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Dell NetWorker vs OpenText Data Protector 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

Dell NetWorker
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenText Data Protector
Ranking in Backup and Recovery
22nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell NetWorker is 1.3%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Data Protector is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Backup and Recovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell NetWorker1.3%
OpenText Data Protector1.0%
Other97.7%
Backup and Recovery
 

Featured Reviews

RaedHassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Specialist Backup/Storage at National Bank of Kuwait
Has supported flexible multi-platform backups and improved over time
Regarding the effectiveness of Dell NetWorker in terms of role-based access controls, I have experience with it, but I find it somewhat lacking in flexibility as it offers limited features, and I would rate it around seven out of ten. It is not that there is something wrong with the role-based access controls in Dell NetWorker, but it lacks many permissions or roles to assign, providing options only for administrator or user. To improve Dell NetWorker for the next release, I recommend enhancing flexibility in the policy, allowing selection of multiple options within the same policy, and addressing issues like the DNS lookup dependency to make it more controllable from Dell NetWorker itself rather than relying on other applications. Looking forward, I would like to see improved policy features and a more enhanced GUI, as it is still slow.
Ahmad-Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager And Technical Consultant at EEMC
Provides effective backup for physical servers and needs improvements for cloud compatibility
We use OpenText Data Protector for Oracle database backup and some applications that run for database security OpenText Data Protector is good for physical backup, specifically for physical servers. It is effective for direct backups to EMC library or storage without using a repository. However,…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has a longer lifespan."
"Anybody could drive the GUI."
"The initial setup is simple."
"It is an extremely stable product."
"Technical support for this solution is very good; they are nice people and whenever we need support, they turn up and investigate, and within an hour they will start an investigation."
"The backup feature for this product is good. It is easy to set up and easy to scale."
"It is application aware for Meditech, Exchange and SQL."
"The support of Dell EMC NetWorker is very good."
"Data Protector is highly scalable."
"It is a very good application that does the job and provides everything any basic backup application should do."
"Data Protector is absolutely stable for us."
"The product scales very well and cost-effectively."
"The best thing I find with Data Protector as opposed to other products was the inter-compatibility with all different OSs; it's very OS agnostic and just seems to work, and the GUI interface is very intuitive and very easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to recover individual files."
"The valuable features are the ability to backup data, write to D2Ds, and utilize D2D compression technology, so we can store a heck of a lot more data on less storage, saving us time and money."
"The file system backup (by far, the most used) is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"We pretend to start image backups from VMware, but we are also working with Xen and RHEV, and this product doesn't support those platforms."
"The support is an area with concerns where improvements are required."
"Dell EMC NetWorker has so many versions in a short span of time, which contain a lot of bugs that need to be fixed because each upgrade has its own issues."
"They have many different products but they don't integrate all of the features into one product."
"In my opinion, Networker is not a very good product; it's very complex compared to Veeam and other products."
"The UI needs some enhancement to be more user-friendly."
"The price could be cheaper."
"I would like to see encryption included in the next release to encrypt the data that we are backing up."
"This product is lagging behind most of its competitors. It is still expensive to add features and the ESXi integration is terrible -- you have to restore a whole VMDK to then get the ability to restore a file."
"I think the GUI needs a vast overhaul."
"The Data Protector software service shuts down randomly sometimes."
"We didn't know exactly where this solution would go a few years ago. It was in a storage department and then later in a software department."
"Until last year it was very good, but in 2015 we felt a drop in service because some technical resources disappeared."
"In terms of what can be improved, I would say integrations with MongoDB. We use MongoDB and we need to go to scripts to do backups."
"The downside of the flexibility on offer is if you over-configure it, it may fail to function as some configurations may not match."
"Micro Focus Data Protector must improve its overall evolution record. They need to focus on hardware based instant recovery, client recovery, and cloud ability. Now there is no cloud ability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a licensing fee."
"The pricing for the telecom, government, and banking sectors is relatively affordable."
"The solution follows a subscription model for licensing. We pay annually to use the solution and the price is high."
"It is not very expensive and not very cheap."
"Licensing is based on the number of terabytes, so you need to purchase packages."
"They are not cheap."
"The price of the license could be cheaper and it would be a benefit if they came up with a new pricing model. The competitors here in Oman sell universal licensing where a number of virtual machines are hosted at the customer place which can be licensed, or you can license the CPU sockets in those servers. However, NetWorker offers only CPU sockets or overall storage capacity to backup, but there is no universal licensing where you can provide a number of VMs. They should offer more options to stay competitive with other solutions, such as Veeam."
"The price is a little on the high side, but it's reliable and provides a good service."
"The pricing is around $3,000 to $5,000. The charge additionally for support and to scale."
"The product is cheaper than Commvault."
"We have many competitors who are pricing better, and we believe that our pricing is higher."
"The licensing cost was not annual. We didn't pay any license. We paid when we deployed and we didn't pay for anything after that. There were no additional fees after the initial payment."
"The license for the solution is very expensive compared to the other products in the market."
"The pricing is acceptable for enterprise level companies, but it's not acceptable for small- and medium-sized businesses. Micro Focus Data Protector is not an enterprise level solution, and it should cover small- and medium-sized businesses with acceptable prices."
"In Data Protector, if you need extra features, you need to buy the agents for these features. Some of the features are Terabytes, some of them are agents. There's some complexity in the pricing and licensing."
"The licensing cost is too high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise61
 

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 NetWorker?
Regarding the pricing of Dell NetWorker, it depends on the deal or negotiation we have with the vendor, making it reasonable, although I cannot make a definitive decision without knowing the specif...
What needs improvement with Dell NetWorker?
Regarding the effectiveness of Dell NetWorker in terms of role-based access controls, I have experience with it, but I find it somewhat lacking in flexibility as it offers limited features, and I w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Data Protector?
The solution is expensive as it requires purchasing all features without the option to negotiate based on client numbers, unlike Veeam which offers flexibility in pricing.
What needs improvement with Micro Focus Data Protector?
OpenText Data Protector is not user-friendly, especially for cloud backup. It lacks functions and facilities compared to Veeam, which offers more user-friendliness for virtual machine backups. Ther...
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Data Protector?
We use OpenText Data Protector ( /products/opentext-data-protector-reviews ) for Oracle database backup and some applications that run for database security.
 

Also Known As

NetWorker
Micro Focus Data Protector, Data Protector, OmniBack, HPE Data Protector
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport
GSK Vaccines, Repsol, Vodafone Group, Siemens AG, Medium Enterprise Transportation Services Company
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell NetWorker vs. OpenText Data Protector and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,719 professionals have used our research since 2012.