, SpamTitan pricing is $1.95 per user per month based on an annual purchase for 25 users.

Pricing is one consideration, but a comparison of features is essential in making a good decision on which email security solution to purchase. Below is a comparison between the two solutions to help in your evaluation.

Spam Filtering Capability

Both SpamTitan and Barracuda, Email Protection Advanced, tick the capabilities boxes for the following:

• Spam and Malware Protection
• Attachment Protection
• Link Protection
• Email Continuity
• Phishing and Impersonation Protection
• Account Takeover Protection

The Premium level tier of the Barracuda solution and SpamTitan solution have these features in common. But what about other capabilities of the two email security solutions?

What Do You Get with Barracuda Email Protection Premium and Premium Plus?

Barracuda Premium and Premium Plus are priced above the baseline solution, known as Barracuda Email Security Advanced. These tiers come at an additional cost but provide extra layers of email protection:

Barracuda Premium

• SIEM/SOAR/XDR Integration
• Threat Hunting and Response
• Automated Workflows
• Email Encryption
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Barracuda Premium Plus

All the Premium features plus:

• Attack Simulation
• Security Awareness Training
• Cloud Archiving
• Cloud-to-Cloud Backup
• Data InspectorTM (Scans OneDrive and SharePoint for malicious files and sensitive data)

One typical way data is exposed via email is by accidentally sending an email to the wrong recipient. This was found to be a prevalent security problem in healthcare and financial services.

The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)

SpamTitan Out-of-the-Box Features

SpamTitan out-of-the-box features provide extended email security that matches the Premium features of Barracuda Email Security at no additional cost. These features include the following:

• Machine learning for advanced threat detection
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) 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

Security awareness training is not included in the baseline price for SpamTitan. However, TitanHQ provides world-class behavior-driven security awareness training that focuses on employee training rather than as a simple add-on for email security. SafeTitan is part of TitanHQ's comprehensive suite of email security solutions; all are easily integrated into an MSP's stack and work seamlessly together.

SpamTitan pricing may be lower than Barracuda spam filtering, but SpamTitan remains innovative and reliable, ensuring that email security and filtering are enterprise-class.

Email Security for Service Providers

Barracuda Email Protection is an email filtering and security solution best suited to enterprise customers.  Barracuda Email Security is feature-rich, and the Premium solution uses machine learning to identify, then quarantine, email-based threats, including malware, ransomware, phishing, spam, and other common email-borne attacks.

SpamTitan is also an email filtering and security solution that suits SMBs and more significant enterprise users. SpamTitan is also deliverable as an as-a-service via an MSP for the SMB. SpamTitan is specifically designed for deployment and management by an MSP. However, Barracuda Email Security Premium has been criticized for inflexible pricing for MSPs.

What are Users Saying About SpamTitan and Barracuda Email Security Premium?

Customer reviews are a great source of validated feedback from genuine solution users. Various organizations, including G2, Capterra, and Gartner, publish this user feedback. SpamTitan is also consistently chosen as a top alternative to Barracuda Email Security based on user experience. 

Customer reviews and awards are evidence of this; SpamTitan was awarded "High Performer" in Fall 2023 by G2. Also, when SpamTitan was compared with Barracuda Email Security by G2, SpamTitan received better reviews than Barracuda Email Security in all areas, including the following: 

• Intelligence Reporting
• Email Integration Support
• Access Management
• Data Loss Prevention
• Anti-Spam
• Anti-Malware
• Anti-Phishing
• Filtering Functionality
• Quarantine
• Outbound Email Monitoring
• Advanced Threat Intelligence/Protection

The comparison also points out that SpamTitan was designed for the SMB, whereas Barracuda suits a larger enterprise.

Using customer feedback when evaluating a solution is a valuable tool; SpamTitan is the number one Barracuda Essentials alternative because of the more affordable pricing model TitanHQ uses; however, cheaper does not mean less effective. SpamTitan provides advanced threat detection and filtering based on AI and machine learning. TitanHQ's mantra is to work closely with MSPs to ensure the move from Barracuda to SpamTitan is affordable and maintains exceptional service. MSPs can smoothly integrate SpamTitan into their existing tech stack to provide clients with enterprise-grade email security at an affordable price.

Why are MSPs Choosing SpamTitan over Barracuda for their Clients?

SpamTitan delivers attractive features and capabilities for MSPs, encouraging them to choose SpamTitan over Barracuda Email Security: 

Barracuda Pricing Model: Barracuda Email Security pricing is much higher than SpamTitan.

Support: Support is essential to ensure an MSP to allow them to provide exceptional customer service. MSP and customer reviews powerfully demonstrate that Barracuda offers support options that are not compatible with the demands of an MSP. TitanHQ, however, is regularly complimented on providing 24/7 exceptional support and is recognized as offering outstanding support to an MSP.

Advanced Threat Detection and Prevention: Cybercriminals continually improve their evasion techniques, challenging conventional email security solutions. These advanced cyber threats require advanced detection capability that is only achievable using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). SpamTitan provides machine learning capabilities out-of-the-box at baseline pricing. Barracuda Email Security Premium does offer AI-Powered Advanced Phishing Protection but at a higher price.

Threat Intelligence for Effective Email Filtering: SpamTitan uses an intelligence corpus from over 650 million users; this intelligence trains AI algorithms to detect spam and verify accounts against real-time phishing analysis. This prevents current and emerging threats and ensures that email filtering is accurate and effective.

SpamTitan is chosen by an MSP over the Barracuda Premium solution because TitanHQ’s solutions were created by MSPs for MSPs. The result is that MSP client support and management is optimized for an MSP delivery model. 
What does an email protection solution do?

According to The Ponemon Institute report on email security, 65% of respondents believe email is a sensitive data repository. Email security solutions like SpamTitan and Barracuda Email Security scan emails as they enter mail servers and detect and prevent malicious emails and spam from entering employee inboxes. Email security is essential for modern business as it helps to stop sophisticated email-borne threats, including phishing, spam, malware, ransomware, and malicious website links, from being used to attack your company. Security solutions filter and scan emails via virus, scanning tools, real-time analysis, spam scoring, reputation checks, and URL protection. Advanced email security solutions like SpamTitan and Barracuda Email Security Premium use AI and machine learning to adapt to cyber threats and capture zero-day threats.

SpamTitan for Service Providers

SpamTitan has a long history of providing enterprise-grade email services that an MSP could deliver to clients. TitanHQ has developed its award-winning MSP program called TitanShield, which gives an MSP a dedicated SaaS email security solution that provides clients with world-class email security. Capabilities include an intelligent email gateway, spam prevention, and DLP (Data Loss Prevention). TitanShield was designed for MSPs by TitanHQ and MSPs.

MSPs that become TitanHQ “Certified Partners” benefit from TitanHQ's marketing expertise. Partner levels offer access to the award-winning TitanHQ security solutions, SpamTitan, and DNS Filtering, plus:

• Silver: Includes channel account manager and co-branded solutions
• Gold: Includes Silver package plus marketing and leads
• Platinum: As Gold plus partner advisory board and beta testing
• Titan: All the above plus winners’ circle trip

SpamTitan uses a layered security approach to threat detection and spam filtering, which includes the following:

• Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
• Domain-based Message Authentication
• Reporting & Conformance (DMARC)
• Real-time Blackhole List (RBLs)
• Bayesian Analysis

SpamTitan sandboxes suspicious messages and quarantines them to secure employee inboxes. Administrators can custom configure in-depth analysis to manage messages with suspicious links and zero-day threats.

Why Do MSPs Prefer SpamTitan Over Barracuda Email Security Premium?

Easy Configuration: SpamTitan is designed to be centrally deployed and managed as a service. Working with MSPs to develop the delivery components has meant that SpamTitan is easily configured, organized, and controlled by the MSP, even with multiple clients.

Advanced Detection: SpamTitan gives MSPs advanced AI and Real-time detection capability with baseline pricing. This is only available with Barracuda when upgrading to Premium and Premium Plus.

Highly Scalable: SpamTitan supports unlimited users and domains; administrators can be unique to each domain. Higher cost tiers are required for this capability in Barracuda Email Security.

Upgrade Path: SpamTitan offers an MSP and easy upgrade path when moving from another email security solution. 

Zero-day Threats: AI is needed to cover zero-day threat detection and protection from malware. SpamTitan uses AI out-of-the-box at baseline pricing, but Barracuda requires an upgrade to higher-cost tiers.

Granular Reporting: SpamTitan has highly granular reporting needed for MSP client management. SpamTitan reporting is on a per-domain basis.

Cost-Effective Pricing Models: TitanHQ offers a flexible pricing model that fits an MSP's requirements and business needs.

Domain Separation: Administrators can manage their environment using domain separation inherent in SpamTitan for MSPs.

With SpamTitan, MSPs can offer their clients advanced and comprehensive email security and spam filtering out-of-the-box without upgrading to expensive tiers to deliver enterprise-class, effective email security.