Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription

What is included in Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription?

Hypervisor coverage – Backs up Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox VMs.
Immutable cloud backup – Ransomware-proof offsite copies on S3, Wasabi, Azure.
Instant recovery – Boot VMs directly from backup storage.
Continuous protection – CDP and WAN-optimized replication run continuously.
Core Capacity – Unlimited VMs per host plus physical servers.
Important – Microsoft 365 mailboxes need separate 365 Total Backup.

What are the main benefits of Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription?

Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription backs up and replicates Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox virtual machines, plus physical Windows servers. The subscription is always the Unlimited Plus edition, billed per backed-up VM and not tied to any single host.

Per-VM billing – Pay only for the VMs you protect.
Host flexibility – Move VMs across hosts without re-licensing.
Ransomware resilience – Immutable copies resist deletion, encryption and tampering.
Fast recovery – Boot from Backup cuts downtime to minutes.
Storage savings – Inline deduplication shrinks repeated VM data blocks.
Central management – Monitor every host from one cloud console.

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

What does Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription do?

It creates scheduled, application-consistent backups of virtual machines running on Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE, and can also back up physical Windows servers for bare-metal recovery. Because the subscription always delivers the Unlimited Plus edition, every feature is available, including Continuous Data Protection, WAN-optimized replication and immutable cloud storage. Backups can run as frequently as every five minutes and are deduplicated inline to save disk space. From a single console you can restore a full VM, individual guest files, or single Exchange mailbox items.

Which hypervisors and workloads can it protect?

VM Backup protects Hyper-V, VMware vSphere/ESXi and Proxmox VE virtual machines, plus physical Windows servers. One installation can manage Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox hosts together, provided those hosts sit in the same LAN and physical site. Some limits are worth knowing before buying: the free edition of VMware ESXi is not supported, and under the NBD transport mode an individual virtual disk cannot exceed 1 TB. Raw Device Mappings (RDM) and pass-through disks are also excluded from backups.

Does the subscription include every feature, or is a higher edition needed?

The subscription is sold only as the Unlimited Plus edition, which is the top tier, so there is no higher version to upgrade to. It includes immutable cloud backup to Amazon S3, Wasabi and Azure Blob, Continuous Data Protection, WAN-optimized replication, the cloud management console, Augmented Inline Deduplication, Boot from Backup and Exchange item-level restore. The lower Standard and Unlimited editions exist only as perpetual per-host licenses. In practice, choosing per-VM billing automatically gives you the complete feature set.

What does VM Backup Subscription not back up?

It does not protect Microsoft 365 data such as Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint Online or OneDrive; that workload needs the separate 365 Total Backup product. It is also built for servers and virtual machines, not standalone physical desktop or client systems like Windows 10 or 11 workstations. On the VM side, Raw Device Mappings, pass-through disks and the free edition of VMware ESXi are unsupported. Knowing these boundaries avoids the common mistake of assuming one Hornetsecurity license covers both your VMs and your cloud mailboxes.

How does it protect backups against ransomware?

VM Backup can write offsite copies to immutable cloud storage on Amazon S3, Wasabi or Azure Blob, using object-lock so backups cannot be modified, overwritten or deleted until their retention period ends. If ransomware reaches your production environment and primary backups, that immutable offsite copy stays intact for recovery. Backups are also encrypted with AES, and you can keep two separate offsite copy locations for added redundancy. Immutability is part of the Unlimited Plus feature set, which is exactly what the subscription provides.

How is the subscription different from a perpetual license?

The subscription is billed per backed-up VM and is not tied to a host, so you can move VMs freely between hosts without re-licensing, and it always provides the Unlimited Plus edition. A perpetual license is a one-time purchase priced per host, regardless of how many sockets or VMs that host runs, and lets you pick Standard, Unlimited or Unlimited Plus. The Standard tier covers up to five VMs per host and omits deduplication, Boot from Backup and Exchange item-level restore. The table below shows how the three editions compare.

Frequently asked questions about Hornetsecurity VM Backup Subscription

Is there a free version of VM Backup?

Yes. The Free Edition backs up up to 2 VMs per host across unlimited hosts, but it leaves out paid features such as deduplication, Continuous Data Protection and immutable cloud storage.

Can it migrate VMs between VMware and Hyper-V?

Yes. Cross-Platform Restore lets a VMware backup be restored onto a Hyper-V host and vice versa, converting the disks to the target format, which makes it a practical tool for platform migrations.

Where can backups be stored?

Backups can go to local or external drives, iSCSI targets and NAS/UNC network shares, plus the free Offsite Backup Server for a second copy. Cloud destinations include Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, Wasabi, Backblaze B2 and Impossible Cloud, with immutable storage available on the Unlimited Plus subscription.