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Dell NetWorker vs N2W comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 3, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.8
Dell NetWorker enhances efficiency and savings, minimizing expenses, and proving valuable despite limited financial insight among some users.
Sentiment score
2.3
<p>N2WS Backup &amp; Recovery users saved time and money, improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and achieved better data protection and ROI.</p>
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Dell NetWorker support is responsive and friendly, but expertise and resolution timeliness vary, with better higher-level assistance.
Sentiment score
3.3
N2W offers exceptional technical support with a responsive team, ensuring high user satisfaction through efficient issue resolution and communication.
quick responses whenever we log a complaint
Technical support from Dell is excellent.
They are very responsive and helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Dell NetWorker scalability experiences vary; some praise its enterprise scalability, while others face challenges with licensing and configurations.
Sentiment score
4.6
N2W offers scalable, efficient backup for diverse cloud environments, accommodating growing workloads and numerous AWS accounts and instances.
While the solution is scalable, the cost involved in upgrading or enhancing the solution can be significant.
It is scalable enough for our environment.
Dell NetWorker is very scalable and flexible, deserving a high rating for its scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Dell NetWorker's stability varies by setup; newer versions and best practices improve reliability despite initial version issues.
Sentiment score
5.1
N2W stability is highly rated, backing up 600+ instances daily with no downtime, ensuring reliable production operations.
The stability of Dell NetWorker is excellent.
Dell NetWorker is stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell NetWorker needs user-friendly improvements, better cloud integration, enhanced support, and automation features to address user dissatisfaction.
N2W needs UI updates, improved integration, disaster recovery, multicloud support, and user-friendly features for enhanced backup management.
The interface on the Java application makes it difficult, whereas the web interface is simple to use.
To connect to a server, it's necessary to install a client on the server, which is challenging.
It is complex, and compared to solutions like Tivoli, Veritas, Veeam, and others, its look and feel are not up to par.
Improved disaster recovery options and expanded multicloud support are two areas where N2WS has already made significant advancements in the latest version.
I would like to see native support for more AWS services beyond EC2 and EBS, such as full coverage of RDS, DynamoDB, and Redshift.
This would help those who are not familiar with Infrastructure as Code to back up and restore these services without the overhead of understanding IaC configuration.
 

Setup Cost

Dell NetWorker is mid-range priced but has complex licensing; bundling offers savings despite newer competitive options.
N2W provides easy AWS Marketplace purchasing with flexible pricing and tiered licensing, supporting diverse needs without extra fees.
The licensing cost is somewhat expensive.
Pricing can increase as backup volumes grow, so it is important to balance the level of protection with cost-optimization strategies such as tiering snapshots to S3 or Glacier.
I believe N2WS offers a highly competitive pricing model, delivering excellent value.
Not all features are available in the cheaper plans.
 

Valuable Features

Dell NetWorker offers efficient data protection with automation, scalability, user-friendly GUI, and integration with diverse systems and applications.
N2W offers efficient backup, rapid recovery, cost optimization, and ransomware protection, ensuring business continuity for critical AWS services.
The new deduplication feature helps significantly with data compression and saves disk space by using pointers for repeated data, improving backup speed.
I find NetWorker valuable for its wide range of automation features, including replication and data processing systems.
Dell NetWorker is versatile, allowing server backups and IBM tape library backups.
We had a ransomware event in 2023, and we were able to recover every machine with minimal effort.
The ability to create immutable backups further strengthens our business continuity strategy by ensuring an additional layer of protection against accidental or malicious data loss.
The most valuable features are EC2 and RDS backups, as well as VPC capture.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell NetWorker
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
N2W
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
29th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (24th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell NetWorker is 2.3%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N2W is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell NetWorker2.3%
N2W0.3%
Other97.4%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

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…
George Philippakos - PeerSpot reviewer
Backup process and monitoring become simple and effective while seamless instance recovery and cost optimization ensure business continuity
Policy creation is straightforward, with automatic backups of new resources enabled through tagging. Instance recovery is seamless, whether within the same VPC or across different VPCs. File-level restores are intuitive and easy to manage, while full VPC backups provide critical protection and peace of mind in the event of a disaster. In addition, lifecycle management and automated transitions to lower-cost storage tiers have been instrumental in optimizing costs while meeting compliance and retention requirements. The ability to create immutable backups further strengthens our business continuity strategy by ensuring an additional layer of protection against accidental or malicious data loss.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Healthcare Company
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise37
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about N2WS Backup & Recovery?
N2WS Backup &amp; Recovery is very easy to use and configure backup for AWS instances.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N2WS Backup & Recovery?
I believe N2WS offers a highly competitive pricing model, delivering excellent value. It is certainly a worthwhile investment, providing a strong return on investment (ROI).
What needs improvement with N2WS Backup & Recovery?
Improved disaster recovery options and expanded multicloud support are two areas where N2WS has already made significant advancements in the latest version. I am eager to upgrade and take full adva...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

NetWorker
N2WS Backup & Recovery, N2WS Cloud Protection Manager, N2W Backup & Recovery for AWS Free Trial/BYOL
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport
Deloitte, NASA, Johnson & Johnson, Dyson, Deuthsche Bahn, Skechers, Allan Gray, Hewlett Packard, St. John's University, City of Oakland
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell NetWorker vs. N2W and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.