Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Sunlight comparison

Nutanix and Sunlight.io are both solutions in the HCI category. Nutanix is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.7, while Sunlight.io is ranked #30. Nutanix holds a 9.0% mindshare in HCI, compared to Sunlight.io’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Nutanix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sunlight.io users who would recommend it.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...

Read 200 Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) reviews

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7,893 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Sunlight

Read 2 Sunlight reviews

408 Views
408 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...

Sunlight

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and Sunlight compete in the cloud infrastructure market. NCI has an edge with user satisfaction in pricing and support, while Sunlight attracts due to advanced features.

Features: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers robust scalability, integrated security features, and efficient support for diverse workloads. Sunlight impresses with its lightweight footprint, high-performance capabilities, and edge computing compatibility. NCI focuses on comprehensive ecosystem integration, whereas Sunlight prioritizes performance efficiency with minimal resource consumption.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure provides a mature deployment process, supported by extensive documentation and responsive customer service, beneficial for enterprises seeking streamlined implementation. Sunlight offers simplified deployment tailored for edge computing but may lack the level of customer support detail that NCI provides. The main difference is NCI's broader support infrastructure compared to Sunlight's targeted deployment focus.

Pricing and ROI: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure generally involves higher upfront costs due to its extensive capabilities and support network, potentially delivering substantial long-term ROI through scalability and resource optimization. Sunlight offers a more cost-effective initial setup, promising rapid ROI through its focus on performance and efficiency at lower operational costs. NCI's proposition leans towards extensive long-term ROI, while Sunlight offers immediate cost benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sunlight Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sunlight

February 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

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...

Ranking in HCI

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

200

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (6th), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)

Sunlight

Ranking in HCI

30th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 9.0%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sunlight is 0.8%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)	9.0%
Sunlight	0.8%
Other	90.2%

HCI

Featured Reviews

Obasanjo Biliaminu

Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC

Infrastructure efficiency has improved significantly with quick server provisioning, though physical to virtual migrations need a streamlined in-house tool

From my experience with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), there is one area that needs improvement. When moving a critical infrastructure from a physical machine to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), we currently have to use a third-party tool to convert the physical machine to a VM. We have to use VMware converter to perform this conversion before moving it to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.

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RajeshKANUMURY

Chief Executive Officer at GniYes Inc.

Performs well, effective, and has responsive remote technical support

Sunlight is a scalable solution. It supports on-premises and distributed deployments, as well as public deployments. It has a single pane of management so I can manage all of my VM installations in a distributed manner. It also has a footprint, that allows me to operate on Edge. If for example, you have a retail shop with 2,000 locations and they use a networked point of sale system, or if you are Chipotle and they have so many locations and they have to use a backend system at each location. At the moment, these are all standalone systems that operate with very little connection to the central. We could, however, connect and create a network using Sunlight. We can virtualize and run with Edge thanks to Sunlight. This allows us to operate and obtain high-end computing on Edge for retail. Sunlight is a startup. I am not sure how many users they have, but we have been using it constantly and using the technology to bring in customers.

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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

"The speed of the operations and of creation of VM is fantastic."

"It is very easy to clone systems using the solution."

"The cloud features in-site offering, which I found to be very interesting."

"Single click actions is definitely the most important. They were not even aware that they wanted this."

"The most valuable feature would be the ease of deployment. That is the most significant feature for me because I've worked with multiple vendors and it's always been very complicated to install the software and get everything running."

"Nutanix Acropolis AOS is stable. We didn't receive any concerns regarding any problems, The customers have no concerns about the reliability."

"The flexibility of this system is very good. It's also faster than others, and has skilled technical support who showed more initiative than a competitor, e.g. VMware."

"The solution is well integrated with other vendors."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) pros

"It supports the latest technology of NVMe SSD, which is PCIe-based SSD. It has a very good IOPS performance as compared to vSAN. For the same system, I get 1,000 IOPS with vSAN, and with Sunlight, I am able to get almost 10,000 IOPS. In terms of features, it has almost all the features, such as HA and centralized dashboards. It can be managed centrally, and the visibility of the system is very good. They also have very good technical support and customer or partner training."

"The performance and small footprint of this solution are its most valuable features. I am able to obtain and use more than 90 percent of the physical hardware capacity."

Cons

"One of the improvements I would like to have is related to naming. It is getting confusing because they are using three-letter acronyms, which are more or less misleading. What I do not like is that they changed names and reused names. They had a meaning in the past and they are still using the names for something similar."

"Nutanix needs to improve network features like Passthrough – SR-IOV. It could be improved by supporting SR-IOV, if they had that support, I would not have needed to implement the VMWare vSAN."

"In terms of automation, I know there are ways to do it, but it's not very user-friendly. I've been working for the last three years with Nutanix and I've managed to automate certain things, but it's a somewhat more complex job than it should be. I would like to see more documentation or knowledge base articles."

"The productivity and work efficiency of Nutanix Acropolis AOS could improve."

"As Nutanix Acropolis AOS is on the expensive side, one of its areas for improvement is the price. It would also be better if it can be integrated with other cloud providers, because currently, it's only for private cloud deployment."

"To have internal stability, we needed to network the solution ourselves. Performance depends on the application. Performance could be the lack of IOPS, memory and CPU and configuration issues."

"I believe that improvements could be made in regards to the DR in addition to deduplication and integration with others platforms. They also do not offer opportunities for network virtualization so it would be nice to see that in the future."

"Pricing and varieties of options could be better."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) cons

"Its reporting and dashboards need to be improved. It currently has very basic reporting options. It should also be made easier to deploy on Unix operating systems. It is easy to deploy on Windows and Linux, but it is currently not easy to deploy on Unix."

"My recommendation would be to add this technology to Azure, Microsoft Azure so that we can bring it to the market, or deploy it on public clouds such as Microsoft Azure and Google. It is currently only available on Amazon's public cloud."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is high."

"The solution could be a little less expensive."

"The license is quite clear to me. It's much clearer than what we had with our previous virtualization environment. The licensing is not complex to understand."

"The cost of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is reasonable."

"If a customer has been using VMware, the difference in pricing is lower. However, if they are looking to use the VMware, the price can be much higher depending on the license."

"The initial cost is affordable but the renewal fees are high."

"Setup cost is minor, pricing is quite a bit (we have a 7-node-cluster for about 450K EUR with 2 vGPU-nodes for Citrix) but that includes hardware, software, and support."

"The price of the solution could improve. Nutanix has recently changed its pricing model from perpetual to subscription. They have identified there are challenges with the pricing model."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) pricing and cost advice

"There is an operating cost for the VDIs, which is an additional cost. However, the licensing fee is half that of VMware or Nutanix."

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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

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	92
Midsize Enterprise	77
Large Enterprise	82

No data available

Questions from the Community

How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?

Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...

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What makes Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) worth using?

NCI is a product with many tools and services but the one that, in my opinion, makes it better than similar products and worth using, is the full-stack lifecycle management. This capacity allows u...

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Have you received reliable help from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's support when you contacted them?

NCI is one of the best out there. For any software, no matter how good it is, technical support makes it or breaks it for me. You may have an amazing product but if there is not anyone to help you ...

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Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Compared 9% of the time

VxRail vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Compared 7% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Compared 6% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Local vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Compared 5% of the time

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Competitors

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs Sunlight

Compared 15% of the time

Azure Local vs Sunlight

Compared 15% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Sunlight

Compared 13% of the time

Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure vs Sunlight

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure vs Sunlight

Compared 11% of the time

More Sunlight Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

January 2026

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) report

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Buyer's Guide

HCI

January 2026

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Also Known As

Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis

No data available

Overview

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure delivers high performance and scalability with central management and one-click upgrades. It enhances data protection and reduces deployment complexities, perfect for businesses seeking efficient virtualization.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers a comprehensive platform integrating compute, storage, and network for optimal infrastructure management. It supports multiple hypervisors, offering flexibility, efficiency, and ease of use. With features like Prism for centralized management, organizations can manage resources effectively while benefiting from data protection enhancements such as deduplication and compression. Hyper-convergence enables seamless integration, reducing operational costs and increasing scalability. Though the pricing is high, and setup and administration can be complex, the ability to support hybrid cloud implementations and critical infrastructures like VDI and databases provides notable advantages.

What are the key features of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure?

Prism for Centralized Management: Simplifies resource management with a single control interface.
High Performance: Offers efficient I/O operations to enhance processing efficiency.
Scalability: Easily adjusts to growing business needs with one-click upgrades.
Data Protection: Uses deduplication and compression for secure data handling.
Hyper-Convergence: Integrates compute, storage, and network to optimize infrastructure.
Multi-Hypervisor Support: Provides flexibility to choose preferred hypervisors.

What benefits should users look for in Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure?

Cost Effectiveness: Reduces operational costs through resource optimization.
Ease of Management: Centralized control enhances administrative efficiency.
Scalability: Grows seamlessly with business demand.
Data Protection: Increases security and reliability of data management.
Performance Improvement: Streamlines server provisioning and resource management.

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure finds adoption across industries for virtualization, cloud services, and infrastructure consolidation. Organizations utilize it for hybrid clouds and virtual server hosting, supporting applications like databases and virtual desktop infrastructures. They report enhanced data protection, disaster recovery capabilities, and improved performance, facilitating effective resource management.

Nutanix

Sunlight is a complete HCI stack that can be deployed on-premise on standard data center hardware, in AWS and on resource-constrained far-edge devices.

Sunlight.io

Sample Customers

St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.

Lavazza, Infraspace

Buyer's Guide

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sunlight

February 2026

Free Report: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sunlight

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