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HPE Zerto Software vs Synology DSM 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

HPE Zerto Software
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
345
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Backup (2nd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st)
Synology DSM
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
53rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of HPE Zerto Software is 2.0%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Synology DSM is 1.4%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
HPE Zerto Software2.0%
Synology DSM1.4%
Other96.6%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Michael Adejoh - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Manager at Excel Connect Ventures
Reliable and cost-effective
One area where Synology DSM could improve is in enhancing its ability to detect and respond to security threats during backups and replication. Currently, it lacks the capability to automatically stop backups if it detects a virus or suspicious network activity, as some third-party solutions can. Having AI-driven analytics to identify anomalies and halt backups during potential attacks, along with notifications to administrators, would be valuable. Additionally, providing a dashboard for monitoring the backup environment's security would be a beneficial feature. These improvements would help address security concerns and make Synology more competitive in this aspect.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"HPE Zerto Software has saved me time in data recovery situations due to something like ransomware because we have protection against it."
"I like that the failover is simple and that it's a stable platform. It makes it easy for us to do failovers in the event that we have an issue. It also makes it easier to do test failovers because we can test it prior to actually doing a real failover. This means that we can pull things back or commit them over on the other side. Zerto streamlines the process instead of having to have a whole team of people who are dedicated to disaster recovery."
"The features of HPE Zerto Software that I appreciate the most include being able to recover VMs, change the target, and either deploy the VM with the same IP address or a different IP address on different networks for a digital twin."
"What I appreciate the most about HPE Zerto Software is that it works."
"The features of HPE Zerto Software that I appreciate most are that it's straightforward, and the console is clear, allowing me to assign it to my staff members who can generally tell the health of the Zerto implementation."
"HPE Zerto Software helped to reduce downtime in our corporate IT environment, and it was a very smooth dry run."
"Zerto's user-friendliness is valuable."
"The most valuable for us and for my company is that we are replicating most of our production customers to the DR site, and we can do testing whenever we want."
"The solution's most valuable feature stems from its ease of use, making it the tool's most interesting part."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it serves as a backup for our company's virtual machine."
"Because of its simplicity and the wide array of features it offers, I would recommend DSM for both tech-savvy individuals and those who prefer a straightforward file-serving solution."
"Synology DSM is very easy to work and operate."
"It offers a variety of software options through its package center, allowing users to customize their NAS device to serve multiple purposes."
"The most valuable features are the basic storage, file management, Btrfs file system, and built-in backups that come with the solution."
"The most valuable features of Synology DSM are its security and connectivity."
"The product performs well. It is easy to use and implement."
 

Cons

"I don't have any input for improvement or a critical feature request at this moment. If anything, a lower price is always better."
"Over my eight years working with HPE Zerto Software, I have experienced some downtime and crashes during upgrades."
"The alerting could be fine tuned and improved. It does a lot of alerts, but it's a little bit cumbersome to modify them."
"I'm not sure if it has throttling, meaning, what's going over the wire and how we can throttle that to reduce the amount of data that's going across the bandwidth. I can't remember if that's something that's in this product. It might be in the more recent version."
"Adding or changing VPGs (Virtual Protection Groups) may require restarting replication."
"It is crucial for Zerto to collaborate closely with VMware in order to promptly test updates."
"My input would be to have their sales engineers not overpromise and then have the product underdeliver because we were scoped not-appropriately sized target hardware."
"I would like to see different reporting options than what is currently available."
"Synology DSM is a good enough solution for small and medium companies, but I have not seen a big configuration of the solution for a big organization."
"One area where Synology DSM could improve is in enhancing its ability to detect and respond to security threats during backups and replication."
"The platform could be much more cost-effective and flexible for integrating third-party products."
"Users may lose their data if they don't configure the solution properly."
"The product's only shortcoming is pricing, as it is an expensive solution."
"Even though Synology provides a backup solution, it does not recognize the VM movement across cluster hosts."
"Synology DSM's user interface is not quite intuitive."
"The only bothersome aspect is that the device is aging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is top tier but offers good value."
"I do not like the current pricing model because the product has been divided into different components and they are charging for them individually."
"Licensing Zerto was very simple. They had a product that fit our size and scale. It made it really easy to choose."
"Its licensing is yearly. You can do multi-year contracts, which is what we did. You pay per VM, and you replicate a license per VM. So, we bought about 20 licenses. We paid somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. There is an initial upfront cost. Basically, you buy the license, and then you have a maintenance cost on top of that. So, the upfront cost is somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000. The maintenance is $5,000 to $10,000 over a three-year period."
"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."
"The pricing is a little more expensive in comparison to other tools."
"Zerto is pretty reasonable. I haven't checked to see how much Rubrik is going to quote us for their solution. At least for us, the price doesn't play a big factor in the decision-making because it is a pretty small deployment for our use case."
"Having backup and DR is somewhat moderately important to us. The problem with us, and a lot of companies, is the issue with on-prem Zerto. It utilizes whatever you have for a SAN. Or, if you are like us, we have a vSAN and that storage is not cheap. So, it is cheaper to have a self-contained backup system that is on its own storage rather than utilizing your data center storage, like your vSAN. While it is somewhat important to have both backup and DR, it is not incredibly important to have both. I know Zero is trying to heavily dip their toes in the water of backup and recovery. Once you see what Zerto can do, I don't think anyone will not take Zerto because they don't necessarily specialize in backup and recovery 100 percent. They do replication so well."
"It is quite an affordable solution."
"Synology DSM is a free tool."
"The licensing part of the solution is free. The hardware is more expensive than the other solutions in the market, but it's okay in the long run."
"The solution’s pricing is neither cheap nor expensive."
"The price of the solution is very good."
"The pricing varies widely, catering to a broad range of needs."
"Synology DSM is a cheap solution."
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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
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business90
Midsize Enterprise87
Large Enterprise197
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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Also Known As

Zerto Virtual Replication
Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies
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Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Zerto Software vs. Synology DSM and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.