In this guide, we list the top three NetApp competitors based on customer reviews from leading review sites. We focused on NetApp’s backup solutions, and evaluated the platforms on their usability, functionality, and integration with other tools. While we will primarily refer to NetApp BlueXP backup and recovery, we will occasionally mention SnapCenter and StorageGRID, as well.
It’s worth noting that there is no “best” backup solution for everyone. What would work for your peers may not be suitable for you. That said, it’s important to select a backup tool that improves efficiency and secures business-critical data – all while reducing tool sprawl. NetApp Backup, while robust, currently does not have a cohesive management system among its products. This may be challenging for smaller IT organizations looking for a single system.
This is where this guide can help. Whether you’re actively looking for alternatives to NetApp, or merely shopping around, we included our top choices rooted from each alternative’s ability to simplify workflow.
1. NinjaOne
NinjaOne, the automated endpoint management platform, is proven to increase productivity, reduce security risks, and lower IT costs. Trusted by 30,000+ customers, the cloud-native NinjaOne Platform provides single-pane visibility into its services, from endpoint management to patch management to backup.
NinjaOne Backup is our top contender in this list of NetApp alternatives because of its cohesive approach to backup. Rather than needing separate tools, which may introduce blind spots, NinjaOne’s unified backup offering brings together endpoint backup, server backup, SaaS backup, and email archiving (through NinjaOne SaaS Backup and NinjaOne Email Archiver, respectively) into a single, integrated platform. By centralizing backup, retention, and workflow restoration within the broader NinjaOne endpoint management platforms, IT teams gain full visibility and policy-driven control across their entire data lifecycle.
5 reasons to choose NinjaOne Backup over NetApp
1. Unified endpoint and backup management
NinjaOne Backup is seamlessly integrated with the broader NinjaOne endpoint management platform, providing a centralized console for patch management, remote monitoring and management, and data protection. NinjaOne also offers a separate tool, SaaS Backup, that expands its backup capabilities for M365 and Google Workspace data. Regardless, this cohesive architecture eliminates the need for multiple tools and streamlines workflows for IT teams.
NetApp BlueXP, on the other hand, primarily target ONTAP (NetApp’s internal operating system) storage systems, requiring separate interfaces and tools – such as SnapCenter and StorageGRID.
2. Simpler setup
As a cloud-native SaaS solution, NinjaOne can be quickly deployed and used almost immediately with minimal configuration. NinjaOne Backup, specifically, supports cloud-only, local-only, and hybrid backups, allowing IT enterprises to set up the most suitable backup for their specific needs – even as they scale. In contrast, BlueXP backup is deeply tied to ONTAP infrastructure and often requires additional setup and storage expertise for end-to-end deployment.
3. Proactive alerting
NinjaOne Backup provides real-time monitoring and proactive alerts directly through the main dashboard as well as integrated channels such as email, SMS, or Slack. This ensures timely notification of backup failures, ransomware detection, or policy violations. While BlueXP includes centralized dashboards and alerting for snapshot or job failures, it’s primarily focused on ONTAP-centric events and lacks the broader context of endpoint status or third-party integration channels.
4. Broad platform across devices and SaaS
NinjaOne offers a unified backup suite, including NinjaOne Backup, NinjaOne SaaS Backup, and NinjaOne Email Archiver, that supports diverse environments such as Windows and macOS endpoints, servers, Microsoft 365 data, and remote laptops. Conversely, you would need separate NetApp backup solutions to support your entire IT architecture.
5. Block-aware backups
A key feature of NinjaOne’s solution is that it is block-aware. It can resume a backup or restore a processes exactly where it was left off in the event of an interruption. Not only does this minimize downtime and eliminates the need to restart the entire process, but it also makes backups more reliable and efficient. In contrast, NetApp BlueXP backup and recovery focuses on preserving all ONTAP storage efficiencies rather than on broader endpoint or mixed-platform scenarios.
Strengths of NinjaOne
- Healthily obsessed with customer success: Aside from offering free and unlimited onboarding, training, and support, NinjaOne boasts a market-leading customer satisfaction (CSAT) score of 98.4. In addition, NinjaOne has a 30-minute average support response time, compared to the 12+ hour average for competitors.
- Proven results: The numbers speak for themselves: Seven of every 10 customers replaced more than four tools with NinjaOne (with 91% replacing 2+ tools) and 95% of NinjaOne customers experienced increased IT efficiency with automation.
- Trusted and secure: NinjaOne is SOC 2 Type II and ISO27001 certified, received a FedRAMP Ready certification, and is built on trusted architecture for high availability and reliability, and redundancy.
- Cloud-native management: NinjaOne is fast to implement, setup, and deploy. It is a modern, intuitive, easy-to-use product that was built for the next generation of IT.
- High-velocity innovation and momentum: NinjaOne is platform where power meets simplicity, designed to grow with you and your business. It has a long-term product strategy guided by former MSP leaders – with all its intended updates and features transparently shown in its product roadmap.
Check out this comparison of NetApp vs NinjaOne.
Customer story
Chris Porosky, CEO of Red Road Networks, was overwhelmed with increasing backup costs from his previous solution – a hurdle that only got more troublesome as his company scaled. With NinjaOne, he was able to increase profitability by 20-30% while keeping expenses in check with a fully integrated, single-pane backup solution.
“NinjaOne Backup seamlessly integrates with NinjaOne, so it’s really easy to setup and deploy. We can keep an eye on the status of all our endpoint backups and get alerts right in the RMM dashboard, so we can resolve backup problems quickly,” Porosky explained. “Not only that, but NinjaOne’s backup policies give us control over what we backup, what we exclude, how much bandwidth we use, and how long we keep data which helps us balance our data protection needs with storage costs.”
Read more NinjaOne customer stories or check out NinjaOne reviews.
Pricing information
NinjaOne’s IT management software has no forced commitments and no hidden fees. You can request a free quote, schedule a 14-day free trial, or watch a demo.
Reviews
- 2, 085 reviews (at the time of writing)
- 4.7 / 5 stars
- 248 reviews (at the time of writing)
- 4.8 / 5 stars
Recover faster, recover smarter with NinjaOne Backup.
→ Sign up for a 14-day free trial.
2. Druva Data Security Cloud
Druva Data Security Cloud is a 100% SaaS, cloud-native platform that delivers unified backup, recovery, and data protection across cloud, on-premises, endpoint, and SaaS environments. We chose Druva in this list of NetApp alternatives because of its built-in cyber resilience policies that provides immutable backups with AI-driven anomaly detection for rapid ransomware recovery and compliance enforcement.
Features
- Ransomware recovery: Druva quickly identifies unusual or suspicious activities and prevents contamination spread within minutes of ransomware detection.
- Security posture & observability: The platform gains insights into user and data anomalies within one hour of backup. Druva then shares data and alerts with SIEM tools with pre-built integrations or APIs.
- Real-time monitoring: Druva offers 24x7x365 backup monitoring, where AI-powered telemetry detects anomalous activity in the backup environment.
Shortcomings
- User-friendliness: According to G2 users, Druva Data Security Cloud could improve how intuitive its platform is.
- Performance: Druva may not work as efficiently in organizations working in bandwidth-limited environments.
- Storage: Some G2 users have stated that the initial storage capacity offered by Druva may not be adequate for larger organizations or scaling businesses.
Read this article on the top Druva alternatives or check out NinjaOne vs Druva.
3. Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is a unified, cloud-native platform that consolidates backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, endpoint management, and file sync & share under one solution. Designed primarily for MSPs, it brings AI-driven antivirus and ransomware protection together with automated patching and backup in a single agent and console. A strong NetApp alternative, Acronis minimizes security risks with integrated cyber protection covering 100% of your workloads.
Features
- Cyber protection: Acronis leverages its advanced AI-based behavioral detection engine to immediately detect and stop malware, ransomware, and zero-day attacks on client workloads.
- Centralized management: Acronis integrates data protection, cybersecurity, and endpoint management into a single solution with centralized management.
- Backup offerings: Acronis offers full-image and file-level backup and recovery for more than 25 platforms.
Shortcomings
- Speed: Acronis may slow down when navigating large datasets or during large backup or recovery operations.
- Customer support: Some G2 users have expressed their desire for faster customer support.
- Set-up: The set-up process can be complex, especially for smaller organizations.
Read this article on Acronis alternatives or compare NinjaOne vs Acronis.
NinjaOne is the top NetApp alternative
NinjaOne’s cloud-native, agent-based platform delivers seamless coverage across endpoints, servers, and SaaS applications, all from a single pane of glass. With its rapid deployment, user-friendly interface, and proactive alerting integrated into modern communication tools, NinjaOne simplifies administration and enhances resilience for distributed IT ecosystems.
