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Dell PowerPath vs NetApp ONTAP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

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
92
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Storage Software category, the mindshare of Dell PowerPath is 15.4%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp ONTAP is 27.8%, down from 44.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Storage Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
NetApp ONTAP27.8%
Dell PowerPath15.4%
Other56.8%
Storage Software
 

Featured Reviews

Derrick Brockel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
BK
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The user interface is good."
"The product is very reliable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is migration without disruptions."
"We have found the solution to be quite flexible and very scalable."
"OS-aware multipathing is a valuable feature of the product."
"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."
"The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy."
"It most valuable feature is its stability. A product has to be stable."
"We have been able to save about 10 to 15% on space using the space consumption features."
"The compression works well. We get a 3:1 ratio."
"Technical support is good. NetApp's solution engineers are good at architecting designs which are standard, but also future thinking. I've only opened a few tickets, and they've answered my questions each time. NetApp takes less than four hours to respond."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It came in a box ready to go."
"They always have new solutions for their customers. They also have good integration with other partners like Microsoft, VMware, and Oracle."
"Stability and performance have been great."
"We are able to minimize the storage hardware. The compression and deduplication have helped reduce our overall cost of storage."
 

Cons

"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 solution should provide extensive reports on backups and backup failures."
"The technical support is good but they are not available all the time."
"The product must adapt to other storage technologies like HPE 3PAR."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Customers do not choose PowerPath unless they have Unix or Linux."
"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 solution is quite stable, although they have not quite worked out all of the kinks."
"However, if the integration with legacy applications was simpler, it would be great."
"If the customer wants to integrate with another product they need deployment guides."
"Technical support is good but they can take some time on critical problems."
"I need to be able to validate how the host is performing from the storage, as I am concerned about the host performance and storage connectivity to the host."
"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 config could be a little easier. It's not entirely difficult, but it could be a somewhat easier. I have seen other vendors make it easier."
"Being able to scale out at cost-effective capabilities doesn't compare to some of our other storage solutions, but it is coming along. NetApp ONTAP could improve its scalability."
"I would like to see more evolution towards the cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"The price of the solution is fair."
"The product is a little bit expensive."
"There are no additional costs associated with the product."
"Pricing is good. I don't have any issues with the pricing of this solution."
"We receive the best support for a lower price point."
"Our pricing with discounts is reasonable, but it may vary for others."
"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 licensing prices are really high."
"Because of the dedupe technologies and Data ONTAP servers, we have saved 20% on hardware. This is a lot of money for us."
"We received a super deal for our new machine, so we were happy with the price."
"There could be improvements, its proprietary software so it can be pricey."
"We save a lot because of the deduplication and compression."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Transportation Company
17%
Retailer
13%
Healthcare Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
22%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Transportation Company
6%
 

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 Enterprise66
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerPath?
The solution has improved our performance, reliability, and redundancy.
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.
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...
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 ...
What do you like most about NetApp ONTAP?
We do not face any glitches or downtime.
 

Also Known As

PowerPath
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Healthcare Residential Service Company
1&1 IONOS, Acıbadem Healthcare Group, Adder Technologies, Aero Vodochody Aerospace
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerPath vs. NetApp ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.