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Bacula Enterprise vs Unitrends comparison

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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
53rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (34th)
Unitrends
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
27th
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 October 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unitrends is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Unitrends0.7%
Bacula Enterprise1.0%
Other98.3%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

GiovanniRamirez - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Consultant at Xerif
Solid backup tool with good scalability
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 it in their environment It was a very good project. The Bacula concept, topology, and networking…
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

"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"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."
"It is easy to scale Bacula Enterprise even if your system is growing tremendously in data and servers."
"The solution has had a tremendous impact on our public company, as we are now cost-effective and even better on performance with our restorations."
"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"Bacula Enterprise, so far, has never let us down with their service and support."
"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."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"Overall I really like the solution."
"Less headaches to worry about backups."
"I've already received my ROI through many man hours being saved going from tape to hard disk."
"Unitrends really has cross-compatibility and a broad area of support for various operating system backups."
"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."
"I really like the reporting options you get for various email reports."
"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."
"The ability to back up both physical and virtual appliances under one roof."
 

Cons

"A more user-friendly interface (GUI) can be developed."
"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."
"Relying solely on a desktop is a bit frustrating as its GUI isn't exactly responsive."
"It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company."
"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"Scalability is where I'm running into more of an issue right now. To upgrade is pretty expensive; it's not like you can just buy a smaller appliance and put it with the one you already have, you need to buy a larger appliance and that can get fairly pricey."
"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."
"Probably the biggest issue I've had is actually paying for the unit, and part of that problem is that they use a third party for the billing."
"Making the seeding process more accessible and easier to understand. Also, make more of the undocumented best practices easier to find."
"Stabilizing SQL database backups: They are way too sensitive and I am having to constantly fix SQL level backups."
"It seems like Unitrends moved away from enterprise customer engagement and moved more towards the managed service provider market."
"It would be great to have the job throttle/limit the max number of backups on a single ESXi host."
"I would like to see the improve High availability features like switchover and switchback process. also unitrends boomerang compatibilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license."
"This is an open-source solution."
"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."
"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."
"The cost of Unitrends definitely draws you in. The licensing is all included in the appliance, which is a great incentive."
"No comment."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing is yearly and it depends on the customers."
"Pricing model constantly changes."
"Talk with the sales guys. They can work with you on the best package."
"Initial pricing is competitive. Renewal pricing is steep, so make sure to project costs for the lifetime of the appliance(s)."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Retailer
9%
 

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 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

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.
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 Bacula Enterprise vs. Unitrends and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.