Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

HPE Alletra dHCI vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

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

HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in HCI
5th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
198
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 4.9%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 1.9%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Antonin Pavlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Effortless upgrades with one-click feature while new server deployment needs a smoother process
I have a data center, and all the servers are connected to HPE Alletra dHCI. I use it for data management with VMware running on the servers The most valuable feature of HPE Alletra dHCI is the one-click upgrade function, which allows all drivers and services to be downloaded to all servers…
Vladimir Simion - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieving seamless cost-saving implementation with exceptional support
The best features that StarWind Virtual SAN offers include the price because comparing to other virtual SAN solutions, this one is the best, and it also has a great support team behind it. My experience with their support has been positive, as their guides regarding the integration are very useful. They have some awesome guides online that show you exactly how to configure the product, how to do the initial setup, and you can speak with them directly. They will be able to connect and verify your setup, run its parameters and see exactly what's working and what is not, and they really help you with that. StarWind Virtual SAN has positively impacted my organization and my customer through initial cost saving. They use this product in a dark site, so I'm not able to provide any additional details about this, but they were really glad about it, they're still using it, and they asked for extending the capacity for it and the support. They really want to use it and are enjoying using it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution works well."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI has the most valuable features for performance, resilience, and scalability."
"Simply being able to move objects and the duplication feature have been quite effective."
"So far, the solution's performance is very good."
"It is easier to manage compared to the other vendors."
"The product provides zero downtime."
"It's helpful as you stand on high-end storage. Alletra offers up to 99% availability, providing excellent stability. You also get the benefits of an HCI solution with a template and upgradability at any time."
"Artificial intelligence is built into the product. If there's a failure, HP support will proactively call the client about the issue."
"The ROI is great on this product."
"The most valuable feature is the fact that the nodes are Active/Active, and allow us to do upgrades on any node without any downtime."
"This solution has a very good user interface, with simple administration/management."
"The ability for us to manage all of our nodes from the same console makes systems administration very easy."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V."
"The feature I have found most valuable in VSAN is its high availability capability."
"The control panel is nice. It gives you a lot of good feedback as to the status and health of the VSAN."
"StarWind vSAN was very easy to integrate into our system and ran flawlessly during our entire use time."
 

Cons

"I rate Nimble one out of 10 for ease of setup. Setting up Nimble Storage was a nightmare. It took us three months to deal with all the kinks and bugs. We had two people from HPE assisting us and two from our team."
"They should improve just the support."
"Software upgrade is still more complicated than the competitors, so that's an area of improvement."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI's website does not open properly or work consistently."
"Sometimes the technical support would get back to us in two hours, but other times it would take them two or even three days to respond."
"They could expand product support to Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat Linux platforms."
"The product’s performance needs improvement. It could also help with more environment monitoring and AI technologies to improve the performance and thresholds."
"The initial setup is a little bit complicated."
"The only way I can see this product needing improvement is the consultation level of the StarWind sales and engineers."
"I would say that the documentation is mostly great, however, some features could be expanded upon a bit."
"I think the setup could be streamlined a bit."
"Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers."
"The documentation could be clearer in terms of explaining the installation."
"The product can include a more simple way of synchronization after a forced shutdown as the current process has a few more steps to check that hosts have synchronized and this can be automated."
"It would be good to have a little more access to control certain aspects within the UI."
"It would be nice to see a new UI for the windows client, as it is not the easiest to find settings."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"I think it's priced right and it's extremely intelligent."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"The product is very affordable."
"The product is costly."
"The prices are very high."
"The cost of the licensing is reasonable."
"The product licensing costs vary depending on whether VMware or other solutions are used."
"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."
"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
"We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."
"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."
"The Price/Performance ratio for this solution is outstanding!"
"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."
"For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."
"This solution has a great price for the functionality."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which HCI solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
Pricing is rated at six, which is normal. The price is appropriate for the capabilities and features that the customers receive.
What needs improvement with HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
I would like the HPE Alletra dHCI to provide options to install products separately. When extending or when servers are already present, normal Alletra systems are more suitable. dHCI projects ofte...
What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?
It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
I had experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing through using the free version of StarWind Virtual SAN for testing purposes, so there was no cost involved during my evaluation. That made i...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
One area for improvement regarding StarWind Virtual SAN is the lack of a full-feature trial. At the time I tested it, I had access only to the free version, which required using PowerShell scripts ...
 

Also Known As

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
StarWind SAN & NAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra dHCI vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.