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Eaton UPS vs Schneider Electric-APC Smart-UPS VT [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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

Eaton UPS
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Center Power Solutions (1st)
Schneider Electric-APC Smar...
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1578141 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 5,001-10,000 employees
The different layers of redundancy provide reliability and business continuity
The redundancy aspect is the most valuable feature. Within the UPS itself, Eaton UPS has different critical layers of redundancy, e.g., everything from battery banks down to controllers inside a UPS. It also has a default mechanism of an internal bypass in case something goes wrong with the actual UPS itself. The way I like to describe it the best is business continuity. The solution’s footprint is excellent. It is the reason why I keep on choosing Eaton. It has great products and solutions. Eaton prepares us for the future state of our data centers. They come out with impressive, new technologies that we rely on to make sure that there are no blips in all our data center infrastructure. So, we have a clean source of energy into all our internal systems. I use the internal legacy monitoring that we currently have set up on all our UPSs. We found the internal remote monitoring is very effective. We do have internal teams at our corporate data centers, which are staffed 24/7, who look at these monitors.
Reasonably priced, simple to install, and responsive technical support
Mexico's situation is too difficult. While there may be many complaints, many projects may be canceled because funds are not currently available. I want to improve a lot of things, but the main point is money. The vendor could be better, but the point is that we don't have the right vendor in Guadalajara. Guadalajara is a small town in Mexico, and there are no expert engineers in that field here. We need to hire people from Monterey, and from Mexico, which is why the solution may be expensive. We don't want to buy a cheaper solution because cheaper isn't always better. We have no desire to save money, we would like a solution. Schneider's vendor, I believe, needs to be more involved with the customer. We have to constantly look for them because they don't come to me. I have to go there, and I don't want to. I don't want to waste time looking for a vendor. We require immediate attention. It should be easier to contact technical support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technology is reliable."
"Eaton prepares us for the future state of our data centers, coming out with impressive new technologies that we rely on to make sure that there are no blips in all our data center infrastructure so we have a clean source of energy into all our internal systems."
"Scalability has been pretty good. We were able to increase the battery. We only installed one battery cabinet, then we added a second one for additional capacity later on. That was a nice feature that others haven't been able to do."
"The alternative was to put in a large UPS at a couple of locations, which we didn't have room for, so the Eaton solution made my life a lot nicer."
"Our Eaton UPSs help with business continuity. I have a reliable system in place that I know that I can trust."
"VMMS is a good feature. There are multiple charging units inside each UPS. For example, on my 9395 I have three to four charging units and the unit will scale down. Let's say I've got a megawatt of power. If I'm only running 200 Kw I can drop the charging units down and rotate through the charging units to reduce energy. They do all that."
"We have utilized the building-block nature of the solution as we have grown. We can add modules, which helps from a cost standpoint and protects the initial capital investment in the system, rather than having to completely replace the system. We can start small scale and incrementally fund additional capacity as needed rather than purchasing a system, having to pull it out, and buying a brand new one."
"It's also very important that it's a rack-mountable, three-phase UPS. Some of the equipment we run requires a three-phase, such as HPE BladeSystems and some of the Cisco core devices."
"We like that we can manage it via the network."
"We have not had a lot of issues over the many years we have been using the solution."
"We like Schneider Electric-APC Smart-UPS VT because the service is good."
"I like it because we don't have any problems."
"You can scale it by adding batteries."
"We have not had a lot of issues over the many years we have been using the solution."
"With the added management card, having the ability to shut down all servers and monitor power -- both consumption and stability -- from the building, is a very good feature."
"Stability is one of the key points. The durability and lifetime of the product are also notable."
 

Cons

"The external monitoring solution could use further enhancements. I'm thinking of business continuity. If an internal legacy monitoring solution goes down, and it has no one to connect to the outside world, then it can't send out an alert. How are we going to be able to determine that there is a problem with that UPS if it loses network connectivity?"
"I would like to see there is a little more clarity on what the issue is on the notifications that we receive."
"Outside of a full-service contract, my only concern is technician availability for repairs. Where we don't have a full-service contract with them, which unfortunately is the larger portion of our equipment from them, we're just like anybody else, waiting for a slot for a technician to arrive."
"If they could reduce the footprint even more, that would be great, and they could always make heat dissipation better."
"I do like the ESS mode which I operate with the 9395s. However, I've got an issue with one of my UPS strings here in Denver: That ESS mode is too sensitive to utility noise. So the utility shows no outages but I've got the UPS switching it in and out of ESS mode."
"The technical support is pretty good. In general, I've been able to get somebody on the phone. There was one time that I wrote an email that didn't get a response."
"I'm a proponent of Eaton; I like their technology, but I think they're trying to cut corners now and they need to stop it."
"The industry is going to a smaller footprint, but that does come at a cost, specifically for battery reserve time, size and density of the system, and BTU generation. Those three areas contribute to the heat generation factor. I think that they've done a really good job. But, when you look across our infrastructure, it's the UPS system that takes up the most space of any of our products."
"Schneider's vendor, I believe, needs to be more involved with the customer. We have to constantly look for them because they don't come to me. I have to go there, and I don't want to. I don't want to waste time looking for a vendor. We require immediate attention."
"The duration of the batteries could be much better."
"Software needs work. It is functional but could use a new GUI."
"The duration of the batteries could be much better."
"Schneider's vendor, I believe, needs to be more involved with the customer. We have to constantly look for them because they don't come to me."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"We have been having some issues with the solutions controller and we are having problems finding spare parts."
"We have been having some issues with the solutions controller and we are having problems finding spare parts."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They are around $50,000 to $70,000 depending on the options and the modules that we get."
"It is an expensive technology. The maintenance is expensive. The batteries are expensive. Replacing those batteries is expensive as a capital cost. You have to plan for it every four to five years, but it's the cost of doing business. The cost of not having a good reliable system in place is even higher when you have catastrophic failures. I would recommend the product, but you do have to be prepared to spend some money, both on the product as well as all the environmental preparations for powering the system and cooling system."
"For our used case, 12kW is good. It has worked very well for us. They can be a lot bigger and they can be smaller, but the 12kW seems to be just about right for us. It has a good price point."
"It saves our company money. Because if there is an outage, it is approximately $1 million a minute for an outage. Since we are a very large credit union, outages would be very expensive for us."
"When you bid them out, they're all within a single-digit percentage point of each other... The cost of Eaton's service is competitive because we bid it out. I bid the service for all my units on campus: APCs, Lieberts, Eatons, because we've got a big hodgepodge of everything. Eaton won on price."
"It has been more of a cost of doing business and maintaining our systems. We use it more as an insurance policy to ensure that our medical records stay up and running. The loss of revenue would have a bigger impact to our organization if our systems were not up and operating. An outage over a 24-hour period could easily be in the $300,000 range, which would be pretty substantial. We are a three million square foot hospital with 380 beds, so it would impact us quickly."
"I have mixed feelings about the pricing and licensing. I believe that when you sell a UPS, and considering the UPS is a lifeline to a lot of the major corporations, the monitoring solution should be part of the package automatically, out-the-door. If you have to raise that price on the UPS an extra $5,000, then do so at that moment. Don't have that as an extra offer after the UPS has been sold. I believe that all UPSs need to have high availability, all the latest software installed, and be ready to go out-the-door."
"The pricing is far more competitive than APC or Liebert, the other two big players. And Eaton's service is phenomenal."
"It is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise9
No data available
 

Also Known As

Eaton Powerware, Powerware 9300 Series
Smart-UPS VT
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Gamatronic
The Boston Red Sox
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