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HPE Hyper Converged vs VMware vSAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 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 Hyper Converged
Ranking in HCI
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware vSAN
Ranking in HCI
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
234
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Hyper Converged is 2.5%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSAN is 8.9%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware vSAN8.9%
HPE Hyper Converged2.5%
Other88.6%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

GosayeErko - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
ShyamikaThamel - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium
Managing mixed RAID workloads has improved data protection and delivers strong performance
VMware vSAN can be improved in certain areas. In cases involving our large data stores with large VMs, we experience some latency, not during normal operation, but during database backup operations. We observed latency due to buffer issues from the top-of-the-rack switches. These issues are mostly network-related because all storage data traffic travels through the network. I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features. VMware vSAN is now providing data locality, but we did not use that option. If VMware vSAN provides additional features in the next release, such as the VM balancing feature called DRS on the cluster that VMware previously had, it would be beneficial. With DRS, VMs can move easily from one node to another within the same cluster. Nutanix does not provide that flexibility. When placing a VM on a cluster in Nutanix, the placement uses a balancing component. After that, the VM remains on the same host. If any contention occurs on the CPU or memory side, the VM stays in place until contention happens. If issues occur, the VM migrates to another host while transferring all objects to the same host. This is how their data locality is maintained. When a VM moves to any host, it moves with all VM objects. VMware vSAN does not currently offer this option. If a VM moves to another host, it accesses the disk object through the network, which increases latency. VMware vSAN now offers an option to select data locality, but it does not function like Nutanix. This is why some latency remains. If VMware vSAN can improve this feature, it would be very helpful and VMware would regain its top position.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the ease of use, resiliency of solution and data protection."
"What I really like about this program, is that it needs little space and it works really fast, so it saves us time."
"The features of HPE Hyper Converged that are most effective and beneficial are its simplicity as well as its scalability."
"The customer support for HPE is good, I'm happy with it."
"It provides unmatched performance, productivity and reliability, and its HPC technologies and workflow provide downtime and increase the technology."
"Hyper Converged is highly stable because it's installed on our VMware platform."
"The solution is reasonably priced and easy to manage for the smaller to medium size business companies where they don't need an IT department."
"The solution has many good features."
"VMware vSAN has greatly reduced refresh spending."
"The most valuable feature of VMware vSAN is you do not have to use additional hardware for storage. The operation of VMware vSAN does not take a lot of effort. If you have VMware technology on your site, then it's easy for the operational support of the system."
"The most valuable features are productivity and data storage."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"In my opinion, vSAN is the most natural way to migrate to a fully hyperconverged solution. If a customer needs a more scalable solution with consolidated management, vSAN is excellent."
"It allows us to put our infrastructure in remote locations and still get the same performance we get from our onsite SAN solutions."
"I have found the solution to be scalable."
"VMware vSAN is software-defined storage; you don't have to buy additional external storage, and you can manage all the storage entities from the console, which is very important to our customers."
 

Cons

"One problem I've had is that I was trying to do a move and it was not working. I was given an error and a message asking me to shut down the machine first and then move it to another host."
"The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM."
"I would like to see improvement in the hardware underneath it. Currently, it's a Gen9 DL380. One day, there will be a Gen10 DL380 and maybe they will have bigger or smaller sizes."
"Because it's so well integrated, you can't get away from it. You can't replace one part without the whole tool going down."
"Some improvement is required in the availability of the data and performance. The solution is too expensive for our customers."
"The price can be improved."
"There are some general issues around component failure and raising technical support. Overall, the stability is rated seven or eight out of ten."
"The storage efficiency is weak and needs to be improved."
"It is quite an expensive solution for us and I would like to see some improvements on the backup side of the solution."
"I'm not happy with the VMware support. There are so many delays attributed to different reasons, like when you transfer the case from one engineer to the other, the second engineer is not aware of what the first engineer has done, so we need to update the second engineer from the beginning."
"Hackers are able to manage to leak information or data from the product using some corrupt files, making it an area of major concern where improvements are required."
"We want see a better monitoring tool in vSAN. Monitoring is not that great as of now because it shows us false alarms in the Health status. We would like that to be improved."
"Starting out there were some stability issues but I don't see them the same way that I did."
"If one node out of your ten nodes fails, it takes a lot of time to replicate and rebalance VMware vSAN."
"I would like to see some of the more traditional SAN functions that are out there now; being able to snapshot on the back-end, better de-dupe, and better compression."
"Disaster recovery needs to be improved, when there is a crisis, there is a problem with what is the quickest way to get out of it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower."
"The solutions cost us a lot."
"The entire solution is packaged with all licenses and support."
"The solution is expensive - not only the hardware costs but server costs too. And the more you scale, the more expensive it gets."
"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."
"HPE Hyper Converged is an affordable solution."
"It could be cheaper, everything could be cheaper."
"It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful."
"This is a cost-effective product. It's a bit cheaper than the other solutions."
"VMware is not a cost effective solution, especially if you have a Microsoft shop. In this case, you would have to purchase the VMware license when there are already Hyper-V solutions that could do it for much cheaper."
"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."
"My customers have found VMware vSAN to be a little expensive."
"The price of vSAN could be lower."
"With vSAN, we didn't find the market that competitive."
"It could be cheaper."
"The price is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business100
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise129
 

Questions from the Community

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. ...
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...
What is your primary use case for HPE Hyper Converged?
I have several years of experience in storage area network and IT infrastructure, working with Pure Secure, Pure Secure Storage, EMC Square, HP, and Lenovo storage and other brands, several other b...
What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?
While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major fac...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We researched VMware vSAN but found HPE was a better option for us. HPE SimpliVity has ...
How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load bal...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha
Read Some Case Studies At Home Cloud CaribCINgroupDiscovery Check out the Rest of our Customer Stories Here
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Hyper Converged vs. VMware vSAN and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.