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BDRSuite Backup & Replication vs Dell NetWorker 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

BDRSuite Backup & Replication
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (7th), MSP Backup (1st)
Dell NetWorker
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of BDRSuite Backup & Replication is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell NetWorker is 2.9%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Redha Benlaksira - PeerSpot reviewer
The ability to maintain multiple restore points is critical because it lets customers choose to restore their data to an hour or a day ago
BDRSuite is better than competing solutions because it can protect, back up, and recover data. A feature called live migration allows you to recover the same data in different environments. For example, I can back up the data from a VMware machine and restore it to a Hyper-V. You can also create repositories and back up environments to a cloud platform like GCP and AWS S3 buckets. BDRSuite allows you to back up virtual machines hosted on an EC3 instance or Microsoft 365 mailboxes, SharePoint, etc. The solution allows us to recover data instantly. We can recover all our data in under 15 minutes. In a virtual environment, we can recover a virtual machine and all its data in under 15 minutes. It's the same for a NAS, SAN, or DAS disk. The ability to boot instantly enables customers to maintain their business operations without interruption. BDRSuite's ability to maintain multiple restore points is critical because it gives customers the option to restore their data to an hour or a day ago. They can choose a full, incremental, or synthetic backup. Incremental backup makes sense if you are backing up the same data daily and you want to save space and network resources. It only backs up the differences or updates in every block. I've worked with lots of backup solutions, and BDRSuite is the easiest to use. It's simple to install and create backup jobs. It doesn't require many tasks to install the solution. You can easily back up and restore from one console
ErmiasGirma - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers seamless integration and cost-saving benefits with enhanced recovery capabilities
Currently, in my organization, I am using Dell NetWorker for open-source solutions like PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, and some large VM environments. It also supports the Dell library and is used for the library archiving system Dell NetWorker allows for extensive customization, supporting…

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 for me are that I can back up the entire virtual machine, but when restoring I can restore at the file level."
"The Vembu BDR product is very intuitive and easy to use."
"We only use BDRSuite to back up two VMs in our current environment. It helps us with maintenance, monitoring, etc. We are satisfied with BDRSuite so far and plan to add a few more VMs in the future, including Citrix VMs and XenServer."
"The agentless backups are the big selling point on this, as well as being able to send out across sites so that I can do a restore at either of our two locations."
"Because all our servers are hosted on VMware, the VMware backup is the most valuable feature. The integration and backup with VMware are very good."
"I like the fact that BDRSuite can connect to VMware ESXi and automatically pull the virtual machines that I have in that environment. I also like that you can choose to back up the compute to the backup server or go straight to the cloud."
"The main difference I see between Vembu and the other solutions we've tried is that with Vembu, you don't need anybody to tell you what to do. Once you have done the installation you just look at the user interface — it's very friendly — and you can do things yourself without resorting to help from anybody."
"The compression, encryption, and deduplication features all work fine."
"Dell NetWorker allows for extensive customization, supporting various open-source databases like PostgreSQL."
"The most valuable feature is NetWorker's integration with the data domain that transfers the data directly into the Dell appliance, so the data doesn't need to pass through the network. NetWorker acts like a pipe, allowing the data to flow directly from the database or the VMware environment to the data domain."
"When it was required that data had to be restored for our customer, it was accomplished successfully and this has kept our end users satisfied."
"The support for legacy products is very good."
"Taking backups is faster."
"Very user-friendly with a good interface."
"The possibility of recovering up-to-the-moment data is very useful."
"Once the scheduler is configured, backups proceed without any interruption."
 

Cons

"The initial setup process can be more simplistic and quicker."
"BDRSuite could improve support for XenApp Citrix Backup."
"We had a lot of problems getting it configured in the first place. They also wanted us to allow them remote access to our machines without us watching what they're doing, which is a huge security risk for us. We said we couldn't do that, and they said they don't offer any phone support whatsoever."
"There's a feature that does syncing with AWS Cloud backup online. It's not that straightforward to get it set up."
"The interface could be better because I have to fumble around to find things. I can't just sit down at the terminal and know exactly what to do. It could be just me, but I have used a number of different backup products, and I found them simpler. However, its features are very good, so I don't mind sacrificing a bit of extra time to do what I need."
"The only place where I would really want to see improvement, out the gate, is more granular scheduling... If I want to do an offset or to only do two backups on Friday and Saturday - versus whole hourly incrementals during the week - I don't have that granularity right now."
"Vembu will tell you the next scheduled backup, but it doesn't show you the last successful backup. I would have them include a column under "List of Backup Jobs" and have two other columns which say, "Last Successful Backup" and "Next Scheduled Backup", because you don't know now if it's backed up successfully. It just says, "The next scheduled time is this." You don't know from looking at that pane of glass when the last time it actually happened without digging further into reports."
"The solution's UI and integrations could be better."
"The user interface is hard to use, it should be simplified. There are a lot of web-based management interfaces which they should consider."
"Could have a better recovery system."
"We are able to do direct backups, but analyzing the logs is not straightforward."
"The interface could have a different appearance."
"Currently, the NetWorker server only supports the Windows server bare-metal recovery, so an improvement would be built-in support for Linux and UNIX BMR."
"Reporting and support for this product need to be improved. There are multiple bugs that need to be fixed."
"The licensing rules are difficult to navigate and understand."
"Support is definitely an area of concern because of the time it takes to resolve our issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing and licensing structure are spot on. I don't think there's anything out there in the market that does either the licensing structure or the pricing structure better."
"I prefer the way Vembu is licensed. When you look at Veeam or any other product, they price per node. Vembu is licensed per host. You just buy a host license and it backs up unlimited VMs within that host. The others charge per VM."
"We chose this solution because it was cheaper and easier to use than Veeam and other solutions of this type."
"The subscription model that we're signed up for is very good. The only thing that is something of a sticking point is the fact that you can't do PO-based licensing. It's all just credit card."
"The pricing structure is in line with other solutions. However, the option to replicate offsite to a unit at another office or at home is a big cost benefit. Instead of paying monthly for cloud storage, you replicate offsite for free."
"When they changed to the newest version (4.1), they have more VMs allowed on the free version. Before, there were only three VMs allowed on the free version, and if you needed to back up more than three VMs, you had to get the paid version. Now, you can have up to 10 VMs on the free version."
"The license is per unit and is expensive."
"The licensing model is quite complicated; it's not simple. An example: If you have a physical server, you have to pay more for that license than you do for a host. It could be running several VMs and that could be a server VM as well. Then, for web station machines, there is no license for those machines and they have no desktop OS - the free version has all this functionality. Their license model needs to be looked at and simplified."
"There is a licensing fee."
"The price of the solution could be lower, it is expensive."
"It is not very expensive and not very cheap."
"Dell NetWorker has two types of licensing models."
"It's approximate, but I believe we pay around $20-30,000 a month in licensing."
"The price is a little on the high side, but it's reliable and provides a good service."
"I have a capacity-based license, but I don't know the exact cost of that license."
"Low cost is key."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
86%
Educational Organization
3%
Retailer
2%
Financial Services Firm
1%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BDRSuite?
The best part of BDRSuite is how user-friendly it is and how it does not require any maintenance after the initial setup.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BDRSuite?
BDRSuite is cost-effective because you can purchase a perpetual license that covers multiple environments. You only renew the support costs annually. It offers advanced features at roughly 75 perce...
What needs improvement with BDRSuite?
I had a small problem integrating VMware and Hyper-V when customers used a free VMware license to create VMs. This is a problem because many customers use the free version of VMware. There are also...
What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?
From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...
What do you like most about Dell NetWorker?
The feature that offers the greatest benefits in ensuring data integrity is its backup capability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell NetWorker?
The licensing cost is somewhat expensive. While we use a traditional license, there is a capacity-based license available, but our customer is not comfortable switching to it. A five to seven perce...
 

Also Known As

Vembu BDRSuite
NetWorker
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA, Intel, CISCO, PHILIPS, Atos, HEXAWARE, Motorola
Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport
Find out what your peers are saying about BDRSuite Backup & Replication vs. Dell NetWorker and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
860,825 professionals have used our research since 2012.