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AWS Snowball vs HPE Zerto Software comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

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

AWS Snowball
Ranking in Cloud Migration
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Migration Appliances (1st)
HPE Zerto Software
Ranking in Cloud Migration
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
357
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (2nd), Cloud Backup (2nd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st), Autonomous Operational Resilience (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud Migration category, the mindshare of AWS Snowball is 1.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Zerto Software is 4.7%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Migration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE Zerto Software4.7%
AWS Snowball1.9%
Other93.4%
Cloud Migration
 

Featured Reviews

Kevin-Davis - PeerSpot reviewer
Global CTO AWS Business Group at Eviden
Seamless data transfer and efficient migration with customizable storage sizes
I like that I can take data and send it straight to S3 when it loads in. The interface for getting my data onto the Snowball is so streamlined. I don't know if you've ever seen it before. It's really cool. I connect them to the backplane of our existing network. I'm able to address it quickly and move the data quickly inside my customers' data centers. There's a little screen on it, which changes the UPS codes and all that stuff. The label and everything AWS electronic, so I don't have to deal with shipping issues. It makes it super simple and easy to use from end to end.
reviewer2802231 - PeerSpot reviewer
Dev Ops Engineer at a media company with 201-500 employees
Near-zero downtime has protected critical workloads and now simplifies hybrid cloud recovery
The best features of HPE Zerto Software are mainly very sophisticated and relevant to the current market. The data protection CDP part has real-time replication, unlike other solutions that have snapshot backups. We can set it up hourly, making it ideal for use with workloads. Another attraction is the near-zero RTO, with automated failover within minutes and one-click failover and failback. Currently, we are using a hybrid cloud solution, and HPE Zerto Software supports multi-cloud environments, making it easy to migrate between on-premises and cloud. Regarding the impact of HPE Zerto Software on our RTOs, we have near-zero RTO, meaning the system must be back online within thirty minutes if we measure the time. It is very quick to recover services. With HPE Zerto Software's near-synchronous replication, we have some CDP protection, so we typically write interceptions along with some asynchronous replication. There is almost real-time replication available.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"AWS offers managed services which save time and reduce administrative overhead."
"AWS helps save time and costs, being a managed cloud provider with evolving services."
"I like that I can take data and send it straight to S3 when it loads in."
"The features I like best are the tool's high capacity, scalability, end-to-end encryption for data security, ease of use, durability, and cost-effectiveness. It's particularly cost-effective for transferring large amounts of data compared to high-speed internet transfers."
"The interface is great! It's user-friendly."
"The most valuable features of AWS Snowball for me are its security measures and its flexibility."
"The way the data is moved is very clever. Also, the interface is very simple and user-friendly."
"The support team's awesome, and they've always been very responsive."
"Zerto helped to reduce downtime drastically by 80%."
"ZVR lets us protect our VMs without any impact upon users and greatly improved our RPOs from hours to seconds."
"The ability to quickly bring up VMs within a test environment allows us to test our disaster recovery functions and ensures that they would function just as well in an actual disaster scenario."
"The near-synchronous replication is one of the primary reasons we're using Zerto because we have recovery intervals of sub-five seconds. On a scale of 10, where 10 is "very important", this feature is a 10."
"I found the very easy VPG setup, the easy recovery, and failover testing to be the most valuable features."
"ZVR is very simple to setup and administer, out of the box it just works and allows me to set my replication source and destinations and nearly forget it."
"Journaling is by far the most valuable feature. We have used it several times for customers who have gotten ransomware and had to do a rollback. Having the right time period was important. Some of them had their backups encrypted. So, they didn't encrypt the Zerto machine seven days previously, and we were able to bring that back up."
"Zerto is simple, fast, and reliable, and our clients like the charts we can produce and its near real time capabilities."
 

Cons

"It's not an easy product to start using for a beginner, but If you're a professional, it's easy to understand."
"24/7 support is more expensive on AWS compared to Azure."
"If AWS Snowball is intercepted, there is a potential risk of unauthorized access to the data."
"The costs of services the customer needs also matter, such as storage requirements and whether storage is rational."
"The stability of the solution isn't ideal and should be improved."
"It's not cheap."
"It would be helpful if Snowball provided more kinds of connectivity. That will make it easier to add and move data."
"I think AWS Snowball could improve by expanding its availability to more countries."
"The number-one area in which they need to improve their product is what I would call "automatic self-healing." This is related to running them at scale... We have 1,000 VRAs and if any one of their VRAs has a problem, goes offline, all of the customer protection groups and all of the customers that are tied to that VRA are not replicating at all. That means the RPO is slipping until somebody makes a manual effort to fix the issue. It has become a full-time job at my company for somebody to keep Zerto running all the time, everywhere, and to keep all the customers up and going."
"Some features are not up to what we need, although we have found alternatives and aren't really looking for Zerto to handle those items today."
"Zerto's price has room for improvement."
"They kept giving us solutions that would not work, so we had to keep trying different solutions."
"What I dislike about HPE Zerto Software is maybe the reporting."
"It would be nice if we were able to purchase single licenses for Zerto. As it is now, scaling requires that we purchase a multi-pack."
"I would like to be able to replicate one to multiple without having to recreate every VPG."
"They should not make it so expensive so that I can buy more of it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not a cheap solution, but the price is right for the product."
"The tool's pricing depends on the type of Snowball device you choose, the amount of data you need to transfer, and the service fees involved. There’s a standard price for larger data transfers and a flat job fee, which includes the first ten days of on-site usage. Typically, there are no additional data transfer fees."
"The pricing is straightforward."
"Currently, it is good, but the license we are using is based on VM count. We are only protecting mission-critical servers, so we are using a very low number, about 300. However, we have 3,000 or more servers. If we consider using Zerto for data protection, it would cost us more than what we have for data protection now."
"You are getting what you pay for, as this is a solution that requires minimal management after it is configured."
"It's a little bit expensive."
"We have seen ROI. Several times, we needed to recover, and we were able to go to Zerto."
"The cost is one of the only drawbacks of Zerto because it's very high, and the overall impact of the solution on our organization is relatively low. This is why we are trying to figure out if another product could fulfill the same role for cheaper."
"It is not the cheapest option on the market, but it offers a number of features that make it a good value for businesses that need a comprehensive disaster recovery plan."
"When we purchased Zerto, we felt it was worth the cost as it would protect us from any potential problems and give us peace of mind knowing that any critical items could be recovered quickly."
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Comparison Review

it_user159711 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Nov 9, 2014
VMware SRM vs. Veeam vs. Zerto
Disaster recovery planning is something that seems challenging for all businesses. Virtualization in addition to its operational flexibility, and cost reduction benefits, has helped companies improve their DR posture. Virtualization has made it easier to move machines from production to…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business93
Midsize Enterprise93
Large Enterprise204
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Microsoft Azure Data Box or AWS Snowball?
Microsoft Azure Databox is a 45-pound, super rugged, tamper-resistant, human-managed hardware appliance that can transfer up to 100TB of data capacity to copy, store, then send to the Azure cloud. ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Snowball?
Depending of what is your priority; UseAWS Snowball if you are heavily invested in AWS or need edge computing features Choose Azure Data Box for smooth integration with Azure and potentially lower ...
What needs improvement with AWS Snowball?
It's difficult to make a comparison and it depends on the customer. When analyzing costs, I must see how the customer uses AWS, Azure, or Google. Google is particularly interesting, for example, fo...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?
Ik fluister:VM Host Oracle en DataGuard hebben we per toeval vervangen door Zerto :-) tijdens de Zerto implementatie en VPG werden de Host Data in write-ack Block-Level gerepliceerd. Qua licentie 1...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zerto?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is good.
What needs improvement with Zerto?
I believe HPE Zerto Software can be improved by providing more clarity on roadmap features coming.
 

Also Known As

Amazon AWS Snowball, Amazon Snowball, Snowball
Zerto Virtual Replication
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Wazee Digital, Craftsy, Live Nation, Essess
United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,588 professionals have used our research since 2012.