Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Bacula Enterprise vs Veritas NetBackup 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
25th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (12th)
Veritas NetBackup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
117
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas NetBackup is 2.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Veritas NetBackup2.5%
Bacula Enterprise1.0%
Other96.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

GiovanniRamirez - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Rizwan Islam - PeerSpot reviewer
We optimize critical data management with versatile enterprise solutions while maintaining excellent user interface experience
The features of Veritas NetBackup that are most useful for us involve different backup scenarios such as huge contents, including our file server repositories. We have to write that backup on the tape media, which is why we observe that Veritas NetBackup is a very strong product in these areas. Regarding granular recovery, we sometimes use certain files, specifically accidentally deleted or required files from the backups, in maintaining data continuity. The feature is effective and works every time. The interface in Veritas NetBackup is very friendly and useful, and it has been standard during the last 10 years. We are very used to this interface and do not feel any complications. Veritas NetBackup is basically a single product which fulfills all the technical requirements specifically required for the backup job or the backup domain. It supports multi platforms, multi applications, and multiple hardware at the same time, so we generally feel it is a full feature solution. Most importantly, they have very tight integration at a very granular level, and recently we inducted another product Veritas File System in our environment because we have an issue with huge content data, so we have optimized the problem of that data by using the Veritas File System VxFS. Veritas NetBackup is a scalable solution for us. It is a very comprehensive solution that can manage numerous backups, and we already have a somewhat complicated environment in which backups are first written on the backup appliance and then moved to tape, and everything is managed through Veritas NetBackup very easily.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the special plugins such as SAP HANA databases, Microsoft SQL, and various types of virtualization."
"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"Bacula is very solid, very stable, and very scalable."
"It is easy to scale Bacula Enterprise even if your system is growing tremendously in data and servers."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"It can be used in virtually any environment we have onsite."
"It works great and it provides you with several standard tools to restore your backup, even after a big failure."
"Veritas released a new feature in version 8 of NetBackup called VRP. It's kind of like replication management from VMware. The great thing about this feature is that Veritas gave it to us for free."
"We are quite satisfied with the performance and reliability of the NetBackup product. When it comes to specific features, the most valuable is the Instant Recovery feature, which we call "short-term IR". Instant Recovery allows users to spin up backup images and bring back any VM instantly."
"DLO: Client for laptops."
"The reporting is very good, with all of the details highlighted and very clear."
"Its ability to cover a large spectrum of products and operating systems is invaluable. We evaluated other products but always found certain limitations like some products had only intel-based virtualization, while others had power servers."
"Ease of installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting."
"The solution is stable."
"It's a good product, it does what we want it to do."
 

Cons

"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 initial setup could be a bit easier."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"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."
"Easier setup and configuration, perhaps including a GUI, would be an improvement."
"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"A more user-friendly interface (GUI) can be developed."
"The reporting of the backups could be better."
"I do not really like NetBackup as it is coming from a mix of other software packages."
"There is a big change in Veritas. In the past, we could easily change servers or appliances and continue working by restoring the catalog. We could change servers from Linux to Linux or Linux to Solaris and perform catalog restores to continue working. But with the new version, we are forced to engage Veritas' professional services, which is too expensive."
"There could be granular control over metadata components, specifically in the context of JSON data for the product."
"We faced so many backup configuration issues. And from the Veritas side, they couldn't fix that issue. So we started from scratch, purchased everything, and then we configured everything. Therefore, the support could be better."
"They need to work on the GUI. It has been the same for the last 10 years."
"The database integration could be better."
"It is not very user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source solution."
"We have a perpetual license."
"This is an affordable solution"
"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten."
"When we consider the quality and value of Veritas NetBackup, it is worth the cost."
"We are very satisfied with the price of this solution."
"It was on a yearly basis. During the annual review, when we asked them about our licensing, they couldn't explain it. For example, we had reduced by a factor of 40%, but our license only dropped by 5%. We would then ask Veritas people if we've reduced this much and shut down these servers, why has our license changed so less? They were never able to give us a straight answer. They weren't able to say, "Well, you're using this, and this is more expensive." In many cases, as we reduced our capacity and what we were using with Veritas NetBackup, our licensing actually went up, and they were often unable to explain why."
"My licensing model is based on capacity so as we grow, the price we pay increases and it becomes too expensive."
"The licensing fees are expensive."
"If you want to have more scalability you have to purchase more licenses. The license is annually and there are a lot of different licensing depending on the number of terabytes needed. It is not based on per-user, core, or servers. You can backup anything you want using the purchased terabyte space."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

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 Business32
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise65
 

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 the best next generation backup tool?
Assuming you have an onprem ecosystem which runs the VMware, physical systems on Win, Linux and Unix and run both traditional DB's and nosql DB's like mongo, then Netbackup (NBU) will be the right ...
What do you like most about Veritas NetBackup?
The most valuable feature of cloud integration is the ability to send data outside of your location. This can be achieved by integrating cloud tier options or other object storage solutions.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas NetBackup?
Veritas NetBackup is quite expensive, and sometimes vendors do not suggest it and always recommend different other options, especially after certain points, which is a concern. As far as our core o...
 

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.
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about Bacula Enterprise vs. Veritas NetBackup and other solutions. Updated: November 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.