Dell XtremIO vs SolidFire comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the All-Flash Storage category. Dell Technologies is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.0, while NetApp is ranked #33. Dell Technologies holds a 1.3% mindshare in AFS, compared to NetApp’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Dell XtremIO and SolidFire are popular storage solutions with distinct advantages in high-performance storage. Dell XtremIO has the upper hand due to its advanced integration capabilities and overall performance, while SolidFire stands out for its scalability and management features.

Features: Dell XtremIO is praised for high performance, efficient data protection, and integration with VMware. SolidFire is valued for its scalability, automated management, and native quality-of-service features.

Room for Improvement: Dell XtremIO users suggest improvements in deduplication efficiency, cost, and additional data services. SolidFire users recommend enhancements in hardware reliability, increased support for multiple hypervisors, and reduced complexity in management tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell XtremIO is often applauded for its straightforward deployment and excellent customer support. SolidFire receives similar accolades for deployment but has mixed reviews on customer service responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Dell XtremIO is considered expensive with a longer return on investment, while SolidFire is noted for higher initial costs but justifiable long-term ROI due to its features.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell XtremIO vs. SolidFire Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. SolidFire

April 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

Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray X NVMe is 2.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XtremIO is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolidFire is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Everpure FlashArray X NVMe	2.0%
Dell XtremIO	1.3%
SolidFire	0.5%
Other	96.2%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

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Avi Shpaner

System Engineer at Exaware

Has improved data reduction and snapshot efficiency while supporting critical workloads

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see performance very clearly could be enhanced, similar to how NetApp works with Grafana and NetApp monitor, which shows you a comprehensive view of the whole picture. The snapshot functionality could work more similarly to Snap Center. If I want to see all the VCenter with the VM, I think it needs the API for this. I do see big differences between Dell and other products. NetApp works very closely with VCenter, and Hitachi also integrates well, but Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell. It needs the API, and I need to see all the snapshots. If I want to restore a VM from only a few directories or a few files that I need to restore, it is very difficult. I do see some differences in licensing. For the last few years, the Dell EMC price is acceptable. A few years ago, Dell EMC was expensive, approximately 20 percent more than NetApp. Right now the budget between EMC and NetApp is very closely aligned. Regarding the installation process and deployment of Dell XtremIO, I notice that in Israel, a lot of professional services and engineers who work with Dell EMC have moved to another storage company. I do not know why. Dell EMC does not have enough engineers, system engineers, or professional services engineers to provide service to the old clients, similar to how NetApp or Hitachi do. I think Dell XtremIO is between easy and complicated to deploy; it gives you the whole picture, but I need to go closely to VCenter to connect to VCenter to see the snapshot and to see performance with more dashboards of performance. I also need to connect the switch fiber channel to see all zoning to give me more flexibility to install or configure fiber channel or to see the performance of the fiber channels. I think there should be some fiber channel disconnect adapter or better troubleshooting from hardware for errors.

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Ramil Cerrada

Solution lead at Globe Mobile

A versatile storage solution suitable for various workloads in cloud environments providing scalable architecture, granular Quality of Service and consistent performance

The most significant benefit lies in its exceptional performance, driven by its Flash-based architecture. This enhances routing speed and, consequently, database performance. The provisioning process is efficient and doesn't demand higher latency, ensuring optimal data transfer performance which is particularly valuable for tasks like data mining, where quick results are essential.

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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

"Pure Storage has signature security technology, which cannot be deleted, even if you are an administrator."

"The Pure1 component is most valuable at this point in time when comparing it with EMC. Pure1 is where you can have your diagnostics in the cloud, so you can look at things from your mobile phone."

"Speed has definitely been a big improvement for us; we were running a bunch of iSCSI to EMC VNX and that had a gigabyte bottleneck, and now, since we're running through a true fiber channel to the Pure array, we're getting 32-gigabyte bandwidth, which means the speed and accessibility for our users and our customers have definitely improved."

"The most valuable features of this solution are its ease of use and performance."

"What we've seen on the Xs, and the Pures in general, is that we can scale way beyond what we need to without any degradation in performance."

"The solution uses newer technology for deduplication and compression."

"Overall stability is very good."

"Overall stability is very good. It is a very stable solution."

More Everpure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"The most valuable feature of Dell EMC XtremIO is the data protection (DP) group, it is one of the most advanced features in these types of arrays. The dedupe and compression that this array provides both do a superb job."

"This is the first time I have witnessed 400,000 IOPS in any kind of enterprise lab."

"Its consistent speed and replication features are most valuable to us."

"Dell XtremIO provides great performance."

"Speed – All Flash makes this array very extremely responsive to virtually all workloads, besting all of our spindle-based arrays by a large margin."

"The Metro clustering and solid-state performance, are the most valuable features of this solution."

"We gain, on the average, 6:1 deduplication with compression."

"The inline data deduplication feature and compression were useful for me because the performance was very good when I needed to read or write from storage, latency was reduced, storage was extended, and volume replication was supported."

More Dell XtremIO pros

"The initial setup was easy, very simple, and we were up and running in less than an hour after it was racked and stacked."

"SolidFire provides seamless performance across your storage system when you need to scale up. Other storage systems do not do that."

"It's a very compact device. For a medium-sized business, it's very helpful because the device is efficient and very fast."

"Being able to provide quality of service as promised."

"If you buy the solution for its specific purpose it will work well."

"I would say in terms of architecture and in terms of functionality, the product is quite good."

"Individual settings you can put on each individual volume, if you want to do that."

More SolidFire pros

Cons

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"In the future, I would like to see integration with enterprise backup systems."

"I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert."

"In the next release, I would like to see real-time analytics for further insight into consumption models."

"It is on the expensive side."

"We have run into a couple of instances recently where we are running out of space."

"I want to see Pure Storage not only be for fast storage, but I want to see it be for the entire data center."

"There is room for improvement in the pricing of the product."

More Everpure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The initial setup was very complex."

"Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell."

"UPDATE: 10:1 is too good to be true, EMC experts tell me 1.x-2:1 is more realistic for business critical databases."

"The solution needs to be simplified. When you integrate your storage with other systems, it could use a little bit of automation."

"In the very beginning, with the old version 4, we had issues around Snap and clones."

"The solution needs to be simplified. When you integrate your storage with other systems, could use a little bit of automation."

"If you are looking at flash storage solutions, XtremIO doesn't offer any unique features. Most of my customers are migrating their workload from XtremIO to other formats because of this."

"They can improve the product by providing an HTML5-based interface instead of the Java GUI based application."

More Dell XtremIO cons

"For example, the ease of use with the reporting. Right now it's not impossible, but you have to know Sequel. It's a little time consuming to get those customized reports in there."

"Lately, we've had lots of hardware having general issues with lots of failures. It seems like every month at least we're replacing an entire node, as opposed to just drive failures which you would normally expect, or small components."

"I would like to see integration with the cloud, number one. Being able to spin SolidFire in the cloud."

"This solution would be improved if it were made to be more compatible with other products."

"The technical support is really bad and has to be improved."

"We have had to stop using this solution because the price was too high for global implementation."

"We have a large fiber channel infrastructure, and that's one area that we haven't seen implemented in SolidFire, it's more iSCSI."

"SolidFire could improve in terms of hardware robustness."

More SolidFire cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The support cost per array is about $20,000 a year for 24/7 support."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis."

"We pay approximately $50,000 USD per year in licensing fees."

"They can tout the functionality and cutting edge technology that they have, but that's where the price tag comes in. The cost is high, but I think as they grow their business and get more customers that it will probably go down a little bit."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

More Everpure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"It is expensive if you need to increase scalability."

"The initial purchase price was good but when you need to upgrade, it's a different story."

"The license for XtremIO is in the box, so you don't have to buy anything."

"Don’t buy this array. You’re paying for loads of magic beans, since it’s mediocre at best for a platform in a rapidly growing field. Look instead at Pure Storage or something with variable block deduplication. You’ll end up spending less and getting a better product with actual support."

"XtremIO is an all-flash array, which means it's a costly solution. When compared with general mid-range storage solutions, this is more expensive. As far as I know, there are no additional costs besides the license."

"Dell XtremIO's price is affordable and I would rate it a five out of ten."

"The licensing cost is on a yearly subscription basis, which can be expensive but is necessary for ongoing support and services. The pricing could be improved to make it more accessible."

"It's not cheap, but it absolutely gets the job done. I don't have any real comment regarding licensing specifically."

More Dell XtremIO pricing and cost advice

"On a scale where one is a high price and ten is a low price, I rate the solution between three and four. It is an expensive solution."

"We would probably use SolidFire more, except we're getting more bang for our buck with our purchases of ONTAP right now, and the deal we made with NetApp, so it's more of just a cost decision"

"Based on what I heard from other people, its price was on the higher side."

"The price of this solution is more expensive than others."

"It might be considered expensive, but when evaluating performance, it represents good value online because you pay for what you get."

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Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Construction Company

10%

Marketing Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Marketing Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	29

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell XtremIO?

Pricing is hard to determine as it depends on the given configuration. XtremIO offers features that justify a potenti...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell XtremIO?

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see perform...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell XtremIO?

I was using Dell XtremIO as a storage admin and system storage admin internally within my company. My major use case ...

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Comparisons

Dell PowerStore vs Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 10% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 8% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 7% of the time

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NetApp AFF vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 9% of the time

Everpure FlashArray vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

More Dell XtremIO Competitors

Everpure FlashArray vs SolidFire

Compared 19% of the time

NetApp AFF vs SolidFire

Compared 17% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs SolidFire

Compared 10% of the time

HPE 3PAR StoreServ vs SolidFire

Compared 9% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs SolidFire

Compared 6% of the time

More SolidFire Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Everpure FlashArray X NVMe

April 2026

Download Everpure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO

April 2026

Download Dell XtremIO product report

Buyer's Guide

SolidFire

March 2026

Download SolidFire product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X, Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Dell EMC XtremIO Flash, Dell EMC XtremIO X2, XtremIO, XtremIO X2

No data available

Overview

Everpure FlashArray X NVMe delivers high performance, reliability, and low latency, making it ideal for block storage in private cloud infrastructures and mission-critical applications.

Boasting robust data reduction, high availability, and seamless scalability, Everpure FlashArray X NVMe supports databases, VMware environments, and machine learning analytics. Known for its intuitive interface, superior support, volume snapshots, and AI-powered analytics, it efficiently manages storage needs, often deployed to replace outdated systems. Users highlight its simplistic management and easy configuration, although opportunities exist to enhance pricing, replication features, VNC integration, and storage capabilities.

What are the key features?

Data Reduction: Effective compression and deduplication improve storage efficiency.
Seamless Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing demands without downtime.
Volume Snapshots: Quickly create snapshots for data protection and recovery.
VMware Compatibility: Integrates smoothly with VMware environments for optimal performance.
AI-Powered Analytics: Provides insights for enhanced storage management and efficiency.

What benefits and ROI should be considered?

Low Latency and High Availability: Ensures rapid data access and uninterrupted service.
Easy Management: Intuitive interface simplifies configuration and monitoring.
Evergreen Model: Continuous upgrades without disruptive migrations.
Enhanced Support: Reliable service and support for critical applications.

Organizations in industries such as finance and healthcare implement Everpure FlashArray X NVMe to bolster data performance and reliability. They leverage its integration capabilities with Oracle databases and SQL workloads, supporting machine learning and virtualization. It's often chosen to upgrade legacy storage systems, ensuring high availability and speed for demanding environments.

Everpure (formerly Pure Storage)

Bring all-flash, scale-out storage to your enterprise applications with EMC XtremIO. Purpose-built for flash, XtremIO storage arrays are amazingly fast. Delivering high IOPS at less than 1 millisecond latency is just the start. EMC XtremIO helps you harness the power of flash storage by building in innovations like content-based data placement and dual-stage metadata.

Dell Technologies

SolidFire delivers all five core elements needed to deliver newfound storage agility to your next generation data center and beyond. With SolidFire you can deploy new applications and capabilities faster, provide more agile and scalable infrastructure, increase application performance and predictability, enable automation and end-user self-service and raise operational efficiency and reduce cost.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital

California Public Utilities Commission, RFA, 1&1, Ultimate Software , Endicia, ezVerify, MercadoLibre, Sungard Availability Services, ServInt, Elastx, Hosted Network, Colt, Crucial, iWeb, Datapipe, Databarracks

Buyer's Guide

Dell XtremIO vs. SolidFire

April 2026

Free Report: Dell XtremIO vs. SolidFire

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XtremIO vs. SolidFire and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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