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Bacula Enterprise 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

Bacula Enterprise
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
25th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Backup (19th)
Veritas NetBackup
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Bacula Enterprise is 1.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Veritas NetBackup is 1.5%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Veritas NetBackup1.5%
Bacula Enterprise1.0%
Other97.5%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Davilson  Aguiar - PeerSpot reviewer
Analista Tecnologia Banco de Dados at Centro de Gestão da Tecnologia da Informação
Very cost-effective and well organized with good compression
It could improve its interface or offer a specific screen for the manager of the company. A managerial user who wants more information beyond the operational technician should be able to access it. It could include greater transparency regarding the volume of data trafficked on the network, as well as the expectation of deduplication. A more practical strategy could come with a backup policy model as a suggestion for both large and small companies. A simple suggestion is to visually implement the backup time as far as your physical media.
SunilPanigrahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Unified backups have protected virtual machines and applications and optimize storage efficiency
Regarding automated disaster recovery, we have not used Veritas NetBackup automated disaster recovery because according to the RFP terms and conditions, we are not supposed to have automated failover or failback, as we are a government entity and cannot violate the rules of the RFP. My feedback about granular recovery in Veritas NetBackup is that we have been doing verifications of the backed-up data to restore from point to point and time to time, focusing on file level or database level. When it comes to integration with cloud services, we have not started because we are a government entity and are not allowed to store any data in the cloud at this time. From security concerns regarding what I would improve about Veritas NetBackup, I think you need to look into this because we found only one encryption option available, which is not that very strong. When I initiate a backup from my laptop or server to the appliance or the tape media using Veritas NetBackup, the encryption channels are not strong, and there are not many options available. Whatever is there is by default and not changeable. We cannot modify any encryption facilities, and security is a big concern nowadays, so you need to look into that. Regarding the functionality part of Veritas NetBackup, I think this encryption feature should be stronger and integrated from point to point, not just at specific levels. When I initiate a backup, all the communication channels involved should be encrypted until it reaches the endpoint, meaning from client to server, server to client, and client device.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can be used in virtually any environment we have onsite."
"We have been using it for several years and we are very satisfied with how easy it is to configure and set up and run backups."
"The support is outstanding and world-class."
"It brought many advantages - such as the learning curve being very light."
"Bacula Enterprise, so far, has never let us down with their service and support."
"Technical support is excellent in my opinion."
"Bacula is pretty stable."
"The solution has extensive documentation and a very active community."
"Deduplication is quite efficient."
"I would recommend the product to others."
"This product is flexible enough to allow for backing up data from physical machines, as well as from your cloud environment."
"This is a very competitive product because all of the latest features and technology is in there."
"Veritas NetBackup has assisted our company in securing data, protecting data, and protecting our business."
"The most valuable feature is its stability."
"Deduplication is the most valuable feature as it reduces the backup time and provides backup of a single copy of data"
"The Dedup and file storage is great and very valuable."
 

Cons

"Many features have been converted to commercial licensing, which restricts their availability."
"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."
"The initial setup could be a bit easier."
"We would like to see an improvement in the functionality of the GUI."
"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"We are looking for a unique interface that can rule both enterprise and open source editions. Such a thing does not yet exist."
"Support for the solution needs improvement. When we contacted support with issues, we had to be passed on to the higher level of the support team, going from level one through to three."
"The restore tool is not friendly to newcomers."
"NetBackup is expensive and should be cheaper. That is why we are moving on to another solution."
"There is room for improvement in the implementation of Power servers."
"From security concerns regarding what I would improve about Veritas NetBackup, I think you need to look into this because we found only one encryption option available, which is not that very strong."
"We faced so many backup configuration issues. And from the Veritas side, they couldn't fix that issue. So we started from scratch, purchased everything, and then we configured everything. Therefore, the support could be better."
"The code base in general could use an overhaul. The base of the product is very old."
"Our real issue is the pricing and it's a recurring cost, so it's not something that will go away any time soon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source solution."
"We have a perpetual license."
"Veritas NetBackup is more expensive than Cohesity and Rubrik, but it is comparable in price to Commvault, IBM, and Dell."
"The price of Veritas NetBackup is high, it should be reduced."
"The licensing model is cost-prohibitive as you scale out."
"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."
"Most people have felt this solution was somewhat expensive."
"The price is okay."
"Its price is quite reasonable. The cost depends on the depreciation and the volume. It also depends on the infrastructure. If your infrastructure increases, you would need some more licenses."
"NetBackup is expensive. They need to work on the pricing side. I find it comparatively on the higher side when I compare the terabyte backup costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise66
 

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...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veritas NetBackup?
I would rate pricing for Veritas NetBackup around six, as it is neither high nor low.
What needs improvement with Veritas NetBackup?
Regarding automated disaster recovery, we have not used Veritas NetBackup automated disaster recovery because according to the RFP terms and conditions, we are not supposed to have automated failov...
 

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 NetBackup and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
896,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.