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Altaro VM Backup for MSPs vs Unitrends comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Altaro VM Backup for MSPs
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
MSP Backup (8th)
Unitrends
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Altaro VM Backup for MSPs and Unitrends aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Altaro VM Backup for MSPs is designed for MSP Backup and holds a mindshare of 6.2%, up 5.3% compared to last year.
Unitrends, on the other hand, focuses on Backup and Recovery, holds 0.7% mindshare, up 0.5% since last year.
MSP Backup Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Altaro VM Backup for MSPs6.2%
N-able Cove Data Protection14.4%
MSP360 Backup11.4%
Other68.0%
MSP Backup
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Unitrends0.7%
Veeam Data Platform6.1%
Rubrik3.6%
Other89.6%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Anthony Linder - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Application Specialist at a government with 10,001+ employees
An incredibly stable product with a great user interface
Improvements are needed in the solution since it might get difficult if you just drop a technical person who doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with Altaro VM Backup for MSPs. A technical person who hasn't received any dedicated training or hasn't gone through the documentation part of the solution may find the product to be a little non-intuitive at times. In Altaro VM Backup for MSPs, if you expect something to be somewhere else or when you expect a certain part of the user interface to function in a specific way, it doesn't happen so since the functionality that you expect to be there in the product isn't present on that screen and you need to go somewhere else for that piece. I think that is the case with the most complex tech products. I would like to be able to store a full cluster environment inside of Altaro VM and make sure that the cluster communicates inside of the product, presuming that we have the necessary backup drive in our company. Altaro VM already can test individual VM restores, but one can't really go beyond that scope, at least with the version of the solution that we have in our company right now.
Derek Schneider - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology at a hospitality company with 201-500 employees
Daily recovery tests have validated restore readiness and ensured consistent data protection
The best features of Unitrends include the daily reporting functionality. When backups fail, it is obvious in the logs what caused the issue. Most times it is a credential problem, which is relatively easy to resolve. Though I have experienced a few more challenging issues, nothing has affected critical backup restore functionality. Every time I have needed to restore something, it has worked successfully. The support team is readily available when I need assistance, and they help walk me through issues, solving them within a reasonable timeframe. The automated backup scheduling feature has helped our organization in managing backup timelines and consistency by handling all the work automatically. We set the schedule, breaking things into smaller chunks since our main common area for files is large. I have staggered the backups so some areas receive more attention than others, particularly for less active data. Adding, removing, excluding, and inputting elements is straightforward. The system makes it simple to schedule portions and generate reports on their functionality. The impact of Unitrends' instant recovery features on strengthening data security measures is significant. I generally use instant recovery when restoring specific files or instances where we need data that has changed. The process involves loading the backup, selecting the desired version, waiting for it to unpack, and retrieving the file. Every restore attempt has been successful. I run instant recovery daily in test mode on two virtual machines. I use it to test my domain controller and file server to ensure they communicate properly in the test environment. This ensures that in case of failure, I can activate the recovery and restore server functionality.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Granular restoration is extremely useful in Altaro VM Backup for MSPs since it is something that we make use of the most in our company."
"Iinstant recovery (allows a spin-up of your image as a VM on the appliance)."
"They have great support."
"It works as expected the vast majority of the time, which is an improvement over other products that seem to break with the slightest change in the environment."
"Reliable DR Backup/archive to multiple locations Excellent support"
"The ability to diversify jobs within the same server helps break down a large chunk of data into more manageable and concentrated chunks."
"The most valuable feature of Unitrends for me is the automated feedback"
"When we talk about a backup point of view, from a backup perspective, it's a good one."
"I am impressed with the tool's reporting and UniView features."
 

Cons

"A technical person who hasn't received any dedicated training or hasn't gone through the documentation part of the solution may find the product to be a little non-intuitive at times."
"Network-based storage stability could be improved."
"Follow up for the DRaaS service setup. I'm still waiting to schedule a DRaaS test after upgrading several months ago."
"It needs both a better interface and a more solid support structure for when issues arise."
"Technical support has not been very helpful when there are complex issues. It is sometimes difficult to find someone who can answer questions the right way."
"There's a lot that can be made better. For example, it could be more scalable."
"It could be a little more customizable."
"We have a huge VMware infrastructure with multiple hosts that use local storage. Backup jobs of VMs seem to target one host at a time, so if there are 10 VMs on that host getting backed up, it hammers that ESXi host until sometimes the jobs hang and nothing more occurs."
"Having issues backing up systems with tons of small files."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Based on a scale of one to ten, with one being low and ten being high, I would rate the pricing of this solution as a three. Also, there are no additional costs involved in the standard licensing of the solution."
"The cost of Unitrends definitely draws you in. The licensing is all included in the appliance, which is a great incentive."
"When we renew the Unitrends maintenance contract and update it to the latest version, the cost would be $5,000 per year. There are no hidden costs. They've been transparent with the costs."
"When you purchase initially, get into the program which gives replacement hardware for free when you renew your support agreement."
"Talk with the sales guys. They can work with you on the best package."
"We found that the cost of Unitrends was about the same as the Dell DR6300. We liked the fact that the Unitrends appliance was all-in-one."
"With respect to cost, my advice is to get what you need."
"Their licensing depended on the number of CPUs you had."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
15%
Retailer
11%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Unitrends?
I would evaluate the impact of Unitrends' ransomware detection for strengthening our data security measures as somewhat misleading. The ransomware detection from the appliance incorrectly identifie...
What is your primary use case for Unitrends?
Our main use case for Unitrends is taking our on-premise virtual machines or bulk data store and backing it up on a daily basis, or more frequently depending on requirements, and testing the virtua...
What advice do you have for others considering Unitrends?
Regarding Unitrends' integration with leading cloud services, I utilize Spanning, which handles Microsoft 365 environment backup for a location without direct file server access. Their SharePoint d...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Alpha & Omega Computer Consultants, Chorus
NHL Players Association, Salvation Army, Sligro Food Group, Mason General Hospital, Tec Group, Saldab IT, Baker Tilly, Clinton Savings Bank, Ennit Magna Bank, Manukau Institute of Technology
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