Veeam is hired to copy servers and virtual machines on a schedule and bring them back after a failure. The job matters most on the day nobody wants to learn it was misconfigured. Below: what to confirm first, the open-source options we verified, and how to move without a gap in protection.
Nobody wants to be the person who changed the backups the month before they were needed. The product works quietly, the renewal arrives annually, and the risk of touching it feels larger than the saving.
That is fair. The way through is to leave the old setup running until a real restore from the new one has worked, and to count the workloads you pay for against what is actually protected.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| restic | Open source | BSD-2-Clause | restic repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Kopia | Open source | Apache-2.0 | Kopia repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
A backup product is bought for the day something goes wrong, so the test of a replacement is a restore, not a backup. Nobody should end the old setup until the new one has restored a real machine or database while someone watched.
restic and Kopia are open-source backup programs we verified, with Apache-2.0 for Kopia and BSD-2-Clause for restic according to their repositories. Their READMEs describe backing up files and folders to a storage location you choose, with encryption. They do not describe whole-machine imaging or the orchestrated recovery of a virtual environment, so they fit a company whose backup need is mainly files and databases. If you rely on restoring entire virtual machines, treat that as the hard part. We rate this moderate: simple for files, harder the closer you get to rebuilding whole servers.
Samples are made up and are not Veeam's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
The honest yearly cost of running open-source software yourself, set against the bill it replaces, with the seat count where it stops paying.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
The rule is no gap: the new backup must have restored something real before the old one stops.
List every machine and database that is backed up, its schedule, its retention and who restores it. Note any retention a contract or audit requires.
Decide the destination and who administers it. Check where copies will be stored and encrypted, and who can read them, since backups contain personal data.
Set up the new backup for one non-critical system and run it for a week alongside the old one.
Restore a real file set or database from the new backup onto a spare machine, and have a second person confirm it opens and is complete.
Move the other systems in order of risk, keeping the old schedule running on each until the new one has completed a full cycle.
Keep the old backups readable for as long as retention requires, then end the contract inside its notice window and confirm in writing.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. Veeam is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Self-hosting, per year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hosting, backups, tooling | 720.00 |
| Admin and restore-test time | 2,640.00 |
| Total | 3,360.00 |
| One-off set-up (not in the yearly total) | 1,200.00 |
The saving holds only if the time is real. Price the admin hours at what that person's time costs the company, not at zero.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.