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Bacula Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Backup comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

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

Bacula Enterprise
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
27th
Ranking in Cloud Backup
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp Cloud Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
32nd
Ranking in Cloud Backup
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (9th), Disk Based Backup Systems (5th), Cloud Storage Gateways (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.9%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Backup is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Backup Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Bacula Enterprise1.9%
NetApp Cloud Backup0.6%
Other97.5%
Cloud Backup
 

Featured Reviews

GiovanniRamirez - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Consultant at Xerif
Solid backup tool with good scalability
The last scenario in which I used Bacula was for a customer who needed some open-source tool which could support encryption at that time. We managed to convince the customer to use Bacula to deploy it in their environment It was a very good project. The Bacula concept, topology, and networking…
MS
Solutions Architect at SC PROSERVICECORP SRL
Offers protection and does scanning of the data in the storage
NetApp has a nasty way of dealing with the license for the product's on-premises virtual NetApp appliance that you need in your whole architecture, and it is not directly linked to NetApp Cloud Backup. It is not a feature that I want to change in NetApp Cloud Backup because the cloud backup service is architectured in a way that makes it available to users, so it looks pretty good to me. When you go to the other side, you can see what you want to have on-premises for the main side in order to have backup in the cloud via NetApp Cloud Backup. With the on-premises part, you need to have either a physical NetApp or a virtual NetApp. You only have two options for primary storage from the network. In the physical cases, it is pretty straightforward as you have pricing and something like a grid with your NetApp. The sales representatives explain how much it will cost you to have some physical NetApp storage based on performance, types, and so on. The support contracts are for three or five years. When it comes to the virtual NetApp, you can run on top of an existing VMware tool or a recent cluster; it gets nasty because they do not let you change the licensed server. Once you deploy a virtual NetApp with a licensed server that you have on-premises, you migrate off from that, but NetApp does not let you change the licensed server, which should be really simple.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"It can be used in virtually any environment we have onsite."
"It is easy to scale Bacula Enterprise even if your system is growing tremendously in data and servers."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"The most valuable features are the special plugins such as SAP HANA databases, Microsoft SQL, and various types of virtualization."
"Bacula is very solid, very stable, and very scalable."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"It works great and it provides you with several standard tools to restore your backup, even after a big failure."
"NetApp Cloud Backup performance is good and they have beneficial technology."
"I rate the scalability a ten out of ten...It has a great impact on our business because we have the infrastructure deployed globally on four continents around the world."
"Scalability is very good."
"One feature that works well for us is that the Cloud Manager is a completely agentless solution. There's a similar dashboard on both the versions for on-premises and the cloud, and with reference to the Cloud Manager, it's a little faster because there's nothing to be installed as such. Being agentless, it doesn't require any agent to be deployed on the targets where the backups are triggered."
 

Cons

"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"Easier setup and configuration, perhaps including a GUI, would be an improvement."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"Bacula needs a graphical user interface because, for administrators, the command-line interface is okay, but for the average user it is not very easy."
"A more user-friendly interface (GUI) can be developed."
"It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company."
"Integration and reporting could be improved."
"One area that can be improved is around how we define the different KPIs. In particular, the business KPIs. I have my own in-house application for the business KPIs, so for example, with our policies around retention, which is a period of seven years, I have to read these parameters from other applications and I need them to integrate well."
"NetApp Cloud Backup could improve by being easier to use. Veeam solution is easier to use."
"NetApp has a nasty way of dealing with the license for the product's on-premises virtual NetApp appliance that you need in your whole architecture, and it is not directly linked to NetApp Cloud Backup."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source solution."
"We have a perpetual license."
"NetApp Cloud Backup has a subscription-based model and it is paid annually."
"If one is not cost-effective and ten is a highly cost-effective product, I rate the tool as a three. The tool is not so cheap."
"Cost could be lower."
"Our usage depends on the number of licenses we have. On the cloud, it's a pay-to-use kind of model which suits our needs well. Once we have the Cloud Manager installed, the licensing process is okay, regardless of whether we're running backups in the cloud or on-premises. Sometimes, we have to restrict the number of users as per the contractual agreement and in this case we simply cut down on the licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bacula Enterprise?
Bacula is more expensive than various other solutions. It’s almost completely commercial now. Products like Veeam software are much more expensive.
What needs improvement with Bacula Enterprise?
Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability.
What is your primary use case for Bacula Enterprise?
The last scenario in which I used Bacula was for a customer who needed some open-source tool which could support encryption at that time. We managed to convince the customer to use Bacula to deploy...
What's the 3-2-1 data protection that NetApp Cloud Backup offers?
Hi, the 3-2-1 data protection from this product is related to a backup strategy with the same name. I'm assuming you don't know about it so I'll tell you in a few words. In its essence, this backup...
Is NetApp Cloud Backup secure for backup?
I've just started using NetApp Cloud Backup but my initial reason behind choosing it in the first place is that they advertise their high-security approach. So basically, they give you ransomware p...
Is NetApp Cloud Backup expensive in your opinion?
It depends on how much exactly you count as expensive. For me, NetApp Cloud Backup isn't too expensive. I say that based on the services it provides and on the way it provides them. I think it's im...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA, SwissCom, Navisite, Turner Studios, Bank Austria, Caixa Bank, SdV Plurimedia, Leibniz University Hannover, Zeta Global, Tricore, NetLog, Siemens, LocaWeb, wbsGo, itesys, Queens School of Computing, Escrypt.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Bacula Enterprise vs. NetApp Cloud Backup and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.