Barracuda Email Protection vs. KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda Email Protection
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda Email Protection is an email security solution that uses machine learning to provide protection against threats. It combines email gateway defenses and API-based inbox defense to prevent attacks, respond to threats in real time, and secure Microsoft 365 data.N/A
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
KnowBe4 is a security awareness and compliance training and simulated social engineering product. It is used by organizations worldwide to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk. The product includes a comprehensive suite of awareness and compliance training, real-time user coaching, AI-powered simulated social engineering, crowdsourced anti-phishing defense and an AI suite that enhances human risk management through personalized training and automation. With…
$0.95
per month (billed annually) per seat
Pricing
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Silver
$0.95
per month (billed annually) per seat
Gold
$1.10
per month (billed annually) per seat
Platinum
$1.25
per month (billed annually) per seat
Diamond
$1.70
per month (billed annually) per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Considered Both Products
Barracuda Email Protection
Chose Barracuda Email Protection
We really didn't evaluate any other products. We considered using the filtering features that come with our Office 365 subscription, but just didn't feel it was sufficient protection for our business. Being a medical clinic, we felt like we needed to implement the best …
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Other providers had stale content and a small library to choose from and did not integrate training. KnowBe4 is lightyears ahead of these other providers.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Only upside was the training videos were very well received. Other than that, phishing training, phishing reporting, user management, user risk measurements/profiling and tie-ins to email's being reported (e.g. PhishER) were greatly lacking.
Features
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Secure Email Gateway
Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda Email Protection
8.5
19 Ratings
2% above category average
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
-
Ratings
Anti-malware9.019 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.118 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Loss Protection8.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Threat Detection8.719 Ratings00 Ratings
Sandboxing9.014 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-End Encryption10.014 Ratings00 Ratings
Management Tools7.719 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda Email Protection
-
Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
9.0
332 Ratings
4% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.3295 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.6321 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda Email Protection
-
Ratings
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.1
363 Ratings
5% below category average
Training Content Library00 Ratings8.4360 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content00 Ratings8.1203 Ratings
Training Gamification00 Ratings7.9302 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training00 Ratings7.0318 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans00 Ratings7.7306 Ratings
Phishing Simulations00 Ratings9.4358 Ratings
Security Reporting00 Ratings8.4349 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack00 Ratings8.2207 Ratings
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Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Barracuda Email Protection
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Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Avanan
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Score 9.8 out of 10
Hoxhunt
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Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.8 out of 10
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User Ratings
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(59 ratings)
9.2
(708 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(3 ratings)
9.9
(56 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(12 ratings)
9.3
(196 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(20 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(21 ratings)
Support Rating
7.4
(12 ratings)
8.3
(260 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(17 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(1 ratings)
8.2
(24 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(16 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(39 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.8
(8 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(21 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(12 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(17 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(16 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Likelihood to Recommend
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I would definitely recommend it due to the decent pricing. I wish the MS built-in M365 tools were better, but Barracuda does a good job of taking their place. For industries that need DLP on their email, like healthcare, banking, and education, Barracuda provides a reliable product for a good cost. The additional services you get, malware/AV filtering, URL filtering, spam protection, business continuity, those are all icing on the cake. The only issues we've ever really had with them is that it will sometimes take a back/forth string of emails and decide randomly to encrypt it, so what was a flowing benign conversation is now locked behind a wall for recipients. As the sender, you have no idea when it's going to decide to do this and have to remember to tag emails with a decrypt tag long before it happens or face the consequences
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KnowBe4
I don't have any frame of reference for comparison, but the training that I have used has proved impactful for my staff. Since starting KnowBe4 training, we've seen a great increase in the number of phishing attempts, but also a great increase in the number of attempts that have been recognized by staff, and we have thus not been the victim of phishing or other cyberattact vectors
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Pros
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Barracuda Essentials Spam Filtering works and it is very easy to add or remove senders from the Spam filter lists.
  • Barracuda Essentials provides excellent protection from Phishing and other Malware.
  • Barracuda Essentials email encryption is so easy to use and easy to setup. Our users love it.
Read full review
KnowBe4
  • Phish tests can be set to various difficulty levels as staff becomes more knowledgeable in catching phish emails.
  • Automated phish tests and training save a lot of admin time. The product can also test for phone and USB stick practices.
  • The phish alert button in Outlook, along with PhishER and PhishFlip allow easy managing and response to actual phishing emails.
  • The interactive training is well designed to cover all types of phishing and safe email and phone behavior.
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Cons
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • The product is pretty solid so I am not sure how it can be improved. One thing I noticed recently, I am not getting the emails back from Sentinel when I send in a "miss". Used to be I got an email back saying "sorry we missed this, we are improving." That does happen anymore, so I am assuming that when I send a miss, the AI is getting better.
  • I would expand this to cover all kinds of email fraud like ransomware and spam rather than creating another product.
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KnowBe4
  • The provided templates for phishing simulations are mainly available in English. There are also some templates available in our native language, but their number is small. We have seen other platforms offer way more phishing simulation templates in our language.
  • Although there is a really huge number of training videos available, some of them are outdated and no longer have much to offer. Some cleaning up could help in this direction.
  • Although there a some games / puzzle like trainings available, we have seen other platforms offer more and better ones (on the other platforms had they had almost no videos at all...). It would help significantly to also invest in enriching the provided puzzles / games.
  • We have seen other platforms offer games, where, for example, employees of the company can compete against each other while working together in groups to achieve a common goal (e.g., eliminate a fictional security threat that has "hit" the company. Plan the steps needed to be taken, take the steps one after another and have a chance to see the impact each action has. At the end the team that has suffered the least cost to end the threat is the one that wins. Just an example. The point is to make this challenging, using gamification and to make the employees part of the prevention force of the company against cybersecurity threats.
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Likelihood to Renew
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Although cost competitive, we still feel like we are not digging deep enough to train our staff. We have little to no way other than digging through reports that have not proven to be adequately documented (hey you, Barracuda campaign reports) to identify and require users to take more training who have not passed their requirements.
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KnowBe4
Between the ease of use, cost effectiveness, functionality and continued improvements Knowbe4 continues to make it would be pretty hard to find another competitive product that wraps it all up like KnowBe4 has. Not saying it couldn't happen, but haven't seen anything that competes at this point.
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Usability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Regarding usability, we like it to be an easy solution to implement and configure on the server. Routine backups are made frequently and reports are issued for control and analysis by information security teams. It has great integration with the cloud and encryption.
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KnowBe4
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is simple to use, simple to administer, effective, with quality content. It is easy to take the training and we have the reminders set so that the longer a user puts the training off, the more frequently they will receive reminder emails. Eventually they get emailed every day until they take the training. But with a simple click, they can get into the training content.
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Reliability and Availability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
There have only been a handful of outages in the 2 years we have had the product. Even during those instances, parts of the system were still operational
Read full review
Performance
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
Pages load quickly, filter/sort quickly, and don't slow down or freeze. Everything is smooth and very easy to use. There are a places in the UI where you can forget how to get there, but other than that everything is great. We have had no issues using any part of the website.
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Support Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I have not had to use customer support yet which goes to show the effectiveness of the program. It also shows how easy the program is to use for the average person with no experience using this type of program. Our IT department also does a great job at teaching us to detect emails with malware that in combination with this software issues rarely arise even though we have over 500 employees.
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KnowBe4
Tech prod support is great! I did have to ask for a new customer success rep, needed a more experienced person to match my 12 years of experience running Cybersec training programs. Would suggest that more matching of rep level of knowledge to client level knowledge would help.
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In-Person Training
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
Helpful and knowledgeable account managers have helped us navigate and use the system to our full potential
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Online Training
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
confusing question. I inherited this application so I didnt get any formal training other than the person who was leaving. The CSM provided some later on when I asked in a zoom call
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Implementation Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
It was "stupid easy" from the technical side.
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KnowBe4
The implementation went really well and KnowBe4 was there the whole time on setup to make sure things were setup correctly. The only thing we had to figure out on our own was to script users automatically being added to security groups. So that when they sync to knowBe4 from AD they are placed into the same/correct groups.
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Alternatives Considered
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
We have used several email solutions over the years, some were bought and killed off by larger companies. Barracuda Email Protection offers a very complete solution and has all the tools that we were looking for, and our MSP offered it.
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KnowBe4
KnowBe4 offered a significantly more favorable cost-benefit ratio compared to other solutions. Its seamless integration with our existing infrastructure—particularly Active Directory and email systems—was the most compatible with our operational and security requirements.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
I was not involved in the pricing, billing or contract terms.
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Scalability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
The product scales greatly. As long as you upgrade the license to support the number of users you are needing, adding in those new users is easy. Also getting those users set up with trainings/campaigns is very easy as well
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Professional Services
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
The team was great to work with and took their time to ensure that we knew what we were doing with the product and that it was set up to meet the specific needs of our organization. This wasn't just a cookie-cutter deployment, but rather they focused specifically on our needs.
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Return on Investment
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • This tool was supplied free with out Email Security, so its come at no cost
  • This tool has helped us meet requirements by our insurance to train users on the risks of phishing
  • However, the dated interface slows down what should be seamless adoption
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KnowBe4
  • With the implementation of KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have reduced a lot of issues of social engineering attacks like Phishing attacks, Smishing attacks, Vishing attacks, and a lot more. After implementing the KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have seen a significant decrease in the clicking on a phishing email. Now users are aware of phishing attacks and they know how to react to them.
  • With KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we got another tool Phish Alert Button that we have installed on the user's outlook and after providing training on these topics, now we are receiving a lot of spam report emails are users are protecting them from clicking and just reporting it to the IT team.
  • With the Phishing test, we are seeing the growth and analyzing how our users will react in the case of a real phishing attack, and with this, we are providing more training to them and going with them as per the test report. This whole process is making our company more stronger against any type pf social engineering attack.
  • After implementing KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training, we have seen a lot of improvements in the account compromise case in our company because users are not clicking on fake links now.
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ScreenShots

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Screenshots

Screenshot of the Phishing Dashboard. This displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.Screenshot of the Virtual Risk Officer functionality, which helps identify risk to support data-driven decisions about a security awareness plan.Screenshot of KnowBe4's partners, including The Security Awareness Company, Popcorn Training, exploqii, Twist & Shout, El Pescador, CLTRe, Saya University, and MediaPRO. Together, they create security awareness training content available in the ModStore.Screenshot of a security training quiz question showing "Security Moments Series: Spot the Bad Link" asking what Lisa should do when receiving an unexpected email with an HTML attachment, with three answer options and Submit/Cancel buttons.Screenshot of the AIDA Phishing Template Generator interface, which displays a customizable phishing simulation tool with template setup options on the left and a preview of a generated "Annual Bonus Announcement" email featuring a QR code attack vector on the right.Screenshot of the AIDA Configure Training interface, which displays settings for personalized remedial phishing training, including user enrollment options, completion timeframes, knowledge refresher schedules, and notification preferences, with an "Activate Remedial Training" button to implement the configuration.