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Veritas Backup Exec vs Veritas NetBackup 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

Veritas Backup Exec
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Veritas NetBackup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
116
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Veritas Backup Exec is 1.8%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas NetBackup is 3.7%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Q&A Highlights

MP
Jan 23, 2020
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Wesam Qashou - PeerSpot reviewer
A mature backup solution, with many features, and great support
Veritas NetBackup is the first line of defense when disaster strikes. Before performing disaster recovery, we must have a good backup of our image that is also protected from ransomware. This way, we have a golden image that is resilient to ransomware attacks. We saw the benefits of Veritas NetBackup within the first three months.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives us the ability to locate and restore critical files which users may have intentionally or unknowing deleted a while ago."
"Veritas is simple and easy to deploy. In terms of the presentation and UI, they do their job well."
"This solution is not complex and you do not have to be too technical to use it."
"Backup Exec 2012 R2 is a very good product for the Windows file system and SQL backups. It is very user-friendly, but the next version Backup Exec 2014 that is released and the other next versions of Backup Exec product is not so friendly."
"Veritas Backup Exec is fully compatible with different tape libraries."
"It is easy to set up and use for daily processes and a good solution for preserving crucial data."
"It offers good performance and stability, and it works properly."
"The dashboard was good. I loved to see the maintenance dashboard every time I logged on. That was my first screen because it always gave me a reminder of how many days before my next renewal."
"The most valuable feature is replication because, using NetBackup replication, we can have disaster recovery of the data we have."
"The main features of this solution are deduplication, compression, ease of use, simplistic user interface, and compatibility with all the backup service systems."
"The solution is stable."
"I like that it's enterprise-capable. It can handle multiple operating systems. It can handle multiple database types. It can handle a lot of different backup use cases. It's flexible."
"We were able to witness the benefits of using the solution within weeks of using it."
"The backup and restore functions are very valuable aspects of the product."
"The most valuable feature is flexibility."
"NetBackup is highly stable. We have more than 1,800 policies that run every day."
 

Cons

"We need to have duplication and better compression."
"The solution could improve by having better documentation."
"It could be improved in the area of reporting and ease-of-use."
"Some improvements are needed to enhance flexibility."
"There is no training provided, and their technicians are unaware of the features available."
"The cost is quite high. Along with the general costs, the supposed agents that you have to buy for the various options that you want to use ends up driving the costs higher as well."
"More stable environment in a WAN infrastructure."
"It would be nice to improve the backup acceleration and the fast restoration required."
"Once the protection plan is created, we cannot pause or resume via the web administration page."
"The HTML interface is a web application that does not offer all the features."
"The interface should be improved."
"They need to work on the GUI. It has been the same for the last 10 years."
"Within their product lineup, they need to consolidate down to one product. Veritas doesn't have one product that does everything. So, Veritas can do everything, but you basically need to run two products. I would like them to combine all the capabilities into one release."
"This product would be improved with the inclusion of a Sandbox feature like Veeam Sandbox."
"I also think they could improve the reporting. They use a web-based software application OpsCenter for the reporting and I see that they haven't made any changes in years."
"The product needs to improve its GUI. It needs to make use of a web interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be more cost-effective."
"I think it's sold at the right price. It's not expensive. The license is usually for a year."
"I would like to see a better licensing model. They changed it and it's just horrendous."
"Licensing depends on the part of the backup you're using. If you have SQL backup, then you must have a SQL license. If you have normal data backup, you would require a license for that."
"The product is inexpensive compared to enterprise software."
"Veritas comes with an annual licensing fee."
"The pricing is good."
"I think, at least for the price I've seen, it could be lower compared to other products."
"The price is fair."
"The licensing fees are expensive."
"If you want to have more scalability you have to purchase more licenses. The license is annually and there are a lot of different licensing depending on the number of terabytes needed. It is not based on per-user, core, or servers. You can backup anything you want using the purchased terabyte space."
"The licensing model is cost-prohibitive as you scale out."
"The solution is expensive."
"So far I can only say that the license structure could be looked at to be aligned as either capacity-based or traditional."
"The pricing, of course, can always be better."
"It was on a yearly basis. During the annual review, when we asked them about our licensing, they couldn't explain it. For example, we had reduced by a factor of 40%, but our license only dropped by 5%. We would then ask Veritas people if we've reduced this much and shut down these servers, why has our license changed so less? They were never able to give us a straight answer. They weren't able to say, "Well, you're using this, and this is more expensive." In many cases, as we reduced our capacity and what we were using with Veritas NetBackup, our licensing actually went up, and they were often unable to explain why."
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Answers from the Community

MP
Jan 23, 2020
Jan 23, 2020
Both solutions are perfect and great names in data protection. If you have a small or medium setup then go with Backup Exec and if you have a big setup with the latest workload then go with Net Backup. You can get a TB license for all servers which you want to protect.
2 out of 9 answers
it_user762030 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 20, 2020
We have just recently migrated our backups off of Netbackup due to the cost. I do not remember the licensing, but the whole product was getting too expensive for not only the product but for the management of the product. We had 6 different pieces in the environment due to some configuration designs. So we have moved to a product that we pay so much for the hardware and then a license for the amount of data we ingest through that product. It is one environment management that can handle a large amount of Data Protection.
Bckupdataad67 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 20, 2020
The proper question is not Backupexec or Netbackup but what kind of protection you want to have? We had backup exec for more than 4 years and I can assure you, as a backup administrator, that I had some really hard days related to the proper coverage of servers, applications, and data. Netbackup is the proper choice if you want a serious protection infrastructure but you have to consider the following key facts: -What type of environment do you want to protect? Netbackup works perfectly with VMWare and with mixed environments. I'm not saying that it will not work with other providers but the integration with VMware is one of the greatest pros of this product. -Is the backup time window enough to cover all your resources? With Backupexec I was struggling to have all backup jobs complete in a time frame of 13 hours. With Netbackup and especially in conjunction with their Appliances I was able to add more and more jobs for the very same time frame. -What is your frontend volume? With Netbackup the best solution is to have a Frontend Capacity license. With this license type, there's no need to buy extra licenses for SQL, SharePoint, Exchange, Oracle, etc. It's an all-inclusive license. Furthermore, with the new version 8.2 you don't even have to install agents on servers! The prices may vary but I guess for i.e 20TB capacity the price will be somewhere between 80000 to 100000 euros (1-year maintenance included and assuming a feasible discount). You don't have to pay for an appliance but if you afford it it's highly recommended in order to achieve the best performance and other technologies (i.e AIR, deduplication ratio, etc). I don't really know what is the current status of Backupexec in terms of version, prices, features etc. As a product it's absolutely not comparable to Netbackup On the other hand we have left it behind for good.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas Backup Exec?
The price is one of the best. When I compare it with others, it is twice or three times cheaper, however, the functionality is the same.
What is the best next generation backup tool?
Assuming you have an onprem ecosystem which runs the VMware, physical systems on Win, Linux and Unix and run both traditional DB's and nosql DB's like mongo, then Netbackup (NBU) will be the right ...
What do you like most about Veritas NetBackup?
The most valuable feature of cloud integration is the ability to send data outside of your location. This can be achieved by integrating cloud tier options or other object storage solutions.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas NetBackup?
The product is cost-effective, and I would rate its pricing as an eight out of ten. The pricing model is based on the amount of data transferred, making it manageable for us.
 

Also Known As

Backup Exec, Symantec Backup Exec
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Beta Offshore
Beta Offshore
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851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.