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BackupAssist vs Unitrends comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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
66th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
MSP Backup (14th)
Unitrends
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
25th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BackupAssist is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unitrends is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Unitrends0.7%
BackupAssist0.7%
Other98.6%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

RM
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.
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

"What you want is software that can be relied upon at the moment when a server goes down, you can backup simply and reliably, BackupAssist fulfilled this criterion."
"I have found that the backups are usually very successful."
"I would definitely recommend this solution to others."
"I find BackupAssist very convenient to work on and I really like its user interface."
"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 managed to have good backups which were easy to recover, and easy backup of MS Exchange and SQL databases."
"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."
"Now that we are using the solution, we get notified online when our backups are done."
"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."
"Replication to Forever Cloud."
"It is an all-inclusive backup appliance that is separate from other storage needed to backup and has the ability to backup both virtual and physical nodes."
"Reliable DR Backup/archive to multiple locations Excellent support"
"What I found most valuable in Unitrends is its simple user interface. It also works reliably."
"The stability is rock solid."
"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."
"With all these new features and (performance) improvements as well as the fusion between two great companies (Unitrends and PHD Virtual), and their products, UEB 7.5 is a feature rich product which I can easily promote to all my customers."
 

Cons

"It stopped doing my backups after I did the last update on it."
"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."
"Has a few problems working with snapshots time-outs and failed backups."
"One issue I had with this program, was that I couldn't get it to back up my Linux virtual machines."
"In the future I would like to see more support for Linux."
"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."
"Making the seeding process more accessible and easier to understand. Also, make more of the undocumented best practices easier to find."
"It would be great to have the job throttle/limit the max number of backups on a single ESXi host."
"Network-based storage stability could be improved."
"Techs don't see to be well-versed in troubleshooting issues that arise and tickets stay opened for weeks for resolution."
"If the interface could be less complex, it would be great. It's not the easiest to get around and to work with."
"It seems like Unitrends moved away from enterprise customer engagement and moved more towards the managed service provider market."
"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."
"No appliance update notifications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"There's a yearly licensing cost. The costs might be around $2000 USD annually."
"The product pricing here in Zimbabwe is good, I cannot complain."
"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 cost of Unitrends definitely draws you in. The licensing is all included in the appliance, which is a great incentive."
"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."
"Their licensing depended on the number of CPUs you had."
"No comment."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing is yearly and it depends on the customers."
"You should be aware how much the monthly costs are to use, what the initial costs for hardware are, and what the options to expand are, if needed."
"Initial pricing is competitive. Renewal pricing is steep, so make sure to project costs for the lifetime of the appliance(s)."
"Pricing model constantly changes."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
16%
Retailer
12%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

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

Monash University, NASA, NYU, Pfizer, RAF Association, Rockwell Colins, University of Arizona, US Department of State, Volvo
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
Find out what your peers are saying about BackupAssist vs. Unitrends and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.