CloudStack vs Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) comparison

Apache and Nutanix are both solutions in the Cloud Management category. Apache is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.2, while Nutanix is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.7. Apache holds a 2.6% mindshare in CM, compared to Nutanix’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Nutanix users who would recommend it.

CloudStack

Read 34 CloudStack reviews

2,115 Views
1,946 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

Read 28 Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) reviews

3,431 Views
583 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

CloudStack

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

CloudStack and Nutanix Cloud Clusters compete in the cloud management space. CloudStack holds an edge in simplicity and cost-effectiveness, while Nutanix Cloud Clusters stands out with advanced features and scalability.

Features: CloudStack offers resource allocation, efficient network management, and hypervisor flexibility. Nutanix Cloud Clusters provides seamless multi-cloud operations, built-in data protection, and advanced automation.

Room for Improvement: CloudStack could enhance multi-cloud integration, improve automation options, and increase support for hybrid environments. Nutanix Cloud Clusters could offer more straightforward setup processes, reduce initial investment costs, and provide enhanced API functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CloudStack is known for its straightforward deployment and basic customer support. Nutanix Cloud Clusters combines robust deployment with proactive support, ensuring comprehensive assistance and rapid response times.

Pricing and ROI: CloudStack's setup costs are low, promoting quick ROI, especially for smaller investments. Nutanix Cloud Clusters demands a higher initial investment but offers significant long-term benefits and scalability, potentially leading to higher ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed CloudStack vs. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

CloudStack vs. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

February 2026

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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

CloudStack

Ranking in Cloud Management

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

Ranking in Cloud Management

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) (8th), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Cloud Management category, the mindshare of CloudStack is 2.6%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is 1.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
CloudStack	2.6%
Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)	1.2%
Other	96.2%

Cloud Management

Featured Reviews

Tharun Kumar Reddy Thamatam

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at Infosys

Achieving seamless infrastructure management with optimized network and user access controls

I believe enhancements could be made in CloudStack, particularly in the management servers. I had the opportunity to collaborate with one of the Apache CloudStack developers, leading to the installation of additional agents for better information retrieval from hypervisors. We implemented configurations, ensuring consistency across hosts and VMs. We also utilized Ansible or YAML files to automate password upgrades during patching activities and database management, showcasing our customization efforts for improvement. For future releases, it would be beneficial if Apache enhanced CloudStack by integrating alerting systems directly. We've had instances where hypervisors experienced overloads without prior alerts, so proactive alerts within the tool would better prepare us for addressing issues swiftly, preventing disruption in business operations. A portal summarizing system metrics alongside alert capabilities would greatly enhance our operational efficiency.

Read full review

Jose Ybarra

Manager, Information Technology Engineers at IBC Bank

Enables us to grow at the speed of business and be ready for whatever is coming

What I admire most about Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is its scalability; that option that everybody seems to eventually go to is cloud, and we're ready for that when we decide. This scalability feature has improved my company because we can grow at the speed of business, and that's very important. We're not limited by the hardware that we have. We allow ourselves room for growth, and we can literally grow from today to tomorrow to ensure that we're handling our growth. The scalability is critical for us, especially in the banking industry, where we just get bigger every year.

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

"Key features include stability, centralized management design that scales well, and transparent interoperability with different hypervisors and manufacturers.."

"When compared to OpenStack, CloudStack is also an open-source platform that is continuously improving its features and capabilities with each new version release. Having worked with CloudStack 4.7, 4.14, and most recently, 4.17, I have noticed significant enhancements in the platform's features and customer experience, such as the introduction of a new user interface in the latest release. Notably, the latest versions have made major improvements to VM live migrations, making them more efficient and effective."

"I have been impressed by CloudStack's most recent updates around Kubernetes. In particular, they have worked with Kubernetes to support the Cluster API, and you can now easily integrate Kubernetes into CloudStack and get access to a lot of good features."

"Valuable features include that it is a user-friendly portal, VPN P2S and S2S possibilities, and it's easy to manage accounts and limits."

"It is very easy to install and manage. It has the all modules in one node, unlike other software (OpenStack). The product allows a customized look and feel, and the ability to add custom workflows."

"The API with CloudStack made integration into various external facing web applications simple enough."

"CloudStack is simple to stand up and get off the ground in a hurry. Its centralized design allows for easier troubleshooting when compared to OpenStack. Out of the box, it’s very well suited for white labeling and IaaS."

"You can use a single API to get things done, rather than multiple APIs on multiple modules."

More CloudStack pros

"Being able to spin up or reduce the cluster size based on the needs that we have has been helpful for us."

"Its performance and speed are valuable. Its performance has helped me reduce costs."

"The features I appreciate most about Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) are that we don't need to manage the hardware to start up with, and it is being managed by Microsoft currently, so that is hands-off."

"We're not limited based on the hardware that we have."

"The most valuable feature of Nutanix Clusters is its storage infrastructure."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the redundancy on all levels."

"The feature I probably appreciate the most about Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is its scalability—how quickly I can deploy more nodes on a cluster and remove nodes."

"Nutanix benefits my company as it reduces administration work, allowing me to spend more time away from hardware issues."

More Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) pros

Cons

"Accounts, domains, and user accounts are set up with public cloud in mind, not private."

"Lack of support for third-party software vendors such as Veeam and Zerto creates limitations on comprehensive offerings which would include backup and disaster recovery."

"The installation of CloudStack can be quite challenging because you need a good understanding of the product before starting."

"My teammates have complained about the upgrade. The source code had massive files that had to be merged with our own development to upgrade to the latest version of CloudStack. It was quite painful for them. CloudStack could add some cost management tools to give me some control over the costs associated with the number of users of my services."

"The area of Apache CloudStack that could stand the most improvement is the functionality/features around the virtual routers. They can be somewhat cumbersome to deal with at times and are the least stable piece of the product."

"The user can't upload SSH keys from the UI. We have to use the API for this, and it is not always convenient."

"The numerous, multi-layered drill-down menus make it difficult to find one simple knob to turn."

"CS has very descriptive logging, and every time I faced issues and asked for help, I didn’t get any reply from the community. Reason? Its quite obvious. CS runs on specific environments, unique to each case. So, unless it is a functional issue of CS, nobody can help you. All issues were resolved by myself going through logs. This is another reason why you need smart enough people to manage it. Engineers must have knowledge of hypervisors and understand how CS interacts with them."

More CloudStack cons

"The offering on GCP is a feature we have been waiting for to compare costs."

"I'd like more flexible options to get in and out of migration modes."

"The pricing can be better."

"Perhaps the one thing that could be improved is the documentation around the solution."

"There are still some things that could be improved about the product."

"Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) is a very costly solution compared to on-prem. Customers are not moving to Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) because of the price, the license cost, and everything."

"It should not be so expensive. Its price is high, but at the same time, it does give the results it offers."

"Networking is one of the biggest improvements. They have a great stock already, but some use cases, particularly around incrementally spinning up workloads, haven't been considered closely enough."

More Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Apache CloudStack is open source, so you do not have licenses to purchase."

"It is a 100% open-source solution needing just an Apache license. Also, there are no hidden fees to be paid."

"There is no license, so the product is free unless you are buying professional technical support services."

"Give an effort to planning. If possible, contract a specialized consultant company for the initial setup and knowledge transfer."

"CloudStack is an open-source product."

"As far as I know, CS is still free of charge. If you want to pay some money, Citrix Cloud Platform is based on CS, I think. As for hypervisors – everything as usual, you need to pay for VMware and vCenter. As for XenServer, recently they changed the free feature list, so you may need to pay some money to get useful features like XenMotion."

"The solution is open-source and free."

"CloudStack is an open source solution, so you don't need to pay anything for it. When our company develops something specially for CloudStack, it is donated to the Apache Software Foundation and provided to anyone that wants to use it."

"The licensing portability can be very interesting. At the moment, I am working with Nutanix Appliances with the AHV as a hypervisor. I did not have a chance to ask for portability between platforms, but it will be good if you can have portability between multiple types of platforms."

"The transition from the perpetual license to what they have now is, from a business perspective, understandable, but from an operational and cost perspective, for me, it is really expensive. However, our partners at Nutanix did work with us recently and reduced a huge licensing cost for us."

"The solution has been more costly at this point. We do not see any cost savings."

"The solution's licensing can be very pricey."

"The price is high."

"I am working on one configuration that is priced at $50,000 USD, whereas another one that I'm working on is estimated to cost $250,000 USD."

"There are positives and negatives to licensing. It all makes sense now, but it took a while. When the licenses first changed, it was a bit confusing."

"The licensing model of Nutanix is complex."

More Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CloudStack?

CloudStack is open-source, so there is no cost apart from learning. Billing solutions, if outsourced, come at a moderate cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CloudStack?

Enhancements for CloudStack can focus on integrating more hypervisors, as mentioned regarding current features. We're working on a new feature that will allow for certain limited functions, but ove...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CloudStack?

My usual use cases for CloudStack involve an AWS style private cloud or public cloud. I can deploy an AWS style cloud using the open source tool that is CloudStack. The use case depends on the cust...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)?

I'm not familiar with the contracts, but I thought the process was pretty seamless. Licensing for the Nutanix part was the same as licensing something on-prem, and since it runs on bare metal EC2, ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)?

From an improvement perspective, I cannot see anything at this point because I used those Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) at that moment, but I am currently not using it. The pricing could be lower.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)?

I use the workload migration feature between clouds, such as migrating from VMware to Nutanix. I use Nutanix Move to migrate workloads from Nutanix Move. However, in some cases with our failover cl...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CloudStack

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

January 2026

Download Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) product report

Also Known As

Vmops, Cloud.com

Nutanix Clusters

Overview

Apache CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.

Apache

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) provide scalable and cost-efficient infrastructure management across cloud and on-premises environments. With features like data portability and ease of setup, NC2 enables seamless migration without application refactoring.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) supports businesses in managing hybrid IT environments, enhancing disaster recovery, and optimizing workloads. Users value NC2 for its unified management platform and redundancy features, facilitating cloud migration and integration with major cloud providers. Challenges include pricing and initial setup complexity, as well as feature parity between different cloud services.

What are the key features of Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)?

Scalability: Easily scales resources to meet business demands.
Cost Management: Controls and reduces cloud-related expenses.
Data Portability: Ensures seamless migration between environments.
Unified Management: Manages both cloud and on-premises platforms from one place.
Integration: Connects efficiently with multiple cloud providers.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Redundancy: Enhances disaster recovery capabilities and operational resilience.
License Portability: Simplifies license management across different environments.
Optimized Workloads: Maintains performance and reduces unnecessary costs.
Efficient Setup: Simplifies initial adjustments, ensuring quick deployment.

Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) find application in industries requiring reliable infrastructure management, like finance and healthcare, to safeguard critical systems. Organizations leverage NC2 for virtual desktops, application modernization, and smooth transition to cloud operations, improving data security and replication processes.

Nutanix

Sample Customers

GreenQloud, Exoscale, TomTom, ASG, PC Extreme, ISWest, Grid'5000

The Home Depot, JetBlue, Hyundai, ShiftLeft

Buyer's Guide

CloudStack vs. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2)

February 2026

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