Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Storage Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 16.7% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 24.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of NetApp users who would recommend it.
Dell PowerPath
Read 8 Dell PowerPath reviews
  • 608 Views
  • 420 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
NetApp ONTAP
Read 93 NetApp ONTAP reviews
  • 2,021 Views
  • 1,536 Comparison Views
98% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Dell PowerPath and NetApp ONTAP compete in the storage management solutions category. NetApp ONTAP has an upper hand due to its advanced features, despite pricing and support leaning towards Dell PowerPath.

Features: Dell PowerPath provides reliable multipathing, load balancing, and efficient data migration capabilities. NetApp ONTAP offers comprehensive data management, advanced monitoring, and seamless data replication across systems.

Room for Improvement: Dell PowerPath could enhance its monitoring tools and expand support for non-EMC storage systems. Additional automation features would be beneficial. NetApp ONTAP could improve deployment ease by simplifying initial setup and providing better integration with non-NetApp environments. Faster support response times and enhanced migration tools would also be advantageous.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Dell PowerPath is praised for its straightforward implementation and effective customer support, facilitating quick integration into existing systems. NetApp ONTAP, while more complex, offers extensive customization options, necessitating longer initial setup. Its support is effective but less accessible than Dell's.

Pricing and ROI: Dell PowerPath provides a cost-effective solution with affordable initial fees and rapid ROI, ideal for budget-conscious businesses. NetApp ONTAP offers long-term value through its robust features and scalability, justifying the higher initial investment.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP Report (Updated: March 2026).
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP
March 2026
Download the complete report
Helped 884,976 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

Dell PowerPath
Ranking in Storage Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp ONTAP
Ranking in Storage Software
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
93
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 16.7%, up from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 24.2%, down from 42.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Storage Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetApp ONTAP24.2%
Dell PowerPath16.7%
Other59.1%
Storage Software
 

Featured Reviews

Derrick Brockel - PeerSpot reviewer
Derrick Brockel
Senior Manager of Operations at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
A resilient and reliable solution that has many load-balancing technologies and provides high availability
People who want to buy the solution must create a scorecard of Dell PowerPath against other products. They must run database tests. They must consider factors like pricing, performance, ease of use, visibility, and reliability. They must also run tests to understand which product recovers faster. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
Read full review
BK
Best Kifi
Senior Storage Engineer at Shell
Data management and availability improve operations, but cost and support need attention
For snapshots, there should be something similar to a recycle bin. When someone mistakenly deletes a snapshot, it should be stored for about two days before disappearing from the system. Regarding storage optimization, when purchasing a 10 terabyte disk, after formatting, you can only use approximately 8 terabytes. They should improve this so users can utilize 90% instead of 80% of the disk space. The support response needs improvement, especially for P1 cases. When critical cases are raised, they should ensure they call the customer and follow up properly. Comparing NetApp ONTAP to other solutions such as EMC, the cost of contract renewals and warranties is relatively expensive. They should extend their renewal window beyond the current six months to one year options. A longer warranty period of two years for new systems, controllers, or filers would be beneficial. Overall, they should reduce subscription costs for businesses.
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

"OS-aware multipathing is a valuable feature of the product."
"The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that disaster recovery scenarios are very good and easy to use in Dell PowerPath since it is available in a simplified form."
"It provides a high availability and will increase the performance of any server or operating system."
"In the last four or five years, we have not had any issues."
"We have found the solution to be quite flexible and very scalable."
"The product is very reliable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is migration without disruptions."
More Dell PowerPath pros
"What I really like about it is it incorporates the same thing as CentOS and RHEL 7 which is the Tap commands."
"It most valuable feature is its stability. A product has to be stable."
"What I appreciate the most about NetApp ONTAP is that the customer service is great and documentation is also great."
"ONTAP has been in use for over 25 years, that's one of the major advantages when compared to start-ups and other companies."
"The data compression and deduplication have kept us from buying more disks these past three years."
"The most valuable feature is the very high IOPS rating which you can achieve with it and the customization capabilities of the storage are very feature rich."
"It has also helped us reduce our overall cost of storage. Through dedupe and compression, we save a lot of capacity. Without that, we'd obviously have to buy more capacity. The last time I checked we were saving about 40 percent over our previous storage."
"From a storage standpoint, NetApp is the number one partner and the number one equipment manufacturer."
More NetApp ONTAP pros
 

Cons

"The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR."
"If there is an operating system that is discontinued, PowerPath will now also stop the support for that operating system; for example, in the case of Solaris."
"Customers do not choose PowerPath unless they have Unix or Linux."
"The solution is quite stable, although they have not quite worked out all of the kinks."
"The technical support is good but they are not available all the time."
"Although PowerPath is very mature and has been on the market for more than 15 years there are still a lot of bugs that have been profiled with PowerPath, specifically during any OS upgrade."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Although PowerPath is very mature and has been on the market for more than 15 years there are still a lot of bugs that have been profiled with PowerPath, specifically, during any OS upgrade."
More Dell PowerPath cons
"NetApp should focus on a hybrid cloud solution because none of the media houses are opting for cloud storage. The files are quite heavy, and it becomes quite difficult to maintain them on the cloud. If NetApp can provide such a technology and fill the gap of storing media files onto the cloud, it would give them an advantage."
"Technical support is hit or miss sometimes. Level 1 support is not very good. Level 2 and Level 3 (the escalation support) are very good. They are knowledgeable people, but sometimes you get some hiccup in the Level 1 support. After you pass Level 1, it is smooth sailing. There is a lot of room for improvement."
"We don't get the right engineer, the right attention the first time, so it needs escalation."
"NetApp ONTAP could be improved with additional features to help handle the backup of more than 10 to 15 devices simultaneously."
"We had a few small issues with setup, but once everything was done it just worked."
"It is not as good as we need from a performance perspective. At the moment, we are always running out of CPU on the controllers, even the high-end solutions."
"I would like to see more integration into the cloud, as we are pushing to do more cloud-based compute. It is just easier to get the storage and everything synced up there and move to the cloud. We want NetApp to keep down the cloud integration path. It still needs some improvement. Overall, there needs to be more cloud integration in all NetApp products."
"The price could be lower."
More NetApp ONTAP cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is fair."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product is a little bit expensive."
"Pricing is good. I don't have any issues with the pricing of this solution."
"I rate the product's price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is affordable, and ten is really expensive. Dell PowerPath is an expensive tool."
"There are no additional costs associated with the product."
"Because of the dedupe technologies and Data ONTAP servers, we have saved 20% on hardware. This is a lot of money for us."
"NetApp provided the features required within our cost limit."
"We receive the best support for a lower price point."
"The pricing for NetApp ONTAP is moderate."
"It has been cost-efficient. Compared to our legacy Dell infrastructure, we have realized cost savings. It is good."
"We received a super deal for our new machine, so we were happy with the price."
"The product costs an arm and leg; it's expensive."
"ONTAP has helped us reduce the cost of storage by a lot. We were using IBM XIVs and were paying high costs, except for the maintenance. Now, we are on all-flash and we pay less than what we used to pay."
More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Storage Software solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Transportation Company
16%
Retailer
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
University
7%
Transportation Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise67
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
How does Azure NetApp Files compare to NetApp ONTAP?
Azure NetApp Files is a Microsoft Azure file storage service built on NetApp technology. The platform combines the file capabilities of Azure and NetApp to move critical file-based applications to ...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?
It is cost-effective for the benefits you get.
See all answers
What needs improvement with NetApp ONTAP?
File level restoration could be improved. Currently, NetApp ONTAP provides volume level restore, but file level restore is somewhat difficult to execute. If NetApp were to provide an option for fil...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Everpure FlashArray vs Dell PowerPath Logo
Everpure FlashArray vs Dell PowerPath
Compared 26% of the time
DataCore SANsymphony vs Dell PowerPath Logo
DataCore SANsymphony vs Dell PowerPath
Compared 22% of the time
StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs Dell PowerPath Logo
StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs Dell PowerPath
Compared 15% of the time
QoreStor vs Dell PowerPath Logo
QoreStor vs Dell PowerPath
Compared 8% of the time
More Dell PowerPath Competitors
DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP Logo
DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP
Compared 25% of the time
QoreStor vs NetApp ONTAP Logo
QoreStor vs NetApp ONTAP
Compared 16% of the time
Cloudian HyperStore vs NetApp ONTAP Logo
Cloudian HyperStore vs NetApp ONTAP
Compared 11% of the time
Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP Logo
Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP
Compared 10% of the time
StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs NetApp ONTAP Logo
StorONE Storage-as-a-Service vs NetApp ONTAP
Compared 10% of the time
More NetApp ONTAP Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerPath
March 2026
Dell PowerPath reportDownload Dell PowerPath product report
Buyer's Guide
NetApp ONTAP
March 2026
NetApp ONTAP reportDownload NetApp ONTAP product report
 

Also Known As

PowerPath
No data available
 

Overview

EMC PowerPath: Host-based software for automated data path management, failover and recovery, and optimized load balancing. PowerPath automates, standardizes, and optimizes data paths in physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments to deliver high availability and performance.

AUTOMATE FAILOVER/RECOVERY

PowerPath automates data path failover and recovery to ensure applications are always available and remain operational.

OPTIMIZE LOAD BALANCING

Adjust I/O paths constantly to leverage all available data paths and to monitor and rebalance the dynamic environment for the best application performance.

STANDARDIZE PATH MANAGEMENT

Simplify and standardize data path management across heterogeneous physical and virtual environments as well as cloud deployments.

Dell Technologies

NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation and optimize their operations.

NetApp
 

Sample Customers

Healthcare Residential Service Company
1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace
Buyer's Guide
Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP
March 2026
Free Report: Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
DOWNLOAD NOW
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP report.
See our list of best Storage Software vendors.

We monitor all Storage Software 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.