Backup software benchmark: Acronis vs NinjaOne vs Comet vs MSP360
We benchmarked Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup, Comet Backup, MSP360 Managed Backup, and NinjaOne Backup on identical AWS infrastructure. Each vendor ran a file-mode backup of the same 625,946-file / 50 GB workload and a full image backup of the system disk, then restored the 15 GB medium subdirectory.
Backup software benchmark results
Here are the four backup products tested on a 50 GB / 625,946-file workload, ranked by the number of dimensions led across Windows + Linux image, file, and file-level restore:
Windows backup throughput
Linux backup throughput
File-level restore
The restore target was the medium subdirectory of the file workload (15 GB / 2,980 files) on every vendor.
Findings across image, file, and restore modes
Acronis was the only vendor to lead more than one dimension. It took the top spot in Windows restore (99.3 MB/s), Linux image (only clean run), Linux file (52.1 MB/s), and Linux restore (100.7 MB/s), four of six measured dimensions. NinjaOne, MSP360, and Comet each led exactly one Windows dimension. Where coverage across both operating systems and across all three modes matters, Acronis posted the most consistent result in this run.
Acronis is the only product whose Linux block-level backup completed without vendor warnings. NinjaOne ships no Linux backup agent. MSP360’s Linux agent is file-only. Comet’s Linux image plan finished, but the snapshot driver issued a kernel compatibility warning against Ubuntu 26.04’s 7.0 kernel and ran in best-effort fallback mode.
Windows image splits into two tiers. NinjaOne and MSP360 finished in 10 minutes; Acronis took 17 minutes, and Comet took 16. Both slower runs reported a self-disclosed cloud ingest bottleneck. MSP360 and Comet both expose Wasabi-backed storage yet sit in different tiers, so the gap should not be attributed to the storage backend alone.
Windows file mode spreads 8.9x. Comet led at 32.43 MB/s, followed by Acronis 20.9 MB/s, MSP360 6.30 MB/s, and NinjaOne 3.64 MB/s. The four products use different agent pipelines for small-file enumeration on a 625,946-file corpus. NinjaOne’s strong Windows image result did not generalize to its file-mode pipeline on the same source data.
Acronis produced the fastest measured restore on both Windows (99.3 MB/s) and Linux (100.7 MB/s) in this single-pass run. The four products fell within a 16 MB/s band (83.3 to 99.3) on Windows restore.
Comet’s smart-restore deduplication transferred 67.84 MB of new content when the 15 GB target already existed on disk, a ~222x wire-transfer reduction in this run. The other products downloaded the full 15 GB in every run. In less ideal re-restore scenarios (different match rate at the destination) the gain depends on how much content already matches.
Tested backup products
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Backup had the broadest coverage across the modes we tested. It is the only vendor whose Linux block-level image backup completed without vendor warnings, the only vendor with a self-disclosed bottleneck label per test, and produced the fastest measured restore result in this single-pass test on both Windows and Linux. We registered the trial at eu2-cloud.acronis.com, which auto-assigned a Frankfurt datacenter when we selected Germany at signup.
Trial setup and agent install
Trial sign-up at eu2-cloud.acronis.com auto-routes to a Frankfurt datacenter when “Germany” is the selected country. The console “+ Add device” wizard presents a list of platforms (Workstations / Servers / Virtual machines / Microsoft 365 / etc.) and a per-platform download link.
The Windows agent is a small web installer that downloads the actual 500 MB agent payload at runtime. Wall-clock on VM-01 (Windows Server 2022): web installer hand-off in seconds, agent package download about 5 minutes, register-and-online inside 10 minutes total. Registration uses a one-time code embedded in the installer URL or a separately generated registration token (lifetime up to 12 months, multi-device).
The “Register workload” wizard has three steps: select account, select plans, review, and register. We chose Do not apply at the plan step to avoid Acronis’s default Complete protection plan auto-starting a CDP backup before we could measure controlled D1 runs.
The Linux agent is a single-file 1.16 GB .bin installer (no web installer). Acronis’s official support matrix at time of writing lists Ubuntu 18.04 through 25.10; we tested on 26.04, one release ahead. On 26.04 the install path required the following steps in addition to the standard silent install:
1. Install the rpm tool (the installer expects it; Ubuntu 26.04 does not ship it by default).
2. Set %_pkgverify_level none in /etc/rpm/macros (RPM 6.x enforces strict signature verification; the Acronis packages are unsigned).
3. Run the .bin with –skip-prereq-check –nodeps –force-weak-snapapi –token=<registration-token> –rain=https://eu2-cloud.acronis.com for non-interactive registration.
4. Install make gcc dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r) and run sudo dkms autoinstall so DKMS compiles snapapi26 and snumbd26 against the running kernel, then sudo modprobe to load them.
Linux install elapsed time on 26.04 was about 15 minutes, including the steps above. On a supported Ubuntu LTS (22.04 / 24.04 / 25.10), the documented silent install is shorter. Once both devices appeared in the console as “online, not protected,” the trial setup was complete.
Backup configuration and modes
Acronis backup plans are created in the console and pushed to devices. The plan template has a “Backup module” with two main modes: Entire machine (block-level image) and Files/folders (per-file). For the small-file workload, mode choice dominates wall-clock time. The entire machine completed VM-01’s 82.7 GB system disk in 17 minutes; Files/folders on the same source took 40 minutes at 20.9 MB/s. Where full-machine protection is acceptable, faster configuration for dense small-file Windows shares (CAD repositories, document management, source trees). Each Acronis job emits a bottleneck label (“Write to destination 100%”, “Read from source 100%”), which surfaces the rate-limiting layer without external instrumentation.
Linux block-level backup
Acronis Linux agent uses snapapi26 (a kernel module compiled at install time via DKMS) to take a partition-level snapshot and stream a block-level image. The pipeline was live during the run: iostat showed sustained disk-read activity, and ifconfig showed concurrent network TX throughout. The full Ubuntu system disk (56 GB used) completed in 14 minutes. Wall-clock on Linux was 3 minutes shorter than on Windows in the same mode (14 vs 17 minutes); both runs were constrained by the Acronis Cyber Infrastructure cloud-ingest path.
Restore workflow
Restore in Acronis is a wizard launched from the device detail page. The user selects a recovery point, browses the file tree, and picks files or folders. We restored a 15 GB medium-size-files subdirectory. Windows restore completed in 2:31 at 99.3 MB/s; Linux restore in 2:29 at 100.7 MB/s. Both runs were constrained by the Acronis Cloud download path; the vendor labels this bottleneck “Read from source 100%” in the job activity feed, which matches what we observed. Acronis produced the fastest single-pass restore on both operating systems.
NinjaOne Backup
NinjaOne Backup ties with MSP360 at the fastest Windows image wall-clock time (10 minutes for the full system disk) and ships backup as part of an integrated RMM platform. Configuration runs through device policies (Windows Server Policy auto-assigned to VM-04) rather than a backup-first wizard, so customers already running NinjaOne for patching, monitoring, and scripting can enable backup from the same console. The product is generally available on Windows and macOS, with Linux backup in a Debian-only Early Access program.
Policy-based agent install and managed storage
NinjaOne’s add-computer wizard exposes Windows, Mac, Linux, and Raspberry Pi as agent platforms with role classification (Server, Workstation, Laptop) and architecture options. For Windows, the wizard generates a per-tenant MSI download URL.
On VM-04 (Windows Server 2022) the install completed in under a minute and the device showed online in the console immediately after. Backup configuration lives in Administration → Policies → Agent policies → Windows Server Policy → Backup, with Image and File/Folder sub-tabs. The destination dropdown has three options: Cloud (NinjaOne-managed), Local (per-device disk), and Hybrid. The destination is NinjaOne-managed AWS storage; customers do not bring their own S3, Wasabi, R2, or Azure Blob bucket. Vendor-managed storage simplifies onboarding (no IAM setup, no bucket configuration) at the cost of buyer-side storage policy control.
The Linux agent (44 MB .deb) installs in roughly 30 seconds on Ubuntu 26.04 with zero workarounds and no kernel module. The RMM, patching, and monitoring features are fully functional on Linux today. The Linux Server Policy in the console does not yet expose a Backup sub-tab on the general-availability tier; this is the agent-install observation that motivates the “Linux backup availability” subsection below.
Image and file mode results
NinjaOne’s image plan completed VM-04’s 73.4 GB system disk in 10 minutes, tied with MSP360 at the fastest Windows image time we measured. The file plan on the same 50 GB / 625,946-file corpus took 229 minutes at 3.64 MB/s. The NinjaOne RMM module flagged its own backup engine’s CPU consumption during the run as an alert (lockhart.exe at 69.5% sustained for 14 minutes, 2.8 of 4 vCPU); the engine’s CPU profile was disclosed in the same console operators use for normal monitoring. The 23x wall-clock gap between image mode (10 min) and file mode (229 min) tracks per-file CPU cost on a 625,946-file corpus. Restore from the image plan completed 2,980 files (15 GB) in 3 minutes at 83.3 MB/s.
Linux backup availability
The NinjaOne RMM agent installs cleanly on Ubuntu 26.04 (.deb, 44 MB, 30-second install, no kernel module). RMM, patching, and monitoring work fully on Linux today. The Linux Server Policy in the console does not yet expose a Backup sub-tab on the general-availability tier. NinjaOne runs a Debian-only Early Access program for Linux file backup with vendor support engagement on request; this article compares general-availability functionality only, so the EA path is outside scope. Customers with Linux server workloads can pair NinjaOne with a Linux-capable backup product until the Linux module reaches general availability.
Comet Backup
Comet offers two deployment paths: Comet-Hosted (vendor-managed Comet Server in the Frankfurt region) and Self-Hosted (customer installs Comet Server on their own infrastructure). We selected Comet-Hosted for parity with the other vendors’ SaaS-style consoles.
Account portal and deployment
The Comet account portal is a two-portal architecture: an Account Portal for billing and tenant management, and a Management Console for daily backup operations. The first step asks the operator to choose between Comet-Hosted (vendor-managed Comet Server) and Self-Hosted (customer installs and runs Comet Server on their own infrastructure). We selected Comet-Hosted, Frankfurt region for parity with the other vendors’ SaaS-style consoles. Provisioning takes a few minutes and lands the tenant on Comet Server v26.4.1 (“phoebe” track) with a $200 trial credit pre-attached, no payment method required.
The Management Console arrives on a unique per-tenant subdomain with a default Storage Vault already attached, visible in the UI as Type: Wasabi. Comet is the only vendor in this benchmark that explicitly discloses its underlying storage backend in the console UI.
Agent install on Windows and Linux
The Comet Backup agent is the same binary on Windows and Linux at version v26.4.1. The Windows agent installs from an MSI in a couple of minutes; the Linux agent ships as a .deb and installs in roughly the same window. Both register against the Management Console using the tenant URL and a per-user login. Once both devices are online, the console exposes the same Connected Device actions on each (Run backup, Restore, Update, Login URL).
Backup configuration and 13 native types
Comet’s New Protected Item wizard presents 13 native backup types in a single dropdown: Files and Folders, Disk Image, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, MS Office 365, Mailbox Office 365, Application Folders, Program Output, and Microsoft Windows Server Backup. The Files and Folders wizard configures source paths, retention, schedule, and storage vault target. The Disk Image wizard enumerates physical disks and supports per-volume selection. Win/Linux agent version parity at v26.4.1 across both platforms is unusual in this benchmark.
Smart-restore deduplication
We ran the 15 GB folder restore twice. The first run targeted the original location, where Comet detected that 15 GB of files already existed at the destination, computed hashes against the backup index, and downloaded only 67.84 MB of new content. Total time: 1:27. The second run targeted a fresh path and downloaded the full 15.07 GB in 2:55 at 85.7 MB/s, which is the comparable figure in our results table. The dedup behavior is real and unique among the four products. In this specific run, Comet reduced wire transfer by over 200x; in less ideal re-restore scenarios (test failover validation, partial recovery of a re-encrypted set after a confirmed clean backup), the gain depends on how much content already matches at the destination.
Linux disk image plan
Comet’s Linux disk image plan ran to completion in 15 minutes 54 seconds, 100 GB processed, 51.35 GB uploaded. The job finished with Warning status. The log entry: snapshot driver targets kernel < 6.18.0 and is in best-effort fallback mode on Ubuntu 26.04’s 7.0 kernel. Comet warns that resulting images may be inconsistent. The Linux file backup mode on the same VM ran cleanly to a Success status in 19 minutes 14 seconds at 43.3 MB/s. We list the image elapsed time for the comparison table but would not recommend this configuration in production.
MSP360 Managed Backup
MSP360 ties with NinjaOne at the fastest Windows image wall-clock time (10 minutes for the full system disk). The console runs on a Wasabi-backed storage destination (white-label, exposed as “MSP360 Wasabi” in the UI), the same Wasabi infrastructure Comet uses. The Linux agent runs four major versions behind the Windows agent on a separate codebase.
Trial activation and agent install
Sign-up at msp360.com/managed-backup/free-trial lands on a “Getting started” wizard with three onboarding tracks: Servers, M365, Hyper-V. The Servers track walks the operator through agent install, storage account setup, and a first backup plan in a single linear flow.
Step 1 is agent install. The wizard presents Windows / Mac / RPM / Deb installer downloads in a platform selector. The Windows installer is small and runs through a standard MSI dialog; the agent appeared online in the console within a few minutes of running the installer on VM-03.
Step 2 is storage account. The vendor pre-creates a Wasabi-backed storage account in EU Central 2 Frankfurt; the operator has to “subscribe” before any plan can use it. The subscribe step routes through a FastSpring checkout that asks for a credit card and a €1.19 trial activation charge. The trial then runs 30 days against a 2 TB cap; auto-renewal at $6.99/TB/month minimum kicks in unless cancelled before the trial end date.
Step 3 selects the backup source (file vs image, with the local disk list visible). Once a plan exists, the console main view shows the device as online.
The Linux agent (Debian or RPM package) installs cleanly on Ubuntu 26.04 but runs at v4.5, four major versions behind the Windows agent (v8.6); the two are separate codebases. The Linux wizard only exposes file backup options; there is no image / disk-level mode at any tier we could access on the trial. The Linux managed-tenant CLI is also disabled for the trial tier (GUI-only access).
Image backup
The MSP360 image plan completed VM-03’s 72.78 GB system disk in 10 minutes, tied with NinjaOne at the fastest Windows image time we measured. The console self-discloses phase transitions (Consistency check, VSS snapshot, BootSector, SYSTEM, CBT scan, C:\ data) which we did not observe in NinjaOne’s opaque percentage indicator. The image is written directly to the Wasabi-backed bucket with no intermediate buffering on the agent host.
Linux agent capabilities
MSP360’s Linux agent is v4.5, four major versions behind the Windows agent (v8.6). The two are separate codebases. The Linux wizard offers file-level backup only. There is no image option, no disk-level plan, no block-level mode. We confirmed this is a vendor product gap, not a tenant configuration issue. The managed-tenant CLI is also disabled for our trial tier (GUI-only access), which limits scripted automation paths. Linux file backup on VM-L-03 ran in 2 hours 19 minutes at 6.43 MB/s, which matches the Windows file throughput on identical workload (6.30 MB/s). The agent platform-agnostically bottlenecks at the same rate.
Windows and Linux restore
MSP360 restored the 15 GB medium subdirectory in 2:54 on Windows (86.2 MB/s) and 3:10 on Linux (84.8 MB/s). The throughput is within 1.5 MB/s across platforms, consistent with the file-backup platform parity we saw on backup (6.30 vs 6.43 MB/s). The vendor uses the same agent pipeline shape on both sides.
Test environment and methodology
Infrastructure
Workload
Throughput calculation
Times come from each vendor’s job or activity console (Acronis Activities feed, Comet job logs, MSP360 Monitoring view, NinjaOne plan list). Table times in the headline tables are rounded to the minute for readability; precise elapsed times are preserved in raw-results/<vendor>/*.json.
Example: MSP360 Linux restore at 3:10 reports 84.8 MB/s (16.11 GB / 190 s); Comet Linux restore at the same elapsed time reports 78.9 MB/s (15.07 GB / 190 s). The 6 MB/s gap reflects per-vendor actual restored bytes, not rounding.
Scope
Limitations
Workload coverage focus: Windows Server 2022 and Ubuntu 26.04. Microsoft 365 backup, Google Workspace backup, macOS, Hyper-V, VMware, RDS, Azure SQL, GCP Compute, and other workload classes are covered in separate benchmarks.
Third-party storage integration matrix is out of scope. AWS S3 BYO, Cloudflare R2, Azure Blob, and cross-cloud restore cells are documented in vendor docs but not measured here.
Single-pass measurement. Each backup and restore ran once. Variance is not reported.
FAQ
Backup management software is designed to protect your data by creating backups of critical files, your entire system, and virtual machines, including the operating system and folders. With the right backup software, users can manage system backups, file backups, and cloud backups for multiple devices, including computers, mobile devices, and other machines, across various platforms.
Modern solutions combine automatic, incremental, differential, and full backups to simplify the process and ensure your last backup is always available. Whether stored on local storage, network-attached storage, network shares, or cloud storage such as Google Drive or Google Workspace, these tools protect against hardware failure, accidental deletion, ransomware, and natural disasters.
Backup software supports different strategies depending on whether you are a business or a home user:
Full backup: Creates an exact copy of the entire hard drive or entire system, including the operating system and all files.
Incremental backup: Backs up only new or changed files since the last backup, saving storage and time.
Differential backup: Captures changes since the last full backup, balancing efficiency and reliability.
Local backup: Uses local storage, network-attached storage, or local networks to create backup copies close to the computer.
Online backup / Cloud backup: Keeps sensitive data in secure cloud storage, accessible from multiple machines, and offers remote access even during natural disasters.
This flexibility allows both businesses and home users to choose between local backup for fast recovery or cloud backup for resilience against data loss and even natural disasters.
Backup management software is more than just storing backup files; it’s about ensuring comprehensive data protection and rapid recovery from hardware failure, accidental deletion, ransomware, or natural disasters. With the right backup process, businesses and home users can create backups of critical data, from important documents to entire hard drives.
Features such as system backup, automatic backup, incremental backup, and differential backup ensure sensitive data is always protected. Additionally, cloud backup adds resilience by storing backed-up files in cloud storage (Google Drive, Google Workspace, or other online backup providers). At the same time, local backup options, such as network-attached storage, local storage, or network shares, ensure quick access from a local network.
Further reading
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