IT

Best Server Backup Software Compared

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported, which means we earn commissions from links on Crazy Egg. Commissions do not affect our editorial evaluations or opinions.

Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.

We spent hours researching 25 server backup software providers. We found five to be worthy of our top list. Veeam we found is best for most. It is the market leader, it’s trusted by several top businesses, and it maximizes data security for businesses of all sizes. 

The Best Server Backup Software for Most

Veeam logo

Veeam Platform

Best for most

400,000+ customers and over 80% of Fortune 500 companies use Veeam to back up their servers. If that doesn’t make it the best option for most people, we don’t know what does. Its versatile range of support for different-size businesses just makes it even better.

Veeam has the best server backup solutions for most people. It is the global industry leader, and three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies trust them with their data. While it does not have a specific one-size-fits-all product, its platform covers businesses of any size. It secures, monitors, and backs up data better than anyone else. 

The Best Server Backup Software Options to Consider

  1. Veeam Platform – Best for Most
  2. Acronis True Image – Best for Home and Office
  3. Druva Phoenix – Best for Reducing Infrastructure Management
  4. Unitrends Backup Software – Best for All-In-One Backup and Recovery
  5. Arcserve UDP – Best for Diminishing Downtime

When It Makes Sense to Invest Into a Server Backup Software

There are some things to look out for that indicate when it’s time to invest in server backup software. If you’re a business owner with sensitive data that needs to be protected, server backup software is needed. Ransomware attacks happen 24/7, and if your data isn’t protected, you are at risk. 

Let’s look at a doctor’s office for example. A doctor’s office stores crucial patient information like medical history, disease risks, and treatment preferences. If the office fails to protect this data, it can easily be stolen and held for ransom, so the business must pay up to get the information back. 

This all could have been prevented with a server backup software. If you have sensitive data like the example above and cannot afford to pay a six-figure or more ransom fee, it’s time to get a server backup software. 

It’s also time to invest in one if your data is stored in only one location. If you have one server room, you could lose all your sensitive data if that building burned down. Having a single location for data storage is a strong indication it’s time to look at a server backup software. This will ensure your data storage is diversified and will hedge against risks.

Finally, you’ll also find server backup software helpful if you’ve lost data recently, whether it was due to an attack, a natural disaster, a technical glitch, or even a human error. As painful as this scenario can be, it’s not one you need to go through twice! Getting some good backup software in place will help make sure it’s a one-time occurrence.

#1 – Veeam Platform — The Best for Most

Veeam logo

Veeam Platform

Best for most

400,000+ customers and over 80% of Fortune 500 companies use Veeam to back up their servers. If that doesn’t make it the best option for most people, we don’t know what does. Its versatile range of support for different-size businesses just makes it even better.

Veeam has the best server backup solutions for most people. Veeam is the global leader in data protection, it has over 400,000 customers, and it protects more than 83% of Fortune 500 companies. It was recently named a leader by the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for data center backup and recovery solutions for the fourth time. 

The software has various backup and recovery options, automated disaster recovery strategies, cloud data backup, and maximum security. It has over 150 new enhancements and features, and it serves businesses of any size. 

It covers workloads of various types including NAS, Linux, Windows, Azure, Microsoft, AWS, VMware, and enterprise apps. Workloads covered can be cloud-based, virtual, or physical. Its software is simple to set up and extremely reliable. Veeam allows users to instantly recover workloads, minimizes data loss, and eliminates downtime. 

This solution is available for enterprises, small businesses, and service providers. The recommended package for enterprises is Veeam Availability Suite. It comes with cloud-native backup and recovery, Veeam’s universal licensing ability, monitoring, intelligent diagnostics, reporting and analytics, and remediation. 

The other enterprise package is named Veeam Backup & Replication. It includes similar features as Veeam Availability Suite minus the monitoring features. Both enterprise plans have the option to add automated disaster recovery testing and site recovery. They also have a separate license for recovery, backup, and data management for Microsoft Office 365. 

For enterprise package pricing information, you must request a quote based on your business needs. This can be done directly from the Veeam website. 

Veeam’s package for small businesses is called Veeam Backup Essentials. It has features for reporting, analytics, monitoring, backup, and recovery. It’s intended for businesses with less than 250 employees. This package costs $80 per year per license, and it is sold in five license bundles. Veeam Backup Essentials includes a 30-day free trial. 

It has two packages for service providers. Veeam Cloud Connect provides a cloud target for off-site replicas and backups. You must find a provider through the Veeam website for pricing information. The second service provider package is Veeam Service Provider Console. It is meant for self-service, customer onboarding, and monitoring. It is free to use.

Veeam’s platform has packages that are a great fit for most. It is the global leader in the industry and has an immense amount of social credibility. While its pricing structure depends on your specific needs, it has backup and security capabilities that are unparalleled. Choose the plan that best fits your business today!

#2 – Acronis True Image — The Best for Home and Office

Acronis logo

Acronis True Image

Best for Home and Office

With some of the fastest data restores on the market, an all-in-one platform that eliminates the need for extra tools, videoconference protection, and offsite storage, Acronis True Image is a fantastic choice for home and office server backups. And it starts at only $49.99 per year!

Acronis True Image is the best server backup solution for your home and office needs. Users can access its interface from anywhere, and it is intuitive and easy to use. It backs up systems, devices, applications, files, and photos. 

There’s no need to use multiple complex tools because Acronis True Image packs advanced antimalware and reliable backups into one software platform. It protects from security threats like cyber-attacks, lost and stolen devices, and disk failure. The product comes with disk cloning, end-to-end encryption, and all-in-one recovery drives. 

If you’d like an antivirus scan of your entire system, simply initiate it with Acronis’s antimalware. It automatically prevents attacks from cryptojackers, ransomware, and malware before they cause any damage. It also uses videoconference protection and web filtering to prevent accidental infections. 

Acronis True Image is a solution with performance that outmatches competitors. It has data restores that are more than ten times faster than competitors. It provides user subscriptions with integrated cloud-based features for anywhere access and offsite storage. If you need server backup software for home and office, Acronis True Image is for you. 

You can try Acronis True Image free for 30 days. It comes with three paid plans named Essential, Advanced, and Premium. All plans come with ransomware protection, antimalware, tech support, active disk cloning, quick recovery, and flexible backups. 

The Essential plan starts at $49.99 per year with one computer. It costs $79.99 per year with three computers and $99.99 per year with five. It comes with email, online chat, and phone customer support. 

The Advanced plan starts at $89.99 per year with one computer. It’s priced at $129.99 per year with three computers and $189.99 per year with five. It comes with Microsoft 365 backups and automatic data replication in the cloud. This plan adds priority phone calls to its customer support capabilities. 

The Premium plan is priced at $124.99 per year with one computer. It costs $189.99 per year with three computers and $209.99 with five. The plan comes with one terabyte for free, but you can upgrade to up to five terabytes. Each additional terabyte raises the plan’s cost. 

Start your 30-day free trial now.

#3 – Druva Phoenix — The Best for Reducing Infrastructure Management

Druva logo

Druva Phoenix

Best for Reducing Infrastructure

Server backups that need tons of infrastructure are a thing of the past with Druva Phoenix. Its cloud-based platform reduces the need for on-site servers, support materials, or other hardware by offering backups and storage as a service.

Druva Phoenix is a unique cloud-native platform that reduces infrastructure management. It’s powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and has cloud-to-cloud disaster recovery. It improves recovery options and workload mobility through its virtual environment. By moving business and IT applications to the cloud, on-premises infrastructure is reduced. 

It comes with an incremental forever backup model and unlimited restores. Its centralized remote and local data protection lets users manage disaster recovery and data center backup from a single control pane.

Since it’s delivered “as-a-service”, there’s no needed overhead for software, hardware, or maintenance. If you need to cut down on infrastructure management, we recommend looking into Druva Phoenix. 

Druva Phoenix comes with a free trial, and it has three pricing plans called Phoenix business, Phoenix enterprise, and Phoenix elite. All three plans come with the ability to purchase ransomware recovery. 

Phoenix business is priced at $210 per terabyte per month. It comes with NAS storage, SQL server, VMware, Oracle, Linux and Windows file server, VMware file level recovery, and global deduplication. 

Phoenix enterprise costs $240 per terabyte per month. It adds storage insights and recommendations, multi-site administration, multi-region, CloudCache, and intelligent tiering for long-term retention. It also includes the ability to purchase deployment for U.S. government cloud and cloud disaster recovery and testing. 

Phoenix elite is priced at $300 per terabyte per month. However, the only difference between this plan and Phoenix enterprise is it includes cloud disaster recovery and testing for free.

Try out Druva Phoenix for free here.

#4 – Unitrends Backup Software — The Best for All-In-One Backup and Recovery

Unitrends logo

Unitrends Backup Software

Best for All-In-One Backup

To put all of your backup and recovery needs in one place, check out Unitrends Backup Software. Its centralized dashboard lets you oversee thousands of backups with just a few clicks. Its free version comes with a terabyte of storage included.

If you’re in need of fully integrated server backup software, Unitrends Backup Software is the best available. The product has instant recovery, archiving, deduplication, backup, and replication. It can be run on XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, or deployed as a virtual machine within AWS cloud or Microsoft Azure. 

Unitrends Backup Software has disaster recovery, and users can pair it with third-party hyperscale clouds to save costs. For secure recovery, users can assign role-based access to files. The product includes backup software, automatic testing, and AI ransomware detection. Users can create custom retention and backup for compliance with HIPAA, SOX, and others. 

Its UniView gives users a centralized management hub. It can be automated and customized to fit the unique needs of each individual user. With just two clicks, users can manage thousands of backups on the dashboard. This software packs several features into one product, and UniView makes it simple to navigate. We recommend Unitrends if all-in-one is appealing to you. 

Unitrends includes a 30-day free trial, and a demo can be requested. Unitrends charges for a perpetual license per protected server. It has a free edition available with storage of up to one terabyte. The next step up is the Essentials plan costing $349 and allowing up to ten resources. Its Standard plan costs $549 and it allows for any size environment. 

Unitrends Backup Software also allows you to purchase the Enterprise package for $1,099 or Enterprise Plus for $1,699. These plans include hardware and software and support any size environment. Enterprise includes database protection for SQL server and Oracle. Enterprise Plus includes a distributed enterprise manager and automated failover. 

Start your 30-day free trial today.

#5 – Arcserve UDP — The Best for Diminishing Downtime

Arcserve logo

Arcserve UDP

Best for Diminishing Downtime

To ensure your site keeps downtime as low as possible, Arcserve UDP is your best bet. It deploys twice as fast as most server backups, has robust tools for speeding up recovery, and even includes a special software to combat ransomware attacks.

Arcserve UDP is the best server backup software for keeping downtime at a minimum. It helps dwindle downtimes from days to minutes. Its granular reporting and automatic testing can be used to validate service level agreements and recovery points and times. 

It advertises 50% less deployment time, and you don’t need expensive professional service teams to help with set-up. Arcserve UDP lets you recover faster with hardware snapshot support, granular restore and backup, bare metal recovery, instant VM, and remote and local virtual standby. 

It uses Sophos Intercept X Advanced to prevent ransomware attacks. Using Sophos, users can reverse and detect ransomware encryptions, safely recover all data and systems, and say “no” to ransom demands. 

Companies like Expedia, Sony Music, and Bloomberg have trusted Arcserve to help reduce their downtime and protect their servers. Tools like Sophos are the reason why we believe Arcserve UDP is the best server backup software for diminishing downtime and one of the best for protecting against ransomware attacks. 

Arcserve offers a 30-day free trial before purchasing its product. The pricing information is not provided up front, and it may vary depending on your specific server backup needs.

Methodology for Choosing the Best Server Backup Software

Before making a decision, there are some important criteria to look out for when determining which server backup software best fits your needs.

Ransomware Protection

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly more common in today’s world. Therefore, having ransomware protection in a server backup software is non-negotiable. Look for server backup solutions that advertise ransomware protection and that prevent cyberattacks. It’s best to find software that prevents attacks before they happen. 

A software that detects ransomware encryptions and that has ransomware recovery is what you’re looking for. For extra credibility, look at some testimonials of who is trusting the software. Seeing a big name like Bloomberg trusting software to protect it from inevitable cyber-attacks is a great sign.

Reporting Tools

Reporting tools are something to look out for because they can identify problems. They keep users informed about the quality of their backups. Reporting tools help address problems as they arise and inform users what proactive measures they can take to protect their data. A software without effective reporting tools will leave users wondering if it is doing its job. 

Deployment Time and Costs

Deployment time, or the time it takes to set up your server backup software, is something to keep in mind. A quick and easy setup will get your data protected as soon as you purchase. Look for software that advertises minimal deployment time. Some server backup software requires expensive service teams for set-up, so avoid these if you need to save money. 

Off-Site Storage

Off-site storage is an essential component of server backup software. It’s important because it makes sure all your data isn’t stored in one physical location. Accidents happen and criminals seek opportunities to steal your precious data. Therefore, it is crucial to pick a server backup software that hedges these risks by keeping your data in an external safe place. 

Veeam logo

Veeam Platform

Best for most

400,000+ customers and over 80% of Fortune 500 companies use Veeam to back up their servers. If that doesn’t make it the best option for most people, we don’t know what does. Its versatile range of support for different-size businesses just makes it even better.

Summary

Server backup software is important because it can save your business from a lot of trouble. Purchasing one will help secure your data, fight off cybercriminals, and recover lost files. 


For those looking for minimal downtime, Arcserve UDP is best for you. Unitrends Backup Software is the best all-in-one solution. Druva Phoenix will help with reducing infrastructure management. If you need a home and office solution, check out Acronis True Image. However, most people will find Veeam’s platform has the solutions they are looking for.


Make your website better. Instantly.

Over 300,000 websites use Crazy Egg to improve what's working, fix what isn't and test new ideas.

Free 30-day Trial