No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

StarWind Virtual SAN vs VxRail 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
StarWind Virtual SAN significantly reduces costs and complexity, offering high performance, immediate ROI, and hardware-agnostic financial benefits.
Sentiment score
3.8
VxRail significantly reduces costs and manpower needs while enhancing efficiency, scalability, and deployment ease for improved infrastructure management.
We don't sell a lot of redundant servers, so it's not a massive ROI, but the ability to rely on their technical support and the software's ease of setup allows us to reduce labor costs and go to market competitively.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The cost benefits, as far as we consider, are much better with a StarWind VSAN solution, and the training requirements with the ease of administration simplify and reduce our administrator and professional services costs.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Regarding cost savings, for my client, it was about 20K USD for his specific use and as for extending capacity, StarWind made that process easy.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
StarWind Virtual SAN excels in customer service with quick, expert support available 24/7, ensuring smooth operations and client satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.2
Dell's VxRail support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, with minor concerns about delays and VMware-dependent issues.
Even in the instances where my technical team does not have the ability to manage or troubleshoot or resolve an issue, StarWind's technical team supports and resolves on our behalf very quickly.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
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 who will be able to connect, verify your setup, run its parameters, and see exactly what's working and what is not, and adjust it, and they really help you with that.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
The customer support from StarWind Virtual SAN is great, as the people are knowledgeable and have great knowledge about the product and the functionality we require in the system.
System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
A key area for improvement for VMware would be response time.
Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Dell has good technical support in Saudi Arabia.
Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The support is all provided by Dell, and it is quite good.
Principal Consultant at Sycor GmbH
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
StarWind Virtual SAN excels in scalable solutions, effortlessly expanding storage and nodes to accommodate varying organizational needs.
Sentiment score
7.4
VxRail efficiently supports business scalability despite hardware constraints, making it ideal for medium to large enterprises' scaling needs.
If we want to expand our storage or add disks, it is easy to add them, configure the RAID, and then deploy it.
IT Support Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I believe that scalability should be further improved, especially considering the possibility that environments may grow exponentially.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
When you move from a two-node cluster to a three-node cluster, you have to completely redo the way that they are connected to each other with iSCSI.
Manager of Systems Administration at Monster Digital
There are limitations, such as the inability to upgrade from a single to dual CPU in certain configurations.
Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Scalability is easy with VxRail.
Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Scalability is good with VxRail.
Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
StarWind Virtual SAN is reliable, with robust performance and minimal downtime, excelling even during hardware failures, upgrades, or maintenance.
Sentiment score
8.4
VxRail offers exceptional stability with minimal disruptions, consistently praised for reliable performance and strong data protection capabilities.
In my experience, StarWind Virtual SAN is very stable, and I have never had a single instability issue.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It has been working for five years and the customer is still happy with it.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
I ran it on a two-node Hyper-V cluster setup, and I didn't experience any unexpected crashes or major issues.
Hosting Operations Senior Analyst at Equinix Brasil
It is a very stable and mature product, with centralized management and upgrades being perfect for us.
Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

StarWind Virtual SAN needs user-friendly management, improved documentation, better integration, modern features, and enhanced performance tools.
Users criticize VxRail for limited flexibility, high costs, complex upgrades, and desire better integration, UI, support, and cloud capabilities.
A more intuitive interface or an improved dashboard for monitoring the cluster would also be helpful, as it would facilitate performance tracking and help identify potential issues before they affect services.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
There have been cases where not understanding exactly what's failing on the Virtual SAN has been an issue.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Limited feedback in the management GUI is the main area where I would like to see StarWind Virtual SAN get better.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It requires a very clean environment to proceed without issues.
Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
VxRail could be enhanced through additional integration with NVMe technology.
Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
For the fourth year and fifth year, I have to buy separately for the licensing from VMware and from VxRail.
Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

StarWind Virtual SAN is praised for affordability, simple licensing, ease of use, flexible upgrades, and dedicated support.
VxRail pricing is high but offers value; negotiation and discounts can reduce costs, despite variable licensing fees.
The costs are acceptable and very competitive compared to other hardware-only HCI solutions.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I talked to the sales team, they gave me a quote with a perpetual license with the support and everything went through smoothly.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
This is a great product and good support even you are using free version!
Infrastructure Manager at Beacon Fronline Solutions Inc
Previously, the cost was higher, however, recent changes in VMware pricing have reduced it.
Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The cost varies for us as a large company because we receive special offers from Dell.
Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Purchasing VxRail is quite expensive compared to a simple Dell server.
Principal Consultant at Sycor GmbH
 

Valuable Features

StarWind Virtual SAN offers easy installation, exceptional support, and scalability, enhancing storage performance and ensuring continuous operation.
VxRail offers seamless integration, centralized management, automated updates, and high performance, streamlining IT operations with ease and flexibility.
Thanks to its seamless integration with Proxmox, the implementation of high availability servers has drastically reduced downtime, which is crucial for our security-focused company.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
StarWind Virtual SAN helps us keep customer satisfaction and provides the solutions we need without having to hire many IT specialists.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
StarWind's storage virtualization and failover capabilities have made a difference for my clusters through uptime improvements, with zero downtime specific to server host maintenance or even maintenance of the StarWind software itself.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.
Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The lifecycle management capabilities of VxRail have benefited my organization's maintenance and update processes.
Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The most valuable feature of VxRail is the VxRail Manager, which centralizes resources like storage built with vSAN.
Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
206
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
VxRail
Ranking in HCI
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
135
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.2%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VxRail is 10.6%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VxRail10.6%
StarWind Virtual SAN2.2%
Other87.2%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Jccerong Heron - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Support team has guided us through deploying virtual storage on legacy hardware and reducing operational costs
The reason I chose StarWind Virtual SAN for this particular scenario is really the features, the ease of use, and most importantly, the price. In my opinion, the best features StarWind Virtual SAN offers are easy integration with the system installed in the data center. The integration with my existing systems in the data center works well, especially with VMware, as we already have a big cluster in VMware, and the easy integration with that is helpful to solve some problems with the platform. StarWind Virtual SAN has positively impacted my organization by reducing OPEX costs. My OPEX costs have gone down as we reutilize some old servers, and this reduces the CAPEX of hardware in the data center.
Saleh Khalid - PeerSpot reviewer
computer scientist at Imam University
Experience improved integration and cost-efficiency while facing support challenges
The best features of VxRail are its compatibility with VMware, its hyper-converged solution capabilities, and its single line of support. These are the most beneficial aspects of VxRail. I switched from the previous HP solution to Dell solution because it was a good decision. With HP servers, we dealt with a vendor for the compute servers, another vendor for the storage servers, and another vendor for the networking, which required us to manage multiple vendors. Now, we have a single team who can handle VxRail and a single line of support. We don't need anything other than that, and these are the differences we noticed after we switched.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which HCI solutions are best for your needs.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business166
Midsize Enterprise54
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise43
Large Enterprise57
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we are using the free version, so we did not incur any cost.
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
The better features are in the paid version, and I would like to see something from the graphical user interface in the free version, which is not available. I wanted to see better understanding of...
What is your primary use case for StarWind Virtual SAN?
In production, I wanted to use StarWind Virtual SAN for shared storage. My main use case for StarWind Virtual SAN is shared storage. I wanted shared storage with local resources for Hyper-V, specif...
How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?
HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, zero rule. That means I need three copies of my data on two different types of me...
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...
What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?
VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
VCE VxRail
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox
Find out what your peers are saying about StarWind Virtual SAN vs. VxRail and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.