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Bacula Enterprise vs Veritas Backup Exec 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
24th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (16th)
Veritas Backup Exec
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 1.7%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

GiovanniRamirez - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Pawel Augustyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplified interface with good performance but needs monitoring
I need to use PowerStore and Veritas Backup Exec. It is a direct backup to types, and it is supported by my backup. It offers good performance and stability, and it works properly. I am happy with this program. It is still working on aligning with security requirements and data encryption for Amazon or ATAC. It has a lot of functions and security measures, which ensure our backups are secure.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Bacula is very solid, very stable, and very scalable."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"The most valuable features are the special plugins such as SAP HANA databases, Microsoft SQL, and various types of virtualization."
"It is easy to scale Bacula Enterprise even if your system is growing tremendously in data and servers."
"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"It can be used in virtually any environment we have onsite."
"It works great and it provides you with several standard tools to restore your backup, even after a big failure."
"The product is good in a small environment when looking to a backup on a tape."
"It is a good backup tool."
"The backup solution comes in different versions to support different platforms."
"It is a good overall suite of products."
"The product's most valuable feature is scalability."
"Recovery via Active Directory is painless and much easier than the complicated setup procedures of other products."
"The one thing for the last 12 months which has been very good for Veritas was the instance-based license. This means that you're able to license per instance, not only per physical server."
"The interface, dashboard, and pricing are all perfect."
 

Cons

"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"A more user-friendly interface (GUI) can be developed."
"Easier setup and configuration, perhaps including a GUI, would be an improvement."
"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"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."
"It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"At the moment, we have a very complex environment. It would take some time to deploy an environment like ours from scratch."
"There is no training provided, and their technicians are unaware of the features available."
"The licensing packet is confusing. If Veritas could do a better job of clarifying it, that would be helpful."
"The solution is too heavy and complex with 1,000 menus and options that make it messy rather than lightweight."
"Expanding is difficult because if I want to add, for example, a terabyte of data, then I have to buy a disk shelf and it will cost me a lot."
"They can improve the reporting component. The reports aren't user-friendly at all. You have to download them to Excel to get statistics."
"The image backup functionality needs to be examined, because I know a few customers who are using Veritas Backup Exec find it difficult to take a proper image backup and perform image restoration in case of a hardware failure of the client."
"Veritas Backup Exec should be more user-friendly. The costs should also be much lower and it should be easier to go through the disaster recovery process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license."
"This is an open-source solution."
"Veritas licensing is somewhat expensive. They have to decrease the price."
"I rate the price of Veritas Backup Exec a four out of five."
"The price of this solution is a bit high."
"Pricing is similar, but they don´t offer the same options/technology."
"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"There is an evaluation license available to test this solution."
"I think, at least for the price I've seen, it could be lower compared to other products."
"It is cheap compared to the other backup technologies. It all depends on the requirements."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
How do the backup solutions of Veeam and Veritas compare?
Technically, Veeam is best for hyper-v & VMWare replications, snapshots, HA failover, also support for file system backups inside VMs., support for tape library & FC too. But Veritas Netbac...
What do you like most about Veritas Backup Exec?
The most important feature is the variety of backup applications it supports, including ERP systems and most other programs, such as Microsoft.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
 

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.
Beta Offshore
Find out what your peers are saying about Bacula Enterprise vs. Veritas Backup Exec and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.