N-able Cove Data Protection vs NetApp SnapCenter comparison

N-able and NetApp are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. N-able is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.0, while NetApp is ranked #48 with an average rating of 7.5. N-able holds a 1.3% mindshare in BRS, compared to NetApp’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of N-able users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

N-able Cove Data Protection

Read 23 N-able Cove Data Protection reviews

3,743 Views
2,134 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

NetApp SnapCenter

Read 27 NetApp SnapCenter reviews

1,188 Views
1,105 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

N-able Cove Data Protection

NetApp SnapCenter

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

N-able Cove Data Protection and NetApp SnapCenter compete in data backup and management solutions. N-able Cove tends to have the upper hand in deployment efficiency and customer service, while NetApp SnapCenter stands out in comprehensive features.

Features: N-able Cove Data Protection is valued for ease of use, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. NetApp SnapCenter is favored for its comprehensive data management capabilities, advanced backup functions, and integration features.

Room for Improvement: N-able Cove Data Protection needs better reporting, alerting functionalities, and more detailed documentation. NetApp SnapCenter requires a less complex setup, improved user interface, and enhanced support materials.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: N-able Cove Data Protection is praised for swift deployment and responsive customer service. NetApp SnapCenter users report a more complex deployment process but find the support adequate.

Pricing and ROI: N-able Cove Data Protection is regarded as cost-effective with positive ROI. NetApp SnapCenter, although higher in cost, is viewed as worthwhile for its extensive feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed N-able Cove Data Protection vs. NetApp SnapCenter Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection vs. NetApp SnapCenter

July 2025

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

N-able Cove Data Protection

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

29th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (17th), SaaS Backup (8th), MSP Backup (2nd)

NetApp SnapCenter

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

48th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of N-able Cove Data Protection is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp SnapCenter is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Per MøllerJacobsen

Senior consultant at Azend A/S

Delivers cost-effective data backup with room for search improvements

The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for something—you need to know where it was and when it was there to restore it, plus it would be nice to take out data from Microsoft 365 in some portable format, which is currently not an option. I would like to extract the data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format, something like a database or maybe just to take out a PST file or SharePoint and Teams files to the file system. Especially in these times, where we discuss potential risks with the Microsoft cloud for European companies, companies would want to know how to access their data from the backup if they suddenly don't have a tenant. I believe there should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format. I know that Cohesity is working on making such a thing. It's not there yet; I asked last week for something for forensics, and the support team said it's not possible yet, but I know from our technical account manager they are working on some solutions.

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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Integrates well with various applications , provides a cloning feature for creating snapshots or clones of volume and a centralized command

It is basically centralized command control software. When the users visualize the workflow of the backup, the management and the customer storage administrator know the ins and outs of the backup and recovery. They can make the strategy for their backup and recovery and the certainty of their backups and restore. Strategic planning: Also, it is easy to make a strategy when you have visualized the inflow and outflow of the backup and recovery. With the CLI or native way, without any UI or management tool, you might not be able to create any strategy at all. This is especially important when you have multiple storage systems inside your data center or organization. You need a tool that connects and visualizes the workflow of the backup and recovery from all the storage systems and NetApp storage systems installed within the organization. It is very important when you have multiple storage systems, and you need to manage your backup and recovery workflow. Ease of Management: Unlike other storage vendors, NetApp has its own product called SnapCenter. Other vendors need to acquire third-party software or integrate with other software to manage storage systems. NetApp has its own solution, which is SnapCenter. NetApp's SnapCenter gels well with their storage systems and products. Ease of management is already there. It's a fine software with easy installation, management, and understanding. It's not a complicated software to understand.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The integration of N-able Cove Data Protection into our existing infrastructure is easy."

"It provides a single dashboard for all types of data protection, we monitor everything through a single dashboard. It simplifies everything overall. It allows us to see everything, whether passing or failing any issues, any problems through a single pane of glass that we don't have to click through or adjust as we go forward."

"It's their cloud, it's their storage. I don't have to buy a space on Amazon or Google's cloud and then use their software to push it. That works well for me. This way, I don't have to worry about another option or the opportunity that there might be a credential leak."

"The ability to back up, restore, and do different types of testing for the preventative maintenance has really increased our importance to these clients because they see the value in how fast we can get them back up and running. We're saving them money in that way."

"The monitoring makes it very easy to check whether a backup has gone bad."

"The ease of use and the console are great."

"For starters, this is one of few databases that allow us to backup MySQL databases, most others only support Microsoft SQL. This solution also has a very user-friendly interface accessed through a web browser. Additionally, backups can be easily configured through N-able Backup."

"N-able Cove Data Protection is user-friendly and straightforward, and the dashboard is clear."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pros

"Restoring and cloning are easy to do."

"It helps with strategic planning because it is easy to make a strategy when you have visualized the inflow and outflow of the backup and recovery."

"The product’s most valuable feature is cloning."

"The Exchange plugin is the most valuable because we have a lot of customers that use SnapManager Exchange and have to migrate to SnapCenter."

"The reporting feature has been particularly beneficial to upper management... When you do manual backups, you do not get the benefit of seeing successes and failures and how often you have to do restores. With SnapCenter, you get all of that."

"It allows us to easily take a Snapshot and use it with any backup tools. We can also take Snapshots on the application side. We can also take Snapshots on the application side. If we want to restore an SAP or an Oracle machine, a normal Snapshot won't do it, but we can do so with SnapCenter."

"The most valuable feature is the RBAC, the Role-Based Access Control. In our managed service, we can have different layers of security."

"The simplicity of backup and restore directly with VMware is an advantage and the time to backup and restore is reduced."

More NetApp SnapCenter pros

Cons

"N-able Cove Data Protection does not provide a lot of SaaS backup products, which is an area they can improve. Additionally, there are some limitations on the storage side, where I cannot have a lot of employees backing up their data."

"N-able Cove Data Protection for Microsoft 365 is an area with shortcomings that need improvement."

"The reporting feature and functionality need improvement. We would like to see a little bit more detailed reporting that offers more CEO or C-level focused reporting options."

"An area for improvement that would really work out well would be if there were a little bit more of an elegant handshake relationship between SolarWinds RMM and the PCs that are being backed up, to advise regarding "up" status... Since RMM is an agent that feeds back that a machine is alive and on, I don't see any reason why they can't either tap into that one feature or build the same exact polling within the backup agent, to update right away and say the system is online or offline."

"Having the licensing available for partners to be able to take advantage of testing without paying would make a big difference."

"For the MSP side, they could have more of a "security user" that can go in and only see certain clients. If you give somebody access as a technician, they can see all the clients."

"We don't use the solution’s automated recovery testing because SolarWinds made me cross. When they released it, I went, "Oh, well, that's quite good." Because if you use the system, then it supposedly spins up, and on the portal, it gives you a screenshot of the booted device. So, I phoned up, and I said, "Oh, that's really quite cool. How much is that?" They said, "No, no, no. It's all included in your license." I went, "Okay then," and went and deployed it on about half the fleet. One of the options that our customers have is they can pay us a small amount every month for us to test the recovery just to prove that it's viable, and I thought, "Well, this will do that for us. Nice." Then, in the next invoice, we got a charge for it. While It was not a huge amount, I took offense at the fact that we were told that it would be a no extra cost option that was part of our license, but it turns out that it's chargeable. Therefore, we haven't used it since."

"Integration with a hybrid cloud is something that I found complicated."

More N-able Cove Data Protection cons

"One thing that might be improved is the ease of management."

"The DBAs are comparing it to SMO but it doesn't have a lot of the functionalities that SMO has."

"I want to see a few more features add that will help our team in managing solution better."

"Groups might be helpful for each site or data center so that we know a given data center has these resources while another data center has those resources. It's not always easy to group hosts by type."

"We tend to have a lot of Hyper-V... so now we have two management consoles and we would ideally like to leverage SnapCenter to include Hyper-V."

"There is one area that needs improvement and that's in the alerting. When you set up your SMTP alerts, it only has - and I don't understand why - the ability to send an anonymous SMTP. It doesn't do basic authentication, which frustrated me for a while until I figured out that I'm not missing something. It's just not there."

"The Microsoft environment is its biggest disadvantage due to the central management of all the actions. Because the SnapCenter server is where we deploy everything, it also affects the Microsoft environment, which can cause many difficulties when resolving issues like Windows update problems."

"I'm waiting for SnapCenter for hybrid solutions. Right now, we only have SnapManager for hybrid. I need agents for that. People are looking to install SnapCenter in a SQL environment, but where they're running SQL on Hyper-V and using virtual files. Currently, we don't have support for hybrid."

More NetApp SnapCenter cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very competitive and it's well worth the price."

"When you have a device/appliance on the site quite a lot of the other enterprise class backup people insist that you have their appliance, which is frankly offensively expensive. Because when you pry the top off, it's just a standard 19-inch tin box with a standard Intel I5 in it, some RAM, and a hard drive. Then, you go, "Why have they just charged me 5,500 quid for a box, which I could have probably build for under 500." Whereas, with the SolarWinds product, they don't have that. The backup appliances that we have onsite are just plain cooking PCs. We can build our own machines, which is reflected in the price that we can offer a customer."

"The pricing, for now, is good. The package that they gave us recently is pretty good. It depends on how many clients you have, and you pay for certain terabytes per license. These terabytes, if not used, are pooled together."

"The price isn't extreme, but I'd love to pay less."

"There is no per node cost, at least not the way I am doing it. I am on bulk. New customers can be set up on a trial, where they can get things all squared away, then they can switch over to being a billed customer."

"Cove only takes the data you have on the physical server. I can back that up for long periods of time, and I don't accrue high charges to have the data in the cloud. It stays at one rate. This allows me to forecast payment for the next one or two years and show clients their estimated growth."

"I believe that the price is very reasonable in comparison to other options. It is cheaper than both Redstor and Acronis and, since we are now using our own on-premise cloud, there is absolutely no comparison since we have unlimited storage rather than paying per gigabyte used for their onsite storage. We are currently able to backup fifty computers for the same price that we use to backup five computers."

"The pricing of SolarWinds seems to be fair compared to the rest of the industry."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pricing and cost advice

"It comes free with the amount of equipment we purchase from NetApp. In terms of pricing, zero is my favorite number."

"The product is inexpensive."

"It's free. The license is included with other NetApp products."

"We see a financial value with SnapCenter because we don't have to license Commvault, which is pretty expensive."

"The licensing is well-designed because it's already included in some packages with NetApp storage. Therefore, for most customers, it's okay as the SnapCenter license is already included in some NetApp bundles."

"We have a site license, so it comes with the product."

"The license for SnapCenter was included with the storage array."

"Pricing is very good because if you already have NepApp controllers, then it's included."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Real Estate/Law Firm

Manufacturing Company

19%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about N-able Backup?

The initial setup of N-able Cove Data Protection was very easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N-able Backup?

In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with N-able Backup?

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp SnapCenter?

Most banks and financial institutions use the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp SnapCenter?

The product should be free because it is just software to administrate systems purchased from NetApp, which are already expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp SnapCenter?

The interface usability needs improvement. It should be more user-friendly and easier for customers to use.

See all answers

Comparisons

Veeam Data Platform vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 13% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Synology C2 Backup vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 7% of the time

NinjaOne vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 5% of the time

Boxafe vs N-able Cove Data Protection

Compared 4% of the time

More N-able Cove Data Protection Competitors

Synology DSM vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 24% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 17% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 12% of the time

Rubrik vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 10% of the time

Veritas NetBackup vs NetApp SnapCenter

Compared 10% of the time

More NetApp SnapCenter Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection

August 2025

Download N-able Cove Data Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp SnapCenter

August 2025

Download NetApp SnapCenter product report

Also Known As

N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup

SnapCenter

Overview

Cove Data Protection, from N-able, is a comprehensive solution designed to safeguard critical business data. It offers a range of features including backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection. With automated backups and flexible scheduling options, it ensures data is protected and easily recoverable.

The solution also includes advanced security measures such as encryption and ransomware detection to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. Cove Data Protection provides seamless integration with various platforms and offers centralized management for efficient monitoring and control.

With its user-friendly interface and robust capabilities, Cove Data Protection is an ideal choice for businesses seeking reliable data protection.

N-able

Unified, scalable platform for application-consistent data protection and clone management. This software simplifies backup, restore, and clone lifecycle management with application-integrated workflows.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia

All for One Steeb AG, Accenture

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection vs. NetApp SnapCenter

July 2025

Free Report: N-able Cove Data Protection vs. NetApp SnapCenter

Find out what your peers are saying about N-able Cove Data Protection vs. NetApp SnapCenter and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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