We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Highly available storage is the most valuable feature. The entire rollout is hyper-converged and requires no extra storage further than the hosts in which Hyper-V is running. Another feature that has been great is the support from StarWind in general. We have their proactive support package on the main cluster that employs Starwind Virtual SAN."
"The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements."
"I've been really impressed with it so far. I think it's pretty great, actually. It does exactly what we need it to do, and it does it well, so I would recommend it. Plus, the support has been very good."
"The solution is also quite flexible. As an example, other vSAN solutions that we looked at had more stringent requirements regarding mixed HDD/SSD storage which wouldn't have worked in our environment."
"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."
"High Availability is the best feature of product."
"The license price is one of the cheapest in the market."
"It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place."
"Saves us a lot of space in the data center."
"The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited."
"We've had no issues with scaling the solution."
"It improved all services running on the new cluster and took up less space and less energy."
"Live migration between nodes was quick and simple."
"The StarWind array has greatly improved our workflow internally as it is quite easy to use and provides robust features that allow us to provide anything our clients need quickly and efficiently."
"We also opted for 24-hour support monitoring for any issues. They are extremely quick to respond on issues we even cause ourselves such as bumping a network cable."
"Servers came pre-configured for our environment and as soon as they were in the rack, Starwind got them up and running."
"The setup was easy to deploy, and management is simplified compared with traditional SAN solutions."
"We opted for 24-hour monitoring and support, which has already paid for itself."
"Being able to upgrade machines and software during business operations just by switching nodes has been a huge improvement. We"
"Other vendors such as VMware vSAN have a bigger community of users, so it is easier to find more pre-sale or post-sale information from users."
"The only point they should improve is the amount of documentation available for the user, especially in the first preliminary phase in which we were testing the product on our own."
"I would like to see improvements in the documentation area."
"Though I have learned some of the nuances with the upgrading of firmware/windows/etc., it would be nice to have a more efficient method of doing so."
"I would say that the documentation is mostly great, however, some features could be expanded upon a bit."
"When you will cease your contract with StarWind (for support) your product won't be updated and that is a big selling point, especially for us, as we have loads of products from StarWind."
"They require more media visibility."
"I had issues locating the documentation that applied to my version of StarWind vSAN."
"It would be great to get earlier access to beta builds because we have to develop providers on our own. The APIs and enablers for custom automation could also be improved."
"Licensing restrictions can be frustrating."
"The installation is complex."
"We've had some issues around the licensing."
"Most meetings are done via Zoom, and I'm sure you could switch to a text based conversation if needed as they seem like a very accommodating team. It's not something I would worry about if you are a potential client."
"The only area that surprised me had to do with the fact that each host runs a StarWind virtual machine used to maintain the health of the vSAN, which individually uses 24GB of memory per host. You should keep this in mind when determining the resources you will need when selecting hardware and components for your specific setup. If I knew that, I would have chosen to add more memory per host to make up for the use."
"The monitoring and reporting console can be improved in the sense that it can have more information on it."
"The only thing that can use improvement is the StarWind Management Console and Command Center."
"Shipping options should be explained in detail and offer more white glove delivery options even if it comes at an additional cost for some SMBs without docks."
"Although the setup documentation was very complete and succinct, I found StarWind documentation to be a bit sparse."
"We struggle a little with capacity management with the StarWind Hyperconverged appliance."
"If I had to pick something to add to the product, it would be nice if you could have more than one user account on their command center VM."
More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Pricing and Cost Advice →
Try it today
Try it today
Dell PowerFlex is ranked 13th in HCI with 4 reviews while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 6th in HCI with 42 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 7.8, while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.8. The top reviewer of Dell PowerFlex writes "Stable with good technical support and the capability to scale". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Flexible and easy to set up with excellent support". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), whereas StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VxRail, StorMagic SvSAN, VMware vSAN and HPE SimpliVity. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report.
See our list of best HCI vendors.
We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
