Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
VMware Logo
8,603 views|6,684 comparisons
Zerto Logo
Read 233 Zerto reviews
11,784 views|6,522 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 1, 2022

We performed a comparison between VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager) and Zerto based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions indicate that setup, installation, and deployment are straightforward and easy to complete.
  • Features: VMware SRM users feel it offers great virtualization, automation, and good failover. The UI is user friendly and makes testing very easy. Many users feel the solution needs to be more scalable. They say the solution can be unstable and needs to be monitored regularly. There have been scenarios where, if the configuration is off a bit, it will affect the failover process.

    Zerto users tell us they can easily and quickly create protection groups and that Zerto’s ability to maintain a sub-second RPO over a group of machines, and that the group of machines could be spread across multiple storage hardware, makes it unique in the marketplace. Zerto integrates well with many other hypervisors. Users would like to see Zerto move beyond manual failover and offer automatic failover. Users feel that Zerto has some limitations regarding deduplication, which affects their file restoration capabilities, and that documentation processes need to improve.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel they are expensive.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions are happy with the service and support.

Comparison Results: Zerto wins out in this competition. Its consistent sub-second response for RTO and RPO makes it one of the most responsive and fastest in the marketplace today. Users are able to easily run tests and change scenarios without any effect on an organization's production.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware SRM vs. Zerto Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the automatic recovery of the virtual machine if it goes down.""It made the DR process a lot faster and easier for recovery after we were familiar with the product operation.""It has a good and effective user interface.""It is a very stable solution...I was involved in VMware SRM's deployment phase two years ago, and it was an easy process.""The stability of SRM has been excellent. It gets a nine-out-of-ten.""It eliminates the need for complex compliance requirements, making it a highly effective solution.""The replication is the solution's most valuable feature. If we have some issues on the VM in the main site we can migrate it to another site automatically.""Our systems fail over using SRM. So, we do a big bang DR, which is biannual, and we fail over our fairly massive Epic electronic health record (EHR) and our core applications. It takes us about 30 minutes to fail over using SRM, which is pretty good. In most hospitals that have Epic installed, Epic does the audit to make sure that we can fail over if something were to happen. Normally, sites will have a DR solution specific to the EHR, but right now, our pain point is the third-party tier-one clinical applications."

More VMware SRM Pros →

"Zerto helped our organization meet compliance requirements by ensuring data protection and recovery strategies align with our regulatory standards.""Its ease of use is most valuable. The online documentation is very clear and helpful. We are able to solve a lot of problems on our own without having to contact support.""The whole package is valuable. The most useful feature for the company is the rapid RTO, which offers a faster return to operations and brings us back online quicker. The last time we had an issue, we recovered within about 36 minutes, which was probably the most valuable thing for us because, previously, it took four to seven days.""I've been fortunate enough not to need to rely on Zerto in an actual disaster, but we do testing every year. Sometimes, it's multiple times annually or at the year's end. It takes the recovery workflow, which would normally take a lot of planning, and reduces that to just a few minutes.""The near-synchronous replication is one of the primary reasons we're using Zerto because we have recovery intervals of sub-five seconds. On a scale of 10, where 10 is "very important", this feature is a 10.""The most important features are the simplicity of recovery and the wider capabilities and feature sets than VMware SRM has.""Since the log files are continuously transmitted, the granularity of restores is amazing.""The most valuable tool is the dashboard, which allows us to immediately check the DLP status, replication data, and all other data needed to have cleaner and immediate control of the situation."

More Zerto Pros →

Cons
"The price, in general, could be lower.""The configuration process could be improved.""The user experience could be more friendly.""The solution could improve by removing some of the limitations we have been facing. There could be better integrated.""They could enhance the automation features for the product.""An improvement for SRM would be better interface compatibility with other products.""There is room for improvement in the automation and orchestration aspects of this solution.""The biggest issue for us is that this product does not have any demo for customers."

More VMware SRM Cons →

"We had a situation where we had to relicense VMs once they were moved over. We later found out that that feature is built-in, but it's not easy to find. The way it's done is that you have to go to the target site to turn it on. If that were explained a little bit better up front, that would be helpful.""For what we got it for, it does it great. I use a different solution for my disk-to-disk local backups to where I can have a local backup of files. I don't think Zerto does that well to where it keeps a memory of the files that are there. Basically, when something is deleted on Zerto, it gets deleted on the replicated version. So, some sort of snapshotting or something where I could have backups at different points in time of files would be a really helpful tool.""The technical support has room for improvement.""Migration of complex VMware and Hyper-V solution. Using Zerto to replicate to azure and S3.""You can create a VPG and put anywhere from one to 17 servers in that group. We build them one by one. If something changes in VMware, it would be nice to be able to go in and change that VPG, having it update without messing up. When you change them now, it only applies to the copies from the points when you changed it. I wish it would purge that older data from the past. Right now, we have to build a new VPG, which is not a big deal as it is just a few screens.""They could iron out the licensing aspect of it, so we might be a bit quicker when implementing and starting to use it.""One improvement that could make it easier would be to have an easier way to track journal usage and a little bit more training around journal sizing. I've done all the training and the journal is still a gray area. There is confusion surrounding how it's billed and how we should bill clients. It would be easier if it had billing suggestions or billing best practices for our clients to make sure that we're not leaving money on the table.""It has some quirks. We have quirks with appliances. Some things don't really work as expected, but it is minor."

More Zerto Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Compare to hardware-based replication, I think software based replication is best and cheap."
  • "Licensing costs explode after 75 VMs."
  • "The price of this solution is on the expensive side."
  • "The cost of SRM is a little bit high, especially for smaller companies."
  • "The cost of SRM is on par with market rates."
  • "The licensing costs are increasing."
  • "It is about $3,000 a year for the 25 pack. The package gives you the ability to protect up to 25 virtual machines."
  • "There is an annual license to use this solution."
  • More VMware SRM Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing depends on your future growth. Start small and then scale up."
  • "Zerto’s licensing model has changed a bit over the last year and they are in alignment with others. It is pretty simple and more economical."
  • "Licensing is based on the number of VMs to replicate. The first thing should be to get the number of VMs to replicate based on your business needs."
  • "Licensing is VM based so you can buy packages or single VM. Price is not low but the power of application is high, so you will get your money back."
  • "It's a little bit expensive."
  • "We believe the pricing, setup costs, and licensing are easy to understand. The pricing seems very reasonable."
  • "The solution is very cost-effective and very easy to set-up but does not compromise on features."
  • "While we find the twenty-five VM license somewhat inflexible, the actual setup costs are minimal as the product is so easy to install."
  • More Zerto Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Disaster Recovery (DR) Software solutions are best for your needs.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I rate the product price a five to six on a scale of one to ten, where one is a very high price, and ten is a very low price.
    Top Answer:The solution must provide better integration with third-party vendors.
    Top Answer: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 =… more »
    Top Answer:It is cost-effective and stable. It protects virtual machines, and there is a fast recovery time.
    Ranking
    Views
    8,603
    Comparisons
    6,684
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    402
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    11,784
    Comparisons
    6,522
    Reviews
    122
    Average Words per Review
    928
    Rating
    9.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager
    Zerto Virtual Replication
    Learn More
    Interactive Demo
    VMware
    Demo Not Available
    Overview

    VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager) is a business continuity and disaster recovery solution that is part of the vSphere virtualization suite. It helps you plan, test, and run the recovery of virtual machines between a protected vCenter Server site and a recovery vCenter Server site. VMware SRM aims to minimize data loss and system downtime by letting you automate backups and orchestrate the recovery of entire VMware storage systems. VMware SRM is offered on-premises and on the AWS cloud.

    VMware SRM is most commonly used for:

    • Disaster recovery
    • Disaster avoidance
    • Data center migrations
    • Site-level load balancing
    • Maintenance testing for enterprise applications

    As a disaster recovery tool, VMware SRM:

    • Provides replication technology.
    • Supports policy-based management of backup programs.
    • Lets you run non-disruptive testing of disaster recovery plans.

    VMware SRM Key Features

    Some of VMware SRM’s key features include:
    Good scalability and stability, fast and reliable recovery, automated orchestration workflows, automated recovery of network and security settings, non-disruptive recovery testing, orchestrated cross-vCenter vMotion, stretched storage support, and self-service provisioning.

    VMware SRM Benefits

    The main benefits of using VMware SRM include:

    • Integration: VMware SRM integrates with other VMware technologies and architectures.

    • Non-disruptive testing: VMware SRM allows you to conduct tests during business hours without disruptions.

    • Reduced recovery time: By using automated orchestration workflows, VMware SRM helps to decrease recovery time to just minutes.

    • Automated failback: With automated failback, you can resume business operations as normal very quickly.

    • Extensibility for custom automation: With VMware SRM, you can use the Orchestrator plug-in to build custom automation workflows.

    • Automated network mappings: You can automatically map network settings across the two sites when creating a recovery plan.

    • Eliminate the need to re-configure IP addresses: With VMware SRM’s automated recovery of network and security settings, it is not necessary to e-configure IP addresses on recovered VMs via integration with NSX. Configurations are also reduced post-recovery by implementing security policies.

    • Centralized recovery plans: VMware SRM’s centralized recovery plans help you protect thousands of VM’s and also make it possible to eliminate manual runbooks.

    • Protect investments: With supported replication, VMware SRM helps protect investments and tailor RPOs.

    • Lower TCO: By using VMware SRM, you can lower your TCO and incur lower expenses for disaster recovery.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are reviews from PeerSpot users who are currently using the solution:

    PeerSpot user Eslam E., Senior Solution Architect at ICT Misr, explains his experience using the solution and says that "VMware SRM is very effective between two sites with identical twin storage, you can have synchronization between the two sites."

    A founder at a comms service provider commented on the solution's efficiency, noting, "If you want to do failover, it works without any problem."

    Reviewer Rakesh-P., who is a consultant at Ashtech Infotech (India) Pvt.Ltd., mentions why he finds VMware SRM to be a good product, commenting that “The most valuable feature is disaster recovery testing. The reports are very good.”

    Ahmed F., a consultant at Daniyals Inc, says that the solution doesn’t require a lot of resources and that "The UI is very user-friendly and testing is easy."

    Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, specializes in data protection and empowers customers to run a business by simplifying the protection, disaster recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications. Zerto uses advanced hybrid cloud IT technologies to recover and protect business-critical applications in on-premises and cloud environments, enabling them to deliver continuous service without compromising security. Zerto’s foundation is based on continual data protection (CDP) technology. Users can benefit from a single, unified, and automated recovery and data management experience across all virtualized or container-based workloads.

    Zerto's native clustering technology creates a resilient, fault-tolerant system that automates recovery of critical virtual machines while supporting software updates, new OS releases, and upgrades. With native clustering, a creation, migration, or deletion of a virtual machine is automatically replicated to all nodes in the cluster. This creates an automated failover and availability solution with the features of high-end dedicated servers running at a fraction of the cost.

    Zerto Features

    Zerto has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Continuous data security
      • Continuous replication
      • The industry's lowest RPOs and fastest RTOs
      • App and database protection and recovery on a granular level
    • Agility across hybrid and multi-cloud
      • Protection between clouds
      • Simple on-premises to cloud migration
      • User-friendly native cloud services
    • Simple to scale
      • Automation and orchestration are built-in
      • Cross-platform, multi-site analytics
      • Unified experience regardless of cloud
    • Software-based
      • Hardware, hypervisor, and cloud are all independent
      • No physical appliances
      • Future-proof

    Zerto Benefits

    • Robust disaster recovery: Continuous data protection enables recovery of entire clusters, multi-VM applications, or even a single server with the lowest RPOs and fastest RTOs. Zerto allows users to safeguard, manage, and recover all of their key digital assets, whether they’re recovering to a secondary location, the public cloud, or a managed service provider.
    • Constant backup: Instead of making backups every 12 or 24 hours, Zerto creates backups every 5-15 seconds. Zerto backup has no impact on production and eliminates the burden of micromanaging backup windows by using CDP instead of snapshots. Its backup provides immediate recovery of data, folders, or virtual machines (VMs) that are only seconds behind the original, which is a simple approach to completely avoid ransomware or erase inadvertent deletions.
    • Strong long-term retention: Send data to the cloud or a purpose-built storage appliance of your choice for months or years of retention. These long-term copies can be made from local backups or DR replicas, and they can be kept wherever is most convenient for your company. Its powerful indexing and search makes discovering and restoring data simple. For data you want to maintain but only use infrequently, use cost-effective cloud tiering to shift LTR copies from hot to cold to deep-freeze storage.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Zerto stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its disaster recovery abilities and its ease of use. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

    Justin C., Director of IT at Arnott Inc. writes of the solution, “If we had to deal with a ransomware event, Zerto would be one of the first things I would use, because it is going to be the fastest to restore data to a certain point. If there were a fire in our building, Zerto would be a big thing too, because we would shut down everything that's in our building… It's definitely going to be one of our prevalent DRBC layers of protection."

    Brad W., Vice President of Information Technology at a financial services firm, notes, “The file restoration is very helpful. They've improved it over the years to make it a lot more user-friendly and easy to do, which I appreciate. So, we use that quite a bit. The failover process is quite simple and intuitive. Even the configuration and setup are pretty easy to do.”

    Sample Customers
    Acorda Therapeutics, Columbia Sportswear, Mainfreight, Nippon Express, Sin Chew Media, Fisher & Paykel, Siam City Bank
    United Airlines, HCA, XPO Logistics, TaxSlayer, McKesson, Insight Global, American Airlines, Tencate, Aaron’s, Grey’s County, Kingston Technologies
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Insurance Company12%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise57%
    Buyer's Guide
    VMware SRM vs. Zerto
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about VMware SRM vs. Zerto and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    VMware SRM is ranked 6th in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software with 69 reviews while Zerto is ranked 2nd in Disaster Recovery (DR) Software with 233 reviews. VMware SRM is rated 8.0, while Zerto is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of VMware SRM writes "A scalable solution that integrates well with the VMware platform, but its platform agnostics do not support on-cloud usage". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Zerto writes "Gives us business continuity capabilities during hurricane season and in case of ransomware". VMware SRM is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, Azure Site Recovery, VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and Nutanix Disaster Recovery as a Service , whereas Zerto is most compared with Veeam Backup & Replication, Rubrik, Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, Commvault Cloud and VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery. See our VMware SRM vs. Zerto report.

    See our list of best Disaster Recovery (DR) Software vendors.

    We monitor all Disaster Recovery (DR) Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.