AWS Snowball vs HPE Zerto Software comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Cloud Migration category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.8, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.0% mindshare in CM, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

AWS Snowball

Read 10 AWS Snowball reviews

4,306 Views
517 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

HPE Zerto Software

Read 359 HPE Zerto Software reviews

24,233 Views
2,181 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

AWS Snowball

HPE Zerto Software

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

HPE Zerto Software and AWS Snowball compete in the data management and recovery space. HPE Zerto Software has an edge in cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness, while AWS Snowball's advanced features and reliability provide value through efficient data handling capabilities.

Features: HPE Zerto Software supports continuous data protection, automated failover, and near-zero RPO, making it ideal for business continuity. AWS Snowball offers scalability, advanced data transfer, and physical security, addressing large-scale transfer and storage needs efficiently.

Room for Improvement: HPE Zerto Software could enhance its analytical monitoring and focus on broader solutions than narrowing down services. AWS Snowball might improve ease of deployment and reduce dependency on extensive setup, especially for initial hardware requirements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE Zerto Software is noted for its seamless integration and responsive customer service, supporting efficient virtual environment setup. AWS Snowball provides reliable dedicated support for complex deployments, although its on-site setup may require more initial time.

Pricing and ROI: HPE Zerto Software offers a lower initial setup cost, providing good ROI for disaster recovery-focused businesses. AWS Snowball's higher setup cost is offset by its efficiency in managing large data volumes, offering significant ROI over time for scalability-focused deployments.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software

August 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 908,800 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

AWS Snowball

Ranking in Cloud Migration

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Migration Appliances (1st)

HPE Zerto Software

Ranking in Cloud Migration

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

359

Ranking in other categories

Backup and Recovery (2nd), Cloud Backup (2nd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st), Autonomous Operational Resilience (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Migration category, the mindshare of AWS Snowball is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Zerto Software is 4.5%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Migration Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HPE Zerto Software	4.5%
AWS Snowball	2.0%
Other	93.5%

Cloud Migration

Featured Reviews

Kevin-Davis

Global CTO AWS Business Group at Eviden

Seamless data transfer and efficient migration with customizable storage sizes

I like that I can take data and send it straight to S3 when it loads in. The interface for getting my data onto the Snowball is so streamlined. I don't know if you've ever seen it before. It's really cool. I connect them to the backplane of our existing network. I'm able to address it quickly and move the data quickly inside my customers' data centers. There's a little screen on it, which changes the UPS codes and all that stuff. The label and everything AWS electronic, so I don't have to deal with shipping issues. It makes it super simple and easy to use from end to end.

Read full review

reviewer2802231

Dev Ops Engineer at a media company with 201-500 employees

Near-zero downtime has protected critical workloads and now simplifies hybrid cloud recovery

The best features of HPE Zerto Software are mainly very sophisticated and relevant to the current market. The data protection CDP part has real-time replication, unlike other solutions that have snapshot backups. We can set it up hourly, making it ideal for use with workloads. Another attraction is the near-zero RTO, with automated failover within minutes and one-click failover and failback. Currently, we are using a hybrid cloud solution, and HPE Zerto Software supports multi-cloud environments, making it easy to migrate between on-premises and cloud. Regarding the impact of HPE Zerto Software on our RTOs, we have near-zero RTO, meaning the system must be back online within thirty minutes if we measure the time. It is very quick to recover services. With HPE Zerto Software's near-synchronous replication, we have some CDP protection, so we typically write interceptions along with some asynchronous replication. There is almost real-time replication available.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are a very large company with around 20 million users that include architects, developers, and admin staff, and it's a very nice service we would highly recommend."

"The support team's awesome, and they've always been very responsive."

"The flexibility of AWS Snowball is valuable. Its security allows for the ability to move and secure data without concern if the device is lost and the option to trace it back to AWS data centers."

"You are able to scale the solution vertically. It's very scalable."

"The features I like best are the tool's high capacity, scalability, end-to-end encryption for data security, ease of use, durability, and cost-effectiveness. It's particularly cost-effective for transferring large amounts of data compared to high-speed internet transfers."

"AWS offers managed services which save time and reduce administrative overhead."

"The solution is elastic."

"The way the data is moved is very clever. Also, the interface is very simple and user-friendly."

More AWS Snowball pros

"It's a nice tool, and you should go for it; I don't think you'll be disappointed."

"The failover test option in HPE Zerto Software is the most valuable at this point since we can validate that things are going to come up, that the data is valid, and then tear it back down without having to interrupt the users."

"HPE Zerto Software has positively impacted my organization by keeping our data always available and business operations running."

"I like the granularity of the checkpoints."

"The main valuable features are the fast RPO and RTOs we could achieve and the analytics behind that."

"You can set the number of days a VM can be rolled back in case of corruption or virus infection."

"Zerto enables us to do sandboxing failovers. You can run tests on a production environment in a sandbox and spin up a copy of your actual production environment in a few hours. When you're done with it, you can click a couple of buttons, and it's all blown away. You don't need to worry about reverting changes or interfering with your on-prem production environments."

"The long-term journal is one feature that is useful in that it allows us to use the product as both CDP and backup."

More HPE Zerto Software pros

Cons

"AWS support could be more responsive."

"There's always room for improvement as you use the service more and gain expertise. Some challenges I've faced include the time factor (data transfer can be time-consuming), data validation after the transfer, risks associated with physical handling and shipping of the device, and ensuring data security during transit."

"Snowball is not interesting and is a pain to deal with."

"It does have room for improvement. The ability to better ingest some of the big data."

"I think AWS Snowball could improve by expanding its availability to more countries."

"It's not an easy product to start using for a beginner, but If you're a professional, it's easy to understand."

"The stability of the solution isn't ideal and should be improved."

"If AWS Snowball is intercepted, there is a potential risk of unauthorized access to the data."

More AWS Snowball cons

"A lot of the wording isn't very clear. If you don't know what you're looking at, it just doesn't make sense when you are setting it up."

"They kept giving us solutions that would not work, so we had to keep trying different solutions."

"Even though Zerto is for disaster recovery, it would be nice if it can also make backups."

"The only negative I would give is that with the latest version of the appliance, setting up authentication was a bit of a challenge, but that is just a matter of using Keycloak and how things have changed."

"Another thing that would help would be a recommender, or some type of tool that says, 'Hey, you're not conforming to best practices.' It would do a conformance or compliance check to tell you if your VPGs are set up according to best practices and whether your Zerto clusters are set up optimally. It would see if you have HA enabled and whether your alerting is turned on."

"You can create a VPG and put anywhere from one to 17 servers in that group. We build them one by one."

"Zerto could improve its reporting capabilities."

"The only thing we've noticed that needs improvement is the backend cleanup within VMware."

More HPE Zerto Software cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not a cheap solution, but the price is right for the product."

"The tool's pricing depends on the type of Snowball device you choose, the amount of data you need to transfer, and the service fees involved. There’s a standard price for larger data transfers and a flat job fee, which includes the first ten days of on-site usage. Typically, there are no additional data transfer fees."

"It's very equitable, otherwise you wouldn't do it. It's something that we utilize for the licenses per core as far as what we're backing up. Therefore, it's very cost-efficient as far as the licensing goes. For the amount of stuff that we're backing up and what we're utilizing it for, the licensing is not very expensive at all."

"It is less expensive than the full solution that we had previously, but at the same time, it's not an inexpensive product either."

"Staffing may be a little thin at times, but as far as budgeting what we buy, the price for this solution has not been so outrageous that we don't buy it."

"Its price can be better, but it is not bad. Most small-scale organizations can afford it, but they can come up with more customer-friendly packages."

"All of my customers are happy with how this product works and they like it, but unfortunately, in the market that I represent, Zerto is expensive when compared with the competition."

"Zerto's pricing is competitive, given the benefits and ease of setting it up. It may seem more expensive upfront, but you're going to save that over the long term by spending less engineering time configuring, reconfiguring, etc."

"From a customer perspective, the price is okay. From an investor's perspective, however, it is a little bit high."

"It's not the cheapest tool, it's expensive. But it's doing a good job."

More HPE Zerto Software pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Migration solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user159711

Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 9, 2014

VMware SRM vs. Veeam vs. Zerto

Disaster recovery planning is something that seems challenging for all businesses. Virtualization in addition to its operational flexibility, and cost reduction benefits, has helped companies improve their DR posture. Virtualization has made it easier to move machines from production to…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	94
Midsize Enterprise	93
Large Enterprise	206

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Microsoft Azure Data Box or AWS Snowball?

Microsoft Azure Databox is a 45-pound, super rugged, tamper-resistant, human-managed hardware appliance that can transfer up to 100TB of data capacity to copy, store, then send to the Azure cloud. ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Snowball?

Depending of what is your priority; UseAWS Snowball if you are heavily invested in AWS or need edge computing features Choose Azure Data Box for smooth integration with Azure and potentially lower ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Snowball?

It's difficult to make a comparison and it depends on the customer. When analyzing costs, I must see how the customer uses AWS, Azure, or Google. Google is particularly interesting, for example, fo...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zerto?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zerto?

HPE Zerto Software's GUI needs modernization to match the flexibility and user experience of other HPE software solutions, as there is still room for improvement in software-level flexibility and t...

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Transfer Appliance vs AWS Snowball

Compared 55% of the time

Microsoft Azure Data Box vs AWS Snowball

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudwick Amorphic Data Platform vs AWS Snowball

Compared 8% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs AWS Snowball

Compared 5% of the time

Nasuni vs AWS Snowball

Compared 3% of the time

More AWS Snowball Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 9% of the time

Rubrik vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 4% of the time

VMware Live Recovery vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 4% of the time

Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 3% of the time

BDRShield vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE Zerto Software Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Snowball

August 2026

Download AWS Snowball product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Zerto Software

July 2026

Download HPE Zerto Software product report

Also Known As

Amazon AWS Snowball, Amazon Snowball, Snowball

Zerto Virtual Replication

Overview

AWS Snowball is an efficient tool providing high-speed data transfers, end-to-end encryption, and scalability to organizations in need of reliable data migration and integration with AWS infrastructure.

AWS Snowball offers robust data transfer capabilities, ensuring efficient management of large data volumes. It provides end-to-end encryption and tamper-evident features, enhancing data security. The interface is user-friendly and supports seamless integration within AWS. Its scalability and flexible integration options make it a valuable choice for managing complex data migrations. Despite the need for improved connectivity and broader geographical availability, continuous innovations and managed services optimize resources and time.

What are the key features of AWS Snowball?

High-Speed Data Transfer: Facilitates quick migration of large data volumes.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies the process of data management.
End-to-End Encryption: Ensures data security during transfers.
Scalability: Easily integrates with AWS systems.
Edge Computing: Provides on-site processing capabilities.
Physical Durability: Designed for reliable data transport.

What benefits can users expect when implementing AWS Snowball?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces expenses associated with large-scale data transfers.
Time Optimization: Saves time in data migration processes.
Resource Optimization: Managed services enhance resource efficiency.
Seamless Integration: Supports on-premises to cloud migrations.
Security: Protects data with encryption during transfer.

Organizations across various industries utilize AWS Snowball for efficient cloud migrations and disaster recovery. In fields where bandwidth is limited, Snowball provides a solution for large-scale data transfers. Financial institutions use it for ETL processes and integrating analytical layers over current data warehouses. Industries with data validation requirements appreciate its secure data transfer features and the ability to reduce dependency on internet connections. Its edge computing capabilities address diverse environmental needs, ensuring data accuracy during migrations.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Zerto is used for disaster recovery, business continuity, data migration, and ransomware recovery, providing continuous data protection and near real-time replication. Valued for ease of use, efficient failover processes, and versatile integration, it enhances organizational efficiency, reduces errors, and boosts productivity.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Wazee Digital, Craftsy, Live Nation, Essess

United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies

Buyer's Guide

AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software

August 2026

Free Report: AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our AWS Snowball vs. HPE Zerto Software report.

See our list of best Cloud Migration vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Migration reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.