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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs HPE Zerto Software comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
CTERA's platform saves time and reduces costs, eliminating SSD needs and manual storage, with a two-year expense recovery.
Sentiment score
7.0
HPE Zerto Software enhances efficiency and reduces costs through improved disaster recovery, data protection, and minimal downtime.
Adding SSD storage to Windows file servers is expensive, and we no longer need to back up those devices.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I am positive that CTERA has helped reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating the need for manual storage management and reducing storage service processes.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
Before, it was a huge cost. It was several thousand dollars to do a DR test, whereas now, I click a button.
CTO at Erisa Administrative Services, Inc.
It saves us a lot of time and gives us the ability to perform other DR plans for other systems.
System Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's not only in the cloud; it's DR as a service, which means that the recovery operations are performed by a dedicated team specializing in this area.
Founder & CEO at Itix Cyber Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
CTERA's support is highly rated for its accessibility, quick response, knowledgeable team, and effective global storage management.
Sentiment score
7.5
HPE Zerto Software's customer service is highly praised for responsiveness, with strong ratings reflecting overall user satisfaction.
They swiftly address concerns and take ownership of the call, providing a very satisfactory support experience.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
The quality and speed of support for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is some of the best in the industry.
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
High-priority issues are handled promptly.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I have never had an issue that was not resolved, and I have never been in a situation where they did not respond.
Sr. Systems Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would give them a rating of ten because it represents the highest level of support based on the technical knowledge of the support team, response time, and effectiveness of the provided resolutions.
Disaster Recovery Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
When I open a ticket, I usually get a call within an hour or two.
Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
CTERA's platform excels in scalability and flexibility, supporting global use with easy upgrades, despite minor licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
HPE Zerto Software efficiently scales, integrates with cloud platforms, and manages workloads, despite licensing and bandwidth challenges.
If we need to upgrade CPU and memory, we should be able to do that without a license upgrade.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow.
Senior Manager of Global Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It offers good scalability options, including vertical and outward scalability.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Head of IT at TWM SOLICITORS LLP
Customers need to follow good engineering practices for optimal product use.
Tech Lead, Storage and Data Protection at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
By adding more hosts and installing VRAs on each, tasks can be efficiently managed.
Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is stable, with resolved issues and occasional sync problems not disrupting overall reliability.
Sentiment score
8.0
HPE Zerto Software is highly stable, with minimal issues reported, effective performance, and responsive support, rated nine out of ten.
It has been pretty stable since then.
System Administrator at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
We had things deployed for years, and we were suddenly getting cloud sync issues that were crashing our sites.
Senior Manager of Global Support at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is very stable and reliable.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
I promptly delete the malfunctioning elements and set them up again to resume replication, ensuring stability.
Technical Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The ease of use was so good with Zerto that they were able to migrate things much quicker.
Inside Sales Representative at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It is very reliable.
Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

CTERA could improve monitoring, updates, user portals, logging, data distribution, legacy upgrades, AI integration, file editing, and permissions.
HPE Zerto users seek improved documentation, support, automation, integration, and pricing, with enhanced cloud services, backups, and reporting.
AI and automation features could enhance the platform, such as AI-powered search, predictive storage analytics, and intelligent alerts for proactive monitoring.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a performing arts with 501-1,000 employees
The main problem is that if two people are working on the same file, for example, one in the U.S. and one in Israel, they can overwrite each other’s work without any notification.
CEO at rtt.co
It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If I have 350 objects that I am protecting, I would like Zerto to be able to fire them up in one order, rather than having to manually bring them up in a sequence.
Enterprise data management supervisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If the host has a lot of VMs on it, there may not always be enough time to relocate all of the VMs from a protection group standpoint to other hosts before the replication appliance that Zerto uses to manage that powers itself down.
Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
If HPE Zerto Software has it built-in where we're going to vCenter and you click on it, it will build the VPG and indicate configuration requirements, that would be amazing.
Senior Converged Infrastructure Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

CTERA offers affordable enterprise file services, reducing total ownership costs compared to EMC, NetApp, and Nasuni, enhancing market accessibility.
HPE Zerto Software offers flexible, transparent pricing with scalable licenses, valued for robust disaster recovery despite perceived high costs.
Unlike other solutions that require hardware purchases, CTERA offers software licensing with flexibility across multiple infrastructure providers.
Business Development Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
CTERA’s pricing should be more proportional and accessible so that cost is not the factor preventing customers from purchasing.
CEO at rtt.co
CTERA's pricing seems to be on par with some of the other players, such as Nasuni and Azure.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If you want a good-quality tool that is robust and does a good job for you, you have to pay a higher price to get that, and Zerto is no different.
IT Manager at American Pioneer Federal Credit Union
However, it can become quite expensive when you start looking at the number of workloads you have in the environment and what you would like to do.
Cloud and Infrastructure Services Manager at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Zerto is easier to set up and use, and it's less expensive.
Professional Services Engineer at US Signal
 

Valuable Features

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform offers scalable, flexible data management with seamless backup, user-friendly interface, and reliable recovery.
HPE Zerto offers real-time backup, fast recovery, and seamless VMware integration, enhancing disaster recovery and minimizing downtime effectively.
As soon as something is written to the device, CTERA copies it to the cloud, where it's versioned with snapshots so we can recover it.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
A vital advantage of this platform is its instantaneous recovery capability, allowing seamless access to a secondary gateway if the primary one fails.
Business Development Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
It is a three-in-one solution for us. It is a file-sharing platform, an archiving solution, and also a backup solution.
System Administrator at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Zerto offers excellent technical support with responsive and helpful experts.
Assistant Manager-Networks at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
If we were attacked, I could revert to a backup from five seconds before the attack, and no one would know we were attacked.
Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The replication time and the minor amount of time it takes to sync a new server outside of any of my huge 40-terabyte boxes is ridiculously quick.
Sr. Systems Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

CTERA Enterprise File Servi...
Ranking in Cloud Migration
5th
Ranking in Cloud Backup
8th
Ranking in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software
8th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (2nd), NAS (4th), Cloud Storage (5th), Cloud Storage Gateways (1st), Content Collaboration Platforms (10th), AI Legal & Compliance (1st)
HPE Zerto Software
Ranking in Cloud Migration
1st
Ranking in Cloud Backup
3rd
Ranking in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
343
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Disaster Recovery (DR) Software category, the mindshare of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Zerto Software is 8.7%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
HPE Zerto Software8.7%
CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform1.3%
Other90.0%
Disaster Recovery (DR) Software
 

Featured Reviews

Tim M. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Supports global file recovery and rapid data versioning across 80 nodes
When we implemented CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform early on, and we've been on the platform for three years, we have three different cloud portals. We have an EU portal, we have an Americas portal, and we have an APAC portal. It would be nice if we could combine that into one portal just for that global single pane of glass look. We've talked with them about that and they say it's challenging just because of some of the structure, but that would be something nice if we could get that. I integrated with Varonis, and because CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform didn't have initially a working relationship with that vendor, it would have been nice had that pre-existed us saying we need this. But that wasn't totally CTERA's fault. There was a lot of challenge working with the vendor to build out that interface. A single pane of glass for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform would be beneficial. Everything else works fairly well. We've never had a point where we couldn't get to something that caused us to have a serious outage, and that to me is the mark of a good software package. It's never really caused us serious issues. We have our issues, that's true, and every software package does. However, we've always been able to meet the needs of the business, and we drive hard on security, stability, and scalability. From the scalability standpoint, that's one of the most important things to us. We're on their capacity-based licensing, so if I need to ramp up another CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform NAS, if we have an M&A, I can easily and quickly spin up another NAS and start doing that data transition fairly quickly. The biggest maintenance issue with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is firmware upgrades. We've done a lot of transition from hardware solution to virtualized infrastructure in order to minimize that hardware lifecycle portion of it. We have to upgrade the firmware and sometimes that can be challenging in the nature of business of our size with 80 CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform nodes around the globe. The issue we've had with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform happened recently in a firmware upgrade where there was a major database back-end upgrade and that took some time. For our smaller sites, it would be an hour or two, and I can build that into a fairly easy change window. But in our larger sites where we may have hundreds of terabytes of data, that database update process took maybe a day or a day and a half. That becomes more challenging, especially in a manufacturing environment where people are wanting to access configuration files. We had to pin the data locally because the data would be available on the local edge filer, but the cloud sync, while it was updating the database, the cloud files weren't available. That would be the other thing I'd like to see an improvement on: some way to do those database upgrades either in a more segmented fashion or in some type of offline environment. I understand the logistics behind that sounds easy, but I'm sure it's not.
DR
Enterprise data management supervisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
An all-in-one and cost-efficient solution that does what it promises
Zerto is very easy to use. Installation is about half an hour, and then it starts protecting the data and VMs. It is not very cumbersome. The UI is built very well. It is fairly self-explanatory. To be able to stand up a product you have never seen in half an hour and get it functioning and protecting speaks to how good the UI and workflow are. Zerto has near-synchronous replication. As a change is made on site A, it gets copied across the network to site B. We are five or six seconds behind production. If I have a heavily used system and I use traditional backups, I could be anywhere from 5 minutes to 23 hours behind. With Zerto, I am single-digit seconds behind. That works well for us. Our disaster recovery test, which used to span an entire week, now takes two days. We used to recover our servers in the first two or three days with a backup product and then test for two days before tearing it all down. Now, we spend half a day on new servers and ensuring things work with networking, etc. We test the next day, and we are done in two days. Across the entire company, we are able to save significant man-hours by shortening the test from a week to two days. We are now doing smaller tests once a month and larger tests once a year. Zerto has reduced our DR testing time by 60% to 70%. We are also able to do more disaster recovery testing. Previously, we were doing it once a year, whereas now, we are doing smaller tests once a month and our large tests once a year. In recovery point objectives, we are single-digit seconds behind. In terms of RTOs, I can recover 350 VMs in 30 minutes. It takes less than several seconds to restore a single VM. From days to 30 minutes for 350 compared to 100 VMs is an incredible time-saving in terms of RTOs and RPOs for us.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Disaster Recovery (DR) Software solutions are best for your needs.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user159711 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
65%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Educational Organization
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business90
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise196
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
I believe CTERA could improve their pricing experience by customizing price lists per region. For example, there is a difference between what is sold to customers in Israel versus U.S. customers. I...
What needs improvement with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
When we implemented CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform early on, and we've been on the platform for three years, we have three different cloud portals. We have an EU portal, we have an America...
What is your primary use case for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
We have approximately 80 nodes around the world and we're using CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform mostly for unstructured file storage.
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 do you like most about Zerto?
Its ability to roll back if the VM or the server that you are recovering does not come up right is also valuable. You have the ability to roll back a few seconds or a few minutes. The rollback feat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zerto?
From a pricing perspective, HPE Zerto Software is expensive in comparison to other products on the market, but I think it is an easier sell because it works so well and it is so easy to set up a de...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Zerto Virtual Replication
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McDonald's, WPP, US Navy, Gore, Festo, Stryker, Bezeq, PERI
United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs. HPE Zerto Software and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.