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NetApp FAS Series vs Panasas ActiveStor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 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

NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in NAS
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (4th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (1st)
Panasas ActiveStor
Ranking in NAS
21st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 10.6%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panasas ActiveStor is 1.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetApp FAS Series10.6%
Panasas ActiveStor1.5%
Other87.9%
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

Srikanth Purushothaman - PeerSpot reviewer
DIRECTOR at Vellore Online Systems
Has supported long-term data protection and backup while requiring better part availability and pricing options
For monitoring purposes, we normally use flash access storage exclusively. We utilize a hybrid system because we need performance, combining NL-SAS for the volume and SAS flash to use as a fast cache system that provides more IOPS. We normally implement RAID 10, which we prefer over RAID 6's n plus 2 combinations. We utilize it for data redundancy, even with write intensity on. Regarding the unified storage architecture for NetApp FAS Series, we normally opt for exclusivity unless budget constraints exist. Our IOPS are very high, reaching somewhere about 50k to 150k or 1.150k. The high performance ensures minimal latency. An advantage we've seen with NetApp FAS Series is that snapshots provide very rapid backup and fast recovery. We basically use snapshots for data protection as first-level protection, with deduplication between the two storages serving as second-level protection.
MW
Project Manager at Realnux
Easy to use and flexible with great performance
We primarily use the solution for our HPC projects, high-performance computing projects The product has proven itself to be stable. The performance is great.  We've found the product to be quite flexible. It is extremely easy to use.  The solution is quite expensive. The solution could offer…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With FAS and other NetApp tools, they make for a very intuitive solution."
"My advice for anyone who is considering NetApp FAS is that it is a good product and our only real complaint is the lack of technical support."
"Prices may seem to be a little bit expensive, but the features just makes you happy that you took the step, and licensing is all included except a very few features, with a high end and complex environment."
"It allows our Windows and Unix teams to have a centralized point to share data between the two."
"It’s a decently mature product that has a lot of documentation and standards and is something to be relied on."
"It has been pretty stable, and when we have issues, the support has been great as well."
"Flash cache is a great product."
"I have found all the features useful in NetApp FAS Series."
"The stability is excellent and we've found the product's performance to be very good."
"We've found the product to be quite flexible."
"I am impressed with the tool's performance and bandwidth."
 

Cons

"Lately, a little slow to respond, but once you get someone, they’re very knowledgeable, although I haven’t had to use it a lot."
"NetApp needs to put its OS on a microchip rather than on disks."
"We're supposed to have used NetApp FAS Series for replication, but then one of the nodes failed, and then it's taken us some time to bring it up."
"No other area for improvement comes to mind other than its price. Making the price more attractive will help this solution have a bigger market share."
"NetApp is costly when compared to Dell."
"Regarding the stability of NetApp FAS Series, I would rate it seven or seven point five because there are frequent panic messages."
"There is room for improvement when it comes to response time and first-level support quality."
"Its operating system is very cumbersome."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"We have received complaints from customers that the tool is not easy to use. The tool's local technical service is slow. The solution is good for Linux customers and not for customers with other operating systems like Windows. The solution should provide storage without client software integration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If we want a ransomware solution with the product or other extended features, we need to pay an extra cost."
"Most storage vendors also have software, or licensing bundles, which may offer the required licenses considerably cheaper, but do also maybe offer licenses, which are not needed."
"The only area that could be improved is to lower prices for their All Flash FAS."
"The solution is more expensive than other vendors."
"The product's pricing is reasonable."
"It's not cheap, but at the same time, it's also inexpensive. It's somewhere in between."
"It is a moderately low-priced platform."
"We purchased it for four years, and it wasn't expensive. It was reasonable. Every company has a different agreement with NetApp. We got everything we wanted with all the bells and whistles and all the features and functionalities."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise58
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
I do not handle the pricing part of NetApp FAS Series since it is managed by the sales team.
What needs improvement with NetApp FAS Series?
There is room for improvement when it comes to response time and first-level support quality. If a new feature needs to be added, it takes some time because it is altogether a new development; othe...
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Also Known As

No data available
ActiveStor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Advanced Mask Technology Center Airbus Argonne National Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas School of Arts Technology and Emerging Communication Башнефть Boeing Bosch California Academy of Sciences Caltech Canon Case Western Reserve University Conoco Phillips Deluxe DirecTV Fairfield Technologies United States Federal Reserve Garvan Institute of Medical Research Goodyear Halliburton Harvard Medical School Honeywell In-Depth Geophysical Intel Kawasaki Lockheed Martin 3M Magseis Fairfield Mammal Studios The Man Group McLaren Mercedes-Benz MINES ParisTech NASA US Navy National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center NBCUniversal National Institutes of Health Nio National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northrup Grumman Novartis Partners Healthcare Procter & Gamble PGS Pratt & Whitney Rutherford Appleton Lab Siemens Sim International Sinopec Solers Square Cnix TGS Toyota Motorsport GMBH Toppan Turner UMass Medical School United Technologies University of Georgia University of California Los Angeles University of Minnesota University of Notre Dame University of California San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation Whiskytree
Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp FAS Series vs. Panasas ActiveStor and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.