Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs FreeNAS comparison

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Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

FreeNAS and Dell PowerScale compete in the network-attached storage category. Dell PowerScale appears to have the upper hand due to its enhanced scalability and enterprise features, appealing to large-scale environments.

Features: FreeNAS is appreciated for its support of the ZFS file system, data protection features, and flexibility in hardware deployment. Dell PowerScale offers advanced data management, seamless scalability, and high-performance tuning options suitable for significant storage demands.

Room for Improvement: FreeNAS could improve in terms of their user interface design, automated updates, and increasing official support options. Dell PowerScale might enhance integration with lower-tier storage solutions, reduce hardware costs, and provide better licensing transparency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FreeNAS is known for its straightforward setup on diverse hardware and a supportive community, although it may necessitate more technical expertise. Dell PowerScale is favored for its smooth integration processes and comprehensive support services, easing enterprise-level deployments.

Pricing and ROI: FreeNAS presents an economical setup due to its open-source nature, promising substantial ROI for smaller deployments. Dell PowerScale demands higher initial investment but offers long-term value and performance, appealing to enterprises with larger financial plans aiming for extended returns.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. FreeNAS Report (Updated: September 2025).

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. FreeNAS

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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 PowerScale (Isilon)

Ranking in NAS

2nd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File and Object Storage (3rd)

FreeNAS

Ranking in NAS

17th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is 16.2%, down from 17.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FreeNAS is 2.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Dell PowerScale (Isilon)	16.2%
FreeNAS	2.0%
Other	81.8%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Scott Taylor

Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Manages large data sets efficiently with hybrid cloud integration

My organization is quite large, with about 30,000 employees. The growth has been substantial in areas such as radiology and genomics. One of the best features we've utilized recently is offload to cloud pools due to capacity constraints on-premise. We didn't want to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) straight away, so we utilized cloud pools to offload some data to Azure. That's really saved us in certain areas as we didn't have funding to expand Dell PowerScale (Isilon) until next year, which is why we utilized the cloud pools functionality to offload.

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Vincenzo D'Aniello

Software developer at TREXON S.R.L.

Open-source with great disk management and task synchronization

The system itself allows you to add any feature. The only bad thing is that this maybe depends on FreeBSD, and sometimes finding documentation is difficult. For example, we knew that previous versions automatically enabled the Linux kernel, yet with the recent version, this was no longer the case. Now, there was the possibility of being able to create Debian-based jails, and finding the documentation was not easy or fast. That said, in the end, we succeeded. If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented.

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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

"This has been a valuable solution for our business overall. It offers business continuity and replication features."

"The single pane of glass for both IT and for the end-user is a valuable feature. On the IT side, I can actually control where things are stored, whether something is stored on solid-state drives or spinning drives... The single pane of glass makes it very easy to use and very easy to understand. We started at 100 terabytes and we moved to 250 and it still feels like the exact same system and we're able to move data as needed."

"I assess the stability and reliability of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) as perfect, as we haven't had any hiccups with it so far."

"The capacity and scalability are what I appreciate the most about it; that was huge for us. We saw its benefits immediately after we started using it."

"On a scale of one to ten, with one being worst and ten being best, I would rate Dell PowerScale (Isilon) a ten."

"PowerScale allows us to manage storage without managing RAID groups or migrating volumes between controllers. It has really simplified things. We're not having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. That takes care of itself. We just worry about the data. It's really easy for deploying and managing storage at the petabyte scale."

"The tool comes with cheap disks and works fast for video content."

"My experience with Dell as a vendor is pretty good; they are probably one of the best in the industry."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pros

"Its stability is the most valuable. It is reliable, and we don't have to worry too much about it."

"The solution has been very stable so far."

"FreeNAS is much simpler and easier to use than other solutions, but we don't have the complete range of features that come with the full version."

"The ease of use of the 'jail', the management of backups, and copies to easily create test and pre-production scenarios have speeded up the development and distribution of business apps."

"What I like about it is that I can work on it from any computer or any device. The initial setup is very simple. The setup wizard is really helpful."

"It integrates well into either Windows or Linux environments."

"It has the best storage capacity."

Cons

"Because of the magic that it does 'under the hood,' it is very difficult to find out within the system where all your storage is going. That's a little bit of a ding that we have on it. It does so much magic in order to protect itself from drive failures or multiple drive failures, that it automatically handles the provisioning and storage of your data. But by doing that, finding out why a file of a certain size, or a directory of a certain size, is using more storage than is being reported in InsightIQ, is very difficult to discern."

"The product’s expansion capacity, pricing clarity, and ease of use need improvement."

"The cost of Dell PowerScale is currently high and there is room for improvement."

"The only thing that I think PowerScale could do better is improving the HTTP data access protocol. At the present, you cannot protect access to data via HTTP or HTTPS the same way that you can secure data access through other protocols like NFS or SMB[...]the Unified Permission Model that would allow a user to authenticate before being able to access a private file, does not apply."

"It would be good to have synchronized mirroring between two clusters without using a third-party program."

"I'd like to see more Iceland products in the cloud so that we can port our data into different environments if needed. I would also like to see a virtual appliance or software-defined Iceland product."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is a bit expensive compared to other products."

"It is a bit higher priced than some of the other systems."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) cons

"The latest version of the dashboard doesn't work as good as the previous version."

"The one thing that I find difficult to do which is very time-consuming is that I like to have a backup of the important files."

"The support for S3 needs to be improved."

"If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented."

"They should include clustering for the solution."

"FreeNAS should be better prepared for clustering."

"They can improve the integration with PSA systems. This functionality could be better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is reasonable."

"The pricing is expensive, but I think it's a fair value because it does manage itself. It definitely is much simpler than any of the other scale-out storage platforms that we've looked at in the past."

"Dell PowerScale is an expensive solution compared to other products like Qumulo."

"It is a really expensive solution."

"Dell PowerScale is expensive on the start-up side but we can recoup those costs quickly by not having to reapply the savings to other equipment."

"The general cost for a system like this is expensive. The total cost depends on your use case. You need to pay for every additional feature that you use."

"Dell PowerScale (Isilon) is an expensive solution."

"Dealing with the product costs and licensing areas is getting easier since Dell is simplifying the licensing process and licensing packages offered to users."

More Dell PowerScale (Isilon) pricing and cost advice

"Its licensing cost is based on the hardware capacity."

"We use the free version of the program."

"Its price is okay. It suits our needs."

"For our configuration, we pay a little bit less than €10,000 ($12,000 USD) per year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Performing Arts

14%

Comms Service Provider

13%

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	35

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

The solution provides massive performance, scalability, efficiency, and ease of management.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

It's considered between mid and high-end regarding. Dell usually knows how to position each model. If the customer wants something inexpensive, there's PowerVault. The system is marketed for mid-ra...

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What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon)?

With every iteration of the OneFS system, new features are being added, and the UI is being updated here and there. So far, the system is adequate as a whole. Perhaps if there was a local chatbot b...

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Comparisons

NetApp FAS Series vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 15% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 10% of the time

Dell ObjectScale vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 9% of the time

Qumulo vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 8% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

Compared 6% of the time

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StarWind Storage Appliance vs FreeNAS

Compared 19% of the time

QNAP NAS Storage vs FreeNAS

Compared 17% of the time

Qumulo vs FreeNAS

Compared 16% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs FreeNAS

Compared 15% of the time

NetApp FAS Series vs FreeNAS

Compared 13% of the time

More FreeNAS Competitors

Product Reports

Dell PowerScale (Isilon)

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Download FreeNAS product report

Also Known As

PowerScale, Dell EMC Isilon

No data available

Overview

Dell PowerScale leads in unstructured data management with unified file and object storage, massive scalability, security, and cloud adaptability, enhancing AI, analytics, and enterprise applications with exceptional performance and resilience.

Dell PowerScale Isilon provides a comprehensive platform for unstructured data, excelling in scalability, management, and performance. With features like single-pane management, SyncIQ, and SmartQuotas, it handles large datasets with flexibility and robust security. Its multi-protocol support and seamless expansion improve operational efficiency. While it offers strong data protection, enhancements in cloud integration, cybersecurity, and performance are sought. Users note potential for cost reductions and streamlined configurations and mention desired improvements in object storage handling and NFS support.

What are the key features of Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Single-pane management: Simplifies data control and monitoring through a unified interface.
SyncIQ: Ensures efficient data replication for business continuity.
SmartQuotas: Provides intelligent quota management for optimized storage allocation.
Multi-protocol support: Facilitates cross-platform data access and integration.
Seamless storage expansion: Allows effortless scaling to accommodate growing data needs.

What benefits should users consider when reviewing Dell PowerScale Isilon?

Operational efficiency: Reduces workload with easy management and automation.
Enhanced security: Offers comprehensive data protection and recovery options.
Scalability: Supports large-scale data storage with flexible growth capabilities.
Performance: Delivers high-speed data processing for demanding applications.
Integration flexibility: Adapts to on-prem and hybrid cloud environments for diverse deployment needs.

Organizations across industries utilize Dell PowerScale Isilon for large-scale unstructured storage, supporting applications like video archiving, genomic data storage, and high-resolution imaging. Educational institutions, research centers, and media enterprises rely on its scaled-out storage capabilities, providing centralized, secure storage for diverse applications in hybrid, cloud, and on-prem environments.

Dell Technologies

FreeNAS is an operating system that can be installed on virtually any hardware platform to share data over a network. FreeNAS is the simplest way to create a centralized and easily accessible place for your data. Use FreeNAS with ZFS to protect, store, backup, all of your data. FreeNAS is used everywhere, for the home, small business, and the enterprise.

Sample Customers

OMRF, University of Utah, Translational Genetics Research Institute, Arcis, Geofizyka Torumn, Cyprus E&P Corporation, Colburn School, Columbia Sportswear, Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan, National Library of France,

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs. FreeNAS