Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Storage Software category. Dell Technologies is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.8, while NetApp is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell Technologies holds a 15.8% mindshare in SS, compared to NetApp’s 41.7% 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

239 Views
74 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NetApp ONTAP

Read 90 NetApp ONTAP reviews

874 Views
248 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Dell PowerPath

NetApp ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerPath and NetApp ONTAP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Storage Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

June 2025

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Helped 856,873 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

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp ONTAP

Ranking in Storage Software

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 15.8%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 41.7%, down from 42.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Storage Software

Featured Reviews

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.

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Naveen Radhwani

Head IT at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides good performance, stability, and complete data security

Our upcoming investments would be prioritized around a hybrid cloud solution because we ourselves promote the cloud in the market. We are the premium service provider for AWS, so we have that inclination toward cloud computing. From the experience that we had during the pandemic, we are looking for some kind of hybrid solution for our environment. 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 technology and fill the gap of storing media files in the cloud, it would give them an advantage.

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

"It provides a high availability and will increase the performance of any server or operating system."

"The user interface is good."

"OS-aware multipathing is a valuable feature of the product."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is migration without disruptions."

"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."

"The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy."

"The product is very reliable."

"We have found the solution to be quite flexible and very scalable."

"It's more intuitive to use as they are moving away from command line into more graphical interfaces, which are somewhat easier to use."

"The product is stable, easy to deploy and it just works."

"It has the ability to bring up disaster recovery quickly."

"The fact that NetApp ONTAP supports NVMe over TCP is a significant advantage."

"Scalability is good. Now that we have the ability to add more nodes to the cluster, it's better. It allows us to grill our clusters allowing them to be larger and faster, without having to buy a whole new system."

"SnapMirror is a good solution, because we can take our production data and replicate it over to our DR data center with minimal administrative effort, which is huge."

"We can recover data quickly. We are able to failover to remote sites. We can do that within minutes."

"Scalability is awesome with a cluster node, not only can you scale up, but you can also scale out."

More NetApp ONTAP pros

Cons

"The solution should provide extensive reports on backups and backup failures."

"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 technical support is good but they are not available all the time."

"The solution is quite stable, although they have not quite worked out all of the kinks."

"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"Customers do not choose PowerPath unless they have Unix or Linux."

"While I utilize it for data migration, I would love to do that data migration in a GUI from an ease of use perspective."

"The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR."

"The lack of an API is a big thing for us that needs to be improved. It needs proper API support."

"The aggregates, in our case, are capped at about 800 terabytes. A way to alleviate that is by using a FlexGroup volume, which can exceed 800 terabytes, but that opens up a whole new set of issues for the future."

"They use a lot of PowerShell for managing things and there are still a few things that you can't do through PowerShell cmdlets that you can do in the native CLI. It would be nice if they got more of those added in."

"NetApp ONTAP has similar areas of improvement as NetApp Private Storage regarding decreasing the error rate, improving the GUI, technical support and stability, and reducing the price."

"There is room for improvement in the stability. They have been trying to become simpler, and as a result, there have been road bumps along the way. I have personally experienced this."

"They could expand what is possible to do with automation as there are gaps in the Ansible module coverage they have."

"It doesn't scale horizontally since there are a limited number of shelves."

"They could focus on making it more user-friendly. Currently, many users need a certain level of NetApp knowledge to operate it effectively, often relying on command-line interfaces that demand IT or technology skills. While there is a GUI available through Systems Manager, a lot of management still occurs at the command line, so enhancing the GUI for better usability could be a key focus area."

More NetApp ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The price of the solution is fair."

"We have a wholesale contract with NetApp. We also have NetApp ONTAP On-Demand activation for certain things. We also have some preferential pricing for licenses. The licensing that I see here doesn't apply to other clients in the field. NetApp is expensive, but so are the competitors, making it hard to ascertain precise retail value. However, based on my perspective, NetApp pricing appears competitive."

"The product is a bit expensive."

"The pricing for NetApp ONTAP is moderate."

"NetApp is streamlined, reducing costs."

"NetApp provided the features required within our cost limit."

"The price point is very competitive and inexpensive compared to what you receive from other vendors in the market."

"The solution has helped us reduce the overall cost of storage by doing an OPEX agreement with NetApp, we are paying based on utilization. Instead of fronting 30 petabytes worth of storage, we are paying for what we're using."

"NetApp ONTAP is moderately priced."

More NetApp ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Transportation Company

14%

Healthcare Company

13%

Government

11%

Retailer

10%

Manufacturing Company

21%

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Media Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerPath?

The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy.

See all answers

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

The product is a little bit expensive. It is a little pricey because it provides multipathing with other OSs. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerPath?

The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR. When we use 3PAR storage, we have to use another technology to load balance. The product must be integrated with other products l...

See all answers

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 do you like most about NetApp ONTAP?

We do not face any glitches or downtime.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp ONTAP?

The pricing is high. That said, we received favorable pricing at Intel due to the company's large NetApp ONTAP deployment across different organizations. While we're not in the IT department (we're...

See all answers

Comparisons

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Dell PowerPath

Compared 45% of the time

More Dell PowerPath Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 41% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 17% of the time

Cloudian HyperStore vs NetApp ONTAP

Compared 12% of the time

More NetApp ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerPath

June 2025

Download Dell PowerPath product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp ONTAP

May 2025

Download 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

June 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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