Restow vs Kaseya: Datto SaaS Protection and Spanning
Kaseya offers Microsoft 365 backup in three ways: Datto SaaS Protection, Spanning Backup, and the Kaseya 365 User bundle, which includes one of the two. All of them run in Kaseya's cloud and are sold per user, mostly through MSPs.
The short answer
Kaseya fits MSPs who already live in the Kaseya stack and want backup bundled with email security, awareness training and SaaS alerting, with SharePoint and Teams covered and nothing to host.
Restow fits MSPs and companies who want to own the backup: a one-time Service Provider license for any number of tenants, storage in a region and on hardware you choose, and a weekly restore test per mailbox.
At a glance
| Aspect | Restow | Kaseya |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Community free. Business €595, Service Provider €1,950, one-time, net (pre-sale until release: €476 and €1,560). No per-user fee. | Per user, recurring. Kaseya 365 User subscriptions, standalone SaaS Protection with a committed minimum quantity, or legacy tiers. No public price for Spanning. |
| Where it runs | Self-hosted: one Docker Compose stack on a Linux server or VM you control. | SaaS in Kaseya's cloud. No self-hosted option. |
| Where backups are stored | Your choice: local disk, S3-compatible object storage, NFS or SMB, in the region you pick. | Datto Cloud (unlimited under per-license pricing). No own-storage option found. |
| Microsoft 365 coverage | Exchange Online mail, calendar, contacts; OneDrive; IMAP mailboxes; Linux and macOS servers and clients (file-level agent); imported mail files. No SharePoint or Teams in version 1. | Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams; Google Workspace too. |
| Restore testing | Weekly sampled restore: data is read back through the restore path and compared byte for byte. | No restore-verification specifics found in the pages checked. |
| Source code and exit | AGPL-3.0 core, source-available Business and Service Provider modules, open documented storage format with a standalone restore tool. | Proprietary. Export format not found in the pages checked. |
Where Kaseya is strong
- Covers SharePoint and Teams, and Google Workspace.
- Datto SaaS Protection backs up three times a day; Spanning offers unlimited retention.
- Kaseya 365 User bundles backup with email security, training and SaaS alerting in one subscription.
- Nothing to host or patch; storage is included under per-license pricing.
Where Restow is different
- One Service Provider license (€1,950 once) for any number of tenants, instead of a per-user subscription with committed minimums.
- Backups on storage you pick: local disk, S3-compatible, NFS or SMB, in your region.
- A weekly restore test per mailbox and OneDrive, shown per tenant.
- No usage reporting to a vendor: what you protect stays between you and your customer.
- An open storage format and a standalone restore tool, so there is no lock-in on exit.
How Kaseya bills Microsoft 365 backup
There are three billing paths. Kaseya 365 User counts seats with a high-water mark. Standalone SaaS Protection moved in December 2025 to a committed minimum quantity plus usage above it, and a tiered Plus option with commitment discounts was scheduled for 5 August 2026. Older subscriptions keep their month-to-month, 1-year or 3-year terms tiered by seat count. Spanning publishes no price and asks for a quote.
For an MSP the practical effect is that backup cost grows with every seat you add. With Restow, the license is paid once and the running cost is the server and storage you choose. The 5-year chart shows a 20-tenant, 1,000-mailbox scenario with every assumption listed.
What Restow does not do (yet)
- Restow does not back up SharePoint or Teams in version 1.
- The audit log, SSO and roles are in development for Business.
- Licenses include no support; setup is available on quote.
- The server and endpoint agent runs on Linux and macOS, file-level; Windows is planned.
- Restow 0.1.0 is a beta: do not use it as your only backup.
Kaseya: the facts, with sources
Each line is taken from Kaseya's own documentation unless the rating says otherwise. "Checked: not found" means we looked in the named sources and did not find it, which is not proof that it does not exist.
| Fact | Source | How solid |
|---|---|---|
| A Kaseya 365 User subscription bundles email security, security awareness training, dark web monitoring, SaaS alerting and account locking with one SaaS backup module: either Datto SaaS Protection or Spanning Backup (for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace), plus Datto Backup for Microsoft Entra ID. | KaseyaOne Help: About Kaseya 365 User | Official source |
| Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 covers Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams, with daily automated backups, unlimited on-demand backups and unlimited retention. | Spanning: SaaS Backup products | Official source |
| Spanning offers granular search-based restore, point-in-time restore and self-service restore for end users. | Spanning: SaaS Backup products | Official source |
| Spanning publishes no price; its pricing page asks for a quote request. | Spanning: Request pricing | Checked: not found |
| Three different billing paths depending on how it's purchased: Kaseya 365 user subscriptions (high-water-mark, counting active/standard/paused/inactive/archived seats), standalone SaaS Protection (Committed Minimum Quantity plus variable consumption, effective December 2025), and legacy SaaS Protection subscriptions (month-to-month/1-year/3-year, tiered by seat count: 1–99, 100–499, 500+). | Understanding the pricing model | Official source |
| The Committed Minimum Quantity model replaced the prior high-water-mark approach for standalone and legacy subscriptions as of December 2025; monthly billing uses whichever is higher, the committed minimum or actual usage. | Same page | Official source |
| A tiered "Plus" pricing option with commitment-based discounts is scheduled to take effect 5 August 2026. | Same page | Official source |
| Storage is described as unlimited under per-license pricing; archived licenses are billed separately, at list price or a negotiated rate. | Same page | Official source |
| Backups run three times daily for Exchange, Calendar, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, stored in Datto's own cloud ("Datto Cloud"). | Datto SaaS Protection for Microsoft 365 | Official source |
| Not open source. | Absence checked across the pages above | Checked: not found |
| No customer-storage or BYO-S3 option was found: vendor cloud only, in the pages checked. | Same pages, absence checked directly | Checked: not found |
| Export format and detailed restore-verification specifics were not found in the pages checked this pass. | Not found | Open question |
Frequently asked
Is Kaseya SaaS Protection the same as Datto SaaS Protection?
Yes. Datto is part of Kaseya, and Datto SaaS Protection is Kaseya's Microsoft 365 backup product. Kaseya 365 User includes either Datto SaaS Protection or Spanning Backup as its backup module.
What does Kaseya 365 User include?
Email security, security awareness training, dark web monitoring, SaaS alerting and account locking, one SaaS backup module (Datto SaaS Protection or Spanning Backup) and Datto Backup for Microsoft Entra ID, according to KaseyaOne Help, read on 2026-09-29.
Can I store Kaseya backups on my own storage?
We found no such option: the data sits in Kaseya's cloud. Restow writes only to storage you choose.
Does Restow back up Teams and SharePoint like Kaseya?
No, not in version 1. If Teams and SharePoint backup is a requirement today, Kaseya covers it and Restow does not.