Barracuda Security Awareness Training vs. KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda's Security Awareness Training (formerly Barracuda Phishline) provides a suite of applications supporting phishing social engineering simulations with data analytics for evaluation of results as well as targeted training and education to boost readiness. PhishLine was acquired by Barracuda in January 2018, and is now part of Barracuda's security portfolio.N/A
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
KnowBe4 is a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform used by more than 65,000 organizations around the globe. Founded by IT and data security specialist, Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud, and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. The KnowBe4 platform offers multi-language support for the Admin Console and end…
$0.90
per month per seat
Pricing
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Silver
$0.90
per month per seat
Gold
$1.05
per month per seat
Platinum
$1.20
per month per seat
Diamond
$1.70
per month per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsThere are four subscription levels: Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Each level is priced per user with a sliding scale based on number of users. Monthly pricing per seat billed on an annual basis.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Considered Both Products
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Barracuda Security Awareness Training from Barracuda Networks was already included in our TEP environment.
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Diversity of campaigns, library depth, and integration with the security stack.
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Both products are very similar in providing a complete package for security awareness training, education, assessment, and ongoing evaluation. KnowBe4 has more functionality for the gamification aspect and a slightly richer template base for phishing simulations. Barracuda …
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Barracuda Security Awareness Training is part of a much larger platform of security tools. It is nice to have Security Awareness Training baked into a sweet of products that are already being used to secure our environment. While KnowBe4 is great, the suite they offer is either …
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Barracuda offers a large, feature-rich platform that deeply integrates with their other email security products. It is easy to set up and it offers a large library of English campaigns
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Overall the products are very similar however as Barracuda offers a one-stop shop for email security and awareness training this is better preferred from an IT Admin Perspective
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
More detailed library overall, better reports and better integration with security stack
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Very far behind other platforms such as KnowBe4, i alsmot get the impression that Barracuda is a 10 year + older product that is no longer able to compete with the newer products. A complete overhaul is required to make it user friendly and competitive again. Phishline looks …
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Easier multi-tenant platform, better integration with the existing Barracuda email security stack.
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Barracuda Phishline is free/included with essentials and sentinel solution. Not nearly the training level of KnowBe4. In fairness, even with better training the users that fall for phishing, keep failing even after KB4 or Barracuda training.
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
Similar functionality. KnowBe4 seemed to have a richer content base for email templates. We selected Barracuda Security Awareness Training over KnowBe4 because it was included as part of the Barracuda Total Email Security package.
Chose Barracuda Security Awareness Training
We unselected Barracuda and went with Knowbe4. But we're stuck paying for it as it's part of the suite.
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
I only can say that is very simple.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
There are other products that can compare to KnowBe4. We've assessed several others but we have experienced that other products are less intuitive for administration, have a lower ROI, have poor reporting, or a poor end-user experience on training.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
I like KB4 more for the easy of use not only to me but the end user. What is the easiest way we can have arguably one of the most important pieces to IT security get trained and tested. From ease of logging in, to resetting their password, to knowledge
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 has considerably more content and delivers it in a better manner than Barracuda does. KnowBe4 also came in cheaper than the alternatives that we were considering.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
We used Barracuda for backups and wanted to test their training platform. KnowBe4’s platform is much more intuitive and is much better catered to our users. The metrics that we are able to generate through KnkwBe4 are also much more defined, allowing us to give better reports …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
I have felt the leadership of KnowBe4 was ahead in this field and has maintained a lead on others in the field. I find the platform more mature and continuing to grow in content, functionality and overall maturity. With Kevin Mitnick, a former hacker, helping to grow the …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Barracuda's email's tricked more of our users and looked more believable. Since Barracuda is at no extra cost with their email filtering, we have decided this will be our primary solution. Their training is less polished and effective. Others do not have content or management …
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
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training has several key features that are helpful - the ability to sync Active Directory email addresses so that it is up to date and available at all times, I would say that training is not "overly techy" - meaning all users can understand and apply …
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
The other tools in this space didn't compare well in terms of easy of use, quick to implement and exceptional support.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 has better training and the ability to give immediate training when a user fails a phish training campaign.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Gartner a high score and experience.
Chose KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
KnowBe4 is just a better more focused solution. We use Mimecast, but not the awareness portion. We also used Barracuda at one time also, but KnowBe4 is better.
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Barracuda Phishline and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training are both security awareness training software designed to train and test users on defending against social engineering attacks such as phishing. Both software options are most popular with larger enterprises, likely because as staff sizes increase, it becomes more difficult to train staff without a dedicated tool.  

Features

Barracuda Phisline and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training both provide user training for social engineering attacks, but they also have a few standout features that set them apart from each other. 

Barracuda Phishline offers detailed reporting on what parts of a business are the most vulnerable.  Additionally, Barracuda Phishline includes total email protection to help users identify suspicious emails as they are learning.  Lastly, Barracuda Phishline includes gamification features to keep users engaged in their learning.

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training provides robust features for testing and training team members.  Businesses are able to create test social engineering attacks from KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training’s  library of over 2,000 templates based on real social engineering messages. Social Engineering tests can also be automated using KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training’s artificial intelligence tools, which can push social engineering tests out through email, text, or voicemail.

Limitations

Barracuda Phishline and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training both help businesses secure themselves against social engineering attacks, but they also have some limitations that are important to consider.

Barracuda Phishline has excellent tools for reporting on an organization’s vulnerabilities, but it doesn’t have as wide a variety of templates for phishing testing. BArracuda Phishline allows businesses to send out social engineering tests, but it doesn’t support automated testing like KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Does. Businesses looking primarily to test and train their staff may prefer KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training.

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training has advanced testing and training features for businesses, but it doesn’t provide total email protection or detailed vulnerability reporting.  Businesses looking to quickly identify security weak points may prefer Barracuda’s analytics features. 

Pricing

Barracuda Phishline pricing is subscription based and depends on the number of users, but it starts as low as $2.95 per user per month.

Similarly, Pricing for KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training is dependent on the number of users, as well as the feature needs of the organization.  Pricing starts as low as $8.00 per user per year, but can reach as high as $29.50 per user per year.

Features
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
7.1
33 Ratings
16% below category average
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.8
268 Ratings
5% above category average
Single sign-on capability7.030 Ratings9.1236 Ratings
Role-based user permissions7.331 Ratings8.5258 Ratings
Security Awareness Training
Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda Security Awareness Training
6.9
39 Ratings
19% below category average
KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
8.4
293 Ratings
1% above category average
Training Content Library7.139 Ratings8.9290 Ratings
Multilingual Training Content6.722 Ratings8.3158 Ratings
Training Gamification6.834 Ratings8.1237 Ratings
Industry-Specific Security Training6.434 Ratings7.7253 Ratings
Individualized Security Training Plans6.832 Ratings7.9248 Ratings
Phishing Simulations7.438 Ratings9.5288 Ratings
Security Reporting7.339 Ratings8.9282 Ratings
Integration with Security Tech Stack7.028 Ratings8.0157 Ratings
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Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
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Score 7.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Likelihood to Recommend
7.3
(41 ratings)
9.1
(639 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.3
(1 ratings)
9.4
(53 ratings)
Usability
6.8
(2 ratings)
8.6
(161 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(18 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(19 ratings)
Support Rating
6.1
(4 ratings)
9.4
(257 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(14 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(21 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(13 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(39 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(7 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(19 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(12 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(15 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(14 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda Security Awareness TrainingKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
Likelihood to Recommend
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Barracuda Security Awareness Training is well suited for companies that are looking to automate and schedule phishing simulation, education, and training on a regular basis. It would be less appropriate for companies that already have a security awareness training platform already implemented.
Read full review
KnowBe4
This is a very appropriate training system for a school district. We have the ability to add or remove the number of required training. Originally, we scheduled 4 modules per year, but we reduced it to 2 per year, because teachers shared they felt it was too much, originally.
Read full review
Pros
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • The software helps us create emails that look exactly or almost exactly the same as the phishing emails we found in our email gateway.
  • We already use the ESS gateway from Barracuda Networks, and in the TEP bundle, this software is included, so it's not that much work to also configure this.
  • In the software, we can see reports on how our users performed. We can make a selection of users that are more prone to click on "false" links, and this way, we can help them individually.
Read full review
KnowBe4
  • Real World Examples - Many of the training modules show Kevin Mitnick actually gaining access to a machine showing how one click can allow a malicious actor access to a machine or network.
  • Up-to-Date content - They are always adding new training and phishing examples.
  • The ability to schedule training and phishing tests.
Read full review
Cons
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Providing animated templates for custom campaigns would be helpful, potentially a "builder site" where templates could be put together with custom questions/answers.
  • Reporting through functional could use some work. We typically create phishing tests to help our users learn how to spot concerns, and the reports do not provide who actually "reported" the phish as opposed to who did not. This has been a year-long request to Barracuda, and the same issue is present in our campaigns as well.
  • We would love to see an annual release of new training topics and campaign ideas.
Read full review
KnowBe4
  • Uploading your own SCORM content can be problematic with what seem like arbitrary restrictions (e.g. file size, quiz word count, etc.)
  • Content that once was available at our level was taken away so that they could repackage it as a new "product" for an additional cost. They should have grandfathered in existing clients.
  • Reporting capabilities (key for compliance artifacts) should be better designed with flexibility for users to present content in a manner suited to their specific circumstances
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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.
Once you are started it is great. The only issue is to get started. The administrator interface [I feel] is not intuitive enough. It lacks some kind of quick start wizard. The templates are good and fit several regions. So we can do our Belgian campaign and French campaign, each with a different template.
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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.
Working with Barracuda PhishLine support is always a good experience. They are very professional, they are attentive and they are courteous. When I first purchased Barracuda PhishLine a few year ago it was new to them as well. At the time, the support staff could been better trained. That said, they worked hard to help and resolve my issues.
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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
Read full review
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.
No answers on this topic
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.
365 defender has a tool for user security training, it is much more rudimentary than Barracudas, but the interface is much nicer. Both offer email attack testing, reporting, and training, but barracuda offers additional attack types, like file and SMS testing. Both seem to come free with other software and can be brought as add-ons.
Read full review
KnowBe4
KnowBe4 integrates seamlessly with Drata to monitor security compliance. It is possible to chose which training campaigns are mandatory to consider the security awareness training control passed. The integration is easy to configure and works with complex scenarios (optional and mandatory training campaings, different progress status per each employee, etc.).
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
KnowBe4
Reasonable per head pricing, although on the higher side when we go to scale. We have over 5000 employees including casual teachers used in schools. Would like the opportunity to negotiate better enterprise terms for our system. Overall, the impact of training justifies our move to KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training as our preferred cyber training provider.
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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.
  • We have seen a huge improvement in user non-engagement with phishing emails.
  • We now have a well-educated group of employees that are very adept at knowing malware when they see it.
  • A great tool for IT staff that saves time with training resources.
Read full review
KnowBe4
  • The smart group feature has provided us insight to users who continually fail phishing simulations and allows automatic training assignment. This has greatly reduced our technician's time spent inside the service, allowing them to focus on more important projects.
  • After switching to KnowBe4, for Cybersecurity training, our business has seen an increase of more than 20% participation in training.
  • I can't say enough about the Cybersecurity Assessment feature, which informs us of end-user weaknesses and strengths. Knowing where the company is strong and weak allows us to adjust training and system configurations, keeping the business more secure.
Read full review
ScreenShots

KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Screenshots

Screenshot of The Phishing and Training Dashboard 
Displays how end users are doing at-a-glance and in comparison to peers across industries with Industry Benchmarking.Screenshot of Virtual Risk Officer™.
The Virtual Risk Officer functionality helps identify risk to support data-driven decisions about a security awareness plan.Screenshot of Advanced Reporting
A Collection of 60+ Built-in Advanced Reports that Provide Holistic View of Over Time. Executive and enterprise-level reporting gives visibility into an organization’s security awareness performance with insights into correlated training and phishing simulation data over any specified period of time.Screenshot of Engaging, Browser-based Training
KnowBe4’s learner experience offers optional gamification, in the form of leaderboards and badges, so users will be incentivized and motivated to take their assigned training.Screenshot of Library of security awareness training content. KnowBe4’s partners with The Security Awareness Company, Popcorn Training, exploqii, Canada Privacy Training, Twist & Shout,  El Pescador, CLTRe, Saya University, lawpilots, and MediaPRO.