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Azure Backup vs Unitrends 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

Azure Backup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Unitrends
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
38th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Azure Backup is 3.4%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unitrends is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Terry Tull - PeerSpot reviewer
Straightforward to set up and manage and allows us to monitor all backups in one place
I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as an eight out of ten. Setting up Azure Backup was pretty straightforward, especially if you follow the steps in the right order. It might seem a bit complex at first, but with experience, subsequent setups become easier. Planning is key to optimizing its effectiveness. Deploying Azure Backup typically takes around half an hour to an hour to set up one VM, involving creating a recovery services vault, defining a backup policy, and configuring storage options. For a more comprehensive setup including proper recovery planning, it might take a few hours. The key steps involve creating a resource group, and a recovery services vault, selecting a storage type, and defining backup policies. I deployed the solution myself.
Todd Guthrie - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution can be used to back up servers and Hyper-V cluster nodes, but its support is super expensive
I wouldn't rate Unitrends a ten out of ten because we had some hard drive failures in the appliance. Typically, when you have OneDrive, you can get it replaced. For some particular reason, the situation caused the entire system to crash. We had to reinstall the CentOS operating system on it, and we lost all our backups. They said there was no way to retain it, and it was pretty devastating and concerning that a drive failure would cause the loss of all the data on the appliance. It was extremely disappointing, and we had to start from scratch after three years worth of backup data. I rate Unitrends a nine out of ten for stability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are happy with this product and have not found any issues while using it."
"I like the product's restoration cases."
"The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is the native backup capabilities."
"Setting up Azure Backup is straightforward and the total deployment time was about a month."
"The product is very reliable and easy to use."
"The hardware is always updated and it's saved us a lot of money."
"The most valuable feature of Azure Backup is its simplicity."
"Azure Backup is good because it is entirely cloud-based, which means that you can be 99.9% sure that your backup is safe."
"Backup/archive to multiple locations."
"When I have had to use tech support, they've been very good."
"Unitrends has helped us cut down the time that it takes to restore a server to its original configuration."
"VM backup is much faster and more reliable, as I can test my backups with Data Copy Access jobs."
"I am impressed with the tool's reporting and UniView features."
"Being an appliance-based solution, we were able to migrate backup solutions without having to purchase a lot of hardware separately."
"I really like the reporting options you get for various email reports."
"Iinstant recovery (allows a spin-up of your image as a VM on the appliance)."
 

Cons

"Azure lacks sufficient solutions for a particular scenario, we may need to resort to using third-party applications. In such cases, these applications can be employed to facilitate backup, replication, and the efficient utilization of internet connectivity and bandwidth. They enable us to effectively manage and transfer data while ensuring optimal utilization of network resources. However, it would be a benefit if we did not have to use third-party applications for these operations."
"The extensibility onto hybrid environments needs a bit of tweaking for those on-prem."
"I believe more options could be available to understand better what's happening in the system. Additionally, automating the client updates and connector updates would be beneficial. Updating the connector from time to time can be challenging, and it could be made more transparent and straightforward for users. Moreover, another drawback lies in the time it takes to test full data backup recovery. Deploying a full recovery takes longer. We need to allocate a longer period for complete data recovery to establish the environment again."
"They need to improve the frequency of the backup. You can only backup one to three times a day. It would be better to back up continuously throughout the day."
"While Azure Backup allows ingress data, the egress data is chargeable, which should be excluded."
"The integration with the record database and integration with other applications will be good, especially with the database piece."
"It can be further improved by continuously meeting its compliance requirements."
"There is a limitation of 99 files restores per day which means that we can't complete a huge file restore. We would like Azure to increase the number of the possible file restorations."
"The amount of updates which are being released. Updates should be limited to two or three a year, focusing more on quality instead of a rushed bug release."
"It would be great to have the job throttle/limit the max number of backups on a single ESXi host."
"Making the seeding process more accessible and easier to understand. Also, make more of the undocumented best practices easier to find."
"There are a few quirks where the GUI, agent, and back-end are not precisely meshed."
"Unitrends can be challenging to scale."
"The solution’s support and onboarding process needs to be improved."
"The solution’s UI can be improved. I am saying this because I have seen solutions with better UIs."
"In terms of improvement, the UI, especially in the recovery section, is unclear about which repository it uses."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We do not have any additional costs for Azure Backup."
"The price should be cheaper, but it's affordable if you use the yearly subscription."
"It is a very cheap cloud solution."
"We are paying about $100,000 USD per year, just for a couple of servers."
"The pricing of this solution is good, and it is one of the easiest things that you can sell Azure with."
"Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
"The pricing of this solution is ok, but I'm expecting that the price will decrease in the future."
"The product is neither too expensive nor too cheap."
"Make sure you do the homework to size the solution properly. Buy the Enterprise Plus licensing if you can afford it."
"We found that the cost of Unitrends was about the same as the Dell DR6300. We liked the fact that the Unitrends appliance was all-in-one."
"When we renew the Unitrends maintenance contract and update it to the latest version, the cost would be $5,000 per year. There are no hidden costs. They've been transparent with the costs."
"When you purchase initially, get into the program which gives replacement hardware for free when you renew your support agreement."
"Their licensing depended on the number of CPUs you had."
"Unitrends is an expensive solution."
"Based on a scale of one to ten, with one being low and ten being high, I would rate the pricing of this solution as a three. Also, there are no additional costs involved in the standard licensing of the solution."
"No comment."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Azure Backup differ from Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam has a version for Azure but there are organizations, like ours, that are considering moving to an Azure environment and wonder if Azure Backup is better than Veeam Backup and Replication (Vee...
What do you like most about Azure Backup?
Azure Backup is easy to configure and restore.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Backup?
Azure Backup is expensive relative to the value we get from it. I do not have specific details about the licensing cost as it falls under another department.
What do you like most about Unitrends?
The most valuable feature of Unitrends for me is the automated feedback
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Unitrends?
Unitrends is an expensive solution. We've negotiated deals where they've given us the $ 62,000 to $ 64,000 appliance for free but charged $ 90,000 for three years of support.
What needs improvement with Unitrends?
In terms of improvement, the UI, especially in the recovery section, is unclear about which repository it uses—I had to hover over to find that information. Figuring out the scripting part wasn't s...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Russell Reynolds Associates, Somerset County Council, Kardem, PCL Construction
NHL Players Association, Salvation Army, Sligro Food Group, Mason General Hospital, Tec Group, Saldab IT, Baker Tilly, Clinton Savings Bank, Ennit Magna Bank, Manukau Institute of Technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Backup vs. Unitrends and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.