Dell NetWorker vs HPE Zerto Software comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Backup and Recovery category. Dell Technologies is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.9, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.9. Dell Technologies holds a 1.7% mindshare in BRS, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell NetWorker

Read 86 Dell NetWorker reviews

4,363 Views
3,970 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

HPE Zerto Software

Read 343 HPE Zerto Software reviews

13,060 Views
7,183 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Dell NetWorker

HPE Zerto Software

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

Dell NetWorker and HPE Zerto are leading solutions in the data protection and disaster recovery sector. HPE Zerto has an edge in ease of recovery and seamless integration for cloud environments, while Dell NetWorker is known for its robust feature set and application-aware backups.

Features: Dell NetWorker provides backup job automation, compatibility with a wide range of operating systems and databases, and a well-integrated GUI for managing backup infrastructure. It also supports application-aware backups for various environments. In contrast, HPE Zerto focuses on continuous data protection and offers easy data recovery with low RPOs and RTOs, alongside features that support rapid virtual machine recovery and live testing capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Dell NetWorker could improve by simplifying its configurations, enhancing user interfaces, and increasing cloud integration. HPE Zerto would benefit from better documentation, more granular backup capabilities, upgraded user interfaces, and enhanced automation for updates to simplify cloud configurations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell NetWorker's on-premises deployment is considered complex and often requires specialized expertise. Its customer support receives mixed reviews. In contrast, HPE Zerto is recognized for straightforward deployment in hybrid and cloud environments, with easy setup and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Dell NetWorker offers various licensing options, including capacity-based licenses that can be complex and are often bundled with other EMC products, which makes the pricing competitive. However, it remains expensive compared to alternatives like Commvault. HPE Zerto offers cost-effectiveness relative to its functionality and showcases rapid ROI through efficient disaster recovery processes with high initial investment but long-term savings.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell NetWorker vs. HPE Zerto Software Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker vs. HPE Zerto Software

December 2025

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Helped 879,371 peers since 2012

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

5.0

Dell NetWorker delivers cost savings, enhanced recovery, and efficiency, proving invaluable for business continuity and operational efficiency.

Sentiment score

7.0

HPE Zerto Software enhances efficiency and reduces costs through improved disaster recovery, data protection, and minimal downtime.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

Before, it was a huge cost. It was several thousand dollars to do a DR test, whereas now, I click a button.

Thomas Sipf

CTO at Erisa Administrative Services, Inc.

It saves us a lot of time and gives us the ability to perform other DR plans for other systems.

reviewer2728620

System Engineer at a wholesaler/distributor with 1,001-5,000 employees

It's not only in the cloud; it's DR as a service, which means that the recovery operations are performed by a dedicated team specializing in this area.

Itsik Ohana

Founder & CEO at Itix Cyber Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.1

Dell NetWorker customer service is praised for quick assistance but criticized for delays and variable expertise, especially regionally.

Sentiment score

7.5

HPE Zerto Software's customer service is highly praised for responsiveness, with strong ratings reflecting overall user satisfaction.

Technical support from Dell is excellent.

AamirIlyas

Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom

quick responses whenever we log a complaint

Shrikant Teggi

Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi

They are very responsive and helpful.

Hassan Amin

System Engineer at NCCPL

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

I have never had an issue that was not resolved, and I have never been in a situation where they did not respond.

reviewer762012

Sr. Systems Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would give them a rating of ten because it represents the highest level of support based on the technical knowledge of the support team, response time, and effectiveness of the provided resolutions.

reviewer1599558

Disaster Recovery Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

When I open a ticket, I usually get a call within an hour or two.

David Comer

Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.8

Dell NetWorker offers scalability but faces challenges in VMware connections, storage, licensing, and large-scale stability for some users.

Sentiment score

7.5

HPE Zerto Software efficiently scales, integrates with cloud platforms, and manages workloads, despite licensing and bandwidth challenges.

While the solution is scalable, the cost involved in upgrading or enhancing the solution can be significant.

AamirIlyas

Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom

Dell NetWorker is very scalable and flexible, deserving a high rating for its scalability.

ErmiasGirma

Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc

It is scalable enough for our environment.

Hassan Amin

System Engineer at NCCPL

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.

Alan Barrett

Head of IT at TWM SOLICITORS LLP

Customers need to follow good engineering practices for optimal product use.

Proby Patel

Tech Lead, Storage and Data Protection at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

By adding more hosts and installing VRAs on each, tasks can be efficiently managed.

reviewer2641974

Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.6

Dell NetWorker exhibits stability, rated high by users, improving with updates, while older versions faced occasional challenges.

Sentiment score

8.0

HPE Zerto Software is highly stable, with minimal issues reported, effective performance, and responsive support, rated nine out of ten.

The stability of Dell NetWorker is excellent.

Shrikant Teggi

Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi

In terms of stability, I would say it is about 80% stable now.

RaedHassan

Senior Specialist Backup/Storage at National Bank of Kuwait

Dell NetWorker is stable.

Hassan Amin

System Engineer at NCCPL

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

I promptly delete the malfunctioning elements and set them up again to resume replication, ensuring stability.

Jagadeesh Ethiraj

Technical Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The ease of use was so good with Zerto that they were able to migrate things much quicker.

reviewer2691450

Inside Sales Representative at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It is very reliable.

David Comer

Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Room For Improvement

Dell NetWorker users seek improved interfaces, cloud integration, and security, citing deployment challenges and a need for modern enhancements.

HPE Zerto users seek improved documentation, support, automation, integration, and pricing, with enhanced cloud services, backups, and reporting.

The interface on the Java application makes it difficult, whereas the web interface is simple to use.

ErmiasGirma

Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc

It is complex, and compared to solutions like Tivoli, Veritas, Veeam, and others, its look and feel are not up to par.

AamirIlyas

Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom

To connect to a server, it's necessary to install a client on the server, which is challenging.

Hassan Amin

System Engineer at NCCPL

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

If I have 350 objects that I am protecting, I would like Zerto to be able to fire them up in one order, rather than having to manually bring them up in a sequence.

David Riberdy

Enterprise data management supervisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

If the host has a lot of VMs on it, there may not always be enough time to relocate all of the VMs from a protection group standpoint to other hosts before the replication appliance that Zerto uses to manage that powers itself down.

David Comer

Systems Engineering Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

If HPE Zerto Software has it built-in where we're going to vCenter and you click on it, it will build the VPG and indicate configuration requirements, that would be amazing.

reviewer2729427

Senior Converged Infrastructure Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Setup Cost

Dell NetWorker offers complex licensing, with varied pricing; included in bundles, often costly but comprehensive and flexible for sectors.

HPE Zerto Software offers flexible, transparent pricing with scalable licenses, valued for robust disaster recovery despite perceived high costs.

The licensing cost is somewhat expensive.

Shrikant Teggi

Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

If you want a good-quality tool that is robust and does a good job for you, you have to pay a higher price to get that, and Zerto is no different.

JeffSmith12

IT Manager at American Pioneer Federal Credit Union

However, it can become quite expensive when you start looking at the number of workloads you have in the environment and what you would like to do.

reviewer2645856

Cloud and Infrastructure Services Manager at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Zerto is easier to set up and use, and it's less expensive.

Bill Dudgeon

Professional Services Engineer at US Signal

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Valuable Features

Dell NetWorker provides robust backup solutions with automation, deduplication, scalability, and wide compatibility for various environments and systems.

HPE Zerto offers real-time backup, fast recovery, and seamless VMware integration, enhancing disaster recovery and minimizing downtime effectively.

I find NetWorker valuable for its wide range of automation features, including replication and data processing systems.

AamirIlyas

Solution Architect at Apollo Telecom

Dell NetWorker is versatile, allowing server backups and IBM tape library backups.

Hassan Amin

System Engineer at NCCPL

The new deduplication feature helps significantly with data compression and saves disk space by using pointers for repeated data, improving backup speed.

Shrikant Teggi

Sr. Area Technical Manager at tata elxsi

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell NetWorker report

Zerto offers excellent technical support with responsive and helpful experts.

Sachin Vinay

Assistant Manager-Networks at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

If we were attacked, I could revert to a backup from five seconds before the attack, and no one would know we were attacked.

reviewer2641974

Senior Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

The replication time and the minor amount of time it takes to sync a new server outside of any of my huge 40-terabyte boxes is ridiculously quick.

reviewer762012

Sr. Systems Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the HPE Zerto Software report

Categories and Ranking

Dell NetWorker

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE Zerto Software

Ranking in Backup and Recovery

2nd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

343

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Backup (3rd), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Backup and Recovery category, the mindshare of Dell NetWorker is 1.7%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Zerto Software is 2.1%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Backup and Recovery Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HPE Zerto Software	2.1%
Dell NetWorker	1.7%
Other	96.2%

Backup and Recovery

Featured Reviews

RaedHassan

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.

Read full review

David Riberdy

Enterprise data management supervisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

An all-in-one and cost-efficient solution that does what it promises

Zerto is very easy to use. Installation is about half an hour, and then it starts protecting the data and VMs. It is not very cumbersome. The UI is built very well. It is fairly self-explanatory. To be able to stand up a product you have never seen in half an hour and get it functioning and protecting speaks to how good the UI and workflow are. Zerto has near-synchronous replication. As a change is made on site A, it gets copied across the network to site B. We are five or six seconds behind production. If I have a heavily used system and I use traditional backups, I could be anywhere from 5 minutes to 23 hours behind. With Zerto, I am single-digit seconds behind. That works well for us. Our disaster recovery test, which used to span an entire week, now takes two days. We used to recover our servers in the first two or three days with a backup product and then test for two days before tearing it all down. Now, we spend half a day on new servers and ensuring things work with networking, etc. We test the next day, and we are done in two days. Across the entire company, we are able to save significant man-hours by shortening the test from a week to two days. We are now doing smaller tests once a month and larger tests once a year. Zerto has reduced our DR testing time by 60% to 70%. We are also able to do more disaster recovery testing. Previously, we were doing it once a year, whereas now, we are doing smaller tests once a month and our large tests once a year. In recovery point objectives, we are single-digit seconds behind. In terms of RTOs, I can recover 350 VMs in 30 minutes. It takes less than several seconds to restore a single VM. From days to 30 minutes for 350 compared to 100 VMs is an incredible time-saving in terms of RTOs and RPOs for us.

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Comparison Review

it_user159711

Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	92
Midsize Enterprise	86
Large Enterprise	194

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...

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What do you like most about Dell NetWorker?

The feature that offers the greatest benefits in ensuring data integrity is its backup capability.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zerto?

I would say the pricing is expensive, rated at 10.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 26% of the time

Veeam Data Platform vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 14% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 8% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 7% of the time

Cohesity DataProtect vs Dell NetWorker

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell NetWorker Competitors

Veeam Data Platform vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 13% of the time

VMware Live Recovery vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 6% of the time

Commvault Cloud vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 6% of the time

Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 5% of the time

Rubrik vs HPE Zerto Software

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Zerto Software Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker

December 2025

Download Dell NetWorker product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Zerto Software

December 2025

Download HPE Zerto Software product report

Also Known As

NetWorker

Zerto Virtual Replication

Overview

Built on a reputation of efficiency and reliability, thousands of customers trust Dell NetWorker to protect their data and applications across multiple environments, from core to edge to cloud.

Inherently flexible, NetWorker helps you deploy and leverage the data protection that fits your needs. NetWorker protects both physical and virtual environments, including VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as cloud workloads on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

NetWorker is available as part of Dell Data Protection Suite, which offers comprehensive data protection software applications and tools. NetWorker is delivered as software and as a virtual edition.

Dell Technologies

Zerto is used for disaster recovery, business continuity, data migration, and ransomware recovery, providing continuous data protection and near real-time replication. Valued for ease of use, efficient failover processes, and versatile integration, it enhances organizational efficiency, reduces errors, and boosts productivity.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Republic Bank, Westgate Resorts, Macquire Cloud Services, Shriners, Panatonni, Qatar Islamic Bank, Eurosport

United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies

Buyer's Guide

Dell NetWorker vs. HPE Zerto Software

December 2025

Free Report: Dell NetWorker vs. HPE Zerto Software

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