NAKIVO Backup & Replication
Backup, instant recovery, replication and ransomware protection for VMs, cloud, physical, NAS and Microsoft 365 at up to 50% lower cost.
By NAKIVO · HQ Sparks, US · 4.8/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- SMB and mid-market IT teams backing up VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV or Proxmox VMs with instant VM and granular recovery
- MSPs delivering BaaS and DRaaS through multi-tenant mode, MSP dashboard, self-service and branding
- Organizations replacing legacy backup vendors to cut cost (vendor claims up to 50% lower TCO)
- Buyers prioritizing ransomware defence: immutable storage, source-side encryption and pre-recovery backup malware scan
- Microsoft 365 data protection (Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams) licensed per user
- Protecting Windows/Linux physical servers, workstations and NAS file shares from one web console
Ideal size: SMB to enterprise (1-50 IT staff) people · Scale-up or enterprise with virtualized infrastructure and in-house IT operations
Not for
- Enterprises wanting a fully vendor-hosted backup service with no on-premises components to run
- Teams needing support for platforms outside the published list (for example Kubernetes-native or mainframe)
- Buyers who require published list pricing before shortlisting - most editions are quote-only
- Companies standardized on per-seat SaaS pricing rather than per-workload, per-socket or per-TB metering
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Under 1 day (deploy in minutes)
~1 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
On request
Per-workload, per-socket, per-user (Microsoft 365) or per-TB subscription billed annually upfront; perpetual licenses also available. Minimum 5 workloads per order.
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Minimum 5 workloads per order; Pro Essentials capped at 50 workloads; Microsoft 365 minimum 10 users.
Add-on costs
- Microsoft 365 Backup is licensed separately per user (minimum 10 users) and can be combined with any license type
- NAS Backup is licensed separately per TB of source data
- Site Recovery and Real-Time Replication for VMware are purchased separately
- Oracle RMAN backup (Enterprise Plus) and VMware Cloud Director backup are separate line items
- 24/7 support upgrade on perpetual licenses; 1 year of business-hours standard support is included
Company & support
Who is behind NAKIVO Backup & Replication, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2012 · 14 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Sparks, US
How you get support
- PhonePaid plans
- EmailPaid plans
- Live chatPlan not stated
- Support portal / ticketsPaid plans
- Community forumAll plans
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- 24/7
- Response time
- Not stated
Subscription licenses include free 24/7 technical support; perpetual licenses include 1 year of business-hours standard support that can be upgraded to 24/7.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where NAKIVO Backup & Replication sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- NAKIVO Backup & Replication
- Portnox
- Zluri
- Expel
- Vanta
- ThreatLocker
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including NAKIVO Backup & Replication. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What NAKIVO Backup & Replication ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is an agentless data-protection platform covering VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV and Proxmox VMs, AWS EC2, Windows/Linux physical machines, NAS shares and Microsoft 365. Founded in 2012 and used by 16,000+ customers in 183 countries, it competes on price (up to 50% lower cost) and speed, with instant recovery, replication, site recovery and anti-ransomware features. Licensing is per workload, socket, user or TB, subscription or perpetual, and MSPs get multi-tenant BaaS/DRaaS tooling.
Frequently asked questions
How is NAKIVO licensed, and what counts as a workload?
Subscription licenses are sold per workload, billed annually upfront. One workload equals one VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV or Proxmox VM, one AWS EC2 instance, one physical server, three physical workstations, or one Oracle database (Enterprise Plus only). The minimum order is five workloads, and you can reassign units between supported workload types during the subscription term. For Microsoft 365, a workload is one user covering Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Teams. Perpetual licenses are also available per socket, server, workstation or TB, and include one year of standard business-hours support.
What does NAKIVO cost compared with other backup vendors?
NAKIVO markets itself as up to 50% lower cost and publishes no list prices on the pricing page captured here; editions are quote-based. Three subscription editions exist (Pro Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus), with Pro and Enterprise Essentials capped at 50 workloads or 50 TB, after which sales must be contacted. Watch for add-ons: Microsoft 365 backup is licensed separately per user, NAS backup separately per TB, and Site Recovery, Real-Time Replication for VMware, Oracle RMAN and VMware Cloud Director protection are purchased separately. Perpetual licenses include only one year of business-hours support unless 24/7 is bought.
How long does deployment take and how much implementation work is required?
NAKIVO advertises getting started in minutes, with agentless protection for modern virtual infrastructure and deployment options including installation on Windows or Linux, a virtual appliance, an AWS AMI, or directly on supported NAS devices from vendors such as Synology, QNAP, ASUSTOR and NETGEAR. No mandatory implementation fee is stated. Customers describe fast deployment and administration time savings, though mixed physical/tape/cloud topologies and tape or storage-snapshot integrations will need more planning than a simple VM backup job.
Does NAKIVO cover non-virtual workloads and SaaS data?
Yes. Beyond virtual machines on VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV and Proxmox, NAKIVO covers Windows and Linux physical servers and workstations, NAS file shares over SMB/NFS, Amazon EC2 instances, and Microsoft 365 data in Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Teams. Oracle database backup via RMAN and VMware Cloud Director backup are available in the Enterprise Plus edition. Backup targets include local storage, tape, deduplication appliances and clouds such as Amazon S3, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud, Wasabi and S3-compatible storage.
What ransomware protections are included?
The platform provides immutable and air-gapped storage options, source-side backup encryption, and a pre-recovery backup malware scan intended to stop reinfection during restore. Immutable storage is listed from the entry Pro Essentials edition, while broader administrative controls such as role-based access control, two-factor authentication and Active Directory integration appear in Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Plus. NAKIVO does not sell endpoint or email security, so these features complement rather than replace a broader ransomware programme.
Is NAKIVO suitable for MSPs offering BaaS and DRaaS?
NAKIVO targets MSPs explicitly, with dedicated partner and MSP programs, around 300 managed service providers and multi-tenant mode, an MSP dashboard, self-service and branding in the Enterprise editions. MSP Direct Connect is offered exclusively with MSP licensing and avoids opening ports or firewall exceptions on the client side. Providers can build backup and disaster-recovery services on their own infrastructure and storage, which means margin control but also operational responsibility for the service tier.