DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

DataCore and NetApp are both solutions in the Storage Software category. DataCore is ranked #2 with an average rating of 9.5, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. DataCore holds a 22.2% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 20.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of DataCore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

DataCore SANsymphony

Read 59 DataCore SANsymphony reviews

6,334 Views
697 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 93 NetApp ONTAP reviews

3,312 Views
2,716 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

DataCore SANsymphony

NetApp ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

DataCore SANsymphony and NetApp ONTAP compete in the storage solutions category. DataCore SANsymphony seems to have the upper hand due to its focus on flexibility and independence from vendor lock-in, whereas NetApp ONTAP is notable for its data management capabilities and cloud integration.

Features: DataCore SANsymphony offers synchronous mirroring, ensuring high storage availability and protection against incidents. Its continuous data protection feature allows for precise data restoration, which is excellent for preventing data loss. Furthermore, its scalability and flexibility enable seamless integration with various storage components. On the other hand, NetApp ONTAP provides efficient data management with SnapMirror, enhancing disaster recovery and data migration. Its deduplication and compression reduce storage costs and improve performance. Moreover, ONTAP's unified architecture supports seamless SAN and NAS protocol management.

Room for Improvement: DataCore SANsymphony users report challenges with GUI stability and complexity in setup, urging for a more user-friendly interface and better integration with different operating environments. Additionally, users desire improvement in support responsiveness. NetApp ONTAP could streamline its GUI further and enhance integration with varying systems. There's also potential for improved cloud capabilities and simpler management of LUNs and clusters.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DataCore SANsymphony is recognized for rapid and efficient customer support, despite initial setup complexities that necessitate experienced integrators. Its deployment configurations are praised but may pose challenges to new users. NetApp ONTAP provides versatile deployment options in both on-premises and cloud environments. Its customer service is generally satisfactory, offering quick resolutions and proactive support, making deployment relatively smooth across various platforms.

Pricing and ROI: DataCore SANsymphony is valued for its price flexibility, allowing long-term savings with existing hardware. Users note its high cost and subscription model but emphasize the ROI due to reduced downtime. Meanwhile, NetApp ONTAP is perceived as a premium option with extensive features and excellent support. Although considered expensive, its cost of ownership is favorable over time, attributed to strategic licensing and feature utilization.

To learn more, read our detailed DataCore SANsymphony vs. NetApp ONTAP Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. NetApp ONTAP

June 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 900,747 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

6.5

DataCore SANsymphony offers cost-effectiveness, high availability, and long-term benefits, with reuse, stability, and security contributing to financial advantages.

Sentiment score

7.5

NetApp ONTAP reduces storage costs and improves performance, manageability, and data protection, offering notable financial and operational benefits.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

In the long run, we can see a 10% to 20% return on investment.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

This needs to be evaluated by the business, especially considering that NetApp phases out technology after some years and introduces newer technology.

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

DataCore SANsymphony is praised for industry-leading, efficient technical support with quick responses and effective problem-solving capabilities.

Sentiment score

5.9

NetApp ONTAP support is praised for effectiveness but criticized for initial response times and regional inconsistencies.

They always help me quickly and with great knowledge, which is essential for central storage.

Thomas Grötz

System Engineer at Bechtle

I rate their technical support a 10.

Sigfrid CECILLON

Founder at EKIUM

The customer support is perfect.

N Bravi

Sales Manager at MSDSYSTEMS S.R.L.

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

This includes disk replacement, firmware upgrades, and NetApp ONTAP upgrades, which we handle locally in Nigeria.

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

For technical support, I would rate NetApp ONTAP a nine out of ten.

Elanchezhian Adhieksavan

Manager, System at a media company with 10,001+ employees

The support is top-notch.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

8.3

DataCore SANsymphony offers scalable storage expansion, accommodating diverse hardware and supporting substantial data management with high user satisfaction.

Sentiment score

7.5

NetApp ONTAP is praised for scalability and cluster expansion, despite some legacy system limitations and performance concerns.

There are no limits to scalability, which is essential for central storage.

Thomas Grötz

System Engineer at Bechtle

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.3

Users praise DataCore SANsymphony's stability, citing reliability and minimal downtime when properly configured, with few user error issues.

Sentiment score

8.1

NetApp ONTAP is a stable, reliable storage platform with strong performance, effective failover, and appreciated ongoing improvements.

The implementation process is easy for DataCore SANsymphony.

Sigfrid CECILLON

Founder at EKIUM

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

In terms of stability, I would rate NetApp ONTAP a ten out of ten because I have experienced nearly zero downtime over the complete year.

Elanchezhian Adhieksavan

Manager, System at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Both stability and scalability are a 10 out of 10.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sometimes there are system panics, but we have overcome that issue in the latest NetApp ONTAP version.

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Room For Improvement

DataCore SANsymphony improves disaster recovery and availability, but needs better integration, tools, and simplified pricing for enhanced user experience.

NetApp ONTAP needs improved cloud integration, storage efficiency, automation, performance, and user interface, alongside enhanced support and pricing simplification.

I would like to see the stabilization of the Veeam implementation in the future, and perhaps the integration or officialization of compatibility with Proxmox and XCP-ng.

Sigfrid CECILLON

Founder at EKIUM

there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs

Thomas Grötz

System Engineer at Bechtle

The area of DataCore SANsymphony that has room for improvement is the support.

SigfridCecillon

CEO at Arsium

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

The support response needs improvement, especially for P1 cases. When critical cases are raised, they should ensure they call the customer and follow up properly.

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

NetApp ONTAP provides volume level restore, but file level restore is somewhat difficult to execute.

Elanchezhian Adhieksavan

Manager, System at a media company with 10,001+ employees

The interface is very intuitive, and the solution is robust.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Setup Cost

DataCore SANsymphony offers a flexible, cost-effective solution, yet requires careful assessment of licensing and feature expenses for enterprises.

NetApp ONTAP offers high initial costs but is valued for cost-effectiveness and flexible enterprise discounts in the long term.

It's not that expensive, and the product is also pretty stable.

Sigfrid CECILLON

Founder at EKIUM

They have made some improvements regarding the pricing, but it's still too expensive.

SigfridCecillon

CEO at Arsium

The cost changed from a perpetual license to a subscription model.

Thomas Grötz

System Engineer at Bechtle

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

It is cost-effective for the benefits you get.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Valuable Features

DataCore SANsymphony enhances storage management with features like rollback, scalability, synchronous mirroring, auto-tiering, and high data availability.

NetApp ONTAP offers robust disaster recovery, storage efficiency, scalability, and integration, with automation, security, and performance optimization.

DataCore SANsymphony is improving the access speed of data, the reading, and the writing significantly.

Sigfrid CECILLON

Founder at EKIUM

Customers can extend storage with flexibility, as one is not obligated to purchase hard disks or controllers from the same storage vendor.

Thomas Grötz

System Engineer at Bechtle

DataCore SANsymphony has positively impacted our organization because it is scalable and has a fundamental concept that aggregates and pools available storage resources, hiding the complexity, which makes it very simple.

N Bravi

Sales Manager at MSDSYSTEMS S.R.L.

For more quotes and insights, download the DataCore SANsymphony report

It lets you know if you have issues early enough so that you can plan around resolving and mitigating future issues.

Allan Otonglo

Systems and Network Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

NetApp ONTAP has improved our organization through speed, efficiency, and data availability, which ensures business continuity.

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

Without the encryption key, data cannot be accessed, which provides strong data protection.

Elanchezhian Adhieksavan

Manager, System at a media company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the NetApp ONTAP report

Categories and Ranking

DataCore SANsymphony

Ranking in Storage Software

2nd

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (4th), HCI (8th), Storage Performance (1st)

NetApp ONTAP

Ranking in Storage Software

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 22.2%, down from 28.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 20.0%, down from 41.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Storage Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetApp ONTAP	20.0%
DataCore SANsymphony	22.2%
Other	57.8%

Storage Software

Featured Reviews

SigfridCecillon

CEO at Arsium

High availability and user-friendliness enhance infrastructure health and redundancy

I would rate technical support from DataCore SANsymphony a 10. Each time I contact the technical support, it's when I don't have a choice because it's very difficult for me on site, and each time, I have good people online who are able to help me solve the problem. Usually, the problems are not very technically difficult, but sometimes they are, and the support team is still there to help us resolve them. The majority of the problems are linked to licensing, so when the license has expired or the number is not correct, they are proactive and change things live, which is very good.

Read full review

Best Kifi

Senior Storage Engineer at Shell

Data management and availability improve operations, but cost and support need attention

For snapshots, there should be something similar to a recycle bin. When someone mistakenly deletes a snapshot, it should be stored for about two days before disappearing from the system. Regarding storage optimization, when purchasing a 10 terabyte disk, after formatting, you can only use approximately 8 terabytes. They should improve this so users can utilize 90% instead of 80% of the disk space. The support response needs improvement, especially for P1 cases. When critical cases are raised, they should ensure they call the customer and follow up properly. Comparing NetApp ONTAP to other solutions such as EMC, the cost of contract renewals and warranties is relatively expensive. They should extend their renewal window beyond the current six months to one year options. A longer warranty period of two years for new systems, controllers, or filers would be beneficial. Overall, they should reduce subscription costs for businesses.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	22

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	68

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataCore SANsymphony SDS?

I am saying that the pricing is reasonable. It's not that expensive, and the product is also pretty stable. It's a good solution and the price is okay regarding the other products.

See all answers

What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony?

It's difficult to know how DataCore SANsymphony can be improved. I think DataCore SANsymphony could be deployed on Linux environments, which could be a great thing for clients. I would like to see ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for DataCore SANsymphony?

I usually recommend DataCore SANsymphony for companies in the domain of research, energy, governmental, and education.

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?

It is cost-effective for the benefits you get.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp ONTAP?

File level restoration could be improved. Currently, NetApp ONTAP provides volume level restore, but file level restore is somewhat difficult to execute. If NetApp were to provide an option for fil...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 5% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 4% of the time

VMware vSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Spectrum Virtualize vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 3% of the time

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Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 18% of the time

QoreStor vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 17% of the time

Kodjin FHIR Server vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 14% of the time

StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 13% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 8% of the time

More NetApp ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony

June 2026

Download DataCore SANsymphony product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

June 2026

Download NetApp ONTAP product report

Also Known As

DataCore Virtual SAN

No data available

Overview

DataCore SANsymphony enhances storage environments with features like synchronous mirroring, scalability, and flexibility. It optimizes performance through parallel I/O, ensuring high availability, efficiency, and protection against data loss with hardware independence and user-friendly management.

DataCore SANsymphony offers a robust platform for managing storage in VMware environments and beyond, enabling high-performance storage with disaster recovery features and synchronous mirroring. With hardware independence and real-time data replication, SANsymphony supports virtualization and data protection across distributed data centers, ensuring seamless data access. Users benefit from its ease of use, storage pooling, and auto-tiering, managing different storage speeds efficiently and maximizing uptime. DataCore's hardware-independent active-active setup and management tools add value, though improvements in container support, web capabilities, API robustness, and Linux support are needed. Pricing, licensing, tech support, backup integration with Veeam, iSCSI connectivity, and performance reporting are areas for enhancement.

What are the key features of DataCore SANsymphony?

Synchronous Mirroring: Ensures data protection with high-availability mirroring.
Scalability and Flexibility: Adapts to changing storage needs efficiently.
Parallel I/O: Boosts speed significantly through enhanced performance.
Storage Pooling: Simplifies management across different storage resources.
Auto-Tiering: Manages storage speeds efficiently for optimized performance.

What benefits should users consider in DataCore SANsymphony?

High Availability: Ensures continuous data access with synchronous mirroring.
Disaster Recovery: Provides robust data protection strategies.
Performance Optimization: Parallel I/O boosts overall system speed.
Ease of Use: User-friendly features enhance management and operational efficiency.
Hardware Independence: Offers flexibility in choosing storage hardware.

DataCore SANsymphony finds application in industries focusing on high-performance storage requirements, particularly those in VMware environments. Utilized for managing storage across virtual machines and applications, it supports seamless data access within distributed data centers. The platform's real-time data replication, synchronous and asynchronous mirroring, and auto-tiering contribute significantly to optimizing performance and maintaining business continuity.

DataCore

NetApp ONTAP offers robust data management solutions featuring seamless integration, high performance, and efficient scalability. It empowers organizations with stable, easy-to-use data replication and protection tools.

NetApp ONTAP is designed to efficiently manage storage appliances and offers data management capabilities across on-premise and cloud environments. Its support for NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, and integration with virtualization platforms makes it a popular choice for VMware and database applications. The solution provides high availability, disaster recovery, and compliance support, while critical business operations benefit from automated provisioning, quick cloning, and effective data management across environments.

What are the key features of NetApp ONTAP?

Snapshots: Provides point-in-time copies of data for easy recovery.
SnapMirror: Enables fast and efficient data replication across environments.
SnapVault: Offers data protection and long-term storage solutions.
Scalability: Allows for seamless growth alongside business needs.
High Performance: Delivers robust data processing capabilities.
Encryption: Ensures data remains secure during storage and transit.
Deduplication: Reduces storage space requirements significantly.
Protocol Support: Includes NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI support for comprehensive data integration.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Ease of Use: Simplifies data management across varied systems.
Integration: Works effectively with current and new systems.
Automation: Enhances operational efficiency and reduces manual tasks.
Support: Provides reliable technical support and detailed documentation.
Cost Efficiency: Offers a balance of price and functionality.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and education, ONTAP supports complex data management needs and compliance requirements. It manages high I/O workloads, aids backup and disaster recovery, and supports virtualization, helping businesses maintain operations with minimal disruption.

NetApp

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

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. NetApp ONTAP

June 2026

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