Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Dell Avamar vs Zerto 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Dell Avamar offers cost-effective data reduction and deduplication, improving ROI and data security during disruptions, saving storage costs.
Sentiment score
7.3
Zerto enhances efficiency, reduces costs and downtime by automating disaster recovery and eliminating secondary hardware, providing substantial time savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Dell Avamar support is mixed; praised for helpfulness but criticized for response times, offshore issues, and complex query handling.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zerto's customer support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though complex issues sometimes face slower response times post-HP acquisition.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Dell Avamar is lauded for scalability, but experiences vary due to node complexity, compatibility issues, and cost concerns.
Sentiment score
7.6
Zerto efficiently manages scalable growth across diverse environments, supporting increased workloads with simple license additions and minimal intervention.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Dell Avamar is stable and reliable, effectively handling backups, with minor support and integration issues on older systems.
Sentiment score
8.0
Zerto is stable and reliable, with issues usually due to user errors, receiving high ratings for dependable performance.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell Avamar needs interface, cloud integration, speed, scalability, cost-effectiveness improvements, and stronger security and technical support.
Users desire improvements in Zerto's documentation, reporting, Hyper-V support, user interface, licensing, pricing, automation, and advanced features.
There are instances where backups fail on certain applications, which is an area that could be improved.
 

Setup Cost

Dell Avamar is expensive, but offers flexible, cost-effective options for medium-to-large enterprises with capacity and CPU-based pricing.
Zerto's VM licensing offers scalable pricing, viewed as cost-efficient yet sometimes expensive, aligning with powerful disaster recovery features.
I don't currently have detailed knowledge about the pricing, however, it is geared towards enterprise businesses and might be on the higher side.
 

Valuable Features

Dell Avamar offers efficient, reliable backups and recovery with deduplication, VMware integration, scalability, and user-friendly features.
Zerto provides seamless integration, rapid recovery, and real-time replication, excelling in disaster recovery and migration with near-zero RPOs.
The most valuable feature for me is the backup functionality.
Replicating my settings helps me recover point objectives faster and retain policies.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell Avamar
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (3rd)
Zerto
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
279
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Migration (4th), Cloud Backup (3rd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell Avamar is 3.6%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zerto is 2.8%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

Rahul Sarangdhar - PeerSpot reviewer
Works excellently for on-prem backup but not the best for Azure backups
Avamar is not the best tool when it comes to taking Azure backups. Like Commvault, if Avamar can support VM-level backups for the cloud, that would make it a bit better. There is another Dell EMC tool called NetWorker, which is a bit centralized tool. If you deploy a storage node locally, you can use the same UI tool for central management, but in the case of Avamar, it needs to be deployed individually on a site, irrespective of whether it's small or big. So, if I have 10 sites, I have to manage 10 Avamar. That's a bit of a headache. The Dell EMC solution professionals who connect with the clients should suggest NetWorker to clients with multiple sites rather than Avamar. That's because NetWorker gives more centralized control, but they keep recommending Avamar, which isn't the best practice. There are no free or cheaper training plans. Unless your company is a partner with Dell, you don't get the student guide training, etc. Their administrator guide does not have all the information required for a new person. It doesn't cover the basics. The student guide is good, but it's not free. If you are a partner, only then it's free. Otherwise, there is a cost of $2,000 to $3,000. For people who are new to Avamar, there should be some resources to enable them to study on their own at least 50% of the basics. If I want to study Commvault, I get so many documents and resources to study, but in the case of Dell EMC products, there aren't any free resources. Only if you're a partner, the resources are available for you to learn. The user manuals and administrator guides are just for deployment. They aren't good for learning the basics for a fresher.
Shri Sharan - PeerSpot reviewer
Is user-friendly, saves us time, and costs
We encountered some issues during Active Directory recovery. When we implemented Active Directory, we provided feedback to Zerto regarding the challenges of recovering AD from the on-premises environment to the disaster recovery site. Unlike other virtual machines, AD recovery presents unique difficulties due to its active-active nature. It's unclear whether these challenges stem from Zerto itself or limitations within Microsoft Active Directory. However, in our experience using Zerto for AD recovery compared to other technologies, we faced data discrepancies that necessitated workarounds to bring AD online at the DR site. Certain applications we migrated from production relied on Active Directory authentication. To ensure successful application functionality at the DR site, a functional AD environment was a prerequisite to application migration. Therefore, our initial step involved copying and guaranteeing a running AD instance on the DR side before application recovery. However, upon attempting application authentication on the DR side, data inconsistencies prevented successful authentication. To address this, we created an isolated clone of the AD environment and conducted tests. Through trial and error, we were able to develop workarounds to resolve the issue. Notably, these challenges were specific to Active Directory; other VMs didn't exhibit similar problems.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Backup and Recovery solutions are best for your needs.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user159711 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Dell EMC Avamar and Dell EMC NetWorker?
From the very beginning, Dell EMC NetWorker considers users and those who might potentially become users. In terms of both pricing and setup, this product offers an experience that is significantly...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC Avamar?
I don't currently have detailed knowledge about the pricing, however, it is geared towards enterprise businesses and might be on the higher side.
What do you like most about Dell Avamar?
Easy to configure and highly reliable for backup.
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?
I would rate the pricing, setup cost, and licensing around a seven on a scale of one to ten. The pricing model could be more flexible to accommodate startup companies with lower budgets.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Avamar
Zerto Virtual Replication
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dodge County, St Laurence's College, FieldCore (a GE Company), Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Getronics, Lewisville Independent School District, EnvisionRxOptions, Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions
United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Avamar vs. Zerto and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.