Original version is hosted at http://www.esxpress.com/competitive_comparison.php and was created by PHD Technologies.

The following is PHD’s comparison modified based on my knowledge of the latest versions of esXpress, vRanger, and VCB.

VM /ETC esxPress vs vRanger vs VCB comparison

Feature		esXpress	vRanger	Vmware VCB	vRanger w/VCB
Backup and Restoration
	Comprehensive Backup Capabilities	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	On demand ?one up? backups	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	Backup VM Templates (Registered and/or Unregistered)	Yes	No	No	No
	Comprehensive Restore Capabilities	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Networkless Backup (disk to disk)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Network backup	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Backup to network and disk simultaneously	Yes	No	No	No
	Networkless Restore	Yes	No	No	No
	Network Restore	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Easy one step restoration process ( NONE PROVIDE RESTORES IN “1 STEP”)	Yes	No	No	Yes
	Restore to original location	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Restore to new location	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Rename restored VM	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Rename VMDK files on Restoration	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Restore VM Configuration File (.vmx)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Register VM After Restoration Complete	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Prompt before overwriting existing VM	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Keeps original UUID	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Allows Multiple Restorations to a LUN    Without VMDK Fragmentation	Yes	No	Yes	No
Replication
	Built in Replication Engine	Yes	No	No	No
	Easily replicate virtual machines	Yes	No	No	No
	One to One Replication	Yes	No	No	No
	One to Many Replication	Yes	YES	No	No
Basic Operational Capabilities
	Easy to Install and Configure (ALL ARE UNIQUE BUT RELATIVELY EASY)	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	Point and click GUI	Yes	Yes	Command Line Only	Yes
	Start, Cancel and Pause Backups (DEFINITELY START AND CANCEL IN ALL)	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	Easily enable, disable backups for a ESX host	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Backup Options Configurable Per ESX Host	Yes	YES	YES (VIA SCRIPTS)	YES
	Backup Options Configurable Per VM	Yes	No	No	No
	Number of simultaneous backup jobs per ESX host	16	2	No	2
	Number of simultaneous backup jobs per farm	N-cores+1	10 or less	60	10 or less
	Completely Safe with No Risk fo ESX Host Data Loss (NO RISK?)	Yes	Yes	No	YES
	Completely Fault Tolerant (ASSUME	Yes	No	No	No
	Scales Vertically Without Additional Hardware Purchase	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	Scales Horizontally Without Additional Hardware Purchase	Yes	YES	YES	YES
Advanced Operational Capabilities
	Leaves Existing VMware Snapshots intact During Backup	Yes	No	No	No
	Skip Powered-Off VMs That Have Not    Changed Since Last Backup	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Simultaneous Parallel Backup Jobs for    VMs with Multiple VMDKs	Yes	No	No	No
	Abort Backup if VM Snapshot has Exhausted Disk Space	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Retry Failed Backups	Yes	No	No	No
	Native Support for 32, 64 and 128 Core Hosts	Yes	No	No	No
Additional Benefits / Features
	Complete Self Contained Solution	Yes	No	No	No
	Uses Virtual Backup Appliance	Yes	No	No	No
	Hardware Independent Solution	Yes	YES	No	No
	Operating System Included	Yes	No	No	No
	Integrated scheduler (WINDOWS 2003 SCHEDULER INCLUDED)	Yes	No	No	No
	Completely GREEN solution (RUNNING AS A VM)	Yes	YES	No	YES
Full and Differential (Delta) Backups
	Creates Differential Archives	Yes	Yes	Full Only	YES
	Creates Portable, Self-Extracting Archives	Yes	No	No	No
	Store Differential Archives on Non-Windows Targets	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
	Restore Differentials Without Original Software	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
	Restore Differentials With No Database Required	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
	Size Thresholds for Deltas	Yes	Yes	N/A	YES
	Skip Delta Backup if VM is Unchanged	Yes	No	N/A	N/A
	Requires Firewall Holes to Create Backups	No	NO	NO	NO
	Requires Additional Firewall Holes for Differentials	No	NO	N/A	NO
	Backup ANY ESX storage volume	Yes	Yes	No	No
	Uses Industry Standard Compression (gzip, lzop, pkzip)	Yes	Proprietary	No	Proprietary
	Uses Industry Standard Encryption (AES-256)	Yes	None	None	None
File Level Backup and Restore
	File Level Backup	Yes	YES	Yes	YES
	File Level Restore	Yes	Yes	YES	Yes
	Requires Scratch Space Equal to Original VM Size	No	Yes	No	Yes
	Instant Restorations	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Supports Windows VMs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Supports Linux VMs	Yes	YES	No	YES
	File Level Backup Runs Simultaneous to Image Level Backup	Yes	YES	YES	YES
Security Features
	Creates Fully Encrypted Archives	Yes	No	No	No
	Support for DSA, RSA, AES256, AES, 3DES, Blowfish,    and Twofish Algorithms	Yes	No	No	No
	2 Level of Passwords for Each Archive	Yes	No	No	No
	Password Protection of File Level Backup Archives	Yes	No	No	No
Virtual Infrastructure 3 Client Integration
	Issue Backup Commands from VI3 Client	Yes	No	No	No
	View Live Backup Status with the VI3 Client	Yes	No	No	No
	Configure/Change Backup Parameters from within    the VI3 Client	Yes	No	No	No
	View Backup history from VI3 Client	Yes	No	No	No
	View Running ESX Host Processes from the VI3 Client	Yes	No	No	No
Multiple Backup Targets with Fail Over Capability
	Up to 10 Preconfigured Backup Targets	Yes	No	No	No
	Backup Target Fail-over	Yes	Limited	No	Limited
	Backup to Disk and Network Simultaneously	Yes	No	No	No
	Define a Target as Backup Only	Yes	No	No	No
	Define a Target as Restore Only	Yes	No	No	No
	Roll Over Targets (no single point of failure)	Yes	No	No	No
	User Definable Ports	Yes	Limited	Yes	Limited
	User Definable Target for Templates	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	User Definable Target for "One Up" Backups	Yes	YES	YES	YES
	User Definable Target for File Level Backups	Yes	YES	YES	YES
Transport Methods
	FTP	Yes	No	No	No
	SSH	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	CIFS/SMB	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Disk to Disk (SAN, iSCSI, Local)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Resource Usage (IF INSTALLED IN VM)
	Disk Throttling	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Disk Throttling by Time of Day	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Maintains QOS Guarantees	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Set Backup Resources Using VI3 Resource Groups	Yes	No	No	No
Maintain Backup Archives
	Retention Policy Based Upon Calendar Days	Yes	No	No	No
	Automatic Archive Purge	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Separate Retention Policies for Local and Remote Targets	Yes	No	No	No
	Separate Retention Policies for Fulls and Differentials	Yes	YES	No	YES
	Purge Child Deltas when Parent Full Deleted	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Purge Archives Before Backup	No	Yes