FlexPod XCS vs HPE Hyper Converged comparison

The compared NetApp and Hewlett Packard Enterprise solutions aren't in the same category. NetApp is ranked #1 in CI , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 12.6% mindshare in the category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #11 in HCI , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 3.0% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

3,176 Views
1,493 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE Hyper Converged

Read 38 HPE Hyper Converged reviews

2,248 Views
2,158 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

HPE Hyper Converged

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

FlexPod XCS and HPE Hyper Converged are advanced data center solutions. FlexPod XCS appears to have the upper hand due to better pricing and support, while HPE Hyper Converged is noted for superior features and management.

Features: FlexPod XCS offers robust hardware integration, exceptional performance, and scalability. HPE Hyper Converged provides simplified management, flexibility, and a comprehensive solution set.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS needs better software updates, more intuitive management tools, and enhanced analytics. HPE Hyper Converged requires improved analytical capabilities, more streamlined support, and stronger software updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS is known for straightforward deployment and mixed support reviews. HPE Hyper Converged offers quick deployment and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is competitively priced with a good ROI. HPE Hyper Converged, although more expensive, offers significant value in terms of features and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

January 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

FlexPod XCS

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (1st)

HPE Hyper Converged

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HCI (11th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. FlexPod XCS is designed for Converged Infrastructure and holds a mindshare of 12.6%, up 8.4% compared to last year.
HPE Hyper Converged, on the other hand, focuses on HCI, holds 3.0% mindshare, up 2.9% since last year.

Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
FlexPod XCS	12.6%
HPE ConvergedSystem	12.3%
Dell VxBlock System	10.2%
Other	64.9%

Converged Infrastructure

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HPE Hyper Converged	3.0%
VxRail	13.8%
VMware vSAN	11.4%
Other	71.8%

HCI

Featured Reviews

John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems

The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.

Read full review

GosayeErko

System Engineer at BIOS Engineering

Infrastructure management simplifies for clients with integrated interface and enhanced resource utilization

Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and most clients are skipping VMware because VMware has changed its licensing method. If HPE starts to use its own hypervisor for its HCI solutions, it will be the best solution. We push a different vendor for the backup and replication, so we only use the HCI, then we use Veeam for the backup and replication section.

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

"Our customers get their applications to market more quickly, and it has taken the risk out of their business, because there is less for them to try to figure out."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the stability."

"It took a server room where we had 280 servers and another with 180 and condensed them from 15 racks down to three racks. It's helping us in the data center with all our environmentals... In addition, we're getting the ability of VMware, which is virtualization, so now we have redundancy on all of our boxes, instead of them being physical."

"This sounds dumb, but it just works. I don't want to have to deal with support, and I don't need to because, again, it has just worked."

"One of the easiest solutions to implement, maintain, and scale."

"From the Cisco side, the most valuable features of this solution are the data center density, the deployment, and the management of the servers and the networking."

"We have had great support, and this is when we have called for any problems, which have been very minimal to start with."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automation point because it's a lot less staff to have to manage it."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"The most valuable features are resiliency and data protection."

"There are multiple advantages. Typically, being an all-flash storage, which is available through either SimpliVity or dHCI, the performance is much better because the IOPS goes high, so it's more powerful in terms of performance. Secondly, if I'm talking of SimpliVity Hyper Convergence solution from HPE, unlike the competition, even if three hard drives fail, you are still running the solution."

"It is easy to manage; the administration is simpler. It saves a lot of rack space in the data center because you can consolidate 20 servers into three to five nodes. The client will be able to benefit from power savings and cost savings as well."

"Reasonably priced and easy to manage for small to medium size companies that don't have an IT department."

"The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities."

"HPE Hyper Converged is excellent because it can avoid the usage of storage area network."

"The most beneficial feature is the life cycle management."

"The scalability of this tool is very good. You can basically add more storage and seamlessly expand the current storage that you have."

More HPE Hyper Converged pros

Cons

"We dislike going online with the robot stuff. Many times, it has delayed our reaching out to a real support engineer."

"FlexPod XCS needs to improve its pricing."

"We would like to have a single pane of glass available for it. It is something that the management in the business would like to have."

"The management interface of the UCS part of it is a little bit clunky. It uses Java, so when we're managing it, if I have a computer that doesn't have Java on it or has the wrong version of Java on it, there's some iterations that have to happen to get into the manager of it."

"NetApp has some tools that you can purchase to do performance management, or you can go with another vendor and buy a product which does the same thing. It would be nice if there was more of these features with the product, not add-ons."

"Setting up a Cisco USC environment can be complex."

"I would like more orchestration and networking in-between the VMs, the virtualization layer for networking. I would like to see better tools for this."

"They just announced that they are going to move it along with Intersight from Cisco. That can be a private or public cloud, which is one of the areas where it can grow more and has a lot of potential."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"There are some general issues around component failure and raising technical support. Overall, the stability is rated seven or eight out of ten."

"The product must provide more storage capability."

"In my country, the biggest issue is probably pricing."

"Scalability requires using additional nodes."

"A software-only version of the solution, without the hardware, would be nice."

"The initial setup of HPE Hyper Converged requires study and a comprehensive understanding of virtualization."

"The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM."

"Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and many clients are skipping VMware due to its changed licensing method."

More HPE Hyper Converged cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen a five to ten percent savings on new service deployments."

"Coming from a rack and stack server model to FlexPod, it has saved us a lot of time (approximately hundreds to thousands of hours)."

"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."

"As a whole, it is inexpensive, and it uses the least amount of parts."

"Our licensing costs are about $50,000 per year."

"We fear high availability so we can't buy from different providers."

"The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers."

"It is cheaper than other products. For example, Dell EMC VxBlock is more expensive."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"I would rate the price at seven out of ten. There are no additional licensing fees, but it would be cheaper to go with a dHCI solution."

"The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower."

"The price per value compared to other solutions, like Nutanix and SimpliVity. (We made the deal before approval of HPE SimpliVity deal)."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

"The entire solution is packaged with all licenses and support."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"If I'm comparing with Dell, HPE Hyper Converged is definitely cheaper in my experience."

"With this solution, I buy everything together, pre-packaged, pre-installed, and in just 15 minutes, it's installed."

More HPE Hyper Converged pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

20%

Performing Arts

10%

Educational Organization

Transportation Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	182

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	18

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

See all answers

What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Hyper Converged?

The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Hyper Converged?

The product is intermediate in price, neither expensive nor cheap. We are talking about an on-premises solution without licensing for years. Currently, licensing is required for VMs and CPU cores. ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Hyper Converged?

The initial setup of HPE Hyper Converged requires study and a comprehensive understanding of virtualization. The second step is to follow instructions step by step, as it can be complex to understa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 17% of the time

HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 8% of the time

Fujitsu PRIMEFLEX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 8% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

VxRail vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 27% of the time

VMware vSAN vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 11% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 11% of the time

Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 3% of the time

More HPE Hyper Converged Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

January 2026

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Hyper Converged

January 2026

Download HPE Hyper Converged product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE Hyper Converged 380, HPE Hyper Converged 250, HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS

Overview

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.

Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a single generalist; consume with cloud flexibility to deliver a cloud-like experience, with multi-tenant workspaces that eliminate stranded resources and flexes on demand; and deploy at cloud speed to empower developers and lines-of-business with a self-service portal that can instantly compose and recompose VMs in minutes. Built-in enterprise grade features, such as performance and resiliency enable HPE Hyper Converged systems to easily handle a wide variety of virtualized workloads, including general purpose virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

January 2026

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