Dell PowerStore vs FreeNAS comparison

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Dell PowerStore

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

FreeNAS and Dell PowerStore both compete in the network-attached storage domain. FreeNAS seems to have the upper hand for cost-effective and flexible solutions, while Dell PowerStore is preferred in environments needing advanced features and robust performance.

Features: FreeNAS provides open-source software, customizable storage solutions, and broad data protection capabilities, enhancing its flexibility and usability. Dell PowerStore stands out with integrated AI operations, a data-centric design, and scalable architecture, which supports complex data management tasks seamlessly.

Room for Improvement: FreeNAS could enhance its support services, offer more streamlined scaling options, and improve its user interface for non-tech users. Meanwhile, Dell PowerStore might focus on reducing its pricing to appeal to mid-sized companies, offer more straightforward integration with existing smaller IT setups, and refine initial setup procedures to require less technical expertise.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FreeNAS offers a do-it-yourself deployment that suits tech-savvy users who enjoy hands-on control but might lack extensive customer support. In contrast, Dell PowerStore simplifies deployment with strong customer support, easing the adoption process for larger businesses.

Pricing and ROI: FreeNAS requires minimal initial investment, maximizing ROI for budget-conscious organizations by delivering cost-saving storage solutions. Dell PowerStore involves a higher upfront cost, justified by its performance and feature set, potentially offering greater long-term ROI for companies with complex storage needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerStore vs. FreeNAS Report (Updated: July 2025).

Dell PowerStore vs. FreeNAS

July 2025

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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 PowerStore

Ranking in NAS

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (4th), Enterprise SAN (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)

FreeNAS

Ranking in NAS

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 12.2%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FreeNAS is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS

Featured Reviews

Hassan_Zaki

Senior Presales Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Integrated AI and clustering enhance storage operations effectively

I promote and recommend Dell PowerStore for all workloads to my clients and customers. Most of my customers have one appliance per site. Approximately 80% of my customers have Dell PowerStore implemented in their data centers. We always use CLS as another Dell solution for cybersecurity and data security. The CLS is integrated with the Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain, not with Dell PowerStore. Windows, Linux, and some customers use Red Hat or SUSE. We have many operating systems working with Dell PowerStore in the same environments and data centers. CloudIQ and Storage IQ are used by some customers, but Apex AIOps has not been widely adopted yet. Dell PowerStore has integration with VMware and Kubernetes. Most workloads work fine and have very good integration with Dell PowerStore, except for one or two specific workloads in the market. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore a nine.

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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

"The user interface is really simple to get behind and makes it really easy to expand and utilize the tools."

"The biggest improvement we found when moving into Dell PowerStore was the deduplication and compression."

"The most valuable feature is the unwavering performance."

"PowerStore is easy to use, powerful, reliable, and highly customizable to customer's needs."

"The deduplication functionality provided by the solution is fairly good. The speed offered by the product is enough for our organization."

"Dell PowerStore is very simple to implement, and its user interface is very simple."

"Dell PowerStore is more cost-efficient than other solutions."

"I rate Dell PowerStore a 10 out of 10."

More Dell PowerStore pros

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

"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."

"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 has the best storage capacity."

"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."

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

Cons

"The data resiliency and cybersecurity features of Dell PowerStore are just normal and would be considered medium; we need additional components such as cybersecurity vault for increased resilience."

"Users can be enrolled in lifecycle extension with pro support. The pricing for that is too high for PowerStore."

"It doesn't support SSD or Flash."

"Dell PowerStore is a very expensive storage solution. That said, the speed for recovering information is amazing. I would make the product cheaper. The discounts from Dell to South America are not sufficient because we need better pricing. The discounts for small PowerStores are not enough to close deals since I'm a distributor. As both a user and seller, it's challenging to sell Dell PowerStore to the channel or final customers because we don't have enough discount from Dell."

"We used to be able to see the metrics for our customers. On Compellent, we could look up that customer and see all the metrics. That is not allowed for us now. We cannot do that anymore. I have to be explicitly allowed by the customer to do that, and some companies' security does not allow that."

"Dell PowerStore does not have features that specifically cater to the needs of our company or industry that are outstanding among others, but reliability is crucial, and ease of management is also important."

"The customer service and support are bad."

"It's also only supported with a limited amount of switches."

More Dell PowerStore cons

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

"The support for S3 needs to be improved."

"FreeNAS should be better prepared for clustering."

"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."

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

"They should include clustering for the solution."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Dell PowerStore is more expensive than Dell EMC Unity All Flash. Dell PowerStore's performance metrics were way higher than what Dell EMC Unity All Flash offered."

"If we use the 500 or 1000, the licensing and pricing are reasonable. PowerStore can compete with any vendor and the price isn't that expensive."

"There are no separate licenses required as all the basic licenses are included in the bundle."

"We are currently using Dell PowerStore for our smaller storage and there is no competition for pricing."

"The software features are included in the pricing without any additional purchase requirements."

"I rate the price of Dell PowerStore a seven out of ten."

"The pricing structure and licensing model of Dell PowerStore are pretty decent. It's pretty competitive."

"It is easy to work with Dell from the licensing perspective."

More Dell PowerStore pricing and cost advice

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

"We use the free version of the program."

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

13%

Performing Arts

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?

PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...

How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?

Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...

What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?

Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...

What do you like most about FreeNAS?

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FreeNAS?

The core version is free and open-source.

What needs improvement with FreeNAS?

HPE Alletra Storage vs Dell PowerStore

Comparisons

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Dell Unity XT vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 12% of the time

Dell PowerVault vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 11% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 8% of the time

NetApp AFF vs Dell PowerStore

Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 23% of the time

StarWind Storage Appliance vs FreeNAS

Compared 19% of the time

Qumulo vs FreeNAS

Compared 18% of the time

HPE StoreEasy vs FreeNAS

Compared 15% of the time

QNAP NAS Storage vs FreeNAS

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Product Reports

Download Dell PowerStore product report

Dell PowerStore

August 2025

Download FreeNAS product report

August 2025

Also Known As

PowerStore

No data available

Overview

Dell PowerStore stands out for its high performance, flexibility, and easy integration with VMware. It offers notable data compression and deduplication capabilities while providing powerful NVMe support and machine learning to optimize IT operations.

Dell PowerStore is designed to offer a comprehensive approach to IT infrastructure by enhancing performance and simplifying management. It is particularly suitable for companies that require scalable solutions to increase compute or capacity independently. Featuring built-in intelligence, PowerStore allows efficient storage consolidation and reduced footprint, while integration with CloudIQ enhances monitoring and analytics. However, there are areas for improvement, such as stability, enterprise features, and the user interface. Pricing is high, and support responsiveness needs attention. Organizations primarily use PowerStore for VMware environments, storage, and data protection, supporting high-performance databases and VMware workloads. It is utilized in data centers for disaster recovery and hybrid setups.

What are the key features of Dell PowerStore?

Flexibility: Independently scales compute or capacity
High Performance: Offers powerful NVMe support and machine learning
Integration: Easily integrates with VMware
Data Efficiency: Provides data compression and deduplication
Simplified Management: Built-in intelligence for efficient storage management

What benefits should users consider?

Performance Optimization: Enhance IT operations with machine learning
Scalability: Increase compute or storage capacity as needed
Integration Potential: Improve efficiency with VMware and CloudIQ
Data Protection: Reliable for disaster recovery and hybrid environments

In industries like IT, finance, and healthcare, Dell PowerStore supports efficient data management and enhances infrastructure performance. Organizations leverage it to manage extensive data, streamline virtualization processes, and facilitate migration from legacy systems, while integrating cloud and on-premises infrastructures for improved operations.

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

Information Not Available

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations