BackupAssist vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus comparison

BackupAssist and IBM are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. BackupAssist is ranked #71, while IBM is ranked #49 with an average rating of 7.0. BackupAssist holds a 0.5% mindshare in BRS, compared to IBM’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BackupAssist users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

BackupAssist

Read 5 BackupAssist reviews

806 Views
766 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Read 33 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reviews

1,914 Views
1,895 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

BackupAssist

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

BackupAssist and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are both data backup solutions. BackupAssist leads in pricing and support, while IBM Spectrum Protect Plus shines in features, justifying its higher cost.

Features: BackupAssist users value versatile backup options, ease of use, and reliable disaster recovery. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus users highlight data recovery flexibility, robust scalability, and advanced automation.

Room for Improvement: BackupAssist needs better cloud integration, more automation features, and enhanced user interface design. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve its reporting tools, simplify configuration, and streamline user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BackupAssist is praised for straightforward installation and reliable customer service. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, though comprehensive, requires a longer setup period but offers thorough support.

Pricing and ROI: BackupAssist offers reasonable setup costs and good ROI for small to medium-sized businesses. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, with higher setup costs, provides substantial ROI through enterprise-level features, justifying its higher price for larger organizations with complex needs.

To learn more, read our detailed BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

December 2025

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Helped 880,490 peers since 2012

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

BackupAssist

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

71st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

MSP Backup (16th)

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

49th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BackupAssist is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	1.0%
BackupAssist	0.5%
Other	98.5%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

RichardMukarakate

Director at Gemini Systems

Provides ransomware protection, does good reporting, and is close to perfect for our use case

The main challenge that I have had with it was no line of support, but I've anyway taken away the Linux machine that I was using. So, I don't need that anymore. I'm migrating my Exchange to the cloud. So, I probably will stop using the exchange backup side of it sometime next year, but the rest of the virtual machines that I have on-premises are very well covered by it. To be able to back up my online Exchange, I know there is a backup in the cloud, but I prefer to have something physical with something on my premises as well. It stopped doing my backups after I did the last update on it.

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reviewer1656648

Senior System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Offers reliable recovery and backup but needs better ransomware protection

With ransomware protection and cyber protection, more improvement is possible. IBM provides these through a third party, so enhancement is needed. There's significant room for improvement. They are not yet where I want them to be. It does not offer horizontal and vertical scaling. These are areas IBM can improve.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I get my reports. It is generally very reliable. Unless there is a major change, it doesn't stop backing up. I've got my server room set up with everything connected to the same power, and I never have power issues or failures of backups because a sub-site has gone off."

"We can configure the notifications themselves so that the right people get the notifications. This is very helpful. It allows key stakeholders to know if backups have happened and to remind each other to check the backups if something is not right."

"The most valuable features of BackupAssist are ease of use, configure is simple, and more importantly, ease of recovery. If you needed to do a complete system recovery or another recovery it is straightforward."

"I have found that the backups are usually very successful."

"The support from IBM is very good."

"The API is very good."

"Using this tool, we can easily backup and restore or recover the data for PCs and mobiles in case of system crashes."

"A full-featured data protection solution that is reliable and stable."

"We used to use the solution with tapes a few years ago. We've switched to discs, and it has gotten much faster."

"This solution is very stable and has good support available online."

"The feature I find most valuable is the offload to Spectrum Protect for long-term retention. I think the deduplication and replication are quite nice on Plus."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is its ease of use. Additionally, it does backups of all of the things we need, such as OS, files, and databases."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pros

Cons

"It stopped doing my backups after I did the last update on it."

"In the future I would like to see more support for Linux."

"Many solutions become stagnant over time. However, BackupAssist has been consistent in updates but they must continue to innovate and improve to avoid stagnation."

"The solution needs a dashboard or some form of central control from which you can manage all backups."

"Many solutions become stagnant over time. However, BackupAssist has been consistent in updates but they must continue to innovate and improve to avoid stagnation."

"Rooms for improvement in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus are installation and configuration because those were difficult. They should try their best to improve those areas. In the next release of the product, better implementation and administration are what we're expecting."

"I would like to see continuous data protection (CDP). If there is machine failure, you don't have to go to the backup copy that you took 12 hours ago. You can actually go back to the backup copy made half an hour ago. That is, it would be good to have certain-point-in-time recovery."

"It requires much more automation features."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could improve security."

"There could be better integration with Spectrum Protect and Spectrum Protect Plus, it should be one solution."

"Not particularly user friendly."

"Their first level of support can be improved. Often they are too junior to understand the issues we are having, and it takes too much time to get from them to the next level of support, which is what we actually need."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There's a yearly licensing cost. The costs might be around $2000 USD annually."

"It's on a yearly basis, but I'm not the one who does the licensing on that. I don't have any figures, but it's on a yearly basis, and I believe it's reasonable."

"The cost of the solution is reasonable and there are add-on options that can be purchased. I have used other solutions that are a lot more expensive that are not as good. The ability to get support is very simple and very reasonable from a cost standpoint."

"The product pricing here in Zimbabwe is good, I cannot complain."

"Depends on the licensing options that you choose."

"If you need to extend it, it can be extended acting like a normal Spectrum Protect with a long archive."

"The price is lower than that of some competing products."

"There are a few options available for purchasing the solutions. Overall, the price of the is high."

"There is an annual license required to use IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. The cost of the license could improve, it is expensive."

"We have a perpetual license for the tool since it is deployed on-premise."

"I rate the price of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus a one on a scale of one to ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is very cheap."

"IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a little expensive."

More IBM Spectrum Protect Plus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

Pricing is good; it is reasonable and more reasonable than any other vendors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

Technical support could be improved significantly. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus could be made more lightweight and user-friendly in terms of GUI features to make it closer to a perfect score.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus?

I have been using it for our own organization.

See all answers

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Compared 24% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs BackupAssist

Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 26% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Rubrik vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 7% of the time

Atempo Live Navigator vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 6% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist

January 2026

Download BackupAssist product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

January 2026

Download IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product report

Overview

BackupAssist is a comprehensive backup and recovery software designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a wide range of features to ensure data protection and minimize downtime in case of system failures or disasters. With BackupAssist, users can easily create and manage backups for their critical data, applications, and systems.

One of the key features of BackupAssist is its support for multiple backup types, including full, incremental, and differential backups. This flexibility allows users to choose the backup strategy that best suits their needs and optimize storage space and backup time. Additionally, BackupAssist supports both local and remote backups, enabling users to store their backups on external drives, network shares, or cloud storage services.

BackupAssist also provides advanced features for application-specific backups, such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Hyper-V. These features ensure that critical business applications are backed up correctly and can be quickly restored in case of data loss or system failures. Moreover, BackupAssist offers granular recovery options, allowing users to restore individual files, folders, or even specific application items.

To further enhance data protection, BackupAssist includes features like encryption, compression, and verification. Encryption ensures that backups are securely stored and can only be accessed by authorized users. Compression reduces the backup size, optimizing storage space and reducing backup time. Verification checks the integrity of backups, ensuring that they can be successfully restored when needed.

BackupAssist also offers a range of disaster recovery options, including bare-metal recovery and virtual machine backups. Bare-metal recovery allows users to restore their entire system to new or existing hardware, minimizing downtime in case of hardware failures or system crashes. Virtual machine backups enable users to protect their virtualized environments, ensuring business continuity in virtualized infrastructures.

BackupAssist

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection and availability solution for virtual environments that can be deployed in minutes and protect your environment within an hour. It simplifies data protection, whether data is hosted in physical, virtual, software-defined or cloud environments. It can be implemented as a stand-alone solution or integrate with your IBM Spectrum Protect environment to off-load copies for long term storage and data governance with scale and efficiency.

IBM

Sample Customers

Monash University, NASA, NYU, Pfizer, RAF Association, Rockwell Colins, University of Arizona, US Department of State, Volvo

PT Wings Surya, Tectrade, State of Ohio

Buyer's Guide

BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

December 2025

Free Report: BackupAssist vs. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

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