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DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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

DataCore SANsymphony
Ranking in Storage Software
2nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (4th), HCI (7th), Storage Performance (1st)
NetApp ONTAP
Ranking in Storage Software
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 26.4%, down from 28.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 41.4%, down from 44.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Storage Software
 

Featured Reviews

OliverPalz - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides efficient synchronous mirroring capability and dynamic data management functionality
The initial setup is relatively easy but requires a certified DataCore implementation engineer to deploy the solution in a production environment. The deployment following the qualified procedure, typically takes about a week, depending on the amount of storage and the specific environment. With my experience, I can set up the system within two to four hours; however, the qualification process, which includes detailed planning and testing, adds additional time. It involves gathering the customer's requirements, preparing comprehensive documentation for validation, and conducting tests in collaboration with the customer. This documentation includes a site planning checklist, a pre-installation checklist, and a functional test plan to ensure everything is in order before deployment. Overall, I rate the process an eight.
Naveen Radhwani - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good performance, stability, and complete data security
Our upcoming investments would be prioritized around a hybrid cloud solution because we ourselves promote the cloud in the market. We are the premium service provider for AWS, so we have that inclination toward cloud computing. From the experience that we had during the pandemic, we are looking for some kind of hybrid solution for our environment. NetApp should focus on a hybrid cloud solution because none of the media houses are opting for cloud storage. The files are quite heavy, and it becomes quite difficult to maintain them on the cloud. If NetApp can provide such technology and fill the gap of storing media files in the cloud, it would give them an advantage.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I'd have to say that the biggest improvement gained by using SANsymphony has to be the performance of the product."
"The synchronous mirror allows us to operate a fully redundant storage solution that is distributed across two sites."
"The documentation repository is really useful and kept updated."
"SANsymphony is flexible, with many potential options for implementation. SANsymphony's can be used with VMware, Hyper-V, or even with a hypervisor agnostic approach. It can also be used for strictly physical non-virtualized solutions."
"It allows data to be available from two DataCore servers."
"DataCore SANsymphony's stability is okay."
"Oracle OLTP benchmark to test how it improves the performance while using flash drive NVMe."
"I found the solution to be very stable."
"We do not face any glitches or downtime."
"Previously we didn't have DR, but ever since we purchased the NetApp server, we are able to use Snap Mirror and then create DR scenarios, so that's been a huge benefit. This solution has helped reduce the overall cost of storage space in our organization by allowing us to use one data center, instead of two, and then allowing us to replicate the data; so that saves us money to buy more storage. We have been able to save space by using this solution."
"When it accesses regular files, it does so as an NFS workload, which retrieves data quickly."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It came in a box ready to go."
"For our product requirement and our users' requirements, it is one of the perfect network storage solutions we are using. It's reliable, synchronous, and we are not losing any data when using it."
"If we want to change things in models, such as add, replace, and adjust to another client, it is very easy."
"We have been using it for our entire environment, so we use it in file shares and in our VDI environment, at least for user data. That has reduced our user login times by about 50 percent."
"We are able to minimize the storage hardware. The compression and deduplication have helped reduce our overall cost of storage."
 

Cons

"I would like for it to improve into a more ergonomic management console and a translation into the French language. It should have some process for a shutdown of a VM properly in case of a problem."
"The graphical interface is not always very stable."
"When I sometimes reboot for maintenance, the connectivity from the iSCSI initiator host could be improved."
"It would be ideal if they were providing archive licensing with the ability to create a second pool on existing storage nodes."
"The solution is constantly evolving."
"The alert system could have more features."
"In my opinion, there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs."
"If it could integrate to a cloud gateway, then we could carry it directly to storage, instead of having middleware in between the storage and the cloud."
"It's very expensive."
"There is room for improvement in areas related to hardware constraints—for example, more storage efficiency, especially in terms of deduplication."
"Because most of us were new to the product, the initial setup was a bit cumbersome. Once we were trained, it was fine."
"In terms of areas where NetApp ONTAP could be improved or enhanced, I believe they should improve the volume replication, specifically the synchronous replication in a block-based SAN environment."
"One area where they could improve NetApp ONTAP is their ability to migrate to and from different enterprise storage."
"I would like to see more in the public cloud space around things like object storage. A bit more granularity around how that gets deployed would be nice, but other than that I think they've got it nailed."
"I would like to see more integration of the features with the CIFS and SMB Protocols. We also want integration with iSCSI."
"cDot only scales to 24 notes so scalability should be better, bigger, but we are one of the only customers that are facing this problem."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution allows the use of off-the-shelf hardware and charges by the TB of storage."
"We have licensing costs on a yearly basis. They charge per terabyte, so in terms of cost, it can be very costly. They have three different features, and you have to pay extra for those."
"In my case, the licensing per terabytes is very high and it must be licensed for each extra functionality."
"The pricing and licensing are better with DataCore."
"This product has a good ratio between quality and price. In many cases, it's less expensive to work with DataCore than other storage systems."
"Pricing has improved but it is still expensive."
"The solution is cost effective."
"Make sure you are made aware of the annual subscription cost when purchasing."
"Additional costs exist if you want a license for a feature like SnapMirror."
"NetApp ONTAP is moderately priced."
"Our pricing with discounts is reasonable, but it may vary for others."
"We received a super deal for our new machine, so we were happy with the price."
"It's not an all inclusive model. You have the option to purchase modules to make the entire ecosystem coherent. I would like the option to pay one price and get everything all inclusive, like OnCommand."
"The product is a bit expensive."
"It helps us save money using compression and deduplication."
"ONTAP is expensive, but most storage systems are now-a-days and everything is included with the license - there are no additional fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Computer Software Company
14%
Transportation Company
5%
Construction Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataCore SANsymphony SDS?
The cost changed from a perpetual license to a subscription model, and it seems reasonable. I am technical personnel and not deeply involved in sales, but the pricing appears fine.
What do you like most about DataCore SANsymphony?
The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are a lot of counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like when a backup is in progress).
What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony?
In my opinion, there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs. However, this is not a frequent need because they have great support that offers quick and knowledgeable assistance. Other...
How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?
Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...
What do you like most about NetApp ONTAP?
We do not face any glitches or downtime.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?
The pricing is high. That said, we received favorable pricing at Intel due to the company's large NetApp ONTAP deployment across different organizations. While we're not in the IT department (we're...
 

Also Known As

DataCore Virtual SAN
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Volkswagen , Maimonides Medical Center, NASA, Thorntons, Inc., TUI, ISCO Industries, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, United Financial Credit Union, Derby Supply Chain Solutions, Mission Community Hospital, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Colby-Sawyer College, Mount Sinai Health System, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Quorn Foods, Bitburger, University of Birmingham, Stadtverwaltung Heidelberg, NetEnt to name a few.
1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace
Find out what your peers are saying about DataCore SANsymphony vs. NetApp ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.