Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus

What is included in Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus?

Multi-Hypervisor Backup – Protects Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox virtual machines.
Continuous Data Protection – Captures VM changes as often as every five minutes.
WAN-Optimized Replication – Streams offsite copies for fast disaster failover.
Immutable Cloud Storage – Protects offsite backups from ransomware encryption and deletion.
Core Capacity – Backs up unlimited VMs per licensed host.
Important – Physical servers and workstations are not backed up.

What are the main benefits of Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus?

Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus is the top-tier edition of the company's agentless backup and replication software for Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox virtual machines. It adds continuous data protection, WAN-optimized replication, immutable cloud storage and a multi-tenant cloud management console on top of the standard backup and recovery toolset.

Ransomware Recovery – Immutable offsite copies survive encryption-based attacks.
Lower Storage Costs – Inline deduplication shrinks repeated data across jobs.
Faster Recovery – Boot VMs directly from backup during outages.
Central Management – Cloud console oversees every installation from one place.
Flexible Offsite – Copies go to Azure, S3, Wasabi or Backblaze.
Simple Migration – Restore VMware backups to Hyper-V and back.

Data loss is expensive: How backups help you avoid outages
For more background on backup planning, read our guide:

What does Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus do?

Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus is an agentless backup and replication tool that protects virtual machines running on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox from a single console. As the top edition, it adds Continuous Data Protection, which can back up selected VMs as often as every five minutes, alongside WAN-optimized replication for offsite disaster recovery. Backups are deduplicated inline across all jobs and encrypted with AES, and offsite copies can be sent to Azure, Amazon S3, Wasabi or Backblaze. Recovery options include booting a VM straight from a backup, cloning it to another host, or restoring individual files and Exchange mailbox items.

How is Unlimited Plus different from the Unlimited and Standard editions?

Unlimited Plus is the only edition that includes Continuous Data Protection, WAN-optimized replication, the cloud management console, Azure cloud backup and immutable cloud storage for ransomware protection. Both Unlimited and Unlimited Plus back up unlimited VMs per host and include deduplication, Boot from Backup, Exchange item-level restore and support for Hyper-V Clusters (CSV) and VMware vCenter. The Standard edition is limited to a smaller number of VMs per host and a reduced feature set. Choose Unlimited Plus specifically when you need immutable offsite copies or near-continuous protection rather than scheduled backups alone.

Which hypervisors and recovery options does it support?

VM Backup Unlimited Plus protects virtual machines on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere/ESXi and Proxmox VE, all managed from one console. For recovery it offers full VM restore, Restore Clone, cross-platform restore between VMware and Hyper-V for migrations, Boot from Backup for a faster RTO, granular file-level restore from Windows VMs, and Exchange item-level restore of individual mailboxes or emails. The free version of VMware ESXi is not supported, so VMware users need a licensed vSphere environment. Sandbox Restore verification runs a background job that clones a VM back to its host and confirms it boots correctly.

What technical limitations should you know before buying?

VM Backup protects virtual machines only; physical servers and workstations require Hornetsecurity's separate Physical Server Backup product. A single VM Backup installation can only manage hosts in the same LAN and physical site, so each geographically separate location needs its own instance. Replication and the Offsite Backup Server require a Windows Server operating system that matches the source host. Immutable cloud storage and Continuous Data Protection are exclusive to Unlimited Plus, so the Unlimited and Standard editions cannot enable ransomware-proof or near-continuous offsite copies.

How does Unlimited Plus protect backups against ransomware?

Unlimited Plus stores immutable offsite copies on Amazon S3, Wasabi or Azure Blob, where backups cannot be altered, overwritten or deleted for the length of the retention policy. This means a locked offsite copy stays recoverable even if production systems and credentials are compromised during an attack. Immutability is configured at the software level and is available only in the Unlimited Plus edition. Combined with AES encryption and offsite replication, it gives you a clean recovery point to restore from after an incident.

Frequently asked questions about Hornetsecurity VM Backup Unlimited Plus

Does Hornetsecurity VM Backup install agents inside each virtual machine?

No, VM Backup works at the hypervisor level and does not require backup agents inside each guest VM. You add the Hyper-V, VMware or Proxmox host to the console and protect its VMs by dragging them onto a schedule, which keeps deployment simple and avoids per-VM software maintenance. Augmented Inline Deduplication runs automatically across all backup jobs, so common blocks are stored only once.

Can VM Backup be installed on a domain controller?

No, the main VM Backup installation cannot run on a machine that is also a domain controller. You can install it on a separate physical server or virtual machine, which is the recommended approach for a stable management host. Because a single instance only covers one physical site, plan a dedicated install per location if your infrastructure spans multiple buildings.