Dell XtremIO vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays comparison

Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Download the complete report

Helped 909,563 peers since 2012

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

Everpure FlashArray

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the All-Flash Storage category, the mindshare of Everpure FlashArray is 6.9%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XtremIO is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

All-Flash Storage Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Everpure FlashArray	6.9%
Dell XtremIO	1.7%
NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays	1.4%
Other	90.0%

All-Flash Storage

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV

Technical Lead at Wipro Limited

Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades

The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.

Has improved data reduction and snapshot efficiency while supporting critical workloads

Avi Shpaner

System Engineer at Exaware

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see performance very clearly could be enhanced, similar to how NetApp works with Grafana and NetApp monitor, which shows you a comprehensive view of the whole picture. The snapshot functionality could work more similarly to Snap Center. If I want to see all the VCenter with the VM, I think it needs the API for this. I do see big differences between Dell and other products. NetApp works very closely with VCenter, and Hitachi also integrates well, but Dell is not very clear and does not proceed well with VCenter integration with Dell. It needs the API, and I need to see all the snapshots. If I want to restore a VM from only a few directories or a few files that I need to restore, it is very difficult. I do see some differences in licensing. For the last few years, the Dell EMC price is acceptable. A few years ago, Dell EMC was expensive, approximately 20 percent more than NetApp. Right now the budget between EMC and NetApp is very closely aligned. Regarding the installation process and deployment of Dell XtremIO, I notice that in Israel, a lot of professional services and engineers who work with Dell EMC have moved to another storage company. I do not know why. Dell EMC does not have enough engineers, system engineers, or professional services engineers to provide service to the old clients, similar to how NetApp or Hitachi do. I think Dell XtremIO is between easy and complicated to deploy; it gives you the whole picture, but I need to go closely to VCenter to connect to VCenter to see the snapshot and to see performance with more dashboards of performance. I also need to connect the switch fiber channel to see all zoning to give me more flexibility to install or configure fiber channel or to see the performance of the fiber channels. I think there should be some fiber channel disconnect adapter or better troubleshooting from hardware for errors.

Offers flexibility and top-notch technology

Tayo Olubanke

Managing Director at GCET

You can go to bed peacefully if you have a NetApp. If you have NetApp within your data center, you get to know about power failure if you are using it. Your NetApp will still come alive. Even if it does not come alive, I can say that it is not like other tools when it comes to dealing with power failure. The tool is affordable, and the technology is top-notch. It is the only technology that has software for what we call inline compression and deduplication. All the products under NetApp are aiming to use AI. I know that you can achieve whatever you want to do with NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

More Everpure FlashArray pros

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When we needed to replace the other arrays, we went straight to Pure and life-cycled them into Pure in every segment we have."

"It is an SSD array that has awesome performance, low submillisecond latency, and does what it is supposed to do. It just works, which is difficult for things to do anymore."

"Pure Storage FlashArray has helped us decrease the storage footprint in a significant way; the dedupe and compression that they have is really good, and we're getting about four to ten in the deduplication and compression."

"The most valuable feature is replication."

"The solution has great efficiencies because it has scalability."

"Whoever is using Pure Storage is happy with it, including the latency and everything, and we have not received any complaints related to Pure Storage throughout the four years I have worked here, which is really great."

"We consume less physical storage because of the solution’s deduplication and compression."

"It is fast and reliable. It works."

"We used the product for our internal customers (Banking) and the performance really improved for the end users with reduced costs."

"Thin storage allocation"

"We have saved costs on storage and our users are getting quick response times for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)."

"Prior to the XtremIO, we just could not perform the data warehousing activities that enable our company to achieve business objectives necessary for being in the ultra-competitive insurance provider world."

"Technical support is excellent."

"The Metro clustering and solid-state performance, are the most valuable features of this solution."

"This is the first time I have witnessed 400,000 IOPS in any kind of enterprise lab."

"The performance of some of the features of the solution is very powerful."

More Dell XtremIO pros

"The deployment is very quick and very simple to use."

"The ease of use is the most valuable feature; something that we can use for a flash and all-flash type of environment that we can really put a heavy workload on."

"At the end of the day, low latency was what geared us towards the EF."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to set a specific margin of performance to a specific workload."

"The benefits are better up-time, better response time."

"I would have to say performance at this point, because the application it is based on is so diverse."

"The solution allows us to segregate one storage unit from another."

"The speed is the most valuable feature."

More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays pros

Cons

"I would like to see more detailed reporting on the data. However, it would be nice to know what are the exact VMs usage after deduplication and/or what that VMs actual latency and bandwidth is, outside of VMware."

"Currently, the solution fails to support file screening."

"The interface lacks the same level of control as some other arrays I've used."

"The solution is not cheap."

"It doesn’t provide enough information on performance analytics. For example, Nimble Storage has Infosight, which provides data; Pure Storage doesn’t have an equivalent."

"I would like to see them develop the ability to integrate with more AWS services. There are increasingly more and more services coming out from AWS but there are also certain constraints where we can't move everything over to a cloud as well. We would like for things that are on-premise to be easily integrated with AWS."

"I would like to get a weekly report of how our storage has been used, and if there is any storage sitting there not being used."

"The best way to improve Pure Storage FlashArray is the active DR because that can get very confusing, especially when you're trying to test a failover and replicate back; better instructions on how to do that would help because we actually lost an entire volume when we were testing out some stuff as the fingerprint got reinitialized, and when you replicated back, it didn't know about that volume, causing a failure in that process."

More Everpure FlashArray cons

"The past upgrades were highly impactful to active workloads."

"The most important thing for the system engineer is to check if there is latency in the IOPS for any run; you cannot measure the number of IOPS or whether or not it is overloaded."

"Management: At the time, there was no snapshot scheduler, so I had to write XSnapCourier to address it. The sad thing is that even after the newest release, which includes a native scheduler, most customers using XSnapCourier chose to stick with it due to a more feature-rich experience."

"I would like hardware capacity additions to be a little more flexible. The upgrade path for the existing XTremIO units requires you to purchase 2 XBricks at a time and they need to be the same capacity as the existing XBricks."

"I believe having more replication options comparatively to VMAX (other than RecoverPoint) would be great."

"The product could be improved by reducing the pricing and having better organization in their technical support team."

"This solution is good for VDI environments, but not recommended for database workloads."

"Ease of use is key in the converged and hyper-converged world that requires administrators to have both hypervisor and storage skills."

More Dell XtremIO cons

"There could be better integration with some of our Cisco products."

"The only major drawback is the replication between EF-Series units."

"They could improve overall scalability through performance. Denser capacity, which is doable, it is what the competition is doing."

"The EF-Series is not the most scalable solution."

"The pricing could be cheaper and it should have documentation in more languages, specifically, Russian."

"This solution does not have any compression or deduplication."

"If you're not using DDP, it is a little tedious to configure."

"I've observed an issue when creating a new storage solution with NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays."

More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pure is typically more expensive than everyone else. You get what you pay for, but I have lost deals to similar solutions because of pricing. They include everything, and that's another positive about Pure Storage. They aren't trying to nickel and dime their customers for different features. It is all included in one price. The license is by capacity, and the price depends on the capacity and the discount we're getting from the vendor. You get the SKU of the physical appliance, support, and maintenance, and that's it. You're licensed for whatever feature they offer. It is all rolled up into the price of the appliance."

"When you are paying more than you were paying for the storage space, you'd like the cost to be less. If they could get into the spinning disk kind of cost, that would be it."

"The pricing is very attractive and it delivers performance for the money."

"I have had a couple of customers who have complained about the cost. It can be a little more expensive than some of the other platforms. After it has been installed, I have never had a customer say, "I wish we wouldn't have spent all that extra money." They have always been happy with the product after it has been installed. They might be on the fence about it because of the price, but everybody who I have ever seen install it, they are always happy with it."

"The price of the Pure Storage Flash Array is too high and there needs to be more contact clarity. We went with the Evergreen plan and I don't have clarity on what am I supposed to pay each year or every three years. There was not much contract clarity."

"We consume it as a service, and that's actually something we really like, or at least I really like from the technical perspective. That's because it means there is no hassle when we need to upgrade arrays to add capacity. We just interact directly with technical counterparts, and we say, "Hey, we're filling up," and they say, "All right, here's another data pack." They ship it in, and we install it. So, the as-a-service model has worked very well. Given the outstanding data reduction rates, it has improved our profitability because we're selling allocated volumes as part of the cloud service or recovering those costs from our tenants. It is very efficient, but that has offset the premium price. It started out that way, but over time, as we've added capacity, the price per gig has gone down a lot because we have a lot of it."

"Pure has been flexible with us on the pricing models."

"The license for Pure Storage FlashArray includes the support and there are no additional payments that are needed. This is not an inexpensive solution, you need to understand the value of your data before you use a backup solution."

More Everpure FlashArray pricing and cost advice

"Don’t buy this array. You’re paying for loads of magic beans, since it’s mediocre at best for a platform in a rapidly growing field. Look instead at Pure Storage or something with variable block deduplication. You’ll end up spending less and getting a better product with actual support."

"XtremIO is pretty straightforward about pricing. However, you need to look at your data so you can estimate, with the advice of DEL EMC, what data reduction ratio you will reach. In our case, a 3:1 reduction ration gave us a positive case compared to other storage arrays."

"The licensing cost is on a yearly subscription basis, which can be expensive but is necessary for ongoing support and services. The pricing could be improved to make it more accessible."

"This is the best flash array on the market for high-end workloads, so expect to pay for that. But the support subscription cost is fixed for seven years, which made it easier for us to plan on the maintenance costs."

"Licensing is approximately $200,000 per year."

"It's not cheap, but it absolutely gets the job done. I don't have any real comment regarding licensing specifically."

"Too high priced for the Brazil market."

"The price of the solution should be reduced. The price matches the price of a VMAX service but it does not have the capability of a VMAX service. However, the prices of Dell EMC XtremIO can be reduceable."

More Dell XtremIO pricing and cost advice

"Cheaper pricing is always good. NetApp has been doing everything the right way. They've been figuring out things really well, going in the right direction."

"They need to improve its pricing. The storage market is dying. So, they need to improve the price because it should reach all people. NetApp is one of the top ones, and they are charging a little bit of royalty as compared to other storage solutions."

"The cost of our license is approximately $200,000 over three years for NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays. There can be additional costs for storage. For example, if you want to have eight terabytes."

"Price-wise, NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays is costlier than Dell. You have to buy a lot of licenses separately."

"Adding more capacity will increase the cost."

"Its cost-effectiveness is a major selling point. Compared to other storage vendors, the EF-Series offers excellent value for its price. It's truly a leading product in the industry."

"he price point that we're getting is very competitive in the market. Since we are buying in such a large quantity, they gave us a huge discount."

"It's a lot cheaper than what the other vendors have for the same type of environment. It saves us money."

More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which All-Flash Storage solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

909,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	71
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	159

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	29

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	18

Questions from the Community

Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?

I find the pricing of Everpure FlashArray to be quite high compared to other storage solutions; however, the reliabil...

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?

I believe we have covered the most important features; the architecture of Pure Storage is essential, and features su...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell XtremIO?

Pricing is hard to determine as it depends on the given configuration. XtremIO offers features that justify a potenti...

What needs improvement with Dell XtremIO?

There are some areas that could be improved with Dell XtremIO. The API to connect with command line or to see perform...

What is your primary use case for Dell XtremIO?

I was using Dell XtremIO as a storage admin and system storage admin internally within my company. My major use case ...

Dell PowerStore vs Everpure FlashArray

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Compared 10% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 10% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 7% of the time

VAST Data vs Everpure FlashArray

Compared 6% of the time

More Everpure FlashArray Competitors

Dell Unity XT vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

INFINIDAT InfiniBox vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 7% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 6% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs Dell XtremIO

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell XtremIO Competitors

NetApp AFF vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Compared 10% of the time

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Compared 10% of the time

Dell Unity XT vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Compared 6% of the time

DDN IntelliFlash vs NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

Compared 3% of the time

More NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays Competitors

Product Reports

Everpure FlashArray

Download Everpure FlashArray product report

Dell XtremIO

Download Dell XtremIO product report

NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays

July 2026

NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays report

Download NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays product report

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray

Dell EMC XtremIO Flash, Dell EMC XtremIO X2, XtremIO, XtremIO X2

NetApp EF540, NetApp EF-Series

Overview

The FlashArray family delivers consistent, high-performance data services across block, file, and object workloads. As part of the Everpure Platform, it provides the foundation for a unified data plane, enabling applications to reliably access, protect, and manage data across environments with simplicity and predictability. With built-in capabilities such as inline data reduction, snapshots, replication, and ransomware resilience, FlashArray ensures efficient operations, protected data, and consistent application uptime.

As the foundation of the (unified) data plane, FlashArray enables policy-driven automation, monitoring, and centralized management while integrating across cloud and on-premises environments. Built on an Evergreen architecture, it supports non-disruptive upgrades and continuous performance improvements over time while simplifying operations at scale.

What Key Features Does FlashArray Offer?

Simplicity and Speed: Easy management and rapid performance enhancements.
Data Reduction: Effective deduplication and compression.
Flash Architecture: Seamless upgrades and outstanding resilience.
VMware Integration: Excellent compatibility with virtualization platforms.
Predictive Analytics: Strong insights for proactive management.

What Benefits Should Users Consider?

Reliability: Proactive support with minimal downtime.
Efficiency: Reduced storage footprint and enhanced data management.
Performance: Faster processing speeds and low latency.
User Experience: Simplified management with Evergreen model.

In industries like finance, banking, and healthcare, FlashArray supports high-performance storage needs focusing on virtualization and database environments. Employed for VMware workloads, disaster recovery, and storage provisioning, it ensures application performance in private or hybrid cloud setups while enhancing management of virtualized environments.

Everpure (formerly Pure Storage)

Dell XtremIO offers high performance, low latency, and excellent data services like inline deduplication and compression. Known for ease of use and scalability, it supports intense workloads while ensuring sub-millisecond response times, tailored for demanding environments.

Dell XtremIO is recognized for its ability to handle massive workloads, support high-performance applications, and provide seamless data access. It excels in delivering efficient data management with thin provisioning, impressive snapshot capabilities, and storage optimization. Users find it reliable and manageable, commonly utilized in sectors like banking and finance for its speed and consistency. However, limitations include volume restrictions, GUI issues, lack of native replication, and integration challenges with systems like VCenter. Enhancements in database workload performance and deduplication are desired, alongside improvements in support and training.

What are the key features of Dell XtremIO?

Inline Deduplication and Compression: Provides efficient data reduction, saving storage space.
Scalability: Handles growing data needs without compromising performance.
Snapshot Capabilities: Allows for quick and easy recovery of data.
Thin Provisioning: Optimizes storage usage efficiently.
High Performance: Ensures sub-millisecond response times across workloads.

What benefits and ROI do users seek in reviews?

Reliability: Consistently delivers high-speed data access and performance.
Manageability: Simple operations with efficient data management features.
Cost Efficiency: Provides value through storage optimization and data reduction.
Versatility: Supports diverse application needs across industries like finance and telecom.

In industries such as banking and finance, Dell XtremIO is implemented to manage virtual desktops, facilitate custom development, provide backup solutions, and support business applications. It's also popular among telecom companies for quick IOPS handling in on-premises cloud models and assists in complex storage operations with efficiency.

Dell Technologies

NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays excels in high-performance storage with fast speeds and low latency, suitable for demanding environments like databases. It offers simplified management and integration, making it an efficient and reliable choice for data-intensive tasks.

NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays provides robust storage for applications needing exceptional IOPS and low power usage. Renowned for ease of integration and management, they seamlessly fit into existing infrastructures. While known for dependable performance in SQL and Oracle databases, they are popular for blending ease of use with advanced storage capabilities. However, the need for larger and faster drives, improved NVMe integration, and a more intuitive interface remains. Desired features also include enhanced monitoring, smooth cloud integration, comprehensive encryption, and clearer licensing.

What are the key features of NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays?

High Performance: Delivers high speed and low latency for demanding applications like SQL databases.
Management Simplicity: Streamlines deployment and integration for hassle-free management.
Diverse Connectivity: Offers various connectivity options to fit into different infrastructures.
Cost-Effective: Balances affordability with robust performance and reliability.

What benefits should you look for when evaluating NetApp EF-Series?

Improved IOPS: Boosts application performance with high IOPS capabilities.
Low Power Consumption: Reduces operational costs with efficient energy usage.
Reliable Database Access: Ensures consistent performance for critical applications.
Comprehensive Integration: Enhances compatibility within diverse IT environments.

In industry-specific implementations, companies utilize NetApp EF-Series in virtualized environments and private clouds, often incorporating hybrid models. It's prevalent in sectors like banking, oil and gas, and gaming, where speed and dependability are critical. Tech consultancies deploy these arrays for diverse data management tasks, including CCTV solutions.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas

Raiffeisen Bank Bulgaria, Wentworth-Douglas Hospital

RP Data, Western Oregon University, Toei Animation

Dell XtremIO vs. NetApp EF-Series All Flash Arrays