Oracle Data Guard vs Unitrends comparison

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Oracle Data Guard

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Unitrends and Oracle Data Guard compete in the data backup and recovery market. Users generally prefer Unitrends for its pricing and support, while Oracle Data Guard is favored by enterprises for its features despite higher costs.

Features: Unitrends offers comprehensive backup options, ease of use, and strong customer support. Oracle Data Guard provides advanced replication, disaster recovery capabilities, and robust security, making it ideal for mission-critical environments.

Room for Improvement: Unitrends could improve its reporting capabilities, offer more granular control over backup retention policies, and develop more intuitive management tools. Oracle Data Guard needs better documentation, a simpler configuration process, and streamlined workflows.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Unitrends is straightforward to deploy and known for strong customer support, suitable for smaller organizations. Oracle Data Guard, though complex to deploy, offers detailed support and an extensive knowledge base for larger enterprises.

Pricing and ROI: Unitrends is more affordable and quicker to implement, providing good ROI for small to mid-sized businesses. Oracle Data Guard, while more expensive, offers significant ROI for enterprises due to superior features and reliability, justifying the higher initial setup cost.

To learn more, read our detailed Oracle Data Guard vs. Unitrends Report (Updated: April 2025).

Oracle Data Guard vs. Unitrends

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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

Oracle Data Guard

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Unitrends

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

37th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Oracle Data Guard is 0.9%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unitrends is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

IfeoluwaOshinowo

Senior Oracle Database Administrator at Computer Information Systems (CIS)

Makes data protection and network management much easier

The initial setup is straightforward, provided you know the source, target, data version and format. You need to consider all those things. First and foremost, when deploying Oracle Data Guard, the number one priority is to ensure all parameters are correctly set. Two primary methods exist: using backups or recovering from services if the network is reliable. If the network is robust, backups from the source to the target may not be necessary. You must ensure that NIS names are correctly configured on both sides and that the failover and switchover processes are tested successfully from both production and standby environments. Once these steps are completed, the deployment process becomes straightforward. There's no need to copy the entire parameter file; only specific configurations, such as the SID or file structure, must be adjusted if necessary. Ensuring proper DNS name resolution, SID configurations, parameter settings, and understanding whether to convert the Data Guard are essential. Once these aspects are identified, the deployment process becomes more straightforward. I have implemented numerous Data Guard setups. Setting up Oracle Data Guard is performed within the Oracle CRS. Challenges may arise in establishing connectivity between the standby and production databases, necessitating troubleshooting. Apart from that, once configured within CRS, the setup is complete. The challenge with Oracle Data Guard is that it often takes some time for us to identify whether the issues stem from the disk or the network. If we report issues to the network or storage teams from the database end, we may not perceive any apparent problems, which can lead to confusion. We can convince the storage teams to investigate further until we delve into the disk I/O Guard and determine if specific disks operate at total capacity. When disks are operating at total capacity, it can significantly impact application processes. These difficulties in pinpointing the source of issues contribute to the challenges of maintaining and managing Oracle Data Guard.

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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

"Another valuable feature is the possibility of backing up the database from the standby database instead of the primary database, to avoid backup process overhead in the primary system."

"Oracle Data Guard is a free solution. When you apply for Enterprise Manager, it comes for free with the solution."

"Oracle Data Guard has a nice feature called the DataGuard snapshot to open the solution in the read-write mode and make some changes to the database."

"It's a very good solution if you want to protect your data across two data centers, or you have a middle man or many administrators who use these solutions for protecting their data. It's very reliable compared to other solutions that are most often not storage-based."

"The most valuable aspect for me is undoubtedly the failover capability and the assurance of data safety provided by Oracle Data Guard."

"The most valuable feature is the application or promotional code used in the production protocol to transfer data to the secondary database, situated on the DR site."

"One of the most valuable features is real-time replication. The version we're using is reliable and easy to deploy."

"The solution is quite stable. We haven't experienced any bugs, glitches, or crashes. We find it to be quite reliable."

More Oracle Data Guard pros

"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."

"Stability-wise, I rate this solution a nine out of ten."

"I really like the reporting options you get for various email reports."

"I like the fact that you can recover the VMs inside the appliance. For example, they're basically running this appliance on a Linux-based distribution, and they're spinning off KVM virtual machines inside."

"When I have had to use tech support, they've been very good."

"Backup/archive to multiple locations."

"It's not easy to scale it."

"It is very easy to set up and get started. Almost too easy. We racked this device and had it up and running in less than 15 minutes."

More Unitrends pros

Cons

"The pricing of the solution is quite high. They should do what they can to bring it down so that it is more reasonable for customers like us."

"The only difficult part is the cost factor, licensing. Another area of improvement is support."

"The deployment cost is expensive."

"It is a rather complex solution, so it could be more user-friendly."

"Oracle could be improved by the ability to manage it on the cloud. This on-premises version is secure and reliable, but I'm sure that they will soon provide a cloud solution that will be even better. In one to two years, we will probably move to the cloud—we have already moved to the cloud with Microsoft Exchange, but our databases are still on-premises. I would prefer managing a cloud version of Oracle."

"Sometimes, the technical support team takes time to respond."

"For Italian medium-sized companies, the main challenge lies in the cost associated with licenses."

"I think it would be great to have a graphical interface assistant (like DBCA, ASMCA, NETCA, etc.) for initial configuration, monitoring, configuring Oracle Data Guard Broker and all the Data Guard Broker commands, without needing Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control installed."

More Oracle Data Guard cons

"The ability to run just differentials without pulling the full on your archive."

"Unitrends can be challenging to scale."

"There are some questions as to how safely they are storing backup data."

"Techs don't see to be well-versed in troubleshooting issues that arise and tickets stay opened for weeks for resolution."

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

"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."

"No appliance update notifications."

"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

"It's a cost-effective solution."

"If you want to have everything automated and done smoothly, you have to add additional licenses."

"This is the best solution if you want something similar that's less expensive than Oracle Grid."

"The pricing is on the higher side."

"The cost of the Oracle license will depend on the negotiations with Oracle."

"Oracle Data Guard is a feature available only in Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, and is available for extra cost."

"It is not a cheap product, but if you look at the price, features, availability, scalability, and maturity, it is a very good product."

"The licensing cost is significantly high."

More Oracle Data Guard pricing and cost advice

"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."

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

"Make sure you do the homework to size the solution properly. Buy the Enterprise Plus licensing if you can afford it."

"The cost of Unitrends definitely draws you in. The licensing is all included in the appliance, which is a great incentive."

"Based on a scale of one to ten, with one being low and ten being high, I would rate the pricing of this solution as a three. Also, there are no additional costs involved in the standard licensing of the solution."

"Unitrends is an expensive solution."

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

More Unitrends pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

Ik fluister:VM Host Oracle en DataGuard hebben we per toeval vervangen door Zerto :-) tijdens de Zerto implementatie en VPG werden de Host Data in write-ack Block-Level gerepliceerd. Qua licentie 1...

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

It is a very useful administrative IT tool. It saves on costs. I strongly recommend Data Guard. I've been using it for eight years and I would strongly recommend it. I'd rate Oracle Data Guard a se...

What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Data Guard?

We're Oracle partners. We've worked with databases 11G and 12C. If a company is planning to implement Oracle solutions, I would suggest they also implement Data Guard. I'd rate the solution nine ou...

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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Product Reports

Oracle Data Guard

Download Oracle Data Guard product report

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Also Known As

Active Data Guard

No data available

Overview

Oracle Data Guard ensures high availability, data protection, and disaster recovery for enterprise data. Data Guard provides a comprehensive set of services that create, maintain, manage, and monitor one or more standby databases to enable production Oracle databases to survive disasters and data corruptions. Data Guard can be used with traditional backup, restoration, and cluster techniques to provide a high level of data protection and data availability.

Oracle

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

Athenahealth, Discover Financial Services

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

Oracle Data Guard vs. Unitrends