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NetApp SnapMirror vs NetApp Snapshot comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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 SnapMirror
Ranking in Data Replication
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp Snapshot
Ranking in Data Replication
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Data Replication category, the mindshare of NetApp SnapMirror is 6.7%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Snapshot is 5.1%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Replication Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetApp SnapMirror6.7%
NetApp Snapshot5.1%
Other88.2%
Data Replication
 

Featured Reviews

GP
Storage IT Specialist at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Achieves seamless business continuity with robust scalability
The features of NetApp SnapMirror that I have found most valuable include the possibility to stop synchronization in case of high network latency and to limit the bandwidth throttle. This means limiting bandwidth when less connectivity occurs or opening wide the throttling to use the full speed of network connectivity, which we can adjust according to our needs or the needs of our customers. All of this is done without limiting business continuity, so business continuity is always guaranteed. NetApp SnapMirror's data replication feature supports disaster recovery strategies, as it is incorporated into the business continuity feature. SnapMirror is strictly related to snapshot features, a core part of ONTAP, so it's very flexible. It allows us to start with just two snapshots as a simple backup and then use them as a replication point or base for both backup and business continuity. There is no right or wrong answer, it just depends on how it works for specific needs.
Tanveer Rahman - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technical Office at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Snapshots have enabled us to restore critical data quickly and confidently after unexpected changes
The functions or features I have found most valuable in NetApp Snapshot are that it is easy to do and takes very little time. The main benefits that NetApp Snapshot provides for me are that if anything goes wrong, we can go back and restore something. It gives you peace of mind, which saves money, effort, and everything else. I use NetApp's WAFL architecture as it is their way of doing things, how to save the files and everything else. It is built-in. You cannot avoid WAFL when you use NetApp. Regarding the integration of NetApp Snapshot with applications and workloads, we have NetApp Snapshot integrated with our OpenStack platform.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"NetApp is one of the best products in this field of storage solutions."
"There are a lot of features that are excellent; the data compression during the transfer is good, the replication is great, the durability of the solution and the speed of the data moving from one site to another is impressive."
"Administration of Netapp Snapmirror and Netapp Storage through CLI or Oncommand manager is the best."
"Overall, the product is very good. It's an easy to use tool."
"They have a very effective dashboard and good reports."
"It's a simple and efficient tool to build a disaster recovery solution that involves many applications such as Oracle, SQL, VMware, and Hyper-V."
"There are a lot of features that are excellent. The data compression during the transfer, for example, is good. The replication is great. The durability of the solution and the speed of the data moving from one site to another is impressive."
"NetApp SnapMirror's compatibility with NetApp products has helped my storage management efforts immensely, as it is part of ONTAP and all architectures based on ONTAP, including ONTAP 8 and 9."
"This is a very mature product that does exactly what it needs to in taking temporary pictures of data states."
"The most valuable features of NetApp Snapshot are the integration with other vendors and customization."
"The product is an amazing solution."
"I recommend the solution because it protect with no impact and recover easily."
"The most valuable feature is the integration with Azure, as we are able to easily do Azure backups and restores."
"NetApp Snapshot's most valuable features are the snapshot capabilities, you can take snaps of shared directories, files, and VMs."
"Compared to the traditional way we did backups, with Snapshot it takes us less time. It has improved my organization by saving us time."
"The most important feature to us is creating live snapshots without impacting user access to the file. NetApp's processes are transparent to users and allow us to create point-in-time snapshots, enabling us to replicate that data into the cloud in real time without any impact."
 

Cons

"The price needs to be improved."
"It is not as efficient as it needs to be. It doesn't compress the data really well when it is forwarded to a secondary site."
"In the next release, I would like to see Data reduction included and WAN optimization."
"The solution's dashboard and reporting could be improved."
"You need too many separate licenses for the features. Sometimes our customers choose other replication services because of the initial cost of the licenses."
"There are some limitations when it comes to the scalability of the solution, but I don't know where the limitation is."
"At the moment, we are not using the synchronous mirror, but we can implement the synchronous mirror. The only thing is that it needs another license. This is the same issue we have with business continuity. It needs another license to be implemented. You need too many separate licenses for the features. They should add some of the aspects of the premium bundle into the basic bundle. Sometimes our customers choose other replication services because of the initial cost of the licenses."
"About a year now we have faced random issues related to power supply or auto failover failback issues which were related to bugs in the firmware."
"In my opinion, what NetApp can do to make NetApp Snapshot better is lower the cost."
"The next release should include developments on the step center for purpose or bandwidth."
"We used standard backup solutions by Dell EMC. We actually preferred Dell EMC solutions."
"The dashboards are in need of improvement."
"The licensing cost could be improved."
"One area for improvement is enhancing the compression capabilities further to minimize storage requirements, especially given its costs with Oracle integration."
"Not a perfect ten because there is one point off to give it room for improvement."
"Rather than the product itself, the one thing that could possibly be improved is that NetApp global support is not very efficient."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution has monthly and yearly licensing options."
"The pricing could be improved."
"The product price is reasonable."
"It's part of the NetApp Firewall, so it's free."
"The cost is low compared to different vendors."
"The pricing can be improved."
"SnapMirror is extremely expensive. We had a hard time adjusting to our budget. If rated on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most expensive, I would definitely rate it ten out of ten."
"It's a highly cost-effective solution"
"As far as their licensing costs, the licensing is paid on a yearly basis. The organization pays for the licensing based on the software and the capacity that they choose."
"NetApp Snapshot is expensive since you need to buy an additional premium license for it which is an extra cost over the payments made for NetApp...The license works during the entire life cycle of NetApp Snapshot."
"It's not too expensive."
"Snapshot is free and comes with the NetApp storage software. It's purely free of cost."
"If there is a way to save more on the number of snapshots, it should be included in the next release."
"The price of this solution is fair."
"The price of the solution is reasonable but could improve. However, if you are in a country that has a poor currency then the price will be considered expensive."
"The price of NetApp Snapshot depends on the use case. They charge by how much data you need, the capability, and for snap licenses."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Performing Arts
6%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with NetApp SnapMirror?
Some areas of NetApp SnapMirror that could be improved or enhanced include synchronous SnapMirror, which needs improvement as it suffers significantly from network latency. In particular, synchrono...
What is your primary use case for NetApp SnapMirror?
My usual use cases for NetApp SnapMirror are primarily for business continuity reasons, allowing me to offer customers the chance to fail back services to another data center, from Milan to Rome an...
What method of data replication does NetApp Snapshot use?
Here's a breakdown of how the data replication by NetApp Snapshot works: it's through the snapshot replication method. What does that mean? Well, in simple words, the software creates copies of dat...
What is the storage scale of NetApp Snapshot?
Last time I checked, the NetApp Snapshot data replication software could go up to 255 snapshot copies. I'm not sure how familiar you are with similar software, but that's a pretty good number. It g...
Will NetApp Snapshot recover data in an emergency?
Well yes, the snapshots that NetApp Snapshot creates are your backup. But then there's also their feature for advanced backup. This allows you to copy backups to offline locations and also make arc...
 

Also Known As

SnapMirror
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University at Albany, City of Houston, Yahoo Japan, Washington Employment Security Department, DG Khan Cement Co. Ltd., AmTrust Financial Services, Sheridan College
Mazda
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp SnapMirror vs. NetApp Snapshot and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
891,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.