Bacula’s Free Hyper V Backup Software

Among the widespread use of virtual machines, Hyper V is a popular choice. Therefore, with such a wide pool of users, there is a correspondingly wide selection of paid or free Hyper V backup tools that offer backup capabilities, recovery services and a long list of other related features and options.

Built-in Hyper V backup methods

With such a wide variety of VM backup solutions, it can be surprising that not a lot of people are aware of the backup and recovery solution that is included in Windows Server 2012 and its newer versions. The fact that this built-in solution is also quite good for basic backup needs, with barely any configuration may come as an even greater surprise. Using this as a main backup solution for a large company is probably not a good idea, but it can work relatively well as a secondary option.

The solution in question is called ‘Windows Server Backup’. You should be able to install it as an additional feature from the Server Manager. The basic idea of the backup for VMs, for both Windows Server Backup and third-party free Hyper V backup tools is that a snapshot is created to preserve a specific state in time of a VM and then store it.

With the proper configuration you can also work with cloud backups using this solution. But for the sake of simplicity we discuss local VM backup processes here.

The first step is to launch the app in question. Then you have to right-click the “local backup” line that lets you see a number of options, including “backup once”, “scheduled backup”, and more. For this example we’re choosing “backup once”.

1. The first window after clicking the “backup once” line lets you decide if you want to use scheduled backup or not, along with a few other options. The entire process is necessary since we’re not dealing with pre-configured processes yet. Click “Next” to continue.
2. The second window is the way for you to choose specific areas that you want to be backed up. Since this topic is about VM backups, we’re choosing “Custom backup” here.
3. The next window after choosing the “custom backup” option allows you to choose specific parts of your system that you want to create a backup of, including VMs. Choose the necessary VM before continuing.
4. The final step of this process is all about choosing the target destination for your backup. After that the process of setting up everything is pretty much done and you can finally initiate the backup.

Surprisingly enough, a lot of users prefer to interact with this backup system via command prompts, not the graphical interface. It is somewhat understandable since the graphical interface only allows only one VM backup process at once and each new task overrides all of the previous ones, as well.

Here’s a few examples of the command prompts for various needs:

• wbadmin start backup –backupTarget:C: –hyperv:"Server 1"

This one allows you to create a copy of your VM called “Server 1” to create a backup and save it at your disk C:

• wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:\\192.168.2.15\HVMback: -hyperv:"TestVM01,TestVM02" -allowDeleteOldBackups -quiet

This one is about backing up two (or more) VMs at once, and when you want your future backups to be saved in an external NAS storage (network-shared folder).

• wbadmin get versions

This command allows you to get a list of backups that were already created in the system.

Potential issues of Windows Server Backup

Windows Server Backup may seem simple enough, although there are quite a few things to think about before choosing it as your main backup solution:

• Managing more than 3-5 Hyper-V installations is quite tedious;
• Scheduling backups is somewhat difficult due to the heavy load on the servers that they represent;
• There’s no way to monitor backup progress or to check the backup consistency;
• Automatization level is nonexistent - you have to copy and paste everything manually if you want to recover a specific app state or a specific file.

Third-party free Hyper V backup solutions

Windows Server Backup is a pretty good backup solution for its purpose, all things considered. However there are some free Hyper V backup solutions that can offer far more in terms of customization and user friendliness. In the list below we have collected a number of different examples of Hyper V backup solutions that are either partially or completely free, providing plenty of different backup solutions to choose from.

1. VSquare Backup

VSquare is not particularly well-known as a software provider, but its backup solution is quite good at performing all kinds of backup operations. VSquare Backup can work with both physical and virtual environments, it is a secure and scalable process with features such as regular backup scanning for discrepancies or malware, host-to-host recovery, remote recovery, etc. Other features that VSquare has for its users are AD permissions, support for storage deduplication, granular data restoration, and even a free version (the Startup version). It has most of the features but is also limited to a single backup schedule, up to 3 Hyper V or VMware installments, and no more than 2 simultaneous backup threads.

Key features:

• Can provide extensive backup redundancy, host-to-host recovery, remote backups, frequent backup data scanning for security/stability purposes, and so on
• Works with both virtual and physical environments, suitable for plenty of backup and disaster recovery use cases
• Can offer a limited free version that only supports 3 VMware/Hyper V installments, 2 backup threads, and 1 schedule

Pricing (at time of writing):

• VSquare has four different pricing plans it can offer to its customers:
  • Startup is completely free, is limited to 3 VMware/Hyper-V installments, and contains a very basic feature set such as file-level restore, centralized management console, email reporting, etc.
  • Professional – €19.99 per month, no limitations on the number of systems covered, adds differential backup, backup integrity check, email support, and other features to the previous package
  • Enterprise – €39.99 per month, adds granular backup/restore, off-host Hyper-V backup/restore, reverse incremental backups, transactional backups, SharePoint reporting, and more
  • Corporate – €99.99 per month, a complete package of VSquare’s features, adds premium support, disaster recovery site, and removes data limit on how much data could be restored using host to site DR
• There is also a free version of the solution, but it is very limited in terms of both the number of backup jobs possible and the overall feature set

My personal opinion on VSquare:

VSquare is not exactly exceptional. Instead, it is a rather standard backup solution that supports multiple storage types – including physical and virtual ones – while also offering a number of features. Granular file restore, remote restore, host-to-host backup, and regular backup scanning are some of the features the VSquare has. There is also a free version of the solution, but it is limited to 3 VMware/Hyper V installments and 2 backup threads, so it would likely only work for very small businesses or as a feature-rich demo of the full product.

2. Storware Backup and Recovery

Storware Backup and Recovery was known as Storware vProtect for a while, before being rebranded and expanded. It is now a comprehensive backup and recovery solution that offers backup management for a variety of storage types and environments – both physical and virtual. It has 24/7 customer support, a user-friendly interface, and both a free version and a demo version. The free version of Storware is rather limited in its capabilities – no ability to backup endpoints, no enterprise integrations, and no customer support.

Customer ratings:

• G2 – 4.7/5 stars based on 28 customer reviews

Advantages:

• Simple and easy backup and recovery management made possible by a user-friendly GUI
• Storware eliminates the need for deploying an agent onto every physical server in order for the solution to work thanks to its agentless infrastructure
• It is relatively easy to set up and configure the solution in question

Shortcomings:

• Configuring retention policies and other specific parameters can be a difficult and convoluted process
• Storware has plenty of different notifications, but little in terms of customizing said notifications
• A detailed online tutorial is the only reason why the initial configuration process is considered relatively simple – it would be a lot more difficult to set up without that particular tutorial

Pricing:

• Storware’s official website offers two public pricing plans:
  • Freemium – a completely free offering with multiple limitations, such as 100 or less M365 users, 10 or less virtual environments, 1 TB data, 10 or less apps, etc. All of the Storware’s backup and recovery features are included in the package.
  • Trial – a full version of the solution for 60 days, no limitations in terms of workspaces and storage whatsoever, official support, and all of the backup/recovery features of Storware.
• The rest of the pricing-related data is not available on Storware’s official website and can only be acquired via a personalized quote that a company would have to request from Storware in the first place

My personal opinion on Storware:

Storware is an interesting backup solution that promotes itself as something with a lot of “freedom of choice” – including backup destinations, hypervisor types, and so on. It tries hard to live up to this particular message, with a lot of different storage types supported, including both virtual and physical ones, and their interface is relatively easy to work with. At the same time, the solution has multiple problematic features that require extensive configuration before they can be used properly, there is not much in terms of notification customization, and so on. On the bright side, the free version of the solution is one of the least limited ones on this list (excluding full-on free and open source solutions) – offers all of the Storware’s backup features and supports up to 10 VMs, 100 M365 users, 10 apps, 1 TB of data, etc.

3. Vembu BDR Suite

Vembu Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite is one of the more feature-rich solutions on the backup market. It is the flagship of Vembu’s software development efforts in the backup and recovery department, and it supports an impressive number of different storage types and data locations, from physical storage to VMs, databases, applications, and so on. Vembu’s Hyper V capabilities are also quite extensive – including agentless infrastructure, support for Resilient Change Tracking (RCT), support for V2V (cross-hypervisor migration), and plenty of other features. The solution in question is relatively expensive, but there is a free version – it works with up to 10 VMs with most of Vembu’s features included in the package, making it one of the least restrictive free versions on this list.

Customer ratings:

• Capterra – 4.5/5 stars based on 17 customer reviews
• TrustRadius – 8.4/10 stars based on 88 customer reviews
• G2 – 4.2/5 stars based on 130 customer reviews

Advantages:

• Vembu can offer a great addition to its software in the form of a competent customer support team that manages to solve all kinds of customers’ problems in no time
• Even though Vembu BDR Suite is a very feature-rich solution, it somehow manages to remain user-friendly for most of its feature set
• Vembu can work with all kinds of operating systems, and there is even a full-fledged Linux version of the software, which is somewhat rare for this industry

Shortcomings:

• Vembu’s software may be scalable enough to work with businesses of all sizes, from small to large, but the pricing of the solution makes it somewhat inaccessible for most SMBs – even though there is a free version of the software that is also limited in its capabilities
• Most of the customer support team’s knowledge is based on the Windows version of the software, which may create confusion in some cases where the Linux version does some feature differently
• Even though Vembu’s interface is relatively user-friendly, there are still some features that are very difficult to work with, creating a noticeable contrast in the overall user experience

Pricing (at time of writing):

• Vembu BDR Suite’s pricing varies quite a lot depending on the target data source, and can be purchased using either a subscription-based model or a perpetual license.
• Subscription-based pricing model includes:
  • VM backup – from $18 per year per VM, with support for both Hyper-V and VMware deployments
  • Server backup – from $60 per year per server, both Linux and Windows servers are supported
  • Application/DB backup – from $60 per year per application/database, can work with SQL, MySQL, and Exchange
  • SaaS backup – $12 per year per user, works for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
  • Cloud VM backup – $30 per year per AWS instance
  • Endpoint backup – from $15 per year per endpoint, supports Windows and Mac devices
• Alternatively, pricing model based on perpetual licensing includes:
  • VMware or Hyper-V backup – from $90 per VM or $432 per CPU socket
  • Server backup – from $150 per server, Windows Server version supports file, folder, and image-level backups, while Linux Server version only supports file and folder backups
  • Cloud VM backup – $75 per single AWS EC2 instance
  • SaaS backup – $30 per user, applies to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
  • Endpoint backup – from $37.5 per endpoint, both Windows and Mac devices can backup files and folders, but only Windows version also supports the image version
  • Application/DB backup – $150 per application/database, can work with SQL, MySQL, and MS Exchange
• There is also a separate “Free Edition” of Vembu that can offer the “Standard” feature set in practically every department with limitations such as 10 VM installments, 10 Google Workspace users, 10 M365 accounts, 10 workstations, 10 AWS EC2 instances, and so on
• Vembu’s pricing model can be rather confusing, offering both perpetual licenses and subscriptions, as well as several different subscription “levels” to choose from. A lot more details about Vembu BDR Suite’s pricing can be obtained at the official pricing page.

My personal opinion on Vembu:

Vembu is a noted software provider in the backup and recovery department, and BDR Suite is often regarded as one of the more comprehensive and feature-rich solutions on the market. Unlike most of the competition, Vembu only has two different solutions to offer (and the second one is practically a watered-down version of BDR Suite created solely for cloud backups). As such, all of the feature set the company could include is in these two solutions. Vembu even has a free version for most of its capabilities, though it may be only suitable for very small businesses, since it is limited to 10 VMs, 10 workstations, 10 M365 users, etc.

4. Vinchin Backup & Recovery

Vinchin Backup & Recovery is a backup solution that works with a variety of different platform types and storage locations. It is a solution that is focused primarily on VM backup capabilities, supporting Hyper V, VMware, Xenserver, RedHat, and more. Vinchin’s backups are agentless and the main backup type is incremental, ensuring up-to-date backups at all times, no matter if it is stored using partition, local storage, CIFS, NFS, etc. There is also a free edition of Vinchin that mostly targets micro-businesses and has a strict limitation of up to 3 VMs backed up, while also offering all of the standard features the paid version of Vinchin has.

Customer ratings:

• Capterra – 4.7/5 stars based on 46 customer reviews
• G2 – 4.6/5 stars based on 36 customer reviews

Advantages:

• Vinchin’s user interface is not particularly difficult to work with, most of the features can be accessed and configured with ease
• There are quite a lot of different features that Vinchin can offer – features that are present in both paid and free versions of the solution
• One of the biggest points of interest in Vinchin is its centralization capabilities, including a detailed dashboard and a variety of features to help with managing backup tasks and workflows

Shortcomings:

• Vinchin has plenty of inconsistency when it comes to its reporting capabilities – some parts of it are detailed and convenient, and others barely have any information to begin with
• Vinchin is not a particularly mobile solution, there is no mobile app included in the package, and the interface is not web-based, so it can only be accessed from an actual workstation

Pricing (at time of writing):

• Vinchin offers four different pricing tiers and two licensing types. The pricing tiers are as follows:
  • Essential Edition for smaller businesses that rely on VMware or Hyper-V in their day-to-day operations and don’t have too big of a budget for a data security solution
  • Standard Edition are targeted towards SMBs (small to medium-sized businesses) that use VMware, Hyper-V, KVM or XenServer infrastructure in their work and require specific advanced features from a backup solution
  • Enterprise Edition would be more suitable for large companies with sophisticated virtual infrastructures and a demand for complex data security
  • Enterprise Plus Edition offers everything Vinchin is capable of, and would be at its most effective when dealing with hybrid environments that include physical servers, databases, VMs, and so on.
• All four of these plans can be purchased using either a subscription license or a perpetual license:
  • A subscription license offers the ability to subscribe to Vinchin’s services for a period of 1-3 years, this includes technical support and version updates
  • A perpetual license is a different approach that allows customers to purchase permanent licenses to a software, but there is also the matter of version updates and technical support that must be paid for separately.
  • A single purchase of a perpetual license includes one free year of “renewal services”, and it would cost 25% from the solution’s MSRP for that same service starting from year two
• Unfortunately, despite the long and detailed explanation of different pricing models and licensing approaches, there is no actual official price available on the official Vinchin website, and the only way to receive such information is to request a personalized quote from the company in question.
• The only piece of Vinchin’s pricing information that is complete belongs to its free version – it has all of the standard features of Vinchin and is limited to 3 VMs at most

My personal opinion on Vinchin:

Vinchin offers quite an effective VM backup solution in its own right. It may not be the most feature-rich or the most popular one, but there is definitely an audience for solutions that offer limited feature sets in exchange for a price that is drastically lower than what the leaders of the industry ask for their services. Vinchin supports a variety of VM types, can offer scheduled incremental backups that are also agentless, and there is also support for a multitude of backup repositories, as well. The free version of the solution is quite limited in terms of how many VMs it can cover, but most of the feature set Vinchin has to offer is also included in this version.

5. NAKIVO Backup & Replication

NAKIVO represents another example of an extremely popular enterprise-grade backup solution with VM backup capabilities. It is a versatile and feature-rich backup solution focused around image-based application-aware backups. There are also features such as full VM recovery, granular recovery, local tape backup, cloud backup, and more. Generally speaking, NAKIVO supports a variety of different platforms and storage types, including VMs. There is even a free version of the solution that offers a relatively basic feature set with no price attached for 1 whole year – even though there is an upper limit of 10 workloads, 5 M365 users, and 10 VMs for this version.

Customer ratings:

• Capterra – 4.8/5 stars based on 305 customer reviews
• TrustRadius – 9.2/10 stars based on 142 customer reviews
• G2 – 4.7/5 stars based on 203 customer reviews

Advantages:

• NAKIVO often receives praise when it comes to the overall customer support experience – stating fast and useful responses from the support team
• The solution’s interface also receives a lot of praise, since it is surprisingly convenient and easy to work with despite the number of features it offers
• It is also not particularly difficult to set up NAKIVO’s solution in the first place – the first-time configuration process is rather simple and should not cause issues for most customers

Shortcomings:

• Even though there is both a Linux version and a Windows version of the solution, the overall feature set is not the same for these two versions, and the Linux version does have significantly less features as a whole
• There are plenty of solutions on the backup market that have problems with their reporting systems, and NAKIVO is one of these solutions – the reporting as a whole is rather lackluster and provides very little in terms of helpful information when it is needed to solve various errors
• As a full-fledged enterprise-grade backup solution, NAKIVO’s pricing is rather high – making it inaccessible to most SMBs, despite NAKIVO themselves promoting the solution as affordable
• The are some limitations with data recovery to the cloud, and automation of some functions

Pricing (at time of writing):

• NAKIVO’s pricing can be split into two main groups:
• Subscription-based licenses:
  • “Pro Essentials” – from $1.95 per month per workload, covers most common backup types such as physical, virtual, cloud and NAS, while also offering instant granular recovery, virtual and cloud replication, storage immutability, and more
  • “Enterprise Essentials” – from $2.60 per month per workload, adds native backup to tape, deduplication appliance integration, backup to cloud, as well as 2FA, AD integration, calendar, data protection based on policies, etc.
  • “Enterprise Plus” does not have public pricing available, it adds HTTP API integration, RBAC, Oracle backup, backup from snapshots, and other features
  • There is also a subscription available for Microsoft 365 coverage that costs $0.80 per month per user with an annual billing and can create backups of MS Teams, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, and more
  • Another subscription from NAKIVO is its VMware monitoring capability that comes in three different forms:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $0.90 per month per workload with CPU, RAM, disk usage monitoring and a built-in live chat
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $1.15 per month per workload that adds AD integration, 2FA capability, multi-tenant deployment, and more
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations
• Perpetual licenses:
  • Virtual environments:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $229 per socket, covers Hyper-V, VMware, Nutanix AHV, and features such as instant granular recovery, immutable storage, cross-platform recovery, etc.
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $329 per socket, adds native backup to tape, backup to cloud, deduplication, 2FA, AD integration, and more
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations, as well as backup from storage snapshots
  • Servers:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $58 per server, covers Windows and Linux, and features such as immutable storage, instant P2V, instant granular recovery, etc.
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $329 per server, adds native backup to tape, backup to cloud, deduplication, 2FA, AD integration, and more
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations
  • Workstations:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $19 per workstation, covers Windows and Linux, and features such as immutable storage, instant P2V, instant granular recovery, etc.
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $25 per workstation, adds native backup to tape, backup to cloud, deduplication, 2FA, AD integration, and more
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations
  • NAS:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $149 per one Terabyte of data, can backup NFS shares, SMB shares, folders on shares, and offer file level recovery
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $199 per one Terabyte of data, adds AD integration, 2FA support, calendar, multi-tenant deployment, etc.
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations
  • Oracle DB:
    • “Enterprise Plus” is the only option available for Oracle database backups via RMAN, it can offer advanced scheduling, centralized management, and more
  • VMware monitoring:
    • “Pro Essentials” for $100 per socket with CPU, RAM, disk usage monitoring and a built-in live chat
    • “Enterprise Essentials” for $150 per socket that adds AD integration, 2FA capability, multi-tenant deployment, and more
    • “Enterprise Plus” with no public pricing that adds RBAC and HTTP API integrations
• There is also a free edition of the software that is called exactly that – it offers the “Pro” version feature set and a limitation of 5 M365 users, 10 workloads, 10 VMs, and is limited to 1 year

My personal opinion on NAKIVO:

NAKIVO is a comprehensive backup solution with a strong feature set and an impressive variety of supported storage types. In a way, it is the standard enterprise-level backup solution that has an OK level of  features, is  perhaps a little expensive, works with a good number of different environments, and has issues with reporting or feature parity between versions for different OS. NAKIVO’s biggest unusual feature in this particular context is that its free version is time-limited – but it is 1-year long, which is an interesting choice for a free version limitation, all things considered!

6. Synology Active Backup for Business

Synology is an unusual example of a backup solution in the context of this article. It is technically a free solution in and of itself – but it would only work with Synology hardware, meaning that some form of money-spending is required to start using the software in question. Luckily, Synology itself is a very popular network-attached storage distributor, so there is a good chance that at least some businesses already have at least one such appliance. The software in question can both perform backups and manage them for both Hyper V and VMware, the backups are incremental, app-aware, and reliable, making it a great option for various VM environments.

Key features:

• Synology Active Backup for Business offers application-aware incremental backups for all Synology users
• The solution in question is completely free, as well as plenty of other useful modules within Synology DSM
• The storage space required to hold backups is greatly reduced with the help of built-in global data deduplication

Pricing (at time of writing):

• Synology Active Backup for Business is the module that can perform backups for a variety of different storage types – including VM backups
• The module in question is one of dozens of different modules that are a part of Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) – Synology’s own operating system
• The software itself is free, but it only works with Synology hardware, meaning that a purchase of sorts is still required in order to access this Hyper V backup solution
• The pricing for different Synology hardware appliances varies so much that there is little to no point in trying to provide the exact prices

My personal opinion on Synology:

Synology Active Backup for Business may be the most unusual example of a free Hyper V software on this list. It is a completely free solution that is not open-source – it is a solution that is only accessible to Synology clients. As such, it is in a middle-ground of sorts, where the software itself is free, but a purchase of sorts is still required in order to access and use it. There have been reports of slow or poor service support, and issues in clustered NAS environments. The solution itself is quite versatile, offering app-aware incremental backups that are easy to manage from within the solution itself – a good option for any business that is already using Synology hardware in order to store their data.

7. AOMEI Cyber Backup

AOMEI is a well-known IT software provider that is more popular among individuals and small businesses rather than large enterprises. It has plenty of different software to choose from, including backup solutions, partition management apps, and more. AOMEI Cyber Backup, for example, is a fairly recent development for the company – a solution focused on providing centralized backup and recovery features for enterprises that use virtual machines and/or databases. Similar to some other solutions from AOMEI, Cyber Backup is distributed as freeware with the ability to unlock additional features for a price.

Key features:

• AOMEI Cyber Backup Free Edition is a rather accessible solution that is easy to work with even for customers with little to no technical background
• It has customizable backup scheduling, a system of notifications, and a centralized console for easier task management across the board
• There is a choice between multiple backup methods and storage locations within the solution, offering plenty of versatility to Cyber Backup users with different priorities

Pricing (at time of writing):

• The Free Edition of Cyber Backup has a limitation of 3 VMs and 3 databases per account (excluding Windows-based free ESXi VMs)
• The Advanced Edition eliminates all of the limitations of the free version, adds 24/7 customer support, restoration to new location, backup cleanup automation – but its pricing model is a bit convoluted
• There are two potential approaches to the pricing of AOMEI Cyber Backup – the subscription-based model and the perpetual licensing model
  • The subscription-based licensing is also separated in two groups – the customizable plan for a specific number of databases or VMs, and the unlimited plan
    • The customized plan starts at $99 per year for 5 VMs and $39 per year for 5 MSSQL databases
    • The unlimited plan costs $999 per year for the unlimited number of VMs and $499 per year for no limitation when it comes to MSSQL databases
  • The perpetual licensing, on the oher hand, is far more expensive – $499 per single host and $79 per 5 MSSQL databases in the customizable plan, and the unlimited plan does not have any public pricing in the first place

My personal opinion on AOMEI Cyber Backup:

AOMEI Cyber Backup is one of the few examples of freeware Hyper V backup solutions on this list – a solution that starts off as free but also offers the ability to unlock additional features and remove limitations of the free version for a price. It is not the most versatile or feature-rich backup solution in this category, but it can do its job well enough, and the overall feature set is on par or better than what most of the competition can offer. The price of the Advanced version is also rather expensive – something to keep a cautious eye out for a smaller business that plans to expand itself within the same backup solution in the future.

8. VM Backup (previously known as Altaro VM Backup)

The solution that was known as Altaro VM Backup for a while went through the process of rebranding and is now referred to as just VM Backup (managed by the company called Hornetsecurity). It is a versatile and scalable backup solution that supports both physical and virtual environments and has impressive scalability options – VM Backup claims to be able to serve both small businesses and large enterprises, if necessary. It works with a number of other cloud storage locations, is easy to install and set up, and can also offer a centralized data management console.

Customer ratings:

• Capterra – 4.7/5 stars based on 188 customer reviews
• TrustRadius – 8.9/10 stars based on 47 customer reviews
• G2 – 4.7/5 stars based on 174 customer reviews

Advantages:

• There are plenty of positive reviews about the solution’s customer support team, citing fast and feature-rich responses as biggest advantages
• The solution as a whole is relatively easy to work with, it is versatile and user-friendly
• The first-time setup for VM Backup is so simple it can be performed by practically anyone, including people with little to no technical background

Shortcomings:

• VM Backup has a number of unusual features to it, and not all of them are particularly useful or convenient – for example, there is a session timeout trigger, which is a really unusual decision in this day and age
• The solution does have a notification system in place – but notifications themselves are not particularly detailed or helpful, they are often treated as a nuisance rather than something useful
• As a consequence of the previous issue, there is a rather large problem when it comes to troubleshooting errors by yourself – since the software can offer very little in terms of error information in the first place

Pricing:

• VM Backup from Hornetsecurity has two different license types and three pricing tiers (editions) it offers to its customers.
• A subscription-based pricing model includes a single pricing plan:
  • Unlimited Plus Edition – $579 per 5 VMs per year (the number of VMs can be adjusted but cannot go lower than 5), a full package of features and capabilities, including CDP, cloud backup to Azure, access to CMC (Cloud Management Console), etc.
• A pricing model based on perpetual licensing has three different pricing tiers:
  • Standard Edition – $595 per host with a year of SMA, 5 VMs per host, a basic feature package
  • Unlimited Edition – $695 per host with a year of SMA, no limitations on the number of VMs, deduplication, vCenter, Boot from Backup capability, and more
  • Unlimited Plus Edition – $875 per host with a year of SMA, no limitations on the number of VMs
• SMA is Software Maintenance Agreement, includes priority support and new version upgrades for perpetual license owners, available as a separate purchase once the first year of a perpetual license owner’s subscription expires
• There is also a free version of the solution that offers a basic feature set and a very strict limitation of up to 2 VMs backed up per host, which is one of the biggest restrictions content-wise when it comes to free Hyper V backup solutions (outside of software not having any free version in the first place)

My personal opinion on VM Backup:

VM Backup is a solution that was called Altaro VM Backup for a while – a VM-centric backup offering with plenty of features to work with. It is fast, scalable, works with physical and virtual deployments, has a good range of features, and a rather convoluted pricing model. VM Backup’s free version is also very limited, supporting up to 2 VMs per host only – although it also has most of the paid version’s features, so it may be a good deal for individuals or micro businesses with no budget at all.

9. Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam is a very popular backup software provider in this particular market, offering an extremely versatile and feature-rich solution for a number of use cases and audiences. Veeam Backup & Replication can now offer 24/7 availability, a wealth of different features, and a slowly improving number of different storage types it can work with – including various VM types. A free version of Veeam’s software also exists, offering coverage of some basic backup targets (VMware and Hyper V, for example), as well as features such as VM cloning, file-level recovery, support for direct restore – but it is limited to up to 10 workloads at once.

Customer ratings:

• Capterra – 4.8/5 stars based on 69 customer reviews
• TrustRadius – 8.8/10 stars based on 1,237 customer reviews
• G2 – 4.6/5 stars based on 387 customer reviews

Advantages:

• Easy access to backup management as a whole, packed in a relatively convenient user interface
• The same logic applies to the first-time setup and configuration process – it is relatively simple and convenient
• Not only Veeam’s customer support is effective on its own, but there is also a very expansive community forum that has plenty of answers to the most common questions

Shortcomings:

• Veeam is a very feature-rich solution, but it still has its own issues and areas where it lacks features – such as the data management field
• Veeam has a very dated interface as a whole, even though it does not affect its capabilities all that much – the difference is noticeable when using it alongside more modern software (such as Windows 11)
• Veeam’s overall pricing approach is categorized to a certain degree, but the prices themselves are typically higher than what most of the market offers, and there are also specific features that are extremely expensive on their own
• Tape storage is very limited
• Highest levels of security are perhaps not Veeam’s forte
• Coverage of different hypervisor-types is limited

Pricing (at time of writing):

• There’s little to no official information about Veeam’s pricing that is available on the official website. The only way to receive the exact price for everything that your specific company needs is to request a personalized quote.
• What Veeam does have is a pricing calculator page that lets users specify the number of different environments they want covered with Veeam’s solution, as well as the planned subscription period.
• This page can also be used to reveal basic information about Veeam’s pricing, such as:
  • Veeam’s subscription can be purchased for at least one year in advance, and up to 5 years, with “multi-year contracts offering additional discounts”
  • The workload selection screen offers one field for each of the following workload types: Virtual VM, Cloud VM, Servers, Workstations, M365 Users, NAS/File Shares (TB)
  • The “Contact Us” button would not be available if only the “NAS/File Shares” part is above zero
  • Veeam sells licenses in increments of 5 at once, meaning that at least 5 licenses of one of the aforementioned categories have to be selected
  • Protecting five workloads (either Virtual VM, Cloud VM, Server, or Workstation type) for a year costs $642 
  • “Microsoft 365” category is an exception, it requires at least 10 users to be selected at once, and the starting price for 10 users is $306
• There is also a free version of Veeam that covers up to 10 workloads, supports both VMware and Hyper V, while also providing plenty of features to work with – instant file-level recovery, VM cloning, support for direct restore, etc.

My personal opinion on Veeam:

Veeam may be one of the most popular software providers on the backup and recovery market, especially when it comes to enterprise-level offerings – and yet, it still has issues in multiple areas. It is fast, versatile, feature-rich, and works with all kinds of environment types – but its pricing is extremely inconsistent, its interface looks extremely outdated, and there are some areas where Veeam has fewer features than most of the smaller solutions in the first place. It has multiple free versions for different use cases, including the one for VMs specifically – and it is actually rather versatile, despite the fact that there is a limitation of up to 10 workloads, at most. Security may be a concern

Bacula Community as a free Hyper V backup solution

The list above includes 9 different examples of Hyper V backup solutions with some form of free version available in them. However, this list is far from conclusive, and there are plenty of other options out there. As an example of that, there is at least one more solution for Hyper V backup tasks that we can go over – it is called Bacula Community.

Bacula Community is a very deep and broad backup and recovery solution, and therefore is usable as a free Hyper V backup solution. It offers a large number of features that are quite impressive for a free open source solution.

Let’s go over the Hyper V backup creation process with Bacula Community. The first step is to create a file set.

One important thing you’ll have to remember is that you have to put “/” instead of “\”. Now we’re using webmin to create a file set.

After logging in to webmin, click “file sets”. The next page (called “File sets”) allows you to choose “add a new backup file set”. Now you have to fill out all of the required information, including manually typing the paths since the backup in question is not on the local machine. The list of fields includes:

• File set name;
• File path to your Hyper V VMs (with “/”s);
• File signature type;
• Files and/or directories to skip (it is recommended to skip *.bin, since they are not needed specifically and you’ll get a lot of unneeded errors in the log with them included);
• Compression type of your choosing.

Next you’ll just have to finalize the file set creation by clicking the “Create” button.

File set creation is an essential step in creating an actual backup job with Bacula’s free Hyper V backup software. The backup job creation process is quite similar to the file set creation, you’ll have to choose the “backup jobs” category first in your Webmin client, and click “Add a new backup job” in the following window. Now you need to add some more information about your backup, including:

• A name for your backup job;
• Double-check if your job is enabled or it won’t run in the first place;
• Default type;
• Job type (here you’ll have to specify that it’s a backup);
• Backup level (either Incremental or Full, and your pre-created schedule would be checked to see if you actually need a full backup);
• What client you’re backing up;
• What file set you’re using for this backup;
• What schedule you’ll be using (important for defining the time after the last full backup, and for some other things);
• Where you want to store your backup;
• What volume pool you’ll be using;
• Log messages destination;
• Your backup priority (the lower - the better);

After getting everything ready, you’ll just have to press “Create” to finish the process.

Testing your backup job is, of course, important too. Click on your newly created backup job and choose the “run now” option. You’ll get a lot of log options, and everything ends with the “Termination: Backup OK” line.

That about sums up the general process of using Bacula Community’s free Hyper V backup software to create a Hyper V backup. This software has quite a relatively huge range of options and it is certainly a good backup solution, even if you only need to backup Hyper V VMs.

Conclusion

The overall backup software market is both expansive and very competitive – creating a variety of options for practically any use case out there, but also making it difficult to choose a single solution. In these kinds of situations it is always recommended to carefully analyze and identify your own business or company needs and priorities in order to figure out what specific features and service qualities are necessary for you.

With this approach, it will be much easier to sort through dozens of different backup solutions on the market. For example, solutions such as Veeam, NAKIVO, AOMEI, Bacula and so on would be a good pick for businesses that are rapidly growing and planning to keep using the same backup solution in the future – with the ability to expand the software’s capabilities for a price.

There are also quite a few unusual solutions here, as well – such as Synology’s backup solution that is free but only works with Synology hardware. There is also a part of the market that covers free and open-source backup solutions such as Bacula Community – which has the added attraction of having a sister product: Bacula Enterprise - a fully supported, higher technical compatibility version for medium and large enterprises. These kinds of solutions are feature-rich but may be more demanding to operate for someone with no real technical background.

At the end of the day, the market for backup solutions is vast and varied, so it should always be possible to find a solution that fits practically any use case.

Why you can trust us

Bacula is all about accuracy and consistency. Our materials always try to provide the most objective point of view on different technologies, products, and companies. In our reviews, we use many different methods such as product info and expert insights to generate the most informative content possible.

Our materials offer all kinds of factors about every single solution presented, be it feature sets, pricing, customer reviews, etc. Bacula’s product strategy is overlooked and controlled by the Marketing Director Rob Morrison.

Rob started his IT marketing career with Silicon Graphics in Switzerland, performing strongly in various marketing management roles for almost 10 years. In the next 10 years, Rob also held various marketing management positions in JBoss, Red Hat, and Pentaho ensuring market share growth for these well-known companies. He is a graduate of Plymouth University, and holds an Honours Digital Media and Communications degree, and completed an Overseas Studies Program.