Restow compared: features, prices and the real 5-year cost
As mailbox count grows, Restow's one-time license usually ends up cheaper over 5 years than a per-seat backup subscription, and you keep your own storage and an open, restorable format the whole way.
A fact-by-fact comparison against Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Veeam Data Cloud, NinjaOne SaaS Backup (formerly Dropsuite), MailStore, Acronis, Keepit, AvePoint, Kaseya (Datto SaaS Protection, Spanning) and Microsoft 365 Backup, for IT decision makers and MSPs evaluating options: what each product actually is, what it costs over time with real infrastructure counted in, and what Restow honestly does not cover yet.
Compiled from each vendor's own public documentation and pricing pages, checked 2026-09-24. Not a recommendation against any of these products; several are good software with a different model than Restow. Prices and features change: every claim below is dated and sourced.
Feature matrix
"Yes" and "No" mean the vendor's own official documentation states so; "Not documented" is a negative finding (not found in the sources checked), not proof of absence. Restow is marked honestly: SharePoint and Teams are not in v1, the archive ships in every edition since 0.1.0, with its layer for German GoBD requirements in Business and Service Provider, and infrastructure/Proxmox backup is planned for a later track. Every vendor name links to that vendor's own dedicated, fully sourced comparison page.
| Feature | Restow Community | Restow Business | Restow Service Provider | Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 | Veeam Data Cloud for M365 | NinjaOne SaaS Backup (Dropsuite) | MailStore Server / SPE | Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud | Keepit | AvePoint Cloud Backup | Kaseya (Datto SaaS Protection) | Microsoft 365 Backup | Hornetsecurity 365 Total Backup | N-able Cove Data Protection | Synology Active Backup for M365 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | Yes Self-hosted, Docker Compose | Yes Self-hosted, Docker Compose | Yes Self-hosted, Docker Compose | Yes Self-hosted, Windows server | No SaaS, Veeam-operated on Azure | No SaaS, vendor-operated on AWS | Yes Self-hosted (Server/SPE); Cloud is SaaS | No SaaS | No SaaS, vendor-hosted only | No SaaS | No SaaS, MSP channel | No SaaS, Microsoft-operated | No SaaS, Hornetsecurity-operated | No SaaS, N-able data centres | Yes On a Synology NAS you own |
| Your own storage target | Yes Local disk, S3-compatible, NFS/SMB | Yes Local disk, S3-compatible, NFS/SMB | Yes Local disk, S3-compatible, NFS/SMB | Yes Local (DAS/SMB), S3-compatible, Azure Blob | No Veeam-operated Azure storage accounts | No Vendor-operated AWS storage | Yes File system or NAS (Server/SPE) | Partial Acronis cloud storage, or Microsoft 365 Backup Storage | No Vendor-operated storage | No Vendor-operated storage | No Vendor-operated storage | No Microsoft-operated storage | No Hornetsecurity infrastructure only | No N-able data centres only | Yes Your Synology NAS |
| Data location control | Yes You choose the storage target's region | Yes You choose the storage target's region | Yes You choose the storage target's region | Yes You choose the storage target's region | Partial Selectable Azure region, incl. Germany West Central | Partial Selectable AWS region, incl. Germany | Yes Your own file system/NAS (Server/SPE) | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Partial Follows the M365 tenant's own region | Yes Region choice (Germany, USA, UK announced 2022) | Yes Region choice, about 30 data centres | Yes Wherever your NAS stands |
| Open storage format / restore without the vendor | Yes Documented format, standalone restow-restore tool | Yes Documented format, standalone restow-restore tool | Yes Documented format, standalone restow-restore tool | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | Partial EML/MSG/PST export; internal store format not openly specified | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | No No open format specification found | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Partial Exports to EML/PST, ICS, CSV, HTML; internal format not open |
| IMAP backup | Yes | Yes | Yes | No Not documented for VBM365 | No | Yes IMAP/POP3 supported | Yes IMAP/POP3, plus M365/Exchange/Google | No Not documented | No Not documented | No Not documented | No Not documented | No M365-native only | No Not documented | No Not documented | No Not documented |
| M365 mail, calendar, contacts, OneDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial Mail-focused archive; calendar/contacts depend on profile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SharePoint / Teams | No Not in the current phase, see roadmap | No Not in the current phase, see roadmap | No Not in the current phase, see roadmap | Yes SharePoint and Teams (excl. 1:1/group chats) | Yes | Yes Incl. Teams channel chat | No Not documented | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial SharePoint yes; Teams coverage per Microsoft's own docs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Immutable storage (Object Lock / WORM) | Partial Can write to an S3 bucket with Object Lock; the archive adds a SHA-256 hash chain in every edition | Partial Can write to an S3 bucket with Object Lock; the archive adds a SHA-256 hash chain in every edition | Partial Can write to an S3 bucket with Object Lock; the archive adds a SHA-256 hash chain in every edition | Yes S3 Object Lock, Azure versioning, depending on target | Yes Included, LRS with 3 copies | Partial WORM advertised for the archive product | No Hash-based tamper detection; no WORM storage documented | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Partial Depends on NAS features (e.g. immutable snapshots) |
| Automated restore tests | Yes Weekly sampled restore check, compared byte for byte; results shown as recovery readiness | Yes Weekly sampled restore check, compared byte for byte; results shown as recovery readiness | Yes Weekly sampled restore check, compared byte for byte; results shown as recovery readiness | No Not documented as of the 8.6 release notes checked | Not documented Not researched | No Not documented | No Integrity check exists; automated test-restore not documented | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked | Not documented Not documented in vendor sources checked |
| Multi-tenant for MSPs | No Single tenant | No Single tenant | Yes Delegated tenant admins, cross-tenant reporting and API | Yes Via VCSP program | Yes Via VCSP program | Yes MSP-oriented, white label for qualifying resellers | Yes MailStore SPE, one instance per end customer | Yes MSP-channel product | Not documented Not researched | Not documented Not researched | Yes MSP-channel product (Kaseya) | No Per-tenant, no MSP console documented | Yes Sold through partners, per customer | Yes MSP product | No One NAS, no MSP console documented |
| Pricing model | Yes Free, no license key | Yes One-time purchase; all updates included while Restow is actively developed | Yes One-time purchase; all updates included while Restow is actively developed | Partial Subscription or monthly rental per protected user | Partial Subscription per user (annual/multi-year/monthly) | Partial Per user/seat subscription | Partial Perpetual per-user license + separate time-limited update subscription | Partial Per-seat or per-GB subscription | Partial Subscription, tiered by retention/support level | Partial Subscription, per user or per data volume | Partial Committed-minimum-plus-consumption subscription | Partial Pay-as-you-go, $0.15/GB/month | Partial Per user, all-inclusive, no public price | Partial Per user, storage pooled, no public price | Yes Free add-on, needs a Synology NAS |
| Open source | Yes AGPL-3.0 | Partial AGPL-3.0 core, source-available Enterprise modules in ee/ | Partial AGPL-3.0 core, source-available Enterprise modules in ee/ | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Pricing and the real 5-year cost
Self-hosting is never free: every Restow total below includes a Hetzner Cloud VM, Hetzner Object Storage sized for the protected data (with a stated deduplication factor), and an explicit, separately labelled admin-time cost. Where a vendor publishes a list price, it is used directly: Microsoft 365 Backup ($0.15 per GB per month) and Veeam Data Cloud Foundation ($2.63 to $3.50 per user per month). For vendors without a public price, a clearly labelled illustrative per-seat figure is shown, never attributed to a specific vendor. See assumptions and sources below for every number used.
Read honestly: at a very small, low-data scale (the 25-mailbox scenario below), Microsoft's own metered $0.15/GB/month can come out cheaper than self-hosting, because Restow's fixed VM and admin-time costs don't shrink with mailbox count. Restow pulls ahead of both Microsoft 365 Backup and a typical per-seat subscription as mailbox count and data volume grow, which is exactly what the mid-size and MSP scenarios show.
Show values as a table
| Model | 5-year total |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Backup | €1,978 |
| Veeam Data Cloud (Foundation) | €4,614 |
| Restow (self-hosted) | €6,114 |
| Per-seat SaaS (illustrative) | €6,592 |
Show values as a table
| Model | 5-year total |
|---|---|
| Restow (self-hosted) | €11,120 |
| Microsoft 365 Backup | €11,865 |
| Veeam Data Cloud (Foundation) | €24,917 |
| Per-seat SaaS (illustrative) | €39,550 |
Show values as a table
| Model | 5-year total |
|---|---|
| Restow (self-hosted) | €35,063 |
| Microsoft 365 Backup | €79,100 |
| Veeam Data Cloud (Foundation) | €184,567 |
| Per-seat SaaS (illustrative) | €263,667 |
Not charted: Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 (self-hosted). Its license is sold per protected user through resellers and no public list price exists, so a bar with only its server, Windows and storage costs would understate the real total. Other vendors without a published price are covered by the illustrative per-seat figure.
Run your own numbers
The three scenarios above use round numbers. If your mailbox count, data volume or time horizon is different, use the calculator below; it runs entirely in your browser from the same data as the chart.
Run your own numbers
Adjust the mailbox count, protected GB per mailbox and the time period; the totals below recompute instantly, using the same assumptions as the chart above.
- Restow, self-hosted, total
- -
- Microsoft 365 Backup, total
- -
- Illustrative SaaS subscription, total
- -
- Veeam Data Cloud (Foundation, list price), total
- -
Assumed VM size: -
Why MSPs choose Restow
Pay once, not per mailbox
Service Provider is €1,950 one-time (list price from release). A per-user subscription takes a cut of every mailbox you protect, every month, for as long as you protect it.
Many tenants, one installation
Available today: any number of client tenants in one installation and a cross-tenant API key for your tools. Delegated tenant administrators and tenant reporting are planned, not built yet.
Your storage, your region
Local disk, S3-compatible object storage, NFS or SMB, in the region you choose. Not a vendor-operated bucket you cannot look into.
A REST API for RMM and PSA
Backup, restore and verification status, jobs and storage per tenant, plus a clean mailbox directory for ticketing and billing.
An open format, no lock-in
Your customers' data sits in an open, documented format. A standalone tool restores from it even without a running Restow server.
Nothing reported to a vendor
What you protect, and for whom, stays between you and your customer. Restow has no telemetry and no license server.
Restore proof per tenant
Every week, samples from every backup are read back and compared. A backup without a verified restore is shown as not proven.
White label: planned
Not built yet. The roadmap shows the status.
Example: margin on the 20-tenant / 1,000-mailbox scenario
This is a worked example with a stated example price, not a promise of what you will charge or earn. Using the same infrastructure and admin-time assumptions as the chart above, the MSP's own all-in monthly cost for 1,000 mailboxes across 20 tenants averages to about €0.58 per mailbox per month (license amortized over 5 years, plus VM, storage and admin time). Charging customers an example €3/mailbox/month for managed backup:
- Example monthly revenue
- €3,000
- MSP's own all-in monthly cost
- €584
- Example monthly margin
- €2,416
€3/mailbox/month is an example price point only, not a recommendation or a guarantee of what the market will bear; your actual price, cost and margin depend on your own infrastructure choices, support load and market.
Assumptions and sources
Every number behind the chart and the calculator, grouped. Official prices link to the vendor's own page with the date we read it; everything we assumed is marked as such, so you can replace it with your own figure.
Competitor prices
| Item | Value | Type | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Backup | $0.15 per GB of protected content per month | Official price | Microsoft Learn: Pricing model for Microsoft 365 Backup read |
| Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, Foundation | $3.50 (10 to 50 users), $3.15 (51 to 250), $2.63 (251+) per user per month, billed annually, storage included Covers SharePoint and Teams too, which Restow does not. In the MSP scenario each of the 20 tenants is priced as its own customer (50 users each); Veeam's MSP program prices are not public. | Official price | Veeam: Veeam Data Cloud pricing and purchasing options read |
| Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 (self-hosted) | No public list price Sold per user through resellers. Not charted, because a bar without the license would look cheaper than it is. | Official price | Veeam: Licensing and license types read |
| Per-seat SaaS backup, illustrative | $5.00 per user per month A round example figure, not the price of any named vendor. | Our assumption | Worked 5-year pricing example |
Restow
| Item | Value | Type | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | €595 one-time, net (list price from release) Pre-sale until release: €476. The chart uses the higher list price on purpose. | Official price | Restow pricing |
| Service Provider | €1,950 one-time, net (list price from release) All updates included while Restow is actively developed; no support included. | Official price | Restow pricing |
Infrastructure for self-hosting
| Item | Value | Type | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hetzner Cloud VM | CX23 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) €5.49, CX33 (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) €8.49, CX53 (16 vCPU, 32 GB RAM) €29.49 per month, net | Official price | docs.hetzner.com read |
| Hetzner Object Storage | €6.49 per month incl. about 0.93 TB, then €6.26 per TB | Official price | docs.hetzner.com/storage/object-storage read |
| Windows Server 2025 Standard, 16 cores | €939.00 one-time Only relevant for self-hosted Veeam; not re-checked against Microsoft's current price list. | Estimate, unverified | Our own figure |
| Own hardware instead of a VM | Not in the chart A mini-PC or used server (roughly €300 to €1,500 one-time) plus power can replace the VM rent. | Our assumption | Our own figure |
Our assumptions (change them in the calculator)
| Item | Value | Type | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data per mailbox | 10 GB | Our assumption | Our own figure |
| Deduplication (Restow) | 1.5× Conservative; not measured on a production install. | Our assumption | Our own figure |
| Admin time | 1, 2 and 6 hours per month at €80 per hour (small, mid-size, MSP) | Our assumption | Our own figure |
| Exchange rate | 1 EUR = 1.1378 USD | Official price | ECB euro reference rate read |
Comparative advertising under § 6 UWG: objective, verifiable and dated, without disparaging anyone. Where a vendor publishes no price, we say so instead of guessing. Prices change; if you find an outdated figure, write to info@it-flores.de and we correct it.
Vendor by vendor
- Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365
- Veeam Data Cloud for M365
- NinjaOne SaaS Backup (Dropsuite)
- MailStore Server / SPE
- Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud
- Keepit
- AvePoint Cloud Backup
- Kaseya (Datto SaaS Protection)
- Microsoft 365 Backup
- Hornetsecurity 365 Total Backup
- N-able Cove Data Protection
- Synology Active Backup for M365
Each page above cites its own sources with the date read. See also Your data is your data and the topics section for the reasoning and lock-in questions behind these comparisons.
Frequently asked
Is self-hosting Restow really cheaper than a subscription?
Usually, over 5 years, once you count the real infrastructure and admin-time cost, which this page does rather than pretending self-hosting is free. It is not a law of nature: a very small, rarely-changing mailbox count and a generous per-seat discount can close the gap. The three worked scenarios below show the actual arithmetic with every assumption stated, so you can substitute your own numbers.
What does Restow cost for an MSP with 20 tenants?
The Service Provider edition is €1,950 once, net (list price from general release), with all updates included for as long as Restow is actively developed. For the worked 20-tenant / 1,000-mailbox scenario on this page, adding realistic infrastructure (a Hetzner Cloud VM, Object Storage sized for the protected data, and a stated admin-time assumption) brings the 5-year total to the figure shown in the chart below, still a one-time license rather than a per-seat meter that keeps growing.
Why don't the competitor bars use Veeam's or MailStore's actual subscription price?
Because none of them publish one. Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 is sold per protected user as a subscription or monthly rental with no public list price; MailStore's perpetual per-user license and update-subscription pricing is quoted per deal. Where a vendor publishes an exact figure (Microsoft 365 Backup's $0.15/GB/month), this page uses it. Where none exists, either the vendor is left out of the chart or a clearly labelled, non-vendor-specific illustrative figure is used instead, exactly as the sourced pricing-math page already does. See each vendor's own comparison page for what is and isn't documented.
Does Restow cover SharePoint and Teams?
Not in v1. This is a deliberate scope decision, not an oversight, so v1 can focus on Exchange mail/calendar/contacts, OneDrive, IMAP and file-level backup of Linux and macOS servers and clients with the Restow agent (Windows is planned). SharePoint and Teams are not in the current phase; see the roadmap for status.
Is the archive layer built for German GoBD requirements available today?
Yes, since 0.1.0. Every edition archives Microsoft 365 and IMAP mail with a SHA-256 hash chain, verification and full-text search; Business and Service Provider add Exchange Online journaling over SMTP, enforced retention and legal hold. It is built for German GoBD requirements, not certified; no such certificate exists.
What's the catch with a one-time license and 'unlimited' updates?
No catch: all updates are included in the purchase price for as long as Restow is actively developed, with no separate update fee. If development ever stops, twelve months' notice is given and the Business/Service Provider modules are published under the AGPL, so the version you bought keeps running indefinitely with no forced shutdown and no phone-home license check. Licenses include the software and all updates; no support is included. There is no renewal fee, which is exactly why the 5-year total on this page is just the one-time license price plus infrastructure and admin time.