We use it mostly for VMs that are hosting client-facing applications and mostly client databases. We replicate 100 servers; we have 100 protected VMs.
VMware Systems Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Is stable, easy to use, and has good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "We've never had any major headaches with the virtual-protection groups. They seem to work exactly as they should. If there's ever an issue with replication, we know right away, so it's all been very reliable."
- "The time between releases is too long. Zerto doesn't seem to really keep up with the products with which they need to be compatible. For instance, the 9.5 updates 3 took about 90 days to come out after the latest version of vCenter 7.0 update 3 was released."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
We've never had any major headaches with the virtual-protection groups. They seem to work exactly as they should. If there's ever an issue with replication, we know right away, so it's all been very reliable.
Zerto is much easier to use than Veeam when you compare the two in terms of ease of use. Everything is very straightforward and simple in the Web Client. It's very clear if something is wrong, and everything in the Web Client works great. In Veeam, it's a little more complex; I find myself having to look through long error messages when a job fails. Whereas with Zerto, if I see a red VPG I can click on it. I would then know exactly which VM is having an issue, and I can try to troubleshoot the issue.
What needs improvement?
The time between releases is too long. Zerto doesn't seem to really keep up with the products with which they need to be compatible. For instance, the 9.5 updates 3 took about 90 days to come out after the latest version of vCenter 7.0 update 3 was released.
We were facing a vulnerability, so we had to choose between patching our vCenter to address that vulnerability, which would break the Zerto operability, or leaving it as is with a potential vulnerability. That was really the main issue we ever faced with Zerto.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Zerto for the past three or so years, but my company used it before I started working there.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zerto is very stable. I've never had an issue related to stability with Zerto, and anytime we have had any potential issues, we get alerts from Zerto. It has always been a simple fix. Also, the issue has never had to do with the platform; it's always been a VM that was powered off or deleted.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been pretty sufficient. I've only had one or two cases ever that weren't related to looking for a release date, but I've had pretty good success with them so far.
I would give technical support a rating of eight out of ten. They've never particularly impressed me, but they've always done their job.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I was not present for the initial setup, but I deployed Zerto Virtual Manager. It was pretty straightforward. You walk through the wizard, and if you have all your networks on the server and everything is done correctly, you can start to build VPGs right away.
If you have all of the network and firewall rules already in place, you could probably stand up a new one in 45 minutes.
What other advice do I have?
It's a pretty set-it-and-forget-it type of tool, and it's very reliable. So, I would rate it an eight on a scale from one to ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Reduces downtime and is fast and efficient
Pros and Cons
- "The stability is good, and I have never had any customers say anything bad about it. Some have used it for years and have not had any problems."
- "Zerto added the backup feature, but it's not quite up to speed yet when you compare it with the backup capabilities of other solutions out there."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case is doing demos and testing to make sure that Zerto is going to work for our customers. I test it mainly for disaster recovery and backup.
We've tested with VMware, Zadara, and AWS.
What is most valuable?
My clients found the DR feature to be the most valuable. It's something they deal with daily from a virtual machine using VMware, Amazon, or Azure.
Zerto absolutely helped to reduce downtime. My customers can bring up their machine somewhere else, and they can test on it.
Zerto's speed of recovery is very fast and efficient whenever I tested it.
What needs improvement?
Zerto added the backup feature, but it's not quite up to speed yet when you compare it with the backup capabilities of other solutions out there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used Zerto off and on for about a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is good, and I have never had any customers say anything bad about it. Some have used it for years and have not had any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zerto can be scaled to any number of servers that you need.
How are customer service and support?
My customers have used Zerto's technical support and had no problems with it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My clients loved Commvault from a backup side of things, but Commvault just didn't do the DR right for them. It was not quick real-time DR. They brought in Zerto, and it worked phenomenally for their production systems.
From a backup perspective, Commvault is really good, but from a DR perspective, Zerto is way better. It's much quicker and easier to use, and it works right out of the box.
What was our ROI?
My customers said that though they had to pay for it, they were glad they bought it because Zerto works. It's got really great ROI coming from that perspective.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing model is good. The price is a little bit expensive, but for what customers get on it, it tends to pay for itself. However, if more and more companies start to improve, then Zerto may need to look at their pricing and make it a little better.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Veeam, Cohesity, and RackWare. Zerto is by far the best disaster recovery product out there.
What other advice do I have?
You should set it up, test it on a few machines, and also test it in multiple environments. Most people have multiple clouds, so make sure you try it with VMware, AWS, etc. Also, decide whether you want to do all your critical tasks with Zerto and fully plan your DR as the top-level. Determine what is most important and then scale it down to the least important. You can then implement Zerto from that perspective.
Overall, I would rate Zerto at nine on a scale from one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Systems Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has a quick recovery time, is straightforward to use, and reduces the resources required to recover
Pros and Cons
- "RPO time for the copied-off VMs appears to be quite short."
- "It is crucial for Zerto to collaborate closely with VMware in order to promptly test updates."
What is our primary use case?
We utilize Zerto for our disaster recovery solution, which involves replicating our virtual machines to a remote hot site to ensure failover capabilities.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto's near-synchronous replication is great.
Our RPO is around ten seconds.
I found Zerto's dashboard and features, such as the Zerto console, easy to use. It is simple to navigate and comprehend. Additionally, it is convenient to check various RPOs and BPG groups to stay informed about the current status.
We now have a robust disaster plan in place since the implementation of Zerto, which was a significant aspect we aimed to ensure.
Syncing data over to the data center for disaster recovery is easy.
I cannot provide a specific answer regarding our RTOs, but they have definitely improved significantly compared to our previous practices.
Zerto is considerably faster than our previous disaster recovery testing, which has saved us a significant amount of time.
Zerto has reduced the number of resources required for our data recovery.
It has helped reduce the number of staff for our backup.
What is most valuable?
We are utilizing a third-party company to assist us in managing Zerto. However, the RPO time for the copied-off VMs appears to be quite short. Additionally, it is straightforward to use.
What needs improvement?
One concern we have is the speed at which Zerto maintains compatibility with VMware and different versions of VMware. We are specifically worried about potentially major security issues with our current ESXi version and whether upgrading it would cause any problems or compatibility issues with the Zerto version we are using. It is crucial for Zerto to collaborate closely with VMware in order to promptly test updates.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zerto is stable. We have not had any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not used Zerto in the cloud, but on our ESXi host, it appears to be scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to back up VMs to powered-off off-site storage, but Zerto provides live disaster recovery capabilities. We had been utilizing a different disaster recovery concept, but Zerto is easier to use and provides us with an improved turnaround time in the event of a disaster.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. I assisted in the deployment, and a total of four people were required. The deployment took one week due to the necessary networking changes that had to be made.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented using a third party.
What other advice do I have?
I give Zerto a ten out of ten.
We utilize Zerto for our disaster recovery, and we employ our storage appliance for local snapshots.
No maintenance is required for Zerto.
I suggest using Zerto to have the servers in different Virtual Protection Groups so that they can prioritize the most important aspects of the business.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Last updated: Jul 2, 2023
Flag as inappropriateArchitect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Drastically reduced our replication time and we now do less DR testing
Pros and Cons
- "For us, the most valuable features are the quick upload time and how the sync works... We have VMware SRM and Veeam, and they have been pretty slow and sluggish."
- "An area for improvement is the support because it gets really expensive. They need to make it a little cheaper. Support also takes time."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for backup and replication.
How has it helped my organization?
The total time for replication has been reduced drastically for us and that really adds value in the long run because time equals money and resources.
It has also helped to reduce our DR testing. Previously, when we were doing it across our own locations, we had to make sure it was working by doing a lot of testing back and forth.
Also, the solution is already up to the mark on audits and certification.
What is most valuable?
For us, the most valuable features are the quick upload time and how the sync works. The sync is pretty good and that's really helpful. The quick upload is important to us because other solutions were lagging behind. We have VMware SRM and Veeam, and they have been pretty slow and sluggish. We have had some challenges with them.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Zerto for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We're just replicating and I assume it runs on some kind of cloud as an overlay, so the stability is pretty good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is insane. Really good.
How are customer service and support?
An area for improvement is the support because it gets really expensive. They need to make it a little cheaper. Support also takes time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We still have some other solutions in-house. We are not fully dependent on Zerto. We are still trying to get rid of the others, but we have not entirely moved on.
How was the initial setup?
In 2014, when Zerto was launched, the initial setup was pretty simple.
What about the implementation team?
We used an integrator. Our experience with them, at our engineering level, was that it was pretty smooth and streamlined, the first time we used Zerto. We had a few issues in the initial deployment, but later on, when we moved to scripting, the process became streamlined.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would like to see different service levels. They're good, but it still takes a lot of our budget in ops.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Veeam and SRM. Zerto is an HPE product, and we have been using a lot of HPE servers. That trust in HPE won our business.
When comparing Zerto with Veeam and SRM, the latter are newer in the market. They try to provide a multi-cloud strategy with tie-ups across six different clouds, which is different from Zerto. That's where I would use them if I had to.
All the solutions were almost equal but Zerto is still better because they have a lot of releases and new versions.
What other advice do I have?
We are just using it for backup and replication. We have not yet had an event where we have had to restore.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Customer
Converged Infrastructure Engineer at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When a server needs to be moved over in a crisis situation, this solution has been there to help me out
Pros and Cons
- "It is way faster than just manually moving VMDKs, etc. It saves hours of time and a significant amount of money."
- "I have had problems with vRAs. When I am trying to restart a host, sometimes the vRAs will hang. I would like it if they wouldn't migrate off or shut themselves down, then I have to manually work with it a lot of the time."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use it for disaster recovery backup. Also, whenever we need to move things between our different environments, e.g., moving it to different vCenters and Azure, that is primarily done through Zerto
How has it helped my organization?
We are in the process of doing a disaster recovery test soon, and Zerto is at the forefront of that. Zerto is really helping out with this. The bigwigs, who don't know anything about technology, come to us and then we explain Zerto to them. Whenever we simulate failures, Zerto has been able to seamlessly and instantly recover. This really gives our team big brownie points.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is Instant Recovery. Especially when a server needs to be moved over in a crisis situation, Zerto has been there to help me out in a pinch. It is really fast and responsive. It is always there when you need it most.
It is great for reliability.
What needs improvement?
I have had problems with vRAs. When I am trying to restart a host, sometimes the vRAs will hang. I would like it if they wouldn't migrate off or shut themselves down, then I have to manually work with it a lot of the time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been at the company for about six months and using Zerto the whole time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is pretty stable. The only problem I have is with the vRAs sometimes freezing up. Other than that, it has been pretty stable and reliable. I feel like we can count on it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. I feel comfortable with it. if we needed to expand in an instant we could.
How are customer service and support?
I have only used our customer support for upgrades, but they have been great and helpful. I would rate them as 10 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What was our ROI?
If I have networking issues on one vCenter, then I can just Zerto it over to another vCenter. This instantly fixes the problem, saving us time and money. In one case, our phone system was down because we were having a network issue at one of the vCenters. So, I just moved the machine over to the other vCenter through Zerto. It came back online, bringing us back up.
It is way faster than just manually moving VMDKs, etc. It saves hours of time and a significant amount of money.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I can compare Zerto to Rubrik's instant VM recovery from our backups. Zerto is faster. Since Zerto is instant, it is always watching while Rubrik has to take time and restore everything.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is really good. I am super happy with Zerto.
I would rate Zerto as 10 out of 10. They are great.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Stable and scalable solution with a valuable live migration feature
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the live migration."
- "This solution could be improved by being more cloud agnostic."
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case for this solution is disaster recovery, migration and app testing.
How has it helped my organization?
Zerto helped to reduce downtime. I worked a lot in a consulting capacity and experienced DR situations where XYZ was down or a data center was down. Using Zerto to get them back up and online was a lifesaver.
Zerto reduced the staff involved in data recovery. It's a tool that allows you to do a lot just with one person at the console.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the live migration.
What needs improvement?
This solution could be improved by being more cloud agnostic.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very stable product. I've never heard anybody complain about its stability. I would say it's probably one of the best out there.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for this solution is good and their staff are knowledgeable and able to assist quickly with resolutions.
I would rate them a nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used several other products including Site Recovery Manager. Zerto is the easiest to learn. There is much less of a learning curve. Other tools specific to VMware are now trying to emulate what Zerto has done to make processes easier. Zerto was a huge step in making things more simple to manage. The app works really well and integrates with VMware really well.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward, especially if those setting it up understand the company's infrastructure. The problems are not directly related to Zerto itself. They're always related to how the infrastructure is set up or how the network itself is segmented and having certain people that have control or access and others that don't.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is in the ease and functionality of the tool as opposed to actually a gain from using the tool.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There may be less expensive solutions on the market but with Zerto, you get what you pay for. A lot of people don't like to think about the price until it's already happened and then the price is too high because they would be losing either way. It's better to think about it and pay for it upfront than pay for it after the problem.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We previously used and considered Site Recovery Manager.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Stable solution that offers the most effective methods for data migration
Pros and Cons
- "We work a lot with customers that need disaster recovery and the best possible migration approaches, and Zerto helps them minimize the amount of effort it takes to finish their upgrades or migrations."
- "The biggest improvement would be exporting VPGs and a configuration of VPGs, as well as increasing or improving their IP customization rule set."
What is our primary use case?
We use Zerto to help our customers migrate and consolidate data centers, especially crossing different geo spaces or long distances.
I haven't used it for downtime, but our customers have it configured for all of their disaster recovery needs.
How has it helped my organization?
We work a lot with customers that need disaster recovery and the best possible migration approaches, and Zerto helps them minimize the amount of effort it takes to finish their upgrades or migrations.
Zerto helped reduce our customer's VR testing. It allows them to do disaster recovery tests a lot better and a lot safer without affecting the production environment. Last year I helped two customers migrate over 10,000 servers across the country and across Europe. Automating the process was extremely valuable in those migrations.
What is most valuable?
The near-zero downtime for migrating from one data center to another has been the most valuable outcome of using Zerto. When you are migrating half a petabyte of data from Texas to Las Vegas, and you're doing that with 3000 servers, you have a limited time to take down the application and bring it up. Our customers like having the downtime minimized.
What needs improvement?
The biggest improvement would be exporting VPGs and a configuration of VPGs, as well as increasing or improving their IP customization rule set.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zerto for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution. We ran into a minimal amount of bugs and the bugs that we do run into, we have workarounds for.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution can definitely scale out very well. I'm looking forward to new improvements in Zerto for Azure. These improvements would definitely make scaling out Zerto much better.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the support for this solution a ten out of ten. I've called Zerto's support for almost every case that I've needed to. They've been able to resolve the issues in a timely fashion.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used many other options. Zerto is definitely the best of the bunch. Zerto is definitely a lot easier to install than products like Set Recovery Manager, and it includes the replication technology that is agnostic from any storage replication that would be required.
What was our ROI?
Our customers definitely see a return on investment, especially with time savings, by doing required compliance testing for disaster recovery with a minimal amount of effort.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is top tier but offers good value.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner/reseller
Systems Administrator at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Is easy to configure and offers simplicity in the replication of VMs
Pros and Cons
- "The orchestration and automation of the DR and how it replicates the VMs and then picks them up in the DR site have been most valuable."
- "This solution could be improved if it met all the requirements that we look for including supporting multiple operating systems. We would prefer to use one solution for DR and backup."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for Zerto is disaster recovery.
How has it helped my organization?
It's very simple to use and configure.
What is most valuable?
The orchestration and automation of the DR and how it replicates the VMs and then picks them up in the DR site have been most valuable.
What needs improvement?
This solution could be improved if it met all the requirements that we look for including supporting multiple operating systems. We would prefer to use one solution for DR and backup.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution. We haven't experienced any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a small environment so it may not be applicable to comment on scalability. What I can say is we took two of the largest virtual machines in our environment, created a VPG for them, set up the seeding and replication and Zerto easily supported this. If there was going to be any concern, we would've seen it with these two VMs. So far it looks good.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for this solution is okay. I have only opened up one support case. We were looking for someone to assist us right away. It was a Severity 2 case, with Severity 1 being the highest. They sent me an email but couldn't help me the same day. I was hoping that I could speak with them the same day to get some support.
I would rate them a six out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously tried Veeam's replication tool and it didn't work out too well. That's why we decided to go to Zerto. Zerto is much easier to set up and offers a faster speed of recovery.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. How the VPGs are configured and adding the VMs is simple and pretty intuitive. It took under an hour to set up.
What about the implementation team?
The setup was completed by myself and a colleague.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for this solution is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to take extra time before jumping into the setup, to consider the grouping of the VPGs and what makes the most sense for their business. It was important for our business to take that extra time to make sure that we got that right.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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