Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Storage Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 16.7% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 24.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerPath

Read 8 Dell PowerPath reviews

608 Views
420 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 93 NetApp ONTAP reviews

2,021 Views
1,536 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Dell PowerPath

NetApp ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Dell PowerPath and NetApp ONTAP compete in the storage management solutions category. NetApp ONTAP has an upper hand due to its advanced features, despite pricing and support leaning towards Dell PowerPath.

Features: Dell PowerPath provides reliable multipathing, load balancing, and efficient data migration capabilities. NetApp ONTAP offers comprehensive data management, advanced monitoring, and seamless data replication across systems.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerPath could enhance its monitoring tools and expand support for non-EMC storage systems. Additional automation features would be beneficial. NetApp ONTAP could improve deployment ease by simplifying initial setup and providing better integration with non-NetApp environments. Faster support response times and enhanced migration tools would also be advantageous.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerPath is praised for its straightforward implementation and effective customer support, facilitating quick integration into existing systems. NetApp ONTAP, while more complex, offers extensive customization options, necessitating longer initial setup. Its support is effective but less accessible than Dell's.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerPath provides a cost-effective solution with affordable initial fees and rapid ROI, ideal for budget-conscious businesses. NetApp ONTAP offers long-term value through its robust features and scalability, justifying the higher initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

March 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

Dell PowerPath

Ranking in Storage Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 March 2026, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 16.7%, up from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 24.2%, down from 42.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Storage Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
NetApp ONTAP	24.2%
Dell PowerPath	16.7%
Other	59.1%

Storage Software

Featured Reviews

Derrick Brockel

Senior Manager of Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

A resilient and reliable solution that has many load-balancing technologies and provides high availability

People who want to buy the solution must create a scorecard of Dell PowerPath against other products. They must run database tests. They must consider factors like pricing, performance, ease of use, visibility, and reliability. They must also run tests to understand which product recovers faster. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy."

"The user interface is good."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is migration without disruptions."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that disaster recovery scenarios are very good and easy to use in Dell PowerPath since it is available in a simplified form."

"OS-aware multipathing is a valuable feature of the product."

"We have found the solution to be quite flexible and very scalable."

"The product is very reliable."

"It provides a high availability and will increase the performance of any server or operating system."

"The most valuable feature is the very high IOPS rating which you can achieve with it."

"Its typical use case is storing files and getting data, so it does its use case well."

"If we want to change things in models, such as add, replace, and adjust to another client, it is very easy."

"It is able to store a lot of data, and we can manage it with fewer people."

"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."

"The single management plane in NetApp ONTAP, with BlueXP and Cloud Insights, is valuable. It allows us to see globally all physical and cloud-hosted systems within one management plane, which is a big plus."

"Queries are being completed in less time. For example, we have seen a three times improvement when it comes to running a query. If query used to take an hour, now it takes 10 to 20 minutes."

"The compression works well. We get a 3:1 ratio."

More NetApp ONTAP pros

Cons

"While I utilize it for data migration, I would love to do that data migration in a GUI from an ease of use perspective."

"The solution is quite stable, although they have not quite worked out all of the kinks."

"The technical support is good but they are not available all the time."

"Customers do not choose PowerPath unless they have Unix or Linux."

"Although PowerPath is very mature and has been on the market for more than 15 years there are still a lot of bugs that have been profiled with PowerPath, specifically, during any OS upgrade."

"The solution should provide extensive reports on backups and backup failures."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR."

"NetApp ONTAP could be improved with additional features to help handle the backup of more than 10 to 15 devices simultaneously."

"I would like to see more integration into the cloud, as we are pushing to do more cloud-based compute. It is just easier to get the storage and everything synced up there and move to the cloud. We want NetApp to keep down the cloud integration path. It still needs some improvement. Overall, there needs to be more cloud integration in all NetApp products."

"They should make the storage arrays more easily tied to your accounts."

"We are always looking for more security enhancements and ways to continue to provide security encryption, whether it's data in rest or security in transit. We would also like to have more enhanced encryption beyond the regular TLS and 256-bit."

"I would like the ability to perform backups in the cloud. That way you don't have to worry about building the data center. Everything's already in the cloud."

"However, if the integration with legacy applications was simpler, it would be great."

"For administration, there is no user interface present for NetApp ONTAP, so I have to rely on the ONTAP CLI."

"There is room for improvement in areas related to hardware constraints—for example, more storage efficiency, especially in terms of deduplication."

More NetApp ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are no additional costs associated with the product."

"The solution is expensive."

"Pricing is good. I don't have any issues with the pricing of this solution."

"I rate the product's price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is affordable, and ten is really expensive. Dell PowerPath is an expensive tool."

"The price of the solution is fair."

"The product is a little bit expensive."

"There are specific workloads where some vendors provide better value, but in general, NetApp has done a far better on price than other vendors."

"Our cost per IOP is three to four dollars, but we have a hybrid solution. Therefore, we have SSD and spinning disk running together."

"There could be improvements, its proprietary software so it can be pricey."

"I rate NetApp ONTAP's pricing a seven out of ten."

"Additional costs exist if you want a license for a feature like SnapMirror."

"NetApp is streamlined, reducing costs."

"If you start narrowing down NetApp versus price point, then comparing it to the feature set and take away all the bloat that other companies will try to add on, there is no other option. It comes down to just NetApp."

"Depending on the licensing you choose the price varies. For our company and our needs, the cost is very fair."

More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Transportation Company

17%

Retailer

12%

Healthcare Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

20%

Marketing Services Firm

11%

University

Transportation Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	67

Questions from the Community

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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

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath

March 2026

Download Dell PowerPath product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

March 2026

Download NetApp ONTAP product report

Also Known As

PowerPath

No data available

Overview

EMC PowerPath: Host-based software for automated data path management, failover and recovery, and optimized load balancing. PowerPath automates, standardizes, and optimizes data paths in physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments to deliver high availability and performance.

AUTOMATE FAILOVER/RECOVERY

PowerPath automates data path failover and recovery to ensure applications are always available and remain operational.

OPTIMIZE LOAD BALANCING

Adjust I/O paths constantly to leverage all available data paths and to monitor and rebalance the dynamic environment for the best application performance.

STANDARDIZE PATH MANAGEMENT

Simplify and standardize data path management across heterogeneous physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments.

Dell Technologies

NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation and optimize their operations.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Healthcare Residential Service Company

1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

March 2026

Free Report: Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

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