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Dell PowerEdge C- Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 7, 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

Dell PowerEdge C- Series
Ranking in Density Optimized Servers
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Blade Servers (8th)
HPE Apollo Systems
Ranking in Density Optimized Servers
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Rack Servers (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Density Optimized Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge C- Series is 25.3%, up from 24.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 17.4%, down from 24.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Density Optimized Servers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge C- Series25.3%
HPE Apollo Systems17.4%
Other57.3%
Density Optimized Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Naveen Radhwani - PeerSpot reviewer
Head IT at TO THE NEW Digital
Offers great performance and customization for application servers
There are a few bugs in PowerEdge C that require some configurational settings to be done with the help of a support team when we reconfigure the solution. This is one area where they can improve the performance of the server or implement some application improvements in the solution to make it easier for end users to implement properly.
Gökhan  DURMAZ - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at TD SYNNEX
High-quality integration and strong support have optimized our rack server operations
HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity. When I speak about integrity, I speak about GPU integration or other integrations such as GPU integration, backup software integration, and hypervisor integration. Regarding the integration of high-speed interconnectors in HPE Apollo Systems, they impact computational tasks because the high-speed interconnect affects performance. I don't remember the specifics. Regarding the cooling technologies, they help to reduce operational costs. The positive impact I see from HPE Apollo Systems is that support is good and quality is good. In general, HPE Apollo Systems appears to be for rack servers with some optimization capabilities.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is not complex. It's a user-friendly tool."
"The scalability of the solution met our needs."
"The scalability of the product is good since it offers high performance and capacity."
"The solution provides good support and service."
"It was not complex to deploy."
"PowerEdge C is the best server I have worked with. I like that it's user-friendly. PowerEdge C performs very well."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"It is a scalable solution."
"It enables us to implement software defined solutions very easily, because Apollo servers are certified for use with Linux systems"
"HPE Apollo Systems is a good product because it has better support and best quality with integrity."
"The cost benefit of this solution is most valuable. It is quite effective for the work for which we are using it. We are mainly running video servers on these, and we are quite happy with the resilience, density storage, and streaming capacity of the system."
"HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products."
"When we moved to the Apollo and all flash drives, we gained a lot of performance."
"We're going to buy another Apollo 6500. We may configure it with half the number of GPUs because that may be all we need. In a sense, we can see the Apollo 6500 being so powerful that we only need half the GPU capability that we have now."
"With HPE Apollo, we can propose configurations with many hard drives, making it suitable for large storage needs."
"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."
 

Cons

"It would be easier if data center management and disaster recovery were combined."
"The price must be improved."
"Customer service and support have been generally helpful but can be slow due to the need to navigate different specialists."
"HP is a little bit lower in terms of price."
"An area where the product lacks and needs to consider improvement is by allowing it to integrate with some AI tool for monitoring."
"They could automate or simplify it more."
"The pricing of PowerEdge solutions is very high nowadays."
"The product’s cost needs improvement."
"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."
"We would like to see SimpliVity on top of the Apollo."
"The predictive analysis feature could be improved."
"If there could be some training for our team, we would be better equipped to promote and support HPE Apollo."
"What's coming out in Gen 10 is very strong in terms of additional security."
"The support from HPE Apollo could be better, they are making knowledgeable."
"We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."
"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the pricing 4 out of 10, in terms of its cost expense."
"PowerEdge C is very expensive, but personally, I think it's worth the price."
"The product costs can be high, especially for disks and other components."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Despite the slightly higher price, we prefer Dell due to the high quality of their products."
"I don't handle the financial aspects, so I don't know the exact costs, but in terms of the value it brings, it's worth it."
"We buy licenses for the solution's advanced features."
"The price could be reduced."
"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."
"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."
"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."
"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."
"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
13%
Venture Capital & Private Equity Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PowerEdge C?
The solution provides good support and service.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PowerEdge C?
My experience with the pricing of this tool is that it's in mid-range. They have good competitors in the market who are offering better pricing, so there is scope for improvement in this area.
What needs improvement with PowerEdge C?
There are a few bugs in PowerEdge C that require some configurational settings to be done with the help of a support team when we reconfigure the solution. This is one area where they can improve t...
What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?
Some features could be added to HPE Apollo Systems in the future, and I feel that some capability is needed. HPE Apollo Systems is a bit expensive, and there are some issues with scalability. Two f...
What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?
I have been distributing this product for three years. I don't have specific use cases, and everything about the major use case for HPE Apollo Systems is good. I don't know the purpose clients are ...
What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?
I am not using these products today, and I do not work with some specific firewalls. My company is TD Synnex, a distributor company, and I work for this company. My email is , and my first name is ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco
Weta Digital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge C- Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.