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Barracuda Email Protection vs. KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Barracuda Email Protection

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ABarracuda 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

    Score9.4 out of 10
    N/AKnowBe4 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 Networks Inc.
    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 …
    Incentivized
    KnowBe4
    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.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    639 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    605 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    643 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    502 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    540 Answers
    Features
    Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Secure Email Gateway
    Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Barracuda Email Protection and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Feature
    Barracuda Email Protection
    6.6
    16 Ratings
    23% below category average
    KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    -
    Ratings
    Anti-malware10.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability5.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Loss Protection2.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Threat Detection9.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sandboxing3.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    End-to-End Encryption8.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Tools9.016 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Barracuda Email Protection and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Feature
    Barracuda Email Protection
    -
    Ratings
    KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    8.8
    303 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.6269 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.0293 Ratings
    Security Awareness Training
    Comparison of Security Awareness Training features of Barracuda Email Protection and KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Feature
    Barracuda Email Protection
    -
    Ratings
    KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    8.3
    331 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Training Content Library00 Ratings8.9328 Ratings
    Multilingual Training Content00 Ratings9.3181 Ratings
    Training Gamification00 Ratings8.4271 Ratings
    Industry-Specific Security Training00 Ratings6.2289 Ratings
    Individualized Security Training Plans00 Ratings7.6280 Ratings
    Phishing Simulations00 Ratings9.5326 Ratings
    Security Reporting00 Ratings8.4319 Ratings
    Integration with Security Tech Stack00 Ratings8.1187 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Small Businesses
    Zoho Mail
    Score9.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Avanan
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Hoxhunt
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Avanan
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Proofpoint Security Awareness Training
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Barracuda Email ProtectionKnowBe4 Security Awareness Training
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (16 ratings)
    9.5
    (677 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.4
    (53 ratings)
    Usability
    8.9
    (8 ratings)
    9.4
    (164 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (18 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (19 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (9 ratings)
    8.8
    (258 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (5 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.5
    (21 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (13 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (39 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (19 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (12 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (15 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (14 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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    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
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Barracuda Networks Inc.
    It was "stupid easy" from the technical side.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Barracuda Networks Inc.
    Barracuda Essentials has a far easier admin pannel than is provided by mimecast along with far more filtering options such as dkim. Much easier to do the initial setup along with much better support provided. Barracuda Essentials has Advanced threat protection that uses AI to spot patterns and gives you the option to remove a suspect email from all inboxs
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.