FreeNAS vs Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform comparison

FreeNAS and Hitachi Vantara are both solutions in the NAS category. FreeNAS is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while Hitachi Vantara is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.1. FreeNAS holds a 2.0% mindshare in N, compared to Hitachi Vantara’s 6.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of FreeNAS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Hitachi Vantara users who would recommend it.

FreeNAS

Read 9 FreeNAS reviews

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614 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Hitachi Virtual Storage Pla...

Read 54 Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform reviews

4,838 Views
1,693 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

FreeNAS

Hitachi Virtual Storage Pla...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and FreeNAS are competitors in the storage solution category. Hitachi VSP holds the upper hand due to its reliability, scalability, and data availability, despite being more costly.

Features: Hitachi VSP offers non-disruptive migration, Global Active Device enabling site-to-site volume access, and advanced flash capabilities. FreeNAS is highlighted for ease of use, strong Windows and Linux integration, and efficient disk management.

Room for Improvement: Hitachi VSP could simplify its management interface and setup process, and enhance automation and support. FreeNAS could improve clustering capabilities and provide more cohesive documentation to boost scalability and integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Hitachi VSP, while supporting hybrid environments, can be complex to set up and often requires professional assistance. FreeNAS is simple to deploy but needs enhanced documentation and broader regional support.

Pricing and ROI: Hitachi VSP is costlier with complex licenses but offers considerable ROI through performance and reliability. FreeNAS, as an open-source platform, minimizes costs besides hardware, appealing to budget-conscious users with its free licensing.

To learn more, read our detailed FreeNAS vs. Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

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

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

Hitachi Virtual Storage Pla...

Ranking in NAS

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (3rd), Frame-Based Disk Arrays (1st), All-Flash Storage (9th), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of FreeNAS is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is 6.3%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS

Featured Reviews

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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Bratislav Petkovic

Team Lead for Core Infrastructure at Raiffeisen bank Serbia

Active data management enhances performance and simplifies operation

The active data management of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, especially with the HOPS Center, makes it easier to work with the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform infrastructure. Previously, it was difficult to create and delete LUNs, which would take a long time, but now with HOPS Center, it is functioning correctly. It is now as easy as working with EMC or Dell storage, and the performance is better, especially with new features. The solution's performance, security, and cost are satisfactory. These factors influenced our decision to purchase Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform.

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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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"The solution has been very stable so far."

"The customer service and support are reasonably good. The environment I work in, there always remains an element of surprise, and there are restrictions. But Hitachi has good technical people."

"The active data management of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, especially with the HOPS Center, makes it easier to work with the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform infrastructure."

"The product provides a good storage space."

"The valuable features for data management include deduplication and compression without performance impact, and the ability to virtualize old storage, making migration seamless."

"Overall, the solution is strong, easy and fast."

"It is the most stable high-end solution in this area."

"The solution provides excellent scalability."

"Data optimization, compression, and deduplication are the most important features for us."

More Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform pros

Cons

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

"FreeNAS should be better prepared for clustering."

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

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

"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."

"They should include clustering for the solution."

"The support for S3 needs to be improved."

"In terms of what could be improved, it could use a better, faster web console and other consoles. It is so boring waiting, waiting and waiting for it to refresh."

"It seemed like every time we turned around it was a statement of work and we'd have to pay for something that our previous vendors would not have billed us for."

"For the support windows to work, maybe they have to upgrade the firmware of the VSP. They changed the hardware or the disk. I don't know if it was the port blade they changed or a VM for a memory cache. Also, replacing the old target with the processor target would be fine. The old equipment is very easy to manage, and I don't have any bad commentary."

"For mission critical issues the performance is low."

"The distributor needs more knowledgeable resources for technical support. It would be better to connect directly to the vendor in case of queries."

"n future releases, I would like to see enhancements in the web GUI capabilities for direct management without additional PCM."

"In the next version I would like to see additional features like artificial intelligence and an increase in the amount of data it can store."

"One problem is that there are too many management tools for the F Series and for all the other Hitachi storage systems. There are four or five such solutions. Maybe these could be combined in the future."

More Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"We use the free version of the program."

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

"The licensing cost of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G Series, whether it would be high or more affordable, would depend on location. For example, here in Brazil, Hitachi charges in dollars and this means my company still needs to convert that into local currency. Sometimes, my company also needs to discuss the pricing with the Hitachi sales team and request for a discount. At the moment, pricing for Hitachi is high, but my team can have some global funding or global accounts that would help reach the price my company is aiming for."

"The price per gigabyte is good and it is low when it comes to terabytes."

"When you are looking for high-end solutions such as this, price is less important than stability and availability."

"In our company, we only pay towards the licensing charges associated with Forcepoint, as Hitachi is considered to be a third-party product for us."

"The cost price of this product is better than its competitors."

"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to others, such as Dell EMC."

"The pricing is very competitive compared to other vendors. It really depends on the type of media we're using, like SaaS, SSP, or NVMe."

"Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is a very expensive product."

More Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

13%

Performing Arts

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FreeNAS?

The core version is free and open-source.

See all answers

What needs improvement with FreeNAS?

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform?

The cost of Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform is reasonable compared to competitors, but it is dependent on the customer; I cannot say for the entire industry, but for us, it's comparable.

See all answers

What do you like most about Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform E990?

The product's reliability has been crucial for our company's operations.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform E990?

The replication technology that Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform uses is quite older, and the replication methodology they employ for data between the data center and the production and standby dat...

See all answers

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HPE StoreEasy vs FreeNAS

Compared 15% of the time

QNAP NAS Storage vs FreeNAS

Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

IBM FlashSystem vs Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

Compared 11% of the time

HPE Alletra Storage vs Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Huawei OceanStor Dorado vs Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

August 2025

Download Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series, 5000 Series, E Series, N Series, G Series

Overview

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.

FreeNAS

RETHINK YOUR DEFINITION OF SPEED AND PERFORMANCE

With adaptive, guaranteed data reduction and a 100% data-availability guarantee, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F series helps you tackle complicated business challenges. Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) VSP F series delivers up to 4.8M IOPS with sub-millisecond response times.
Featuring legendary Hitachi reliability, VSP F series arrays are backed by the industries only 100% availability guarantee. For these reasons, 80% of the Fortune 500 choose Hitachi all-flash arrays to accelerate the performance of mission-critical applications like Oracle, SAP, Virtualization, Microsoft apps etc. With over 350 patents in flash technology, Hitachi’s innovative mix of flash hardware and software accelerates ROI with enterprise-class reliability and performance.

Hitachi Vantara

Sample Customers

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations

Turkcell, Owens Corning, Region Nord, Net Credit Financial Group (NFC Group), Russian Railways

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform

July 2025

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