Cohesity DataProtect vs Synology DSM comparison

Cohesity and Synology are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Cohesity is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.3, while Synology is ranked #18 with an average rating of 9.0. Cohesity holds a 3.5% mindshare in BRS, compared to Synology’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Cohesity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Synology users who would recommend it.

Cohesity DataProtect

Read 72 Cohesity DataProtect reviews

9,187 Views
5,666 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Synology DSM

Read 10 Synology DSM reviews

1,810 Views
1,510 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cohesity DataProtect

Synology DSM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 11, 2024

Cohesity DataProtect and Synology DSM both offer robust data management and protection solutions. Users find Cohesity DataProtect superior due to its advanced features and efficient deployment, while Synology DSM is appreciated for its cost-effectiveness and straightforward integration.

Features: Cohesity DataProtect is praised for its comprehensive data protection, scalability, and quick recovery times. Synology DSM users highlight its seamless file sharing, backup solutions, and integration with various platforms. Cohesity stands out with more advanced and scalable features compared to Synology DSM.

Room for Improvement: Users of Cohesity DataProtect suggest enhancements in reporting and analytics functionalities. Synology DSM users indicate that improvements are needed in customer support and initial setup processes. Cohesity users seek better insights, while Synology DSM users desire more accessible support and easier configuration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cohesity DataProtect is noted for its relatively smooth deployment but has mixed reviews regarding customer service quality. Synology DSM enjoys positive feedback for its simple deployment process but falls short in customer service responsiveness. Cohesity offers smoother deployment with some customer service challenges, whereas Synology DSM is easier to deploy but needs better customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Cohesity DataProtect users report higher setup costs but excellent ROI due to its features and performance. Synology DSM is favored for its lower initial costs and satisfactory ROI. Cohesity DataProtect requires a higher investment but promises significant returns, whereas Synology DSM is a more budget-friendly option offering decent ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cohesity DataProtect vs. Synology DSM Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Synology DSM

April 2025

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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

Cohesity DataProtect

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

8th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Backup (6th)

Synology DSM

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

18th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Cohesity DataProtect is 3.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Synology DSM is 1.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

Giovanni Golinelli.

Hybrid IT Architect at Quanture Spa

Easy to use, offers good scalability and responsive support

The deployment depends on the environment. Deploying on VMs is relatively simple. But for most of our customers, we implement physical clusters with at least three configured hosts using the existing model. So, it depends on the setup. Implementing DataProtect itself wasn't particularly challenging. One key requirement for successful DataProtect deployment is proper network configuration. If the network setup isn't right, you won't achieve optimal performance. We have developed a service for some of our customers where they implement an appliance or physical cluster of Cohesity at the customer site. Then, we use cloud clustering to replicate, and even in production, a second copy of the protected data. And in some cases, we have developed some disaster recovery procedures using Cohesity.

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Michael Adejoh

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboard is very rich and provides details needed for a moderator."

"By using their Helios Cloud service, you have all your clusters, no matter where they are located, in one web portal."

"We are very satisfied with the product as a whole—all the backup functions, the data protection functions. We are very satisfied with those, and the product is very simple to use."

"It is also very easy to determine which VMs are being backed up and which ones aren't. This is helpful to make sure nothing is being missed."

"I found value in the instant recovery with DataMove. I found value in the protection group model for applying policies to VMs. And in the overall UI navigation and the way that the application is laid out in the web browser."

"Instead of four different solutions for protecting VMs, physical servers, SQL, and NAS, we now have one solution with Cohesity that is lightning fast and has amazing features."

"The most valuable feature is ease of use."

"Instant recovery options are a big benefit for urgent restores, as we don't need to wait for hours or days for a restore to complete before being able to access the files."

More Cohesity DataProtect pros

"The most valuable features of Synology DSM are its security and connectivity."

"The most valuable aspect is its ability to handle multiple disks."

"The solution's most valuable feature stems from its ease of use, making it the tool's most interesting part."

"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."

"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."

"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 feature of the solution is that it serves as a backup for our company's virtual machine."

More Synology DSM pros

Cons

"Microsoft Exchange online mailbox backups would be fantastic."

"Many of the reports are basic, at most, and at times we had to open a support ticket to help find or develop a report for our needs."

"We would love to see direct compatibility with HPE Simplivity, which we also leverage."

"Add the ability to delete View Boxes and External Targets in the GUI."

"Physical RDMs on virtual machines could be a bit easier to configure and plan out."

"The error handling could be improved."

"A little more documentation on standard faults would help, as new features are being released quite often."

"The support team could do a better job. Sometimes finding the correct person is cumbersome and time consuming."

More Cohesity DataProtect cons

"Synology DSM's user interface is not quite intuitive."

"The product's only shortcoming is pricing, as it is an expensive solution."

"The only bothersome aspect is that the device is aging."

"The platform could be much more cost-effective and flexible for integrating third-party products."

"One area where Synology DSM could improve is in enhancing its ability to detect and respond to security threats during backups and replication."

"Even though Synology provides a backup solution, it does not recognize the VM movement across cluster hosts."

"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."

"There's a surveillance application that allows you to connect IP cameras and stream footage to Synology and it is a great feature, but it's not always clear that adding more cameras may require purchasing additional licenses."

More Synology DSM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"Sizing is important and it is easy to overestimate."

"The ROI is huge. Not really measurable at this point, but the price of the unit was a fraction of what a couple hours of downtime could result in."

"Pricing, setup costs, etc. are pretty typical. The initial cost for Cohesity was less than other products the we evaluated. Cohesity's pricing does offer benefits as DR target costs are less than other solutions. You are not charged for DataProtect licensing for target DR data consumption."

"Ensure that you understand the per TB licensing model. Also, Exchange backups are not native to Cohesity and require Kroll."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly. It is cheaper than other backup solutions."

"It has reasonable pricing, and we know they can give discounts. If you look at the primary pricing or the list pricing, it conforms to the market pricing, but you have to have a discount on it. Otherwise, it is way too expensive."

"My advice is to always negotiate for better pricing."

More Cohesity DataProtect pricing and cost advice

"The price of the solution is very good."

"Synology DSM is a free tool."

"Synology DSM is a cheap solution."

"The solution’s pricing is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The pricing varies widely, catering to a broad range of needs."

"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."

"It is quite an affordable solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

44%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cohesity DataProtect?

Several features enable us to perform fast recovery, such as instant fast recovery. All our virtual machines protected with the product can be quickly restored to another healthy environment with m...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cohesity DataProtect?

Typically on-premises nodes/clusters are deployed for primary backup (to enable instant mass restore) so price will be dependent on chosen OEM and capacity required. MSPs like us utilise PPU licens...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cohesity DataProtect?

While there are improvements to be made, such as providing support for older systems like IBM iSeries and tandem systems from HP, the solution overall shifts from older methods to modern practices....

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What do you like most about Synology DSM?

The most valuable features of Synology DSM are its security and connectivity.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Synology DSM?

The solution’s pricing is neither cheap nor expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Synology DSM?

Users may lose their data if they don't configure the solution properly.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 27% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 15% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerProtect DD (Data Domain) vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Backup vs Cohesity DataProtect

Compared 4% of the time

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Veeam Data Platform vs Synology DSM

Compared 20% of the time

NetApp SnapCenter vs Synology DSM

Compared 9% of the time

UrBackup vs Synology DSM

Compared 7% of the time

ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage vs Synology DSM

Compared 6% of the time

SyncBack Pro vs Synology DSM

Compared 5% of the time

More Synology DSM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect

April 2025

Download Cohesity DataProtect product report

Buyer's Guide

Synology DSM

March 2025

Download Synology DSM product report

Also Known As

Cohesity

Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)

Overview

What is Cohesity DataProtect?

Cohesity DataProtect is a top-level, sophisticated, software-defined backup and recovery solution created for cloud environments. Cohesity DataProtect is made to hyperscale and is one the most thorough policy-based protection solutions available on the market today.

Cohesity DataProtect melds multiple-point products into a single software that is able to be deployed as on-premise or consumed as a service.

Top Features:

Hyperscale made easy: Cohesity DataProtect improves data protection by doing away with the need for backup silos and administers backup and recovery with a single user-friendly, easy-to-understand interface. Cohesity DataProtect provides extensive 24/7 enterprise-class protection for a large, varying set of sources, including virtual and physical servers, NAS and SaaS workloads, relational and distributed databases, and traditional and containerized applications.

Super fast recovery: Cohesity DataProtect offers near-zero recovery point objectives (RPOs) and near-instant recovery time objectives (RTOs) to satisfy your business service-level agreements (SLAs). Using Cohesity Helios’ unified data plane and control plane you can immediately search and recover data on any Cohesity cluster, located anywhere. DataProtect distinctively minimizes downtime by immediately mass restoring any amount of virtual machines (VMs) to any point in time, and lowers data protection costs by as much as 70% or more.

Backup as a Service: Feel free to take advantage of the elasticity of the public cloud and the cost-effective value of Cohesity DataProtect when delivered as a service. When you choose an OPEX option, you can eliminate the need for on-premises hardware. There is a SaaS option that will allow you to very simply configure your backup workloads and immediately begin protecting your vital all-important data and applications.

It’s as easy as: sign-up, connect, and protect!

Ransomware protection: Cohesity DataProtect offers stellar recovery at scale. The solution is so intuitive, it has machine learning-based anomaly detection to stop incidents before they happen. Cohesity DataProtection can provide immutable backups, Datalock write once, read many (WORM), encryption, and role-based access control (RBAC).

Cohesity DataProtect integrates well with many of today’s top solutions, including, but not limited to:

Hypervisors: VMware vSphere (5.5 and later), Microsoft Hyper-V (2019, 2016, 2012 R2), Nutanix AHV and RHeV

Kubernetes-based data and application state

Cloud: AWS EC2, Amazon RDS, Azure VM, and Google Compute

Physical: Windows, Linux(RHEL, CentOS, OEL, Debian, Ubuntu), AIX (7.x), and Solaris

Databases: Oracle (11g R2, 12c), Oracle RAC and SQL (2008 or later)

Distributed Databases (NoSQL and Hadoop): MongoDB, CouchbaseDB, Apache, Cassandra, Cloudera, and Hortonworks.

Bare Machine Recovery: Windows and Linux

Applications: MS Exchange (2010 SP3 or later), MSFT Active Directory, Microsoft 365 (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams, Groups), SalesForce (SFDC), and SAP HANA

Primary storage: Pure FlashArray, HPE Nimble, and Cisco Hyperflex

NAS: Pure FlashBlade, NetApp, Isilon, IBM GPFS, Google EFS, Elastifile, and generic solutions*

Reviews from Real Users

One reviewer, who is head of IT infrastructure at Kampmann says, “Cohesity really is a Next-Gen Data Management Software,” and goes on to indicate that Cohesity “works flawlessly with easy replication of backups and numerous supported backup sources.”

Another user, who is a senior network engineer at a legal firm, relates that "Cohesity is a robust and feature-rich solution"

Cohesity

Synology DSM (DiskStation Manager) is a comprehensive software platform designed for Synology NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. It serves as the operating system for these devices, providing a wide range of features and functionalities.

The primary use case of Synology DSM is to centralize and manage data storage for organizations. It allows businesses to store, access, and share files securely across multiple devices and platforms. With its intuitive user interface, DSM simplifies the management of data, making it easy to create shared folders, set access permissions, and monitor storage usage.

One of the most valuable functionalities of Synology DSM is its robust data protection capabilities. It offers various RAID configurations, including SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID), which ensures data redundancy and safeguards against drive failures. DSM also supports advanced backup and disaster recovery solutions, such as Snapshot Replication and Hyper Backup, enabling organizations to protect their critical data effectively.

Furthermore, Synology DSM provides a wide range of productivity and collaboration tools. It offers applications like Synology Drive, which allows seamless file synchronization across devices, and Synology Office, a web-based suite for document editing and collaboration. DSM also supports various third-party applications, including popular cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive, enabling organizations to integrate their existing workflows seamlessly.

Synology

Sample Customers

Tribune Media

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Cohesity DataProtect vs. Synology DSM

April 2025

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