Acronis Cyber Infrastructure vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure

Ranking in HCI

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

StarWind Virtual SAN

Ranking in HCI

4th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

206

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.2%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
StarWind Virtual SAN	2.2%
Acronis Cyber Infrastructure	1.3%
Other	96.5%

HCI

Featured Reviews

Sahan Hettiarachchi

Associate Product Executive at Connex Information Technologies

Integrated cybersecurity and backup have improved ransomware resilience and simplified recovery

In my opinion, it would be better if Acronis expanded their integration with multiple products. Right now, backup and mail backup are only limited to M365 and Google. Most of the customers in my country use hosted servers or cPanel, IceWarp, and other small office and home office email solutions. If they can expand that integration, it would be helpful. Making it even better would be if they have an industrial-level backup solution with multiple integrations and multiple backup capabilities that their competitor has. This would allow us to focus on one singular license for backup and confidently position it to an enterprise-level environment, such as a data center-level environment.

Read full review

Jccerong Heron

System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Support team has guided us through deploying virtual storage on legacy hardware and reducing operational costs

The reason I chose StarWind Virtual SAN for this particular scenario is really the features, the ease of use, and most importantly, the price. In my opinion, the best features StarWind Virtual SAN offers are easy integration with the system installed in the data center. The integration with my existing systems in the data center works well, especially with VMware, as we already have a big cluster in VMware, and the easy integration with that is helpful to solve some problems with the platform. StarWind Virtual SAN has positively impacted my organization by reducing OPEX costs. My OPEX costs have gone down as we reutilize some old servers, and this reduces the CAPEX of hardware in the data center.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is the multi-tenancy model, we can create customers and services for them."

"Because they have multiple solutions integrated into one license, we can justify the cost."

"The best feature of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is how it backs up files in a user-friendly manner."

"The most valuable feature is the backup capability."

"The reporting and auditing features of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure are the most effective for data protection; it has a single console management system, and all products are integrated into one console, which makes it very efficient."

"The most valuable features are the full image backup, and the file or document sharing, allowing documents to be easily accessed from anywhere."

"The most valuable feature of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is the multi-tenancy model, we can create customers and services for them."

More Acronis Cyber Infrastructure pros

"It integrates (fully) with VMware and Veeam, my hypervisor, and backup vendors, so for me, all the puzzle pieces simply fit and work smoothly."

"This has helped to improve the reliability of service and operation in all departments, without having to stop in case of emergency situations."

"Given the high availability of the server cluster, we were able to reduce separate physical servers onto one hyper-converged cluster - this saved in OPEX and CAPEX costs immediately, along with licensing costs of the Windows Server licenses."

"StarWind Virtual SAN can improve an organization's storage infrastructure by providing high availability, scalability, cost-effectiveness, performance, and ease of use."

"I've had to open a few support cases over the years due to administrator errors, and the support received was top-notch."

"The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices."

"This solution improves many areas in our company including performance, data availability, and data security."

"It helped us to save money by not having to purchase a new hardware SAN, the VSAN works better than our existing, older SAN, this software works well for the vital signs capture software we were implementing in a new Hyper-V failover cluster, our organization has less hardware to maintain since we didn't have to purchase a new SAN, and being able to run this software in the new virtual machines saved time and money."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

"If they could make improvements with the virtual environment then it would be better."

"The only downside is when comparing backup scenarios. Veeam has much more backup capabilities for data center and enterprise environments, but Acronis only focuses on SMBs and mid-level markets."

"I would like to see real-time backup supported in the next release of this solution."

"If they could make improvements with the virtual environment then it would be better."

"The support for this solution is a major thing that they need to focus on and improve."

"Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is too populated. They have many features, but some features are still missing, it is not complete."

"Acronis Cyber Infrastructure is too populated. They have many features, but some features are still missing, it is not complete. They need to improve many features, such as email security and disaster recovery."

"Backing up Azure resources is an area where there's room for improvement, as they are not fully covered yet."

More Acronis Cyber Infrastructure cons

"An extended trial period would serve as a way to get clean insights into the technology's adaptability and alignment with their specific needs before committing to long-term integration."

"I wish they would improve the documentation for the beginner level as it's not very clear on the web page."

"I would like to see some additional, and possibly clearer, implementation videos with some slower and possibly more detailed descriptions of what the various steps of implementation are for someone who is unfamiliar with high availability and failover clustering in Windows."

"StarWind really needs to market its product more."

"We have, in rare cases, received conflicting guidance between different support folks within StarWind."

"We would like the price to be lower."

"While we had no problems setting the system up, and service technicians from StarWind could assist us very well, they could provide some form of in-depth documentation."

"When StarWind Virtual SAN for vSphere nodes go offline unexpectedly, the nodes have to re-sync disks fully which takes a long time."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is on the high side and the subscription is renewed every year."

"We pay monthly for the use of Acronis Cyber Infrastructure. There are additional features that we use that have an extra fee."

"The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."

"The cost was ultimately low to implement, which allowed us to be 3-2-1 complaint."

"Their pricing seems pretty good, and their licensing structure is pretty straightforward."

"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."

"The pricing is fine for the work that it does."

"This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."

"The licensing is a bit weird. If you license the standard version of StarWind, it allows you four terabytes. Then, they have a pro version, but with the pro version, the only difference is it doubles the terabytes to eight."

"We are happy with the price."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	166
Midsize Enterprise	54
Large Enterprise	34

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Acronis Cyber Infrastructure?

Compared to the products in the market, Acronis is very affordable. Because they have multiple solutions integrated into one license, we can justify the cost. It is affordable within region-wise po...

What needs improvement with Acronis Cyber Infrastructure?

What is your primary use case for Acronis Cyber Infrastructure?

I am working with Acronis, and I have experience with Veeam Backup for VMware and similar technologies. I have experience with VMware configuration from vSphere and backup, replication, and related...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we are using the free version, so we did not incur any cost.

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

The better features are in the paid version, and I would like to see something from the graphical user interface in the free version, which is not available. I wanted to see better understanding of...

What is your primary use case for StarWind Virtual SAN?

In production, I wanted to use StarWind Virtual SAN for shared storage. My main use case for StarWind Virtual SAN is shared storage. I wanted shared storage with local resources for Hyper-V, specif...

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Product Reports

HCI

Download Acronis Cyber Infrastructure product report

StarWind Virtual SAN

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

StarWind SAN & NAS

Overview

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure provides comprehensive server backup solutions with features such as full image backup and ransomware protection to ensure data security, tailored for private and cloud-based environments.

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure delivers robust backup and data management capabilities. Its user-friendly interface and features like integrated software-defined networking and single console management streamline operations. The solution supports multi-tenancy models enabling organizations to create custom services and manage clients efficiently. While primarily focused on server and Microsoft 365 resource backup, it integrates with private clouds and data centers, ensuring seamless data protection. Room for improvement includes enhancing the virtual environment, adding real-time backup, email security, and disaster recovery features, and expanding analytics integration.

What are the key features?

Full Image Backup: Captures a complete image of your system for comprehensive data protection.
File Sharing: Facilitates easy access and collaboration across platforms.
Ransomware Protection: Provides advanced security to safeguard data from cyber threats.
Multi-tenancy Model: Allows creating and managing multiple clients and services under one platform.
Single Console Management: Enhances operational efficiency with streamlined management and reporting.
Software-defined Networking: Integrates networking functionalities for optimized data flow.

What benefits do users typically find?

Streamlined Operations: Simplifies backup processes, saving time and resources.
Data Security: Ensures comprehensive protection against unauthorized data access and cyber threats.
Cost-effective: Offers reasonable licensing fees with a high return on investment.
Scalable Integration: Easily integrates with existing data centers for expanded functionality.

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure sees significant implementation in industries focusing on server backup and data management. Organizations deploy it to leverage private and cloud-based models, enjoying simple implementation and cost efficiency. Resellers and solution providers use it to offer profitable data protection services to their customers.

Acronis

StarWind Virtual SAN offers robust, scalable solutions for high availability in VMware and Hyper-V environments, providing real-time data replication and seamless infrastructure integration.

StarWind Virtual SAN stands out for high availability, impressive performance, and smooth integration with existing systems. Its real-time data replication capabilities minimize downtime and boost operational efficiency. Users appreciate the platform's cost-effectiveness and compatibility with diverse hardware, allowing for seamless deployment across hyper-converged infrastructures and data redundancy setups. Despite the strong feature set, calls for a more user-friendly setup and interface are common, alongside requests for clearer documentation and a web-based management interface.

What are the most notable features?

High Availability: Ensures continuous operation with real-time replication.
Seamless Integration: Works smoothly with existing IT infrastructure.
Scalability: Adapts to changing capacity needs easily.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces traditional SAN system expenses.
Energy Efficiency: Saves on power consumption with optimized functionality.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Reduced Maintenance: Minimizes IT staff involvement, lowering costs.
Enhanced Performance: Facilitates efficient data handling.
Operational Efficiency: Decreases downtime, increasing productivity.
Flexibility: Supports various IT configurations and strategies.

In industries like small businesses, StarWind Virtual SAN is implemented to replace costly SAN systems, ensuring uptime and strong performance. It's leveraged for hyper-converged infrastructure, failover clustering, and backup strategies, meeting diverse IT demands from hosting virtual machines to data migration.

StarWind

Sample Customers

Computol, dmi Networking

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Acronis Cyber Infrastructure vs. StarWind Virtual SAN