Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems comparison

Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Rack Servers category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.0, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 27.6% mindshare in Rack Servers, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Read 216 Dell PowerEdge R-Series reviews

13,506 Views
13,236 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

HPE Apollo Systems

Read 23 HPE Apollo Systems reviews

2,070 Views
1,822 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

HPE Apollo Systems

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 26, 2025

Dell PowerEdge R-Series and HPE Apollo Systems compete in the server market, offering solutions for high-performance and storage-intensive workloads. Based on the comparison, Dell PowerEdge R-Series appears to have the upper hand with its competitive pricing and strong customer support, although HPE Apollo excels in storage capabilities.

Features: Dell PowerEdge R-Series provides comprehensive scalability, robust remote management with iDRAC, and excellent reliability and manageability. HPE Apollo Systems offer high-density storage, flexible configurations, and support for compute-heavy environments.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerEdge R-Series could improve firmware management, user-guided support, and thermal management. HPE Apollo Systems could enhance compatibility with network protocols, increase GPU capacity, and improve setup ease for faster deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerEdge R-Series is praised for on-premise and cloud deployment options and strong customer responsiveness, although technical support experiences vary. HPE Apollo Systems are known for good technical support but face criticism regarding pricing and customer service compared to Dell.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerEdge R-Series is considered competitively priced with good ROI and flexible licensing but can be expensive for specific features. HPE Apollo Systems have higher initial costs due to specialized configurations but offer strong performance for data-intensive environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

September 2025

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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

7.5

Number of Reviews

216

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (4th), Data Center Networking (4th), Blade Servers (4th)

HPE Apollo Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

4.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge R-Series is 27.6%, down from 28.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Apollo Systems is 3.7%, down from 4.7% 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	27.6%
HPE Apollo Systems	3.7%
Other	68.7%

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Syed Masuood

Country manager at Asta Innosys

Handles workloads and diverse applications efficiently

We have a lot of VMs on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. On a single server, we have probably hosted 14 or 15 VMs. Out of these, 8 to 10 are continuously running, and four of them are backup VMs, so it can handle a good workload. For cybersecurity, it is only accessible on the intranet; it is not accessible through the web. We use it for local development purposes, and it is behind our firewall. Its security is strong. We handle a lot of test data for government and confidential customers. It is safe and strong locally. We have not experienced any security issues. Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers have helped to reduce unplanned production downtime if we need to replace a hard disk, instead of completely shutting a server, there is a hot swap feature. It is quite good in that aspect. Usually, for any activity, there is a downtime of about 30 minutes. It has saved a lot of time. We have tried AI workloads for a development environment for a government customer in Singapore. The servers are hosted in Singapore. It is an ML-based engine with AI. It is a government project where data is processed, and we run it on Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers. The benefit of running AI workloads on PowerEdge Servers is that it is easy to allocate memory. The application we are running is memory intensive. It is pretty easy to scale memory and storage.

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Aruna Udawatte

Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence

An affordable and easy-to-implement solution, but its after-sales support and technical support should be improved

We use HPE Apollo for specific requirements of Linux servers HPE Apollo's pricing is low, and implementation is very easy compared to other products. HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved. The solution should provide fast delivery when it comes to replacing a…

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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 reliability of its hardware and the support they provide are valuable."

"I would estimate we save two to four hours a week, depending on what's happening, such as if we need to spin up a new server, which would contribute to more time if done the old way."

"The scalability of Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers is excellent."

"We are able to do remote monitoring and installation of hardware and software, and that tends to be very popular with customers."

"Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers can help with that because it is the platform our whole business runs on - it's the foundation."

"The GUI is accessible and everything is pretty much upfront. You don't get lost in navigating between the tabs."

"We were running out of memory, and that was the first time we heard of a solution that supports a terabyte of core memory. That was the primary reason we got the first box. We've stayed with it since then because we have so many Dell workstations."

"My company has seen a return on investment from using Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, as the builds that the build team runs are going approximately 30% faster on the newer PowerEdge than what we were using previously."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pros

"It's pretty flexible. You can choose how much storage you put on the server. You can have one to three nodes, depending on whether you want more CPU or storage."

"HPE Apollo's support is the most valuable feature."

"The technical support from HPE has always been good in my experience."

"It's very reliable. I haven't had a single failure at all in the year and a half; not the slightest problem with it."

"we can use the same platform for several use cases: Hadoop, Ceph, and we are considering the server for another use case right now. It's a single solution, we only have to integrate it once and we can use it for several technologies."

"We usually use three blades for two-rack units, and with enough storage, it's really a small system with a powerful CPU, powerful hard drives, powerful disks."

"With HPE Apollo, we can propose configurations with many hard drives, making it suitable for large storage needs."

"The solution is well documented in a data sheet."

More HPE Apollo Systems pros

Cons

"We have experienced some challenges with iDRAC when upgrading firmware."

"The price is the only thing that can be improved."

"I do not have any input as such. There can be a bit more expansive AI portfolio, but I have not worked on any AI projects with Dell, so I might not be up to date in knowledge."

"It would be easier if the remote connection to the server could be done through the USB port. From the server, we should be able to connect to a laptop or a management workstation through a USB port."

"The price distance increases with the higher-end, more complex servers, and there is room for improvement."

"I don't know much about the new Intel CPUs, but they need to put more than two CPUs in the servers. It may be an Intel limitation, but I'm not sure."

"It is hard to make a comparison without any technical factsheets for the other servers to compare with but like everyone else, it is about the pricing."

"All of the marketing terminologies from Dell are very complicated as they have names that sometimes involve the same technology."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series cons

"HPE Apollo's after-sales support and technical support should be improved."

"We are quite happy with it, but its price and storage density can be better."

"Lustre seems to be just a little bit unstable overall."

"The predictive analysis feature could be improved."

"We would like to see improved cooling because that is quite an issue. If you put that much compute power into a single rack, cooling really becomes an issue. And there is room for improvement there."

"I would want to see the flexibility of being able to run various network protocols including InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, as well as iSCSI, with iSCSI going up to 100 gigabytes per second -that would be outstanding."

"We have tried to used standardization using Ubuntu Linux and it's been hard. They had some difficulties getting the RAID configuration up and running because there are no drivers for it. It's not supported by HPE."

"There is a shared battery for all cache controllers in the node. When you have to replace that element, you have to take down all three nodes and not just one."

More HPE Apollo Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If price isn't a concern, I would recommend it."

"The pricing and licensing are fair."

"The licensing comes with a warranty."

"One of the clients has been offered a price of $18,000 instead of the regular price of around $25,000."

"It is expensive. The price needs to be more competitive. Additional licenses are required to enable some of the features for scalability."

"The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market."

"The product is cheaper than HP servers, but the price could always be better."

"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."

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series pricing and cost advice

"There is an annual license required to use HPE Apollo."

"The price of the solution is more expensive than Dell which is their main competitor. However, there are times we have managed to receive a comparable price."

"It is an expensive solution but it is worth the money. The standard licensing cost is for the GPU and the features that someone is using. There are additional charges but they depend on the solution."

"Obviously I would like to see the cost go down. That speaks for itself."

"Compared to other products, HPE Apollo is not an expensive solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	78
Midsize Enterprise	52
Large Enterprise	89

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	12

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 don't have any issues or complaints with the Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers, but they could make the service tags larger as I get older. It's not that they aren't customizable; you can actually use ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Apollo?

Additional features would be beneficial in the next release of HPE Apollo Systems.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HPE Apollo?

We were working with HPE Apollo Systems for one of our projects for the company named VVDN. We were using HPE Apollo Systems, GPU systems and CPU systems. For GPU systems, the model was 6500, in wh...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering HPE Apollo?

Our company is a platinum partner with HPE, and we continue to deal with HPE. We sell many of their hardware products. Depending on the requirement or deal, we may sell HPE Converged System, hardwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 40% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 28% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Lenovo Edge Servers vs Dell PowerEdge R-Series

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell PowerEdge R-Series Competitors

HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 39% of the time

Dell PowerEdge XE-Series vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 8% of the time

HPE Synergy vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Moonshot vs HPE Apollo Systems

Compared 4% of the time

More HPE Apollo Systems Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series

September 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge R-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Apollo Systems

September 2025

Download HPE Apollo Systems product report

Also Known As

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers

HP Apollo Systems, HP ProLiant SL, HP Apollo

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 HPE Apollo high-density server family is built for the highest levels of performance and efficiency. They are rack-scale compute, storage, networking, power and cooling – massively scale-up and scale-out – solutions for your big data analytics, object storage and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. From water-cooling that’s 1,000X more efficient than air, to “right-sized scaling” with 2X the compute density for workgroup and private cloud workloads, the HPE Apollo line is a dense, high-performance, tiered approach for organisations of all sizes.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

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

Weta Digital

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

September 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerEdge R-Series vs. HPE Apollo Systems and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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