Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series comparison

Dell PowerEdge R-Series and Dell PowerEdge XE-Series are both solutions in the Rack Servers category. Dell PowerEdge R-Series is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.1, while Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0. Dell PowerEdge R-Series holds a 25.9% mindshare in Rack Servers, compared to Dell PowerEdge XE-Series’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Dell PowerEdge R-Series users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Read 270 Dell PowerEdge R-Series reviews

13,767 Views
12,941 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Read 11 Dell PowerEdge XE-Series reviews

867 Views
867 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 2025

Dell PowerEdge R-Series and XE-Series compete in the high-performance server market, with the R-Series generally having the upper hand due to its scalability and ease of deployment.

Features: Dell PowerEdge R-Series is notable for its scalability, remote management via iDRAC, and smooth integration with management tools, enhancing its performance for various workloads. On the other hand, the XE-Series is known for its compatibility with VMware, multi-versioning support for endpoint security, and a strong focus on security and reliability.

Room for Improvement: The R-Series could improve in centralized management and licensing simplicity, power efficiency, and faster feature deployment. The XE-Series needs better standalone server extendability and more seamless integration into broader IT infrastructures. Additionally, XE-Series support can be improved in terms of response time and stability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both series are primarily deployed on-premises, although the R-Series has slightly more deployment diversity across clouds. Customer support for both is generally praised, with the R-Series having more responsive and engaged support teams, though XE-Series sometimes faces support delays.

Pricing and ROI: The R-Series offers competitive pricing and good value for performance, though hardware costs can be high. The XE-Series competes with flexible licensing options, though prices can be high in some regions. Both series deliver strong ROI, with XE-Series excelling in maintenance savings and R-Series praised for longevity.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

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

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Ranking in Rack Servers

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

270

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (1st), Data Center Networking (2nd), Blade Servers (4th)

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Ranking in Rack Servers

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 25.9%, down from 27.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerEdge XE-Series is 2.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerEdge R-Series	25.9%
Dell PowerEdge XE-Series	2.1%
Other	72.0%

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Tom van Mil

Systems Administrator at Lico Innovations B.v.

Supports flexible hosting needs through seamless upgradability and strong monitoring capabilities

The most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series for me are the feature richness and the upgradability. I really love the way that it is so dynamically applicable for every situation, and they manage to have an all-in-one solution for every single situation. Dell PowerEdge has supported the growth and operational success of my company through its great compute power and price-to-performance ratio. Every time Dell is at the top of its game for us, and there is just no other brand for us that is able to reach that kind of price-to-performance ratio. Dell PowerEdge R-Series has features that specifically cater to the needs of my small company, such as iDRAC. The iDRAC system is a complete feature set for managing servers and hardware technically and monitoring-wise. It really fits in our system and our ecosystem, and monitoring-wise, it is excellent. They have all these sensors available via different protocols and end points, which I love, and the ability to manage and control everything via the iDRAC interface is just a welcome bonus. In our use case, Dell PowerEdge R-Series is very flexible. It is another computer which helps a lot because of the durability over time. They keep running, making scalability for getting more of those resources in our environment so easy.

Read full review

Hany Magdy

CEO at Matrix ITS

Positive feedback highlights seamless integration and exceptional support

The reviewer primarily works with HCI, specifically Dell VxRail Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. Dell's HCI solution is considered superior to HP's in Egypt, where most customers prefer VxRail. For HP products, they provide blades, servers, C7000, and DL380. Dell's product range includes servers, storage, and hyper-converged infrastructures. Dell offers better pricing for server and technology, especially for HCI since they use VMware, which is considered one of the best hypervisors. Dell's Data Domain is recognized as the leading backup appliance globally, offering cyber resilience backup solutions. The reviewer has experience with Dell PowerProtect from eight years ago and Dell Avamar, which is particularly suitable for larger companies and virtual environments. They have also worked with Unity, VNX, and VMAX all-flash storage solutions, with the VMAX implementation using all NVMe (non-volatile memory). For backup solutions, they utilize GBS, Veeam, Veritas, and Dell solutions including DBS and Data Domain. The reviewer rates this solution 9 out of 10.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Dell PowerEdge R-Series has given us a stable platform to build on."

"We are satisfied with what we got from Dell PowerEdge R-Series; there was no need to add it for more functions."

"I consider the most valuable aspect of Dell PowerEdge R-Series to be its reliability, which is the key feature; it is a good machine."

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have been stable and reliable over the last decade."

"Customer support is usually really good for Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers."

"The initial setup is very good, not complex at all."

"They provide good support for part replacement, and when they cannot because the part is unavailable, they are pretty good at informing us and letting us know, but generally, these servers just sit in the data center and have been working 24/7 for years without any problems."

"Dell PowerEdge R-Series usually does not have much downtime."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pros

"PowerEdge XE servers are high-performing. We're hardly using 15 percent of their computing power, so there's a lot left over that we could utilize."

"Its reliability and consistency are most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the trusted platform module."

"The most valuable feature is that it can support up to 32 drives of internal storage."

"One of the most valuable features of Dell PowerEdge XE Servers is the ease of fixing issues if there are any."

"The resource management features are valuable."

"The most valuable feature of these servers is the ability to store a lot—the capacity and the number of hard disk drives."

"In general, it works well. We haven't had issues."

More Dell PowerEdge XE-Series pros

Cons

"In older models, for instance, Melanox adapters remain a necessity, and they have sporadically caused complications."

"For products that are not part of the premium support package, it is a bit more tedious."

"There might be room for improvement, especially in the software aspect, such as firmware updates."

"If there are areas where Dell PowerEdge R-Series could still be improved, I find it a bit cumbersome because we have a contact in sales through whom we can order Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, but storage is only available via certain partners."

"Dell PowerEdge R-Series could improve by focusing the servers to optimize their performance for Kubernetes clusters or something similar might be beneficial."

"There needs to be more flexibility for business options."

"Currently, even when using SSDs or SaaS disk models in my Dell PowerEdge R-Series servers, the throughput is roughly 10%-15% lower compared to similar offerings from HPE and Lenovo."

"Currently, we are facing issues with updates, particularly on the driver side. We did not receive proper communication about upcoming driver upgrades and other aspects. We are lagging in that area. We need to know about any upcoming updates so that we can plan accordingly. It could be that our emails are not registered properly."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series cons

"It is mostly stable, but the usual problem would be, for example, upgrading to a newer version of VMware or dealing with compatibility issues during the process."

"In future releases, there should be more support options for the latest processor."

"We use OpenManager a lot, and that can be a bit clunky at times. They can make that better."

"It should be easier to extend PowerEdge XE servers. We haven't architected them with an eye toward scalability. They have a fixed number of slots for hard drives, which is enough for our present use case, However, we would have more options if we could extend that. We could deploy the servers in a broader range of use cases with different requirements. It's fine for our current deployment with only a few thousand users. We're exploring other solutions like such as VxRail or PowerFlex for larger public-facing use cases."

"I would like to have support for performing a detailed analysis of the server from a mobile device."

"The support team must improve the speed of response."

"Dell PowerEdge XE Servers can improve by adapting HCI technology."

"Upgrading can be a bit difficult."

More Dell PowerEdge XE-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has generally been very competitive. It is not the best, but it is very competitive."

"The price of this solution is reasonable. It's very comparable to similar solutions."

"They seem to have become more expensive. I've not done a comparison with other vendors recently. If the price increases more, we would need to do a comparison next year just to make sure that we are benchmarking our server purchases correctly."

"The price is reasonable. You have to pay if you want quality. When we purchase something, we have to do some market analysis, and I haven't seen a significant difference compared to other solutions."

"We have a strong agreement in place with our parent company, that typically ensures favorable pricing terms for us, although occasionally we may need to negotiate with Dell representatives for further discounts to provide competitive pricing to our customers."

"The pricing is very competitive."

"The tool's pricing is very good."

"The solution's prices are good, especially considering what you get to use...The licensing aspect of the solution is also fine."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pricing and cost advice

"If you want an SLA for parts and equipment then you need to purchase a support agreement."

"Dell has competitive pricing."

"The pricing model is quite competitive."

"There are different types of licensing available, that works well for customers. The product is not very much to purchase."

"This solution is priced very reasonably."

"You always want slightly cheaper, but overall, they are quite comparable and quite neutral."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

University

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

University

Computer Software Company

Marketing Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	96
Midsize Enterprise	59
Large Enterprise	113

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

When shopping for a rack server, would you go with Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether the Dell EMC Poweredge or Lenovo Thinksystem rack servers were the better fit for us. We ultimately decided to go with Dell EMC Poweredge....

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

It has helped us reduce unplanned downtime by 20% to 30%.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers?

I am not the right person to talk about improvements for Dell PowerEdge R-Series because I am not related to the networking aspect; I am related to CAE. At my end, everything looks good for me. In ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

For Dell PowerEdge XE Servers, particularly for standalone servers, extendability would be a great improvement. This feature is currently available only with virtualization environment. Adding exte...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

I worked with HP Blade Servers including HP Integrity and Altex for the banking sector where I sold blade servers. I have not sold HP Superdome X or HP NonStop. The customers are using it for big d...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Dell PowerEdge XE Servers?

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 38% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Synergy vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 1% of the time

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series Competitors

HPE Apollo Systems vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 16% of the time

Dell PowerEdge XR-Series vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle SPARC Servers vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 13% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

Compared 9% of the time

More Dell PowerEdge XE-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

February 2026

Download Dell PowerEdge R-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Rack Servers

January 2026

Download Dell PowerEdge XE-Series product report

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

PowerEdge XE Servers

Overview

PowerEdge R-Series delivers high performance, flexibility, and scalability for data centers. It supports demanding tasks with robust management tools and advanced cooling, providing reliability and efficiency across various workloads.

Engineered for large deployments, PowerEdge R-Series supports extensive configurations optimizing performance in data centers. With features like advanced cooling and energy-efficient architecture, it empowers organizations to manage heavy workloads while facilitating seamless scalability. It offers remote management, robust security, and integration with VMware ensuring operational excellence and high availability for business-critical applications.

What are the key features of Dell PowerEdge R-Series?

Scalability: Supports flexible configurations for diverse workloads.
Remote Management: iDRAC and OpenManage facilitate easy oversight.
Energy Efficiency: Architecture helps reduce energy consumption.
Security: Robust features ensure protected performance.
VMware Integration: Enhances manageability and productivity.

What benefits and ROI should you look for?

Performance: Handles high-performance and demanding tasks.
Flexibility: Offers easily upgradable configurations.
Reliability: Provides consistent performance with long-term support.
Efficiency: Reduces energy use and operational costs.
Ease of Use: Simplifies management and maintenance.

PowerEdge R-Series is deployed across industries for virtualization, database hosting, and application servers. It supports environments like VMware and Hyper-V for AI, cloud infrastructure, and computing tasks. Widely used by finance, healthcare, and academia, it enhances reliability and efficiency of IT infrastructure.

Dell Technologies

The PowerEdge XE-Series caters to AI-centric workloads by offering exceptional GPU support and processing power for demanding tasks like inferencing and large-scale training, making it ideal for organizations aiming to innovate with AI.

PowerEdge XE-Series stands out in modern GPU-centric computing with its purpose-built design for AI acceleration. Known for handling extreme workloads like model fine-tuning and AI-driven applications, it supports high-density GPU configurations and advanced thermal management. Its vast storage capacity and compatibility with VMware ensure reliable performance across virtualization, big data, and analytics while providing trusted security integration and robust scalability options. However, improvements in processor support, reliability, and management monitoring are sought by users.

What are the key features of PowerEdge XE-Series?

High-Density GPU Support: Configures multiple GPUs for demanding AI tasks.
Advanced Thermal Design: Optimizes cooling for enhanced performance.
Vast Storage Capacity: Supports up to 32 drives for extensive data management.
Compatibility: Works seamlessly with platforms like VMware.
Security Integration: Includes trusted platform modules for data protection.

What benefits should users expect from PowerEdge XE-Series?

Efficient AI Management: Enhances AI workloads with advanced processing.
Scalability: Adapts to growing demands in virtualization and big data.
Security: Offers robust data protection and reliability.
Improved Resource Management: Facilitates straightforward setup and usage.

In different industries, PowerEdge XE-Series is utilized for hosting SaaS, high-performance computing, and general-purpose servers. System integrators use it in client networks for applications like Hadoop, backup, and ERP. It supports virtualization and hyper-converged infrastructure solutions. Real estate sectors leverage iDRAC for efficient management, enhancing data security, power, and network redundancy.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

NxtGen Datacenter, Medien-Service Untermain (MSU), Exasol, IndigoVision, Dayco

Epsilon, ROZETTA CORP, JIGUANG, RACKSPACE, NEW BELGIUM BREWING

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

February 2026

Free Report: Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. Dell PowerEdge XE-Series

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