NetApp SnapCenter vs Unitrends comparison

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NetApp SnapCenter

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Unitrends and NetApp SnapCenter compete in enterprise backup and recovery. NetApp SnapCenter has the upper hand due to its advanced features and efficient management capabilities.

Features: Unitrends users find value in comprehensive backup options, easy integration with multiple platforms, and straightforward deployment. NetApp SnapCenter users appreciate its extensive feature set, user-friendly experience, and efficient management of virtual environments.

Room for Improvement: Unitrends needs improvements in reporting, a more robust user experience, and enhanced customization. NetApp SnapCenter requires better stability, more intuitive workflows, and improvements in user interface elements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Unitrends is praised for straightforward deployment and strong customer support. NetApp SnapCenter offers excellent documentation but faces challenges with complex configurations. Users are more satisfied with Unitrends’ deployment and customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Unitrends is preferred for cost-effectiveness and quicker ROI, appealing to budget-conscious users. NetApp SnapCenter, though more expensive, is viewed as delivering strong value over time with its comprehensive features. Users feel the premium price of NetApp SnapCenter is justified by its capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp SnapCenter vs. Unitrends Report (Updated: June 2025).

NetApp SnapCenter vs. Unitrends

June 2025

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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

NetApp SnapCenter

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

50th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Unitrends

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

36th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of NetApp SnapCenter is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unitrends is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

MervynMorgan

IT Storage Engineer at Unixque Solutions Pty Ltd

Enables us to save data for data projection but could improve its integration with other backup solutions

NetApp SnapCenter is highly efficient because it allows you to automate the creation of snapshots. Instead of manually creating snapshots using IMS or HMS, you can schedule and automate them, specifying the timing and frequency. This eliminates the need for daily manual intervention and streamlines the process. SnapCenter also enables you to assign specific user roles to manage these tasks, enhancing efficiency. SnapCenter ensures that your LPOs and RTOs are extremely quick. Although it may seem expensive initially, after using it for a while, you'll appreciate the efficiencies and gains it provides. I recommend the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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Todd Guthrie

Director Of Information Technology at Creation Technologies

The solution can be used to back up servers and Hyper-V cluster nodes, but its support is super expensive

I wouldn't rate Unitrends a ten out of ten because we had some hard drive failures in the appliance. Typically, when you have OneDrive, you can get it replaced. For some particular reason, the situation caused the entire system to crash. We had to reinstall the CentOS operating system on it, and we lost all our backups. They said there was no way to retain it, and it was pretty devastating and concerning that a drive failure would cause the loss of all the data on the appliance. It was extremely disappointing, and we had to start from scratch after three years worth of backup data. I rate Unitrends a nine out of ten for stability.

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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 central pane view is the most valuable feature. You have one console where you can monitor all your jobs, as opposed to going to different vCenters."

"Restoring and cloning are easy to do."

"The main advantage is its fast backup and restore."

"It has greatly improved our DR activity."

"The most valuable feature is that it's centralized. In the old SnapManager days, we had software for each server. Now, with a centralized system, we're able to manage all systems remotely, and all agents remotely, and update them remotely. That's a huge benefit for us."

"The support from NetApp is very good, and I would rate it as ten points."

"It's a centralized, easy-to-use solution empowering RBAC management, monitoring, notifications, extensive logging, and backup schedules for standalone as well as groups of the same types of environments. The cloning capabilities accelerate development."

"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

"Backup/archive to multiple locations."

"The ability to diversify jobs within the same server helps break down a large chunk of data into more manageable and concentrated chunks."

"When we talk about a backup point of view, from a backup perspective, it's a good one."

"I am impressed with the tool's reporting and UniView features."

"The ability to backup both physical and virtual machines, along with having an appliance store the backups locally instead of on a file server, NAS, or SAN."

"Replication to Forever Cloud."

"The predictive analytics are great and the reporting is awesome."

"The most valuable feature of Unitrends for me is the automated feedback"

More Unitrends pros

Cons

"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 UI, the User Interface, needs to be improved. It's not as clean or modern as it could be."

"If it was possible to create backups on non-NetApp storage, that would be helpful."

"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."

"The product lags in terms of availability."

"My major issue is when I upgrade. I have to touch every last client that I have in SnapCenter, and right now I have 60... They said that in another release that will get better, but right now it's not better and I've had to do this three times."

"We have hundreds of servers and systems and hundreds of customers and they're separated in a multi-tenancy way in NetApp SVM. Right now, the problem is that it always scan all SVMs. If I backup Customer A, it scans all SVMs, or tries to scan all SVMs, if there is a backup relationship on the storage. But it doesn't have the permissions, so we run into timeouts or the backup just takes too long. They're fixing that in the upcoming release..."

"The documentation could be a little bit better so that we could handle more of the troubleshooting ourselves, rather than having to go through support."

More NetApp SnapCenter cons

"I would like to see more storage options for the free version."

"It would be great to have the job throttle/limit the max number of backups on a single ESXi host."

"The solution’s support and onboarding process needs to be improved."

"No appliance update notifications."

"There's a lot that can be made better. For example, it could be more scalable."

"The amount of updates which are being released. Updates should be limited to two or three a year, focusing more on quality instead of a rushed bug release."

"It could be a little more customizable."

"Probably the biggest issue I've had is actually paying for the unit, and part of that problem is that they use a third party for the billing."

More Unitrends cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The product is inexpensive."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"No comment."

"You should be aware how much the monthly costs are to use, what the initial costs for hardware are, and what the options to expand are, if needed."

"With respect to cost, my advice is to get what you need."

"Pricing model constantly changes."

"I would rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing is yearly and it depends on the customers."

"Initial pricing is competitive. Renewal pricing is steep, so make sure to project costs for the lifetime of the appliance(s)."

"Talk with the sales guys. They can work with you on the best package."

"When we renew the Unitrends maintenance contract and update it to the latest version, the cost would be $5,000 per year. There are no hidden costs. They've been transparent with the costs."

More Unitrends pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

18%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Retailer

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Non Profit

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NetApp SnapCenter?

Most banks and financial institutions use the solution.

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.

What needs improvement with NetApp SnapCenter?

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

What do you like most about Unitrends?

The most valuable feature of Unitrends for me is the automated feedback

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Unitrends?

Unitrends is an expensive solution. We've negotiated deals where they've given us the $ 62,000 to $ 64,000 appliance for free but charged $ 90,000 for three years of support.

What needs improvement with Unitrends?

In terms of improvement, the UI, especially in the recovery section, is unclear about which repository it uses—I had to hover over to find that information. Figuring out the scripting part wasn't s...

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Compared 51% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Acronis Cyber Protect vs Unitrends

Compared 11% of the time

Veritas Backup Exec vs Unitrends

Compared 8% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Unitrends

Compared 7% of the time

More Unitrends Competitors

Product Reports

Download NetApp SnapCenter product report

NetApp SnapCenter

June 2025

Download Unitrends product report

May 2025

Also Known As

SnapCenter

No data available

Overview

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

Organizations rely on Unitrends to back up and protect both physical and virtual servers with compatibility for legacy systems and an appliance model.

Unitrends supports Microsoft Hyper-V clusters, VMware ESXi clusters, SQL databases, and Exchange DAGs. Valuable for K-12 schools for continuous monitoring via a graphical interface, it also offers real-time synchronization, file restoration, report generation, email status updates, redundancy, and ransomware protection. Features include effective technical support, instant recovery, detailed reporting, real-time synchronization, global deduplication, cross-compatibility for OS backups, and frequent updates. Easy to install for Hyper-V appliances, the platform benefits users with its dashboard insights, saving time and ensuring reliability. While improvements are needed in high availability features, customer engagement, cloud capabilities, storage options, and the free version, the UI, configuration complexity, pricing, and support costs also demand attention. Users find scaling challenging and desire better feature parity with competitors, clearer recovery information, improved scripting, and flexible retention settings based on repository.

What are the most important features?

Effective technical support
Instant recovery
Detailed daily and email reporting
User-friendly interface
Real-time synchronization
Global deduplication
Cross-compatibility for diverse OS backups
Frequent updates
Ease of installation for Hyper-V appliances
Automated feedback
UniView features
Instant power-on
Cost-effective pricing
Time-saving dashboard insights

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Time-saving features
Efficient data synchronization
Enhanced data recovery and protection
Accurate reporting and insights
Cost-effective and reliable solution

K-12 schools use Unitrends for continuous monitoring and verification via a graphical interface. Its real-time synchronization, file restoration, and report generation features support educational institutions' needs, ensuring data protection and operational efficiency.

Sample Customers

All for One Steeb AG, Accenture

NHL Players Association, Salvation Army, Sligro Food Group, Mason General Hospital, Tec Group, Saldab IT, Baker Tilly, Clinton Savings Bank, Ennit Magna Bank, Manukau Institute of Technology