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Bacula Enterprise vs Dell PowerProtect Data Manager 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

Bacula Enterprise
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
27th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (20th)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.0%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is 2.0%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager2.0%
Bacula Enterprise1.0%
Other97.0%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Davilson  Aguiar - PeerSpot reviewer
Analista Tecnologia Banco de Dados at Centro de Gestão da Tecnologia da Informação
Very cost-effective and well organized with good compression
It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company. A managerial user who wants more information beyond the operational technician should be able to access it. It could include greater transparency regarding the volume of data trafficked on the network, as well as the expectation of deduplication. A more practical strategy could come with a backup policy model as a suggestion for both large and small companies. A simple suggestion is to visually implement the backup time as far as your physical media.
Pranav Telang - PeerSpot reviewer
DGM at Airtel Digital
Centralized backups have simplified hybrid protection and improved ransomware recovery and compliance
The majorly needed improvement is that the product should easily simplify the upgrade and installation process. Sometimes Dell support should be more active. They take time for P1 issues. Sometimes it is not a P1 for Dell, but it is P1 for the customer, and the support needs to be very mature. That is a major drawback I see. Otherwise, the product is quite well. This is an enterprise solution and a bit costlier, but it is a solution where people should be looking into if they want to go into one single umbrella and have the centralized backup solution, which integrates with the cloud and can manage their cloud workload as well as the on-premises workload, and can be managed with one dashboard. In that way, it makes their backup management easier and they can get detected anomalies as soon as possible. This is one of the solutions I would recommend. However, if it is a very small company, they really need to think about the cost, as it is very costlier for them. But as an enterprise solution and a mid-enterprise solution, this is the solution where companies think their data is very critical, in sectors such as financial, banking, and health. This kind of sector should go with that solution because it always gives the compliances of HIPAA, GDPR, and all those things that are really required for them. From management perspectives and consolidation solution perspective, the integration is quite easy. With respect to the backup administrator and everything, it is quite straightforward. There are some layers that need to be improved and should have the internal feature instead of creating the additional VMs for the NAS backup. It should be internal and directly have the agent base or something that can communicate easily with Dell storage. If it is third-party, I would understand, but it should be able to communicate. The benefit of it is that it is easily understood and you can do knowledge transfer with a lot of documents available. The drawback of it is that when it comes to the installation, Dell always takes a lot of time for all these things with third-party involvement in between Dell and the customer. Support is the major part of it. People need to understand that when a customer raises their ticket for P1, they should treat it as a P1. Instead of by their book being P3 or P2, sometimes they only treat it as such when the complete backup server is down. However, for the customer, if it is not happening with the critical system of backup, then it is a P1 for them. From Dell support, they do not treat it as a P1, or they treat it as a P3 or P2. That kind of understanding and some agreements need to be done between the customer and Dell. It is a costlier solution. Comparatively, other backup solutions make this one of the costlier solutions. However, someone who has their enterprise data or needs protection in a good way can go for it. I could say it is a mid-enterprise or enterprise level solution. Otherwise, people do have the same solution but with differentiated features. However, it is costlier compared to the other.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have been using it for several years and we are very satisfied with how easy it is to configure and set up and run backups."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"The most valuable feature is the support for Linux servers."
"Bacula is very solid, very stable, and very scalable."
"The support is outstanding and world-class."
"The most valuable feature is its ease of use; it works great and it provides you with several standard tools to restore your backup, even after a big failure."
"Bacula Enterprise, so far, has never let us down with their service and support."
"The most valuable features of the solution are flexibility and data protection."
"In PPPDM, I find the centralized console for managing all sets of applications the most valuable feature, as it gives us the feasibility to perform backup operations for physical as well as virtual applications, and all of them can be managed through the central GUI console, which is a good thing."
"The use of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager certainly improves the speed of my data recovery efforts compared to the previous Dell products because it is easier to use and much faster; the compression and deduplication are also good, which helps in recovery."
"The strongest point for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is because of Dell's very broad product portfolio."
"These are very key features for us when telling customers that the total cost of ownership is better than the storage for backup operations."
"Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is a comprehensive backup software that integrates with Dell backup storage to enhance data protection."
"Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager is a good cost-effective tool to back up your infrastructure and restore the data when needed."
"I would say flexibility is the most important feature of the product. The performance and speed are the best on the market."
 

Cons

"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company."
"Relying solely on a desktop is a bit frustrating as its GUI isn't exactly responsive."
"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"Easier setup and configuration, perhaps including a GUI, would be an improvement."
"Bacula needs a graphical user interface because, for administrators, the command-line interface is okay, but for the average user it is not very easy."
"The interface needs to be easier for adding new devices to be managed."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"As a new product, there are some things that still need to improve a bit as it matures."
"Regarding the pricing aspect of Dell PowerProtect Data Manager, I am not very happy with that; compared to some other products, it is a bit more costly, and there are definitely areas for improvement."
"The solution should enhance its user interface and make it more flexible."
"The tape-out support and tight integration with Data Domain are advantages, but they can be treated as disadvantages because Dell PowerProtect Data Manager only supports Data Domain as a backup target."
"The tool's scalability has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required."
"PowerProtect Data Manager is missing a feature for takeout, which means I cannot store backup data off-site within the software. This is a limitation for organizations that require off-site solutions."
"I think Dell PowerProtect can be improved in that I see PowerStore supporting the synchronous and asynchronous replica, similar to PowerMax."
"PPDM requires further development. It is primarily integrated with DevOps systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license."
"This is an open-source solution."
"The solution is more affordable than other vendors."
"The product is offered at a very competitive price in the market."
"The solution is not less expensive than competitors but pricing deals are available."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager is reasonable."
"The licensing costs and pricing model are based on capacity and the license is easy to upgrade."
"We offer monthly or yearly subscriptions. The price could be cheaper."
"Dell PowerProtect Data Manager is not an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bacula Enterprise?
Bacula is more expensive than various other solutions. It’s almost completely commercial now. Products like Veeam software are much more expensive.
What needs improvement with Bacula Enterprise?
Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability.
What is your primary use case for Bacula Enterprise?
The last scenario in which I used Bacula was for a customer who needed some open-source tool which could support encryption at that time. We managed to convince the customer to use Bacula to deploy...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I have had a great experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing; it is clear and simple.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
I think Dell PowerProtect can be improved in that I see PowerStore supporting the synchronous and asynchronous replica, similar to PowerMax.
What is your primary use case for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager?
Our main cases for Dell PowerProtect Data Manager are for virtual tape library.
 

Also Known As

No data available
PowerProtect, Dell EMC PowerProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA, SwissCom, Navisite, Turner Studios, Bank Austria, Caixa Bank, SdV Plurimedia, Leibniz University Hannover, Zeta Global, Tricore, NetLog, Siemens, LocaWeb, wbsGo, itesys, Queens School of Computing, Escrypt.
National Bank of Greece, USC Australia, PCS Publishing, Dell Digital IT, Rushmore Electric, Melanson Health, Arrow Electronics
Find out what your peers are saying about Bacula Enterprise vs. Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.