Dell EqualLogic PS series vs NetApp FAS Series comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category. Dell Technologies is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. Dell Technologies holds a 5.0% mindshare in MS, compared to NetApp’s 10.1% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell EqualLogic PS series

Read 20 Dell EqualLogic PS series reviews

1,795 Views
1,741 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

NetApp FAS Series

Read 111 NetApp FAS Series reviews

12,099 Views
2,541 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell EqualLogic PS series

NetApp FAS Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Dell EqualLogic PS Series and NetApp FAS Series are competing in the storage solutions category. Although Dell EqualLogic is notable for its pricing and customer service, NetApp FAS Series has the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, appealing to users needing advanced capabilities.

Features: Dell EqualLogic PS Series offers simplicity in management, efficient load balancing, and seamless expansion capabilities. NetApp FAS Series provides advanced data management, flexible storage efficiency, and robust data protection with a broader range of features.

Room for Improvement: Dell EqualLogic could benefit from enhancing its advanced data management features, flexibility in storage types, and scalability options. NetApp FAS Series might improve by simplifying the initial setup process, reducing its complexity for non-technical users, and offering more competitive pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell EqualLogic PS Series shines with a straightforward deployment model and responsive support. NetApp FAS Series, despite a more complex setup due to its extensive features, provides reliable deployment assistance and efficient customer service, helping to navigate initial challenges effectively.

Pricing and ROI: Dell EqualLogic PS Series is competitively priced, delivering strong ROI through cost-effective expansion and reduced administrative burdens. NetApp FAS Series, while initially more costly, offers greater long-term value with its scalable architecture and comprehensive features, resulting in superior cost efficiency over time.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. NetApp FAS Series Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. NetApp FAS Series

September 2026

Download the complete report

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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

Dell EqualLogic PS series

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp FAS Series

Ranking in Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

Deduplication Software (4th), NAS (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) category, the mindshare of Dell EqualLogic PS series is 5.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 10.1%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetApp FAS Series	10.1%
Dell EqualLogic PS series	5.0%
Other	84.9%

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network)

Featured Reviews

Khuram Ayyaz

Network Executive at Virtual University

Has enabled uninterrupted access to educational platforms and simplified storage management

Dell EqualLogic PS series is easily scalable, and we can add extra boxes and storage. It was easy to deploy during COVID. Deploying Dell EqualLogic PS series is straightforward, with no complexity involved. Dell EqualLogic PS series is a good product. We did not experience any failures in the last six to seven years, and it is still running as our storage for offline data. There are snapshot capabilities in data protection available, but we did not use that feature because it consumes much space. We have only 150 terabytes of space and simply use it to create volumes without utilizing it for snapshots. We use thin provisioning in Dell EqualLogic PS series, but I did not explore that feature further.

Read full review

Srikanth Purushothaman

DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems

Has supported long-term data protection and backup while requiring better part availability and pricing options

For monitoring purposes, we normally use flash access storage exclusively. We utilize a hybrid system because we need performance, combining NL-SAS for the volume and SAS flash to use as a fast cache system that provides more IOPS. We normally implement RAID 10, which we prefer over RAID 6's n plus 2 combinations. We utilize it for data redundancy, even with write intensity on. Regarding the unified storage architecture for NetApp FAS Series, we normally opt for exclusivity unless budget constraints exist. Our IOPS are very high, reaching somewhere about 50k to 150k or 1.150k. The high performance ensures minimal latency. An advantage we've seen with NetApp FAS Series is that snapshots provide very rapid backup and fast recovery. We basically use snapshots for data protection as first-level protection, with deduplication between the two storages serving as second-level protection.

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

"Enterprise features for snapshot management and replication benefited us greatly."

"I have been using Equallogic arrays for myself and my customers for over seven years now, and they continue to be my gold standard for SMB storage."

"It has contributed to the implementation of virtualization and all its benefits."

"The technical support for EqualLogic has been universally outstanding."

"It is stable and scalable."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series is a highly stable solution."

"The product is very stable."

"Equallogic PS series arrays are the best suited storage platform for mid to high level enterprises."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pros

"It's an easy product to use that is stable and has good performance."

"Saves space with deduplication"

"It is very easy to expand disks and manage CIFS."

"In NetApp FAS Series, I appreciate the visibility."

"The integration with cloud environments has benefited my customers' storage strategy by providing cloud volume ONTAP."

"This solution is very, very, very, very stable."

"The data management features of Data ONTAP are highly valuable for my organization in terms of data security and compliance, and with SnapMirror, Snapshot, and SnapVault in place I have not experienced data loss or unavailability, which has helped prevent escalations and allowed me to resolve issues within one to two hours while maintaining data integrity."

"The performance allows me to provide backend storage for large number of VMs and databases at a competitive price point."

More NetApp FAS Series pros

Cons

"If I need to have more space or more capacity, I need to replace the product. It would be ideal if we could scale without replacing the box itself."

"Dell EqualLogic PS series could improve the performance because in our hybrid configuration the read speed is faster than the write speed."

"An improvement that could be made is to have a storage solution with all SSD hard disks, as we currently have a Dell EqualLogic PS series with traditional hard disks."

"The price of any good iSCSI array is prohibitive for small businesses."

"The solution does not scale well at all. It's a box, so we only have so much space to work with."

"The replication efficiency needs to be improved."

"The performance isn't as good as, for example, Nimble."

"It is at the end of support and no longer supported."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series cons

"A big problem with physical appliances is that updating them can be a bit burdensome."

"It was not possible to have a custom user inside ONTAP without the delete permission to delete the volume. We wanted others to be able to create a SnapMirror and volume, but have no volume deletion permission. In the newest version, it seems to already be in place, but there was a bug enabling this one in older versions 9.11, 9.10, or earlier."

"Unify all backup software on the single tool to simplify the administration."

"Migration from 7-Mode to Clustered Data ONTAP need improvement. It seems NetApp didn't know how to solve the main problem of migrating data from an old OS (7-Mode ) to Clustered."

"The high cost of the product is an area of concern, so from an improvement perspective, the tool needs to be made cheaper."

"The product should include an audit log feature."

"It lacks automatic tiering, When you use data, some of it goes cold. It is not hot data, so the system should automatically move that data to the SATA, while the hot data is kept on tier-one, the SaaS or SSD drives."

"We are not able to connect to the support of NetApp from Sudan. We have to go through many agents for support, which makes it difficult."

More NetApp FAS Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, the solution is cheap. I rate it a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive."

"Licensing is pretty straightforward."

"It is a fair price."

"There are annual maintenance costs beyond the original licensing period."

"I didn't buy it. It was another person seven years ago. So, I don't really know, but all storage platforms cost a lot of money. It is probably in the mid-range, but you get what you pay for."

"It seemed expensive at first, but the durability lowered the cost of ownership dramatically over time."

"I don't think I would say that the product is less expensive...The product's price is not an issue for our company, considering the relationship we have with Dell and the customer support we receive."

"All features are out of the box. The license will be in the virtual, OS, or application layer."

More Dell EqualLogic PS series pricing and cost advice

"The solution’s cost is reasonable."

"NetApp FAS Series' pricing is competitive."

"NetApp FAS Series is a reasonably high-priced solution, partially because we select the configuration that duplicates the entire system."

"It is a moderately low-priced platform."

"The solution is more expensive than other vendors."

"Cost effective storage for all performance levels (including all-flash)."

"The price, compared to competitors, is quite high."

"The process for going to cluster mode is expensive."

More NetApp FAS Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

16%

Performing Arts

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	59

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Dell EqualLogic PS series?

I do not have anything in mind regarding new capabilities for Dell products at this time.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell EqualLogic PS series?

We are essentially a university, and we have deployed Dell EqualLogic PS series in our data centers to run our production sites, student portals, websites, our on-premises portal, and campus manage...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Dell EqualLogic PS series?

I work with Dell EqualLogic PS series. I am an end user and a customer for Dell. I have experience only with Dell PowerEdge, and I do not work with other products like PowerScale or PowerStore. Reg...

See all answers

Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?

Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?

Regarding its pricing, I believe it is high. I utilize both HDD and SSD, where SSDs are more cost-friendly, yet HDDs are higher in cost, making it not very affordable but still useful. For general ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp FAS Series?

Regarding improvements for NetApp FAS Series, I think everything is generally good. If there is a need to improve something, they can extend their support. Previously, in my company, I only saw Net...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 20% of the time

HPE MSA vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 15% of the time

Nexsan BEAST vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 13% of the time

NEC D8 series vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 11% of the time

IBM XIV vs Dell EqualLogic PS series

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell EqualLogic PS series Competitors

Dell PowerScale vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 21% of the time

Qumulo vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

HPE MSA vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

HPE StoreOnce vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 4% of the time

Dell PowerProtect Data Domain vs NetApp FAS Series

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp FAS Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series

September 2026

Download Dell EqualLogic PS series product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp FAS Series

September 2026

Download NetApp FAS Series product report

Also Known As

EqualLogic PS series

No data available

Overview

Dell EqualLogic PS series offers enterprise-level scalability, reliability, and virtualization at reasonable costs. With exceptional performance and ease of management, it's an ideal choice for modern storage needs.

EqualLogic PS series provides impressive scale-out capabilities, seamless virtualization compatibility, automated tiering, and thin provisioning. The storage system supports robust features like snapshot capabilities, synchronous replication, and stable data expansion. High reliability and efficient data management make it suitable for organizations needing dependable storage solutions. While enhancements in controller failover, performance, and Fibre Channel connectivity are desired, it addresses high IOPS demands and integrates well with VMware environments, offering stable operation in data centers.

What are the key features of Dell EqualLogic PS series?

Scalability: Allows easy expansion to meet growing data needs.
Automated Tiering: Optimizes storage efficiency and performance.
Thin Provisioning: Maximizes storage utilization and efficiency.
Virtualization Compatibility: Seamlessly integrates with virtual environments.
Snapshot Capabilities: Enhances data protection and recovery.

What benefits can users expect from Dell EqualLogic PS series?

High Reliability: Zero failures over extended periods.
Reasonable Costs: Offers competitive pricing for its performance.
Exceptional Support: Backed by robust technical support services.
Straightforward Management: Easy to deploy and manage.
Redundancy: Ensures data safety and reliability.

In industries like education and corporate IT, Dell EqualLogic PS series is used for shared storage in VMware environments, powering virtual machines, student portals, and production sites. It effectively supports databases with high IOPS requirements, such as Oracle and SQL, making it a trusted component of data center operations for file storage and backup needs.

Dell Technologies

NetApp FAS Series offers high availability and seamless protocol integration. Known for its robust features such as data replication and efficient storage architecture, it finds use in challenging enterprise environments and virtualization.

NetApp FAS Series delivers valuable enterprise storage capabilities with an emphasis on unified storage architectures supporting SAN and NAS functionalities. Features like high availability, robust snapshot technology, and seamless protocol integration cater to diverse workloads. Data replication through SnapMirror and reliable performance under heavy loads are appreciated. Deduplication and compression enhance storage efficiency while scalability, resilience, and strong customer support further its appeal. Improvements are desired in flexibility, documentation, speed, and affordability. Additionally, its monitoring capabilities and cloud integration need attention. Organizations employ FAS Series for enterprise storage, SQL Server LUNs, Exchange LUNs, VMware, and corporate file sharing.

What are the most notable features of NetApp FAS Series?

High Availability: Ensures continuous access and reduces downtime.
Snapshot Technology: Offers point-in-time copies for data recovery.
SnapMirror: Provides efficient data replication for disaster recovery.
Storage Efficiency: Deduplication and compression optimize storage use.
Cloud Integration: Enhances flexibility with cloud environments.

What benefits should be examined in reviews?

Scalability: Supports expanding storage needs without performance loss.
Reliability: Maintains robust performance under heavy workloads.
Strong Support: Access to helpful customer service resources.
Cost Efficiency: Consider value in context of feature set and performance.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, NetApp FAS Series is implemented for centralized data management, supporting complex protocols like NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI. This enables efficient handling of virtualization, databases, unified storage tasks, and backup solutions crucial for maintaining unstructured data and redundancy.

NetApp

Sample Customers

FAW Foundry, AW Engineering, Unimat, eLongNet Information Technology, BDO Brasil, Odyssey Space Research

Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College

Buyer's Guide

Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. NetApp FAS Series

September 2026

Free Report: Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. NetApp FAS Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell EqualLogic PS series vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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